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In this moment of ecological crisis, the consequences of crisis are unevenly distributed, with those with the least power impacted the most. The fashion industry's growth, spurred in the past decades by fast fashion and a reliance on growth of petroleum-based fibers, is a contributor to this uneven distribution of ecological consequences. This paper explores fashion and ecology as interconnected transnational systems. It does this with reference to two contexts: the UK and the Gulf state of Bahrain. By exploring positions on environmentalism in the UK and Bahrain, questions around fibers, clothing care and waste, this paper underscores the political urgency and the relational effects of change that span nation states within the fashion sector. Decarbonizing the fashion system requires both localized action and methodologies in addition to political will to work between and across such themes. Transnational perspectives are central to cumulative whole-systems effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the release of Kubrick's film in 1962 visual representations of Lolita have proliferated. Yet, such visualisations tend to re-signify 'Lolita', departing significantly from the way she is constructed in Nabokov's novel. This article considers why the figure of 'Lolita' fits so seamlessly into the logic of the fashion media in the West. It points to the fashion industry's fixation with the 'woman-child' and infantilisation, as well as the centrality of clothing and consumption in Nabokov's novel. Particular attention is paid to Marc Jacobs' advertisement for Oh, Lola!, banned in the UK by the Advertising Standards Agency in 2011. Methodologically, the article presents visual analysis alongside findings from audience studies conducted with female participants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical skill gaps highlighted by UK professionals in the fashion industry and identified by Government bodies were evidenced in the classroom while observing fashion students. The issues include lacking an understanding of garment construction quality, technical knowledge and skills, and timescale boundaries. It was also observed that students lack the confidence to experiment with construction techniques. A study was initiated to revitalise and enhance sewing skill capability through a purposely designed resource tool. Secondary research and interview responses from industry personnel working closely with undergraduate students and graduate designers substantiated the preliminary observations. The resource tool samples were inspired by two UK archive collections enabling the inclusion of lesser-used complex construction techniques. The tool is described, its effectiveness discussed and future developments are given. When fully developed, the resource tool could also enable craft dressmakers to develop and enhance their skills and expertise, by introducing them to less-documented techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Half a century before David Ricardo's famous numerical example of the exchange of Portuguese wine for English cloth under the Methuen Treaty as illustrating trade creation and comparative advantage, Adam Smith denounced the Methuen Treaty as an instance of trade diversion, displacing British imports of French wines with higher cost, lower quality Portuguese wines. Relying on his argument that the division of labour is limited by the extent of the market, Smith insisted that a treaty of commerce with France would be more beneficial, and supported Eden's Treaty (1786). Smith also rejected the argument of Cantillon and mercantilists that the exchange of English cloth for Portuguese wine benefitted Britain by bringing in gold and silver, arguing that an excess demand for precious metals in Britain would by itself cause an inflow of gold and silver. Smith's critique of the Methuen Treaty and his posing of the question of which commercial treaties would be trade-creating rather than trade-diverting have been largely overlooked. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the hundred years from 1450 to 1550, the great success enjoyed by the English woollen industry in continental markets was a result of clothiers organising the rural cloth industry in the West Country, Suffolk/Essex, the Kentish Weald and Newbury and its surrounds, to produce cloth that London merchants required. To do this they allocated extensive capital to cloth production: buying wools, sorting and dyeing them, organising their carding and spinning, putting the yarn out for weaving, and then in some cases owning the mills that fulled the cloth and finally shearing it in-house. The leading clothiers carried wool and cloth inventories, developed strong buying networks and offered merchants credit. Clothiers' control over production declined after 1550 as the government exercised greater control over cloth quality and clothiers' freedoms, and as price competition intensified from coarser cloths and new draperies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article presents a report from a June 11-12, 2015 conference in Bad Homburg, Germany on the history of the European clothing industry and retail trades in the 19th and 20th centuries hosted by the Gesellschaft für Unternehmensgeschichte e.V. corporate history society. Topics of presentations delivered included the influence of British supermarket chains on the production and consumption of poultry in 20th-century Great Britain, the density and form of clothiers in Vienna, Austria, and regulation of the German textile industry during World War I.

