Sadly,you know as well as I do that the alternative is Marks and Spencer,and the blouse,made in the same place, is £39.99? Primark cop the blame for a lot of the foreign tat on our High Street but in reality they're no different from any other clothing retailer.We(the U.K)produce very little in the way of clothing nowadays and if we did it would be unaffordable to most working families.
Never known a storm like it, the thunder was literally like a bomb going off above your head. Got a tiny taste of what a war zone is like, it must be terrible for the children. Honestly thought the villa was going down the hillside
That's absolutely not true, the supplier requirements set by M&S are on a different planet to those of Primark and New Look. Over the years, I've had my suppliers factories undergo audits by several major retailers and the standards vary massively. Some are very strict and detailed and even specify things like canteens and kitchens having to be painted white and specify minimum wages, holiday and sick pay etc, others come in and basically tell factories how to get round the rules (they advise the dates of the audit and how to make sure all the boxes are ticked on that day). M&S are at the very top of the list when it comes to how high the bar is set.
Ironically, the likes of Primark make very little in China nowadays, it's got too expensive, they're now mainly buying from Bangladesh, Vietnam and Sri Lanka (which is precisely why the likes of Temu, Shein and AliExpress are now trying to supply us directly instead). UK production is finished as far as large scale clothing manufacturing is concerned, it's never going to be viable again, but that doesn't mean we have to keep importing tat for peanuts, much of which just ends up in landfill anyway. We as a nation (particularly women), need to stop seeing clothing as a disposable commodity.
A 2021 report found that 88% of M&S' sustainability claims failed to meet CMA guidelines. https://www.edie.net/report-60-of-sustainability-claims-by-fashion-giants-are-greenwashing/
O.K,maybe I should have been more specific and said China(instead of the same place) but the point remains that it forms part of the payload of one of these 100 jumbo's you mention. On the same point,I respect anyone that feels the need to ensure their manufacturers adhere to workers rights.I wonder if Fred Perry etc follow the same lead whilst charging £75-£120 for a polo.There's a reason why things are mass produced in foreign Countries(I was tempted to write sweatshops)....That reason is GREED..
Stuff could be made local But itd mean less profit So send it to utter ****hole poor countries so we can pay them absolutely **** all, while the product sells for insane markup Its immoral if you think about it
Greenwashing is a big issue, but a completely different issue to the one we were discussing. The reason I don't make any claims about the sustainability and green credentials of the products I produce, is because I find it impossible to back up any of the claims the suppliers make. I'm regularly offered 'organic cotton' options, but when I ask the factories how they know it's actually organic, thy just shrug and say the yarn supplier told them it was.
Fred Perry are Japanese owned and the Japanese tend to be fairly strict on workers rights and when you can achieve the prices they do, it's fairly easy to make sure you can afford to. Their margins are big, but to be fair to them, their £120 polos are actually made in England.
It's a topic which comes up here every so often and here we are again, things made far away for little money and sold here for loads. I think it's wrong to criticise the budget retailers they buy cheap sell cheap. Take a look at the label in any of your quality expensive products, my £150 doc Martins from China, the Craghoppers fleece I'm wearing from Bangladesh. I've said before the likes of apple who are making so much profit on their £1500 phones they would need warehouses to to put it could easily give their workers another $20 or so a month and raise their living standards greatly but don't.
I feel quite strongly about this. People treat getting new clothes as a hobby almost, and a lot of people see it as a bit weird if you choose to keep a moderate amount of clothes and replace them as needed rather than on a constant basis. That is surely the more sensible and responsible way to do it, but it needs a big attitude shift.
Unfortunately it is more a female thing Women have to buy a top,- like olm says even tho they got about 20identical tops at home, when they’re out shopping. rationale? It’s only a fiver etc
In the good old days women would buy stuff in M&S on saturday morning, take it back washed and pressed for a refund on monday.
With online sales, they don't even bother washing it now, they often just send it back dirty (often by freepost) for a refund. I once got an online order for over £700, for delivery to a film studio, then a month later I got it all back clearly worn. They obviously filmed whatever they wanted them for, then thought they could just back it all for a refund. Never did find out what they used if for, but they got it all back and didn't complain.
I agree about clothing being a disposable commodity nowadays.When we were kids(and this will apply to many of us on here),our clothes were only fit for the bin(or ragman) when our parents had exhausted every avenue in repairing them.Patches on sleeves and knees,shoes re-soled,socks darned etc... Not a lot went to landfill back in the 60's and 70's,our parents were frugal.Not a lot 'needs' to reach a landfill nowadays either,there are numerous ways of clearing out our wardrobes and we have several options including charity shops and clothes banks,the fact that people decide to pack out their waste bins with clothing is where the ignorance kicks in,not the amount people buy. As for the other discussion,I take on board that companies like Fred Perry et al may show their foreign workers a bit more respect but their carbon footprint is no less than Primarks...
The reason jeans had two big square back pockets was so when the time came to repair the knees the material required was at hand. So me mam always said.
