FASHIONBOSS ENCORE: SUNDAY FASHION RECAP
FASHION & STYLE: Can Fashion Be Stylishly Responsible?
Olivia Wilde’s Conscious Commerce x H&M | Olivia Wilde, co-founder of philanthropic e-commerce site Conscious Commerce, teams up with H&M to launch the Conscious Exclusive collection — an effort put forward by the Comeback Clothes campaign, which encourages young people to recycle old clothing. In addition to supporting a number of environmentally friendly charities, Wilde juggles being the face of Revlon and H&M’s Conscious range. The Conscious Exclusive is both sustainable and stylish featuring hand-drawn prints on organic cotton, organic linin, Tencel and recycled polyester. The new environmentally conscious collection pulls inspiration from African and Asian cultures and is set to launch in 200 H&M stores and online stores on April 16th.
“Fur: An Issue of Life and Death” Ponders the Humanity in Animals | In Copenhagen, a new exhibition in the National Museum is not taking a political stand against the wearing of fur in Western societies. Titled “Fur: An Issue of Life & Death”, it explores our immediate feelings on wearing skin that once belonged to living, breathing creatures. Upon entering the exhibit, visitors are invited to try on luxurious, donated coats ranging from ocelot to mink that has been intentionally splattered with blood. A striking mannequin dons a large fox coat, while staring placidly at a stuffed fox trapped in a glass display case. Denmark’s hosting of this exhibit has special significance: the country owns 30 percent of the global mink trade, breeds over 17 million of the animals per annum and profited over 2 billion dollars from mink last year.
BUSINESS OF FASHION: Striking a Set, Staging a Strike
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week: Where Have All the Sponsors Gone? | Big changes are to be expected for New York Fashion Week. According to WWD, owner of Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week IMG will host its final runways in Manhattan on February as the luxury automaker will officially cease to sponsor Fashion Week. Moving forward, MBFW will be known as NYFW. IMG has also acquired the main competition for MBFW, MADE Fashion Week, known for featuring emerging, cutting-edge designers at no cost in its downtown venue. IMG has also lost American Express as a sponsor for NYFW, although the card company will continue to cover MADE Fashion Week. In what may be the most influential change, Lincoln Center will not host shows after the Fall/Winter 2015 collections run in February, when its IMG contract expires. Come September, a new location will be chosen–reportedly downtown.
Barbour’s Strike Continues | As businesses approach year-end there are often plans set in place to carry out new policies and rules for the New Year; of course, this is all dependent on each company’s full year performance evaluation. It seems as though that by year-end Barbour, the British outerwear presence, has applied changes of their own that have much of the company’s staff up in arms. Over 130 company disgruntled staff members, upon hearing news that their contracts were being forcibly changed, made plans to strike on December 17th and planned for further strikes on Dec. 19, 22 and 30. Further action was also planned for Jan. 5th and 6th as staff posted on the website of UK labor union Unite indicating their plans. Some of the contract changes that angered employees included a requirement to work until 11pm and the removal of an unsocial hours payment. Just earlier this month, members of the Unite union voted to extend their current strike through January 30.
FASHION LAW: The Scent of Discrimination…
Anti-Semitism Charges Taint the Air at Revlon | There’s a stink in the air at Revlon, and it doesn’t smell like its Charlie fragrance line. Former Revlon Inc. chief scientist has sued the corporation for discrimination, citing a series of major allegations against CEO Lorenzo Delpani. Filing a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of New York, former Revlon chief scientific officer Alan Meyers claims that he was terminated on December 10, 2014 for raising what the company termed “ghost” safety concerns in its laboratories. Meyers says he expressed concern over the quality of raw materials used by Spanish beauty company Colomer Group after it was acquired by Revlon in 2013. Delpani allegedly urged him to keep the complaints quiet so that the CEO could save face, maintaining “plausible deniability” about the issues. After Delpani took over Revlon in 2013, Meyers – who is Jewish – claims a wave of anti-Semitic discrimination ensued, citing comments recently reported in the New York Post. Meyers’ suit reports that the Italian-born chief executive expressed surprise that there weren’t more Jews at Revlon considering majority shareholder Ron Perelman is Jewish-American and “Jews stick together.” Delpani is also accused of stating that he “could smell a black person when he entered a room” at a meeting in South Africa in October. Revlon has fiercely refuted all Meyers’ allegations, stating that the lawsuit is “completely meritless” and that it fully intends to fight all the former scientists “baseless claims.”
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