This week we’re all about ethics, sustainability and transparency in the fashion industry with the upcoming Fashion Revolution Week, all thrown in amongst the Carla Zampatti Award and this week’s sample sale.

The 2018 Carla Zampatti Award Winner is...

This year’s winner of the inaugural Carla Zampatti Foundation Design Award has been announced as Sarah Lim. Lim is an alumnus of UTS, where she studied Fashion and Textiles – also where the award was unveiled. The prize is $25,000 in cash and an opportunity to intern in the Carla Zampatti studio. Lim will put the money towards her overseas study plans in the Fashion Design and Society graduate program at Parsons School of Design in New York. She also has been offered the opportunity to return to the fashion house after her studies to complete a capsule collection. The Carla Zampatti Foundation Design Award will be awarded to a UTS honours student from the Bachelor of Design in Fashion and Textiles every year.

2018 Fashion Revolution Week

This year’s Fashion Revolution Week will run from April 23rd until April 29th – a global campaign for a more ethical, sustainable and transparent fashion industry. This week will also commemorate the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh, an event that killed over 1,100 people – generating a push for an overhaul in safety practices within the fashion industry.
This year, David Jones will be celebrating with a capsule collection designed by Manning Cartell, Bianca Spender, Nobody Denim and Viktoria & Woods. All brands contributing to the collection are Australian (of course) and also accredited by Ethical Clothing Australia. Asking the question ‘do you know who made your clothes?’ is at the core of the Fashion Revolution Week’s message. Globally, the organisation has activated their campaigns in 100 countries and plan to expand further – hoping to follow in the footsteps of their namesake: revolutionise the fashion industry.
Check out the Fashion Revolution website https://www.fashionrevolution.org/oceania/australia/ (hyperlink this) for events in your area.

Australian brands graded a C in ethics

The 2018 Ethical Fashion Report has just been released, grading Australian brands an average C in their ethical practices. The report, conducted by Baptist World Aid grades countries and companies as your school report did in high school – from A to F. Australia’s results showed that brands such as Bras N Things, Decjuba, Ally Fashion and Wish Designs earned themselves an F and Roger David, Betts, Boohoo and Valleygirl only received a D. Cotton On topped the list, receiving an A, with fast fashion brands Kmart, Jeanswest and Target slowly behind, with all scoring a B or B+.
Overall, Australia has improved since last year’s report, but we still have a fair way to go if we want to revolutionise the fashion industry. 

Online shopping prices to increase in Australia

The Australian Government have announced the implementation of a new law whereby electronic, furniture and clothing purchased online from overseas businesses with a value of $1,000 and under will incur 10$ GST. This tax was originally set to be implemented for July 1 last year, but instead will now be implemented July 1 this year. As the law stands, goods purchased from international retailers online did not incur the GST unless the purchase was over $1,000 - making products cheaper to purchase from foreign retailers than from their Australian counterparts. The tariff is aimed towards encouraging Australian purchases. However, the Sydney Morning Herald have reported that the tax will not be easily implemented. Christopher Berg, an RMIT economist told the newspaper that, “The new online tax will only be collected from self-declaring overseas retailers with turnovers of more than $75,000 and the Australian Tax Office has no power to punish those beyond the ATO’s jurisdiction”.

Sample Sale

Who: Alice McCall What: mid season sale When: now until stock lasts Where: in store and online