Sustainability, fashion retail and the economy

The clothing mountain in Chile's Atacama Desert was visible from space. Image by SKYFI via BBC
BBC article: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-66985595
Skyfi article: https://skyfi.com/en/blog/skyfis-confirms-massive-clothes-pile-in-chile

Buying and wearing second-hand clothing is on the up

It's currently increasingly popular to buy goods second-hand, especially clothes. I'm a fan. I've been buying second-hand since I was a teenager, and growing up, I got my cousin's hand-me-downs so wearing gently-used clothing is not a new thing for me. It seems others are catching up with me as suggested by this FT article. 

Can it be profitable?

It's all much more accessible now, of course, with the rise of eBay, DePop, Vinted, Thrift+, Vestiaire Collective et al. That said, the price per garment that one can achieve on most of these platforms is next to nothing. In fact, the postage cost is often more than the garment cost. The effort to put something on sale is often more trouble than it's worth. And the economics bears that out with most of these platforms finding it very hard to turn a profit. 

So. Much. Stuff.

A quick glance at any of these platforms goes to show just how much perfectly good and usable clothing there is out there. And how much dross there is - I'm looking at you, Shein and Temu. And that's the tip of the iceberg. I'm afraid I am guilty of having way too many clothes that could easily last me more than one lifetime. Yes, I need a good clearout, but it also shows how much oversupply there is. I know I am not alone in having too much stuff. And that's just the second-hand clothes sector.

If you look at the new stock availability, it is endless. I recently visited London's Petticoat Lane on a Sunday. There are over a thousand stalls there selling new stock - a lot of it is overstock from High Street and online fashion stores and their suppliers. The amount of stuff available made me feel physically sick. Some of it was relatively high end and being sold for £5 or £10. And this is *overstock*, i.e. surplus to requirements.

And this just leads to waste, mountains of it, since so many clothes end up in landfills, as highlighted in this BBC article and this article by Skyfi.

Shops are everywhere

That brings me to the High Street, both virtual and physical. It's a global shopping mall where you can buy everything and anything - a lot of it very cheaply. There are shops everywhere you look selling you something. There are clothes to be bought everywhere and extended opening hours in many shops meaning fewer staff are working at any one time because they're spread so thinly - the same number (or less) of staff spread over longer hours. (And they wonder why shoplifting is on the increase; well, staffing levels are one of the reasons.) As a former fashion retail manager in the early 1990s, this is something I've been watching evolve over the last 3 decades.

It's the economy, stupid

The retail sector employs a lot of people and the money earned from those jobs pays rent and mortgages, transport, food, holidays, entertainment, utilities and more. It's a hugely important part of our economy. According to Statista approximately 3.5million people work in the retail sector in the UK and information from a recent House of Commons Library research briefing paper states that the economic output of the retail industry was £112.9billion in 2023, accounting for 4.9% of the UK's total output. That's a lot and if it reduces, we have to work out how to manage the shortfall in the economy and what to do with the people who have lost their jobs. It's a not insignificant task.

I get that retailer margins can be very slim. I get that they're in an extremely competitive market, and they need to have enough of the right stock in the right place at the right time. Seriously though, how can it be a positive to be creating so much stuff that will never be bought or used and will just end up in landfill or on some container ship on its way to a poor country and leaving them to deal with the mess. And what about the energy wasted on making stuff no-one is going to buy? Or the time spent thinking up new fast fashion items that nobody wants or needs when that brain power could be going to something more useful and less greedy on our natural resources?

External pressures can force change

The external pressures are changing. The word sustainability crops up all the time. What do we do with the mountains of rubbish we're creating? How do we stop succumbing to fast fashion (which creates stuff that is not attractive to the second-hand market)? And what happens when consumers really do change their attitudes and stop buying nearly so much at all - new or second-hand? There's a lot of talk about reviving our High Streets, but when many of us actively buy less and/or switch to second-hand goods, what happens to our High Streets, and, in turn, the economy?

There are things I really love about the physical retail sector. It's a buzz to be selling to a customer and finding the exact right outfit for them for a special occasion. It's fun to get to know your regular customers and have conversations with new people every day. I love the bright lights and buzz of Oxford Street. And as a consumer, I love wearing new (to me) clothes and putting outfits together. in creative ways. But at what cost? The cumulative effect of my own consumption, multiplied by the millions of other women and men like me is terrifying. Inadvertently, our behaviour has led to this massive oversupply of stuff.