During the later sixteenth century, increasing competition for wood fuel supplies led to rising tension between Wealden cloth manufacturers and ironmasters and to a prolonged but unsuccessful campaign by clothiers seeking parliamentary legislation that would radically curtail iron production in the Cranbrook area. Remarkably revealing files among the papers of Sir John Leveson, one of Kent's late Elizabethan deputy lieutenants, show that during the winter of 1594–5, Cranbrook's frustrated clothiers and their allies among other chief inhabitants of the parish attempted to hijack plebeian distress over low wages and high food and fuel prices for their own ends. It is unlikely that those devising or encouraging industrial sabotage that winter included Cranbrook's richer clothiers, but they were certainly behind plans to mobilise a mass petition to the crown for the suppression of ironworks. In turn, two of Cranbrook's parish officials, deftly exploiting fears of a disorderly march on London, managed to persuade Sir John Leveson to lobby the privy councillor Lord Cobham on the clothiers’ behalf, although to no avail. Thereafter, Cranbrook clothiers vented their frustration against the Bakers of Sissinghurst, who owned the local iron forge and furnace, by frequently raiding the family's deer park, sometimes in conjunction with local gentry pursuing their passion for unlawful hunting. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this study was to gauge consumer and professional perceptions regarding attributes of garment quality and its assessment. The work focused on the standards of quality of products from three major clothing retailers in the UK. A basic vest was selected from each retailer and a panel of experts from the clothing industry were invited to examine these garments and to render their professional judgement on which garment exhibited the best quality in terms of handling, and also of aesthetic appearance. A panel of potential consumers were also invited to offer their perception of the quality of the garments. Both groups expressed their opinions about the perceived cost in a blind test. These tests were conducted to achieve quality perceptions from two points of view; real actual objective quality versus subjective discernment of quality. The research highlighted the extent to which clothing quality exists in both material attributes and construction; also its awareness and expectations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the nineteenth century, in France, the UK, and the USA, there was a rapid development of ready-to-wear clothing and of its consumption. In this context, one phenomenon allows us to understand more fully the overall changes in attitudes toward fashion, clothing, and the body: the craze for rubber clothing from the beginning of the 1840s. This material appeared to be miraculous, and proved to be equally useful in underwear and in rainwear. Manufacturers dreamt about seamless garments and about totally adjustable pieces of clothing. Moreover, rubber clothing was thought of as hygienic, as it could be easily cleaned. From the 1850s to the late 1870s, rubber cloth conquered both public streets and intimate private life. But rubber was not only used in clothing. From the beginning, rubber was a material not only for outdoor clothes but also for orthopedics and for the enhancement of comfort. Mackintosh (UK), Goodyear and Roxbury India Rubber (USA), and Hutchinson and Rattier & Guibal (France) were the major manufacturers that produced rubber shoes, raincoats, collars, and cuffs, while orthopedists made corsets in order to straighten bodies, as well as hernial bandages, pessaries, belts against onanism, and other medical appliances. Rubber cloth hugged the intimate bourgeois body: corsets, garters, socks, and braces initially, and in the early 1880s, rubber condoms. In this way, rubber became the material of unproductive sexual pleasure. Over time, rubber clothing came to be regarded as shameful and disturbing. Around 1890, after the unprecedented craze for rubber, the bourgeoisie gave up their rubber clothes in public life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a case study on Boden, a British mail order clothing retailer which desires to integrate a highly personalized catalog across its customer touchpoint. It notes that the integration has generated 30 percent increase in customer response rates through social media and e-mail. Also discussed are best practices learned from the initiative citing the use of a startling front cover to gain the reader's attention, and a simple segmentation to enable content customization

