child labour – Sheryl Kirby

Fixing Fashion: Rethinking the Way We Make, Market and Buy Our Clothes
by Michael Lavergne

There are plenty of books on the market bemoaning the sad state of the mainstream fashion industry from working conditions to the life-cycle of the average fast fashion garment. And while they are all well-written, carefully researched, and offer inspiration to change our shopping and fashion habits, most of them fall short on two counts – first because they are seldom written by someone with a first-hand, working knowledge of the apparel industry, and second, because while the suggestions for change are well-intended, they aren’t based in practicality.

Fixing Fashion by Michael Lavergne (Amazon) offers a different perspective. Lavergne made his start in the fashion industry working for corporations such as WalMart, and the apparel arm of Sara Lee. He specialized in product sourcing and supply chains (getting all the material to the right place at the right time and then getting the manufactured goods to stores halfway across the world in a timely fashion), and became an expert in labour and safety standards as he witnessed contractors and sub-contractors ignoring local laws (and corporate standards) regarding everything from wages to child labour to building codes.

Continue reading “Review – Fixing Fashion: Rethinking the Way We Make, Market and Buy Our Clothes by Michael Lavergne”

Congratulations to my friend, colleague and mentor Jennifer Bain, for winning the Best Newspaper Food Column in the Association of Food Journalists Awards Competition. A well-deserved win by an outstanding writer. [Toronto Star]

Those vegetables in your dinner may have been harvested by a child. Don’t believe me? Watch the trailer for this new documentary. [Village Voice: Fork in the Road]

Don’t shit where you eat – and by that I mean don’t treat restaurant servers poorly. And if you just can’t help yourself, then at least remember to pay cash before you steal the tip jar and tell the waitress she’s fat, since if you use a credit card, you just might find your personal info plastered all over the intarwebs. [Globe and Mail]

Dear marketing companies – can we please get past this idea of products like beer and soda being for “girls” or “boys” only? Leaving aside all of the issues with diet soda in general, a product marketed just to men is as lame-ass and douchey as that shitty pink beer meant for women. As consumers, we’re above it. This little “girls stink/boys are dumb” game you’ve got going is insulting to everyone – and isn’t making you look particularly brilliant, either. [Toronto Star]

Continue reading “Lucky Dip – Tuesday, October 11th, 2011”