Are we at a tipping point for change? 

Answers on a postcard please..

Meanwhile, you might be interested in taking part in Second Hand September if you're in the UK. 

Bloggers' Perks - going to a fashion showcase

Occasionally I get invited to interesting events on the back of having a blog. One of these instances happened almost a month ago when I was invited to the JD Williams and SimplyBe showcase of the upcoming fashion stories for Spring Summer 2018. It's not normally the kind of stuff I cover here on my blog but as I was in the West End that day anyway, I thought I'd pop over and see what they had on offer.

My first career was in fashion retail. I spent the best part of 10 years in a management role in both standalone stores in Worcester, Birmingham and London and in concessions within Selfridges and House of Fraser. An even before that, I has more than a healthy interest in fashion and clothing as I started making my own clothes at the tender age of 10. I still love textiles and the craft of making things, although I don't have as much time to devote to it these days as I'd like.

It's more than 20 years since I last worked on the shop floor but it's ingrained in me. One of those formative experiences that shapes who you are without you realising it. One of the assistants showed me around the different collections and explained how the pieces sat together and then left me to have a browse. And I was taken back to the early 1990s and working on the fashion floors of various London department stores. And just like I did back then, I spent quite a bit of my time people-watching. That was possibly the best bit. Oh and the gorgeous lavender lemonade.

I don't really go clothes shopping any more. I spent so long working in fashion that I accumulated a large wardrobe and stopped enjoying shopping for clothes as a pastime. It's fun to do occasionally, but it's certainly not how I want to spend my weekends any more. Plus, I still have way too many clothes due to a love of bargain hunting for interesting fashion pieces on eBay. So this made a welcome change.

For the ladies reading this, and those buying for the ladies in their lives, here's what's in for next season according to JD Williams and SimplyBe. 

• Acid brights with denim and white. Lots of embroidery and folk styles. Hippy style blouses and tops. Embellished jeans with embroidery or chunky laces on the outer seams. Lace edges and braid trims.
• Neutrals. Classic tones in beige, pale grey, cream and off white in silky fabrics. Simple, elegant styling that are easy to wear and easy to mix and match. Fantasy tweed in white with flecks is in and I spotted a lovely fantasy tweed handbag in a Chanel style but not at Chanel prices. Also I saw duster coats and long line jackets - the kind of which I haven't seen since the 1990s.
• Florals of all kinds in blouses, dresses and the pyjama style unstructured suit is still a thing. 
• Denim everything. Double denim, even triple denim. Pale and dark denim. I saw denim shirts, jeans, shirt dresses, jackets - jeans jacket style and also a quilted and embroidered bomber jacket in denim. My favourite denim piece was a trench style coat.
• Cashmere and silk casual wear in grey, black and cream. My favourite was a cashmere mix two piece of knitted culottes and loose v-neck sweater. There were also some lovely ponchos and loose knits that looked both stylish and cosy to wear.
• Summer sequins for day wear. Lots of them in both neutrals and acid brights. These were seen on tops and dresses in both the JD Williams and the SimplyBe collections. 

What I liked about the clothes I saw was that they were wearable, reasonably priced and didn't scream 'fashion trend' at you. What the fit or comfort levels are like, I don't know as these were all samples and not available to try on. The finish quality looked good though, especially for the price tags.

I didn't take many photos, but the few I did take are in the collection below. Click on the image to see them. The non-fashion images are of the art and lighting in the foyer of the building. Most impressive.

Thank you to JD Williams and SimplyBe for having me.

Day 17/25 Blogmas

IoT - The Internet of Textiles?

I think it's a fairly good assumption from a glance at my blog that I'm interested in technology, in particular mobile technology. What some of you may not already know is that I'm very keen on arts and crafts. I particularly enjoy stitching of all kinds. I started sewing clothes for my dolls when I was probably about 6 years old. I learned embroidery at age 9 when I made my first sampler. By the age of 10, I had my own sewing machine and had started making clothes for myself. I still enjoy all forms of stitching and textiles.