This article highlights how distress, pain, misery and ultimately suffering in the wearing and production of fashionable clothes are essential components for initiating change. Suffering in fashion could compare with the religious analogies of suffering, redemption and spiritual enrichment; suffering being a motivating factor for change so that the fashion production cycle can seasonally re-invigorate. Suffering in the ways clothes are worn is examined by investigating the design and manufacture of undergraduate fashion student's collections. This provides a visual analysis of fashion designers' responses to suffering and the changes it initiates in the skills of production and ultimately the wearing of fashion.  Suffering through pain, anguish or distress is an extreme affliction. Pushing something to its limits of endurance, making it suffer, can undermine order, and to survive it is often reassembled in a new and challenging way. This concept is somewhat akin to Darwin's ideas about the evolution of the species through a process of random mutation and selective retention known as natural selection (Darwin, C. 1859. The Origin of the Species. London: Wordsworth Editions Ltd.). His work coined the phrase ‘survival of the fittest’ (Peel, J.D.Y., 1992. Herbert Spencer: the evolution of a sociologist. England: Gregg Revivals, p. 143), which introduced the idea that survival of a species is a struggle against climate and environmental change in nature. In fashion, suffering can be instrumental in enforcing the re-invigoration of the product when clothing styles are pushed to the limits of consumer endurance. The ‘fittest’ styles survive through their re-assemblance each season, sustaining the commercial cycle. In the struggle of clothes against clothes, some styles remain, due to their response to change, others are discarded. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article examines the tensions between conformity and distinctiveness that were played out in the case of the sailor suit (mostly worn by boys) and the pinafore (mostly worn by girls) in Edwardian Britain. Each of these embodied general concepts of age- and gender-appropriate dress, as well as finely graded social distinctions between more and less costly variants of the same garment. This is followed by an examination of the knitted sweaters worn increasingly by both sexes from 1900. In each case, the costs, meanings and uses of garments are evaluated through a close analysis of retailers' documents, consumers' statements, and school group photographs. This allows us to see whether changing ideas about childhood, and increased mass production of clothing, led to a flattening of social and gender distinctions in dress, or whether these persisted in different forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the history and development of Victorian-era children's sailor suits in Great Britain. The author engages with the notion that the wearing of sailor suits demonstrated a sort of militarization attached to British imperialism among children of this era. She is also interested in the different meanings attached to juvenile sailor suits among boys of various ages. The relationship between these suits, clothing retailers and manufacturers, and seaside vacations is analyzed. The education of children in Great Britain, and its relationship to an imperial mindset in children, is examined, as are photographs depicting boys in these suits.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, it was noted that retailers in Britain had started providing increased variety and fashionability to their customers, had added mid-season purchasing to their previous two-season calendars, and that a high fashion and low price ‘throwaway market’ had appeared on the retail scene. Since then mid-season purchasing has evolved into purchasing throughout the year; and the ‘throwaway market’ (now called fast fashion) has become almost the norm. Here we revisit one of those British retailers (Marks & Spencer) together with its Turkish suppliers and observe a trend towards the diffusion of design capabilities to suppliers that is more widespread than is suggested in the literature. We also consider the question of how most appropriately to conceptualize the nature of these retailer- supplier relations in today's circumstances. We especially look into the manner in which these relations are reflected in price negotiations, the eventual distribution of the value-added, and the nature of everyday interactions such as accreditation and reclamation practices. We conclude that even though Turkish suppliers seem to be successfully upgrading into design–a high value-added activity–the question of whether or not this development has entailed a renegotiation of power between retailer and supplier remains a complicated one. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The essay discusses the ways in which the transition from the feudal mode of production to a capitalist one in England was informed by the development of small towns, the work of capitalist clothiers, and the rise of enclosures. Particular focus is given to the work of Marxist historian Rodney Hilton. Topics addressed include mercantile elites, the English textile industry, and agrarian capitalism.

This article, based on two studies of the fashion industry, examines one of its key institutions, London Fashion Week (LFW). Drawing on the work of Bourdieu, we argue that this event is a materialization of the field of fashion. We examine how LFW renders visible the boundaries, relational positions, capital and habitus at play in the field, reproducing critical divisions within it. As well as making visible the field, LFW is a ceremony of consecration within it that contributes to its reproduction. The central aim of this article is to develop an empirically grounded sense of field, reconciling this macro-structural concept with embodied and situated reality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents abstracts of articles related to city planning. "Promoting Retail Innovation: Knowledge Flows During the Emergence of Self-Service and Supermarket Retailing in Britain," by Andrew Alexander, Gareth Shaw and Louise Curth; "The Nature of Op Art: Bridget Riley and the Art of Nonrepresentation," by Simon Rycroft; "Was the 1937 U.S. Housing Act a Pyrrhic Victory?," by D. Bradford Hunt.

