I’ve been thinking a lot about the term “ethical” in relation to my clothing business. When I was writing this post the other day, I was thinking - how amazing is it that we kind of accept that the fashion industry operates unethically.

I thought, how hard must it be to turn up to work knowing that you’re contributing to sweatshop labour and environmental damage just so you can do your day job? That by accepting working in the industry, you are effectively accepting unethical work practices.

Having spoken to a few folks since, however, I’ve started to work out that there are a lot of folks working in the industry that are, in fact, wanting and trying to do the right thing - it’s not as clear cut as I once thought.

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Priscilla does a wonderful job of not only eloquently expressing her feelings about saying sorry, but also mine (thanks P.)

I too have set my Facebook status to say I’m sorry - but I’ll also repost what Priscilla says ‘coz it’s exactly what I want to say too:

I regret that this happened to you, and I realise that it caused suffering and anguish for you and your family. I hope this never happens again.

P.S. I feel like this new government is sorting out a whole bunch of unfinished business. Still lots to do, but we’ve signed Kyoto, and now said sorry (both of which are far too long overdue). In the coming weeks WorkChoices will be scrapped. It’s progress - but back to the starting-line, not forward. Hopefully the momentum will continue to push across the line…

Couldn’t have said it better myself - SMH Executive Style blog: Determined to be different?.

I just spotted this group on Facebook - people committing to change their Facebook status to “is Sorry” on 13 Feb. Just thought I’d pass it along (I think it’s a great action - but also a great cause).

Who woulda thunk it would be so hard. Anyways… the Government is about to say sorry, and GetUp are running an action as a show of support. I’ve added my name - passing it on here in case y’all want to join in…

Of course, it is but a small step, but I think important all the same. Next is actually taking the time to work with the indigenous community to improve health and education services - not “us” telling “them” how to do it, but truly working with people to make a lasting difference. It’s the very least we can do…

But, as a first step, tell your MP you back back the apology.

Seth makes a good point about pricing of digital rentals. One other reason to charge less - bandwidths costs.

Seth mentions that the costs of pressing and distribution go out the window. But in the download market they don’t completely - the customer is paying for the amount they download, adding to the overall cost of the rental.

Sure, it’s still fairly small, and bandwidth is cheaper all the time. But I couldn’t afford to download a whole movie in HD on my current plan - it would blow my monthly download limit pretty fast, so I’d be v. cautious about renting this way given the bandwidth costs.

All the more reason to make the overall offer as compelling as possible to get the mental switch Seth is suggesting needs to be made.

(As an aside - I would have thought Blockbuster and the rental companies would have to pay a significant royalty based on the volume of rentals, rather than a per-physical-DVD fee. I’m intrigued now as to how that aspect of the industry works…)

Around the launch of his book, All Marketers Are Liars, Seth Godin wrote a lot about stories - the stories businesses tell when selling their products, and the ones that we, as customers, tell ourselves about products and companies.

I’ve been thinking a little about this over the past few weeks, thinking about what sort of story the (yet to be named) clothing label will tell, and also looking at what sort of stories existing ethical labels are telling.

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Just posted details of this year’s nonzero/FBi fundraiser that’s happening next Thursday and Friday over at the Fuzu site. Hope to see you there!

After making my decision to make the change at work, I decided to have a quick look at what relevant community college courses might be around next year. I found this fabric printing course and decided, on a whim, to give it a go.

Although I don’t see myself actually doing the printing, I wanted to learn about the concepts. I also thought it might be a good way to meet other people doing interesting stuff, but also just to have a bit of fun and to feel like I’m actually moving forward on this idea, even though I can’t really do a whole lot until early next year.

One thing I’ve worked out pretty quickly is that there doesn’t really seem to be an environmentally sound method of printing. Even though you can use water-based inks, which manufacturers claim are non-toxic and can be washed into our waterways (a claim I’m yet to fully examine), the process of creating the screens seems to be either using plastic sheeting (Ezycut - for short runs) or photo emulsion, which uses photographic chemicals - neither of which is environmentally sound.

One of my hopes for the products is that perhaps, some day - when we have the money and resources to do so - to get our clothing Cradle to cradle certified. I can’t really see a way, unless we can properly recycle the chemicals or find an alternative method of creating the screens, to achieve that goal while using these printing techniques.

I’m also pretty sure that the C2C review will find all sorts of issues with printing ink, despite the general view that it’s “safe”, that make it unsuitable for C2C certification. And this doesn’t even venture into the world of fabric dyes, either, which are likely to have even more impacts!

In either case, that’s a longer-term goal - and there’s a lot of ways to be much more environmentally friendly than most manufacturers without getting to this level of detail. But I do want to ensure that our design process takes these things into consideration from day one - looking for alternatives and designing these kind of problems out of our products.

For example, if we design shirts that don’t require printing we remove one potential problem from the production process. And if we find clever ways to use undyed fabric, even better. (I should be clear that I’m not talking the “natural hippy” look here - just using natural fabric in clever ways within a fashion context.)

Just a quick note to say that I’m taking some time out over the next week - heading to Merimbula with Ang for a few days. I’ll be out of computer range during that time, so posting is going to be non-existent here for a little while. But I’ll be back into it again early Jan…