It would be about 10 years ago when I first met the Cute Circuit team who invented the bluetooth-enabled 'hug shirt' (pictured). This was ground breaking at the time. It appeared at Mobile World Congress a few times. I think I probably tried it there about 10 years ago. I experienced the sensors squeezing me based on messages the jacket was being sent. The idea behind it being that two people could send another person a virtual hug via the sensors on the shirts they were wearing. It remember it felt a bit weird. It doesn't feel like a human hug, but, like Pavlov's Dogs, one could learn to associate it with a message of love or warmth from a partner.

The same team then went on to experiment with clothing that lights up and have become pioneers, and perhaps, the world's best at doing this. The video below shows an example of their work for U2 from 4 years ago. They've also worked with other artists including Sarah Brightman and Katy Perry. These garments don't come cheap as they're labour intensive to create, but they're highly effective for a stage show or if you want to make an entrance. You can buy some of their items from their website now. The handbag is my favourite but a little outside my price range!


U2.COM - 'She's Gonna Dream Out Loud...' from CUTECIRCUIT on Vimeo.
http://cutecircuit.com

There are other artists working in this space and it's growing. As is the #fashtech thing. #fashtech covers a wide range of fashion and technology cross overs from providing mirrors that show you in different outfits without you having to undress, to new ways of selling and distributing merchandise as well as technology you wear - from Fitbit devices to new fabrics to connected jewellery to 3D printed clothes and shoes and much more. Some of the innovations will never make it beyond an innovation lab, but some of these things will break through to the mainstream, but it's early days for most.

That's why I was very happy to discover the e-Stitches group who meet every other month or so at the V&A Museum (my favourite London museum). Apparently the group is now about 100 members strong and their focus is on e-textiles. I don't know a lot about this stuff at all, so I'm interested to find out more.

Their next meet-up is on 9 December, is free to attend and will be at the V&A in London (details will be posted here). I'm putting the date in my diary to check it out. I shall report back on what I discover there.

Day 24/30 NaBloPoMo

Is wearable tech the new black?

If you’re at all into technology and have been following CES at all, it won’t have escaped you that wearable tech is hot news. Tim Green has written a hilarious post about it and why wearable tech has no future. It’s well worth a read.
I think what we’re seeing right now in terms of wearable tech is pretty crude. The AR glasses, the wristbands and watches and whatever else is being touted is only in an early iteration. In 10 year’s time, these things will look very different and I suspect, that by then, things will be very different in terms of what’s acceptable or not.
Having done some work in accessibility, I’ve seen some great uses of wearable tech to help people with disabilities. Make them ubiquitous enough, like the cordless kettle, and they’ll cross over to the mainstream. I think that’s the way round it is likely to work as there are very tangible benefits to a fully blind person being able to ‘see’ with AR glasses such as the one’s described in this news video.
As for being the new black for Spring 2013, I’m guessing no. And I think it will be some time before Anna Wintour decides to include this stuff in Vogue.

RL Magazine - Know the Code

Technorati Tags: fashion,m-commerce,e-commerce,mobile web,retail,wap

I was just browsing the MyMart blog and spotted that Ralph Lauren has set up its own m-commerce site and is allowing customers to buy from it from a small selection of their ranges. You can reach the mobile site via QR code, texting in to a shortcode or going directly to the URL http://m.ralphlauren.com.

There is a common misunderstanding by high end fashion companies that their customers somehow aren't digitally minded and wouldn't dream of using the internet. I've no idea where they get that from but it certainly isn't true - Net-A-Porter and Vertu are testament to that. So I'm very pleased to see that Ralph Lauren is getting in on the mobile act.

I think the QR code thing is a bit of a red herring at the moment. The readers aren't embedded on most phones and it's a bit of a hassle to get the reader, download it, remember where it is, open the reader application, open the shutter and then take the picture of the barcode when it would be easier to text in to a shortcode or go directly to the URL. [Of course, it's a different thing once we have the software pre-installed and deeply embedded so our phones *know* when it can see a QR code and automatically give us the option to use it or not.] I digress.