Ethical trade, involving codes of conduct for worker welfare, has recently emerged as a form of corporate self-regulation for global commodity chains in the context of a neoliberal trading environment. I present a particular critique of ethical trade based on its embeddedness in corporate strategies and management systems. The ethical trading strategies of leading UK food and clothing retailers form the empirical focus of inquiry, and theories found in the literature on economic geography concerning corporate strategy and interfirm organisation are used to gain critical insight into the management systems used by these retailers when they attempt to put ethical trading principles into practice in their global supply chains. Variations are observed between retailers in terms of their commitment to ethical trade, which are shaped by issues of corporate culture, financial management, and corporate restructuring. Varying levels of commitment to ethical trading strategy are argued in turn to influence organisational approaches to social auditing in the supply chain. Three contrasting modes of organisation for ethical monitoring are suggested to be used by retail companies—the arm's-length approach, the coordinated approach, and the developmental approach—each of which holds contrasting implications for suppliers and workers at production sites. I argue that corporate approaches to ethical trade vary markedly and that these variations have the capacity to shape the regulation of labour conditions at sites of export production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents proceedings of conferences related to the clothing and textile industry in Great Britain as of October 2004. Theme of the Courtauld History of Dress Association annual conference; Objective of the international conference on textile culltures of Spain and England; Aim of the Women's History Scotland.

Through an analysis of clothing import patterns and sourcing practices of major clothing retailers in the United Kingdom, France, and Scandinavia, this paper uncovers salient differences between global value chains (GVCs) serving European clothing markets. It highlights entry barriers for developing country suppliers into the sourcing networks of UK retailers and relates these to corporate financialization in the United Kingdom. Although suppliers' entry and industrial upgrading remain easier in mainland European sourcing networks, the maturation of GVCs challenges classical "industrial upgrading" paradigms and the role of the clothing sector as a stepping stone in the industrialization of developing countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores British men's attitudes towards the purchase of a particular commodity — the suit — in order to shed some light on the nature of male consumer demand in the four decades before the outbreak of the Second World War. The focus is on men's motives for choosing between a ready-to-wear and a made-to-measure suit. Financial considerations aside, the article suggests that interested and well-informed male consumers generally preferred to buy bespoke suits : while usually more expensive than their ready-made counterparts, these were also perceived to be better quality, better looking, and better value, and therefore most likely to enhance the wearer's sense of self-worth as a manly, discerning and successful consumer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The National Minimum Wage (NMW) has been a unique event, providing an exceptional opportunity to learn how firms manage change and adjust to a significant intervention in the labour market. This article discusses how hospitality and clothing firms managed the introduction of the NMW in the two-year period leading up to its arrival on 1 April 1999. Individual firms do have scope for discretionary, random and opportunistic decisions, and the introduction of the NMW is not a discrete event occurring in a stable world. Ultimately, its impact will be difficult to predict and to measure even though we can discern inter- and intra-industry differences, and along a small and larger firm divide. While the NMW is clearly an important dimension of public policy that has been successful in raising workers' pay, the level at which it is set will continue to pose conundrums to the policy makers in terms of dealing with firms' performance and competitiveness. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intense global competition and the advent of a raft of employment regulations (notably, the national minimum wage, or NMW) have placed the UK garment industry under severe pressure. The prospects for a significant segment of this sector—ethnic-minority-owned businesses appear to be extremely gloomy, although earlier predictions of its demise proved to be unduly pessimistic. Drawing on case studies of eighteen firms, we present an examination of longitudinal change in the Asian-dominated West Midlands clothing industry. In particular, the aim is to examine the responses of manufacturers to market and regulatory change (in particular, the NMW). The findings clearly illustrate that the sector is in decline, with firms finding it increasingly difficult to cope with cheap imports, labour shortages, and employment regulations. A range of responses was evident and included firms that resorted to operating in 'grey' markets; manufacturers that 'retrenched' their operations; 'work intensification'; and businesses that attempted to move 'up-market'. Finally, potential policy responses are considered. In particular, the case of the Coventry Clothing Centre is examined. The Centre worked with the grain of employment legislation, and appeared to have experienced some success in encouraging local firms to accommodate the NMW and improve working practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on Heba, an alternative mode of production in the British fashion industry. Situation of the garment industry; Form of fashion manufacturing.

