• The Emperor’s New Clothes

    In this interview we take a look at the fashion industry from Pucker’s unique perspective and history as a fashion executive, university professor, writer, business advisor and counselor on fashion legislation. We examine the fashion industry’s system structure, reporting, and regulations. Today, like the fairy tale The Emperor’s New Clothes, we are in many ways being fooled about our own clothing. We are told what to believe, and we believe what we think everyone else believes. But, just like the child in the fairy tale, it’s the voices that soar above the accepting crowd that tell us the truth we need to hear.

     

     

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  • Fast Fashion: Shop or Stop?

    Fast fashion has taken over the fashion industry, but is less expensive, trendy clothing really worth the purchase? Those who say to “stop” argue fast fashion harms the environment in many ways and exploits workers in countries with lax regulations. Those who say “keep shopping” argue it’s up to shoppers to choose, as fast fashion offers affordable options, supports jobs, and boosts local economies. Now we debate: Fast Fashion: Shop or Stop?
    Arguing Stop: Kenneth Pucker, Former COO of Timberland; Professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University
    Arguing Shop: Katherine Mangu-Ward, Editor-in-Chief at Reason
    Emmy award-winning journalist John Donvan moderates

    https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/open-to-debate/id216713308?i=1000678619812

     

     

     

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  • Unsustainable Fashion Is Pricing Out the Conscious Consumer

    Brands that make products with little concern for environmental and social impact are benefitting from a ‘brown discount,’ undercutting industry efforts to operate more responsibly

    https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/fashion-brown-discount-green-premium-shein/?utm_source=newsletter_dailydigest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily_Digest_051124&utm_term=K2KYSC5OSVDMDPYV5ZCG5C3B4U&utm_content=top_story_2_title

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  • Ultra-fast Fashion Rot Spreads to Amazon

    Shein and competitors like Temu have grown so big that Amazon may be the only retailer that can compete with them.

    And that’s exactly what it plans to do with a new discount marketplace that would allow the same suppliers who make goods for the ultra-fast fashion titans to sell their stuff through Amazon. Unbranded items would cost less than $20 each and ship directly to consumers from China in nine to eleven days, the thinking being that U.S. shoppers would wait longer than Amazon’s usual shipment speed for a lower price. The marketplace will focus on fashion, home, and other lifestyle items, and launch in the fall.

     

    https://amyodell.substack.com/p/ultra-fast-fashion-rot-spreads-to

     

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  • The fashion industry primes us to reinvent ourselves every season. Don’t fall for it.

    Pucker explained that the dangerous cycle of overproduction and overconsumption is coupled with complicated global supply chains that are hard to trace and make transparency tedious. And disclosure regulations are near non-existent.

    He noted that when fashion companies release emissions reports, the majority of these reports include only Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, as characterized by the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Protocol. These emissions encompass activities like driving to work and purchasing electricity. They’re not reporting on the big stuff, which is everything else.

    “(Companies) don’t want to do any of that,” Pucker said. “It costs money, it’s hard, it’s detailed, and the planet is burning.”

     

    The fashion industry primes us to reinvent ourselves every season. Don’t fall for it.

     

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  • Why Fashion Should Have a Plastics Tax

    The fashion industry continues to advance voluntary and unlikely solutions to its plastic problem. Only higher prices will flip the script, writes Kenneth P. Pucker.

     

     

     

    https://www.businessoffashion.com/opinions/sustainability/why-fashion-should-have-a-plastic-tax/?utm_source=newsletter_dailydigest&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Daily_Digest_030524&utm_content=intro

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  • Why H&M is turning away from polyester recycled from bottles

    H&M’s new deal to buy $600 million of “circular” polyester over seven years from Syre, a Swedish startup it co-founded, underlines one of fashion’s dirty secrets: Making new polyester from recycled bottles sounds environmentally friendly but, in reality, polyester is a huge source of pollution. And recycling bottles to make more polyester might be worse than the alternative — keeping the bottles in the beverage industry where they can be recycled.

    Now some fashion companies are moving toward circular, textile-to-textile solutions that cut recycled bottles from the process altogether.

    https://www.greenbiz.com/article/why-hm-turning-away-polyester-recycled-bottles?

     

     

    utm_campaign=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_content=Circularity&mkt_tok=MjExLU5KWS0xNjUAAAGSTOPV6kTgCsfQ9RWoislXUGzKE6XEQIv4CH-P6WpK0l-NGzM9fPViOR3tM2ngKUsw_sCb6KDitxIt3RmbbiT-ktO8BYzhmECT-CcGvJJk7g

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  • How French Republicans are battling against Shein and Temu

    With the French and European elections happening in June, French Republicans are trying to sway voters by targeting Shein and its production practices. Some are taking to TikTok to promote the most recent bill dubbed the “fast fashion tax”.

    The proposed legislation, called “loi 2268”, which was passed by the center-right political party Horizona through the lower Assembly on March 14, now has to go through the French Senate next spring. It was promoted by Antoine Vermorel-Marques, right-wing MP, in a March 14 video on TikTok. On the platform, he parodies fast fashion haul videos while promoting his political proposals.

    How French Republicans are battling against Shein and Temu

     

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