I'm not a Ralph Lauren shopper (well save for a lovely pair of RL shades I got at TK Maxx and a liking for the RL fragrance Romance) so am probably not the target audience. The thought of wearing crisp white pants and a blue, red and white polo shirt fills me with dread. But I know others feel differently about these things otherwise RL wouldn't be doing nearly so well.

Anyway, I thought I'd take a closer look at the site to see what I liked (or not) about it.

First off we have the opening page. And it's just a list of banners rather than words or words and banners. And they're very difficult to read as the writing on them is tiny. If you're not familiar with RL, these may be a bit confusing anyway. There are written links further down but they don't relate to the banners and don't shed much more light.

Rather confusingly, the first option is for the QR code information. Now it seems to me that if you have found your way to the RL mobile website already, the chances are you don't need to use a QR code to get to it. As you can see below, the introduction doesn't help much either as you have to do more clicking to get to the information.

Leaving that to one side, I have a glance around at some of the other pages.

  It's not particularly inspiring and I'm not convinced huge amounts of time was spent putting the offering together.

The Definitive Guide to Ralph Lauren Style is useful and is good 'snacking' information.

The sales info is not terribly exciting - they're assuming the customer knows all about the brand and collections already, and quite frankly, I have no idea about the different collections so it would be useful to have a few words (and I mean just a few) to explain the difference between RL_Classics and The Ralph Lauren Collection as an example.

Now maybe most of the customers who find the RL mobile site are existing RL customers and know what they're after and what they're looking for without having to browse around. In which case, the site needs a search facility. The scenario is that you're looking at Vogue, Tatler or some other fashion magazine and see the Ralph Lauren advertisement with the bag you absolutely must have *now* and you're short on time. A search facility to enable that sale would be invaluable. And when you consider the price for each item in stock, a handful of sales are very important (dresses at $2,000, sandals at $700 and an imported bag at almost $20,000 and the basic polos at $75 it soon mounts up).

On the actual shopping page for the polo shirts, you were given the option as to what colour you might want and asked you your size, but there was no link to a size guide. And for the really expensive items, wouldn't you want a bit of personal service and be connected by telephone to your local sales advisor?

So, 10/10 for bothering to do something on mobile but 5/10 for implementation. More thought needs to go into who the customer is, when they might use a service like this and what service that should actually be.

RL Magazine - Know the Code

Tuesday linkage 31 July 2007

I'm having a clearout of all the tabs I have open on firefox so here are a few links for you

Keep stuff secure with your eyes (and your mobile)
Oki Japan has developed software that brings iris recognition security to existing mobile phones. Of course the focus described is security and that's *great*. Can you imagine, no more pin number or password traumas. But I wonder if it could also be used for iridology, either now, or at some point in the future when the resolution improves?

Mobile and fashion
Or perhaps we're better off with a mobile 'colour me beautiful' type service, courtesy of the folks over at HP. It's still in prototype mode but I can see it taking off and is a nice takeaway if you've gone through the whole Colour Me Beautiful (or similar) process. Maybe this is what the fashion industry needs to help get them more mobile. I can't help thinking though that lighting is going to play an important factor as to whether or not this will be successful. In certain lights, it's very difficult to tell what colours clothes are exactly and I'm wondering if the camera can get round this or not.

Get the message right
ICSTIS is investigating anonymous text message services as they seem to be used for bullying and rather insidious messages which is not what they were designed for. There's a public consultation under way, so get in there quick to add your point of view. You can download the pdf http://www.icstis.org.uk/pdfs_consult/anonymous_sms.pdf here and the deadline is 7th September.

Meanwhile, Darla Mack, wishes SMS a happy birthday this week. It's 15 years old. Can you believe it?! I only started texting in 2000 so as much as I like to think I'm an early adopter for some things, maybe I wasn't an early adopter when it came to SMS!

Social media continues apace
Online social networking isn't going away. Via Twitter, I'm finding friends are unhappy about being facebook-less today (it's undergoing maintenance right now - but only affecting *some* accounts, including mine). But never fear, there's always somewhere else to go play and connect with folks like you. So if you're a teenager (I'm not) and you're into anime, avatars and the like, then join 8.5m other teens like you at Gaia. Ok, it's not mobile, but it's big and we need to be keeping an eye on this social media type stuff.