Deals with ethical issues in the international garment industry. Formation of the Ethical Trading Initiative in Great Britain; Massive relocation of garment production; Relative cost of labor from country to country; Challenge of supply chain; Need for workers to be involve in the ethical trade movement.

Examines the implications of supply chain management for innovative developments within the clothing industry in Great Britain. Innovation opportunities and research and development management; Retailer-supplier dynamic; Challenge of identity; Characteristics of relationships.

Presents an analysis based on empirical evidence drawn from research in four companies in Northern England which studied their ethnicity, technological change, and local availability of labor. The United Kingdom clothing industry the focus; Establishments are imbedded in highly specific local labor markets; Small firms owned by ethnic minority entrepreneurs; How their profitability is maintained; The deskilling of many jobs; More.

This paper shows how the French, British and West German clothing industries were faced by the late 1960s with virtually identical problems of declining international competitiveness. Nevertheless, within a supposedly common framework of European Community policy towards the clothing industry, the strategies adopted by the three countries have differed markedly in degree of emphasis. We suggest that the retention of a large `secondary' sector of small firms, now dominated by ethnic minority male entrepreneurs and immigrant female labour in France and Britain has been crucial in slowing the pace of decline in fashion-oriented sectors of production. In contrast, the relative absence of such a sector in the FRG has been a contributory factor in the relocation of a far higher proportion of clothing production to third countries than is the case in either France or Britain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over recent decades there has been the development of a significant number of 'out of town' retail centres in Western countries. This paper reviews the theoretical background to retail hierarchies before analysing the changing UK retail context and long term forces shaping shopping centres. It reframes the intra-urban hierarchy concept under the banner of a 'convenience retail model'. This paper then examines the process of change in Edinburgh from the 1980s and the interface with planning. New out of town development was opportunity driven by the availability of vacant brownfield sites. Despite restrictive planning policy from the early 1990s out of town retailing continued to grow. The process was piecemeal and the physical nature of these centres was transformed over time. The city centre is found not to be a single entity and the largest outer centre is almost comparable in terms of size of fashion floorspace with individual central segments. The major distinction between in and out of town is now the scale of provision of restaurants and cafes. The paper confirms the dilution of the retail hierarchy and finds that planning policies need to embrace such urban change rather than seek to maintain the status quo. • The car has led to retail decentralisation and a convenience model of shopping that emphasises parking. • The largest outer retail centres have similar brands and fashion floorspace compared with city centre segments. • The major distinction between in and out of town is now the scale of provision of restaurants and cafes. • Planning strategies aimed at maintaining the intra-urban retail hierarchy status quo are misplaced and ineffective. • Retail planning has to embrace the motor age and changing shopping patterns, and hence shape market forces to ensure a sustainable urban future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this research is to advance an understanding of how design in the fashion industry can be successfully managed to contribute to environmental sustainability. Its objectives are to investigate how fashion businesses use environmentally sustainable strategies and how designers contribute to the development of sustainable products. The article reviews the literature of the sustainability of fashion through the circular economy and design management. The research was conducted through semi-structured interviews and a quantitative survey of designers in the UK. A framework based on the level of business engagement in sustainability was used to structure the thematic analysis of the findings. The research demonstrates the relatively low influence of designers on sustainable fashion strategy and their engagement at a tactical organizational level. It concludes by developing a model for the integration of designers into the management of sustainable fashion business. • Technologists, buyers and sustainability managers tend to lead sustainable product development. • Designers have a strategic engagement when designing for longevity. • There is a need to improve designer education and training in sustainability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the advancements in textile and clothing manufacturing in Great Britain. British producers are aiming to provide products with improved quality, increased response times, reduced inventory, reduced supply distances, and efficient supply chains. Three-dimensional images are now produced on textiles through the use of digital printing. Rapid manufacturing can be enabled by building up sequential layers of a range of materials as demonstrated by Freedom of Creation.