It's our Anniversary! From Dumfries House to Parliament, we share a week of disrupting the status-quo in fashion

This week has been a whirlwind, and has seen our CEO, Tamara Cincik travel across the country – quite literally – from Manchester for a DCMS event with Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport – Lucy Frazer, and then on to Scotland and London.

In Scotland, Tamara attended Dumfries House and spoke at the King’s Foundation (formerly Prince’s Foundation) x the Fashion Council Germany conference entitled ‘Disruption’ which was this year supported by TENCEL™, eBay and The PVH Foundation. The King’s Foundation's Future Textiles initiative is designed to breathe new life into a renowned British textiles industry. Back to London, we then hosted one of our largest events on localism in Parliament, in our capacity as Secretariat of the Ethics and Sustainability All-Party Parliamentary Group. Click through for more.

Image shows our CEO Tamara Cincik in a red dress in a panel discussion at Dumfries House. Image credits Eleanor Kelly @mastrelli.media

BBC Panorama accuses Boohoo of breaking promises

Last night an exposé by BBC Panorama aired probing the practices of fast-fashion giant Boohoo, who last year made a reported £1.7bn worth of sales. The majority of the filming occurred in their Manchester headquarters, where journalist Emma Lowther spent 10 weeks.

The evidence garnered showed increasing pressure to cut prices in order to save money and the unscrupulous practice of amending prices after the stock had already been made. Lowther exposed a number of occasions where suppliers were left out of pocket due to discounts being applied which were not initially agreed.

We unpick the evidence.

Fashion Roundtable Advises MPs On The Importance Of High-Street Regeneration

Last week, in our capacity as Secretariat for the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion, Fashion Roundtable hosted a jam-packed meeting on regenerating the high street, sponsored by academics from Manchester Metropolitan University and Metropolis.

The meeting entitled, ‘Building Community Agency Through The Purposeful Use Of Unused Retail Spaces,’ was in direct response to the state of our high streets at a national level. Research conducted by Fashion Roundtable, provided evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit, shifts to digital rather than ‘bricks and mortar’ shopping, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis have changed consumer behaviour, alongside record retail closures.

A must-read, with quotes from speakers across the country and access to our full briefing.

The Uighur Crisis: APPG for Ethics and Sustainability in Fashion Evidence Session Minutes

As Fashion Roundtable seeks evidence for their policy paper on 'Cleaning Up Fashion’, this latest session focused specifically on the Uighur Crisis and the broader issues of labour exploitation, modern slavery, opaque global value chains and the legislative action that the Government and Firms in the UK can take to mitigate suffering in Xinjiang.

Minutes, 2021_2Tamara CincikMarch 23, 2021APPG for Ethics & Sustainability, Sustainability

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