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LONDON – Reuters
Racial diversity in fashion has improved in recent years, but the industry must not treat it like a catwalk trend, British model Naomi Campbell said in an interview.
One of fashion‘s most recognizable faces, Naomi Campbell has long spoken of discrimination in the industry where she has worked for 33 years.
The 49-year-old Campbell was the first black model to appear on the covers of French Vogue and Time magazine. She was also the first black model on the cover of American Vogue’s key September issue.
Asked how the industry had changed, Campbell said: “In so many ways, but most importantly the diversity. It’s finally … sunken in but now we hope people don’t think it’s in for a trend, like clothes are in for a season and out for a season, that’s not going to happen.”
“It’s improved absolutely, I can’t say it hasn’t. I do think there’s always more room for improvement. There’s still some ways to go,” she added referring to equal pay.
Campbell began her career as a teenager and has modelled for fashion heavyweights, such as Versace, Chanel, Prada, Dolce Gabbana, among many others. She has also championed African designers and co-produced April’s Arise Fashion Week in Lagos, Nigeria.
Asked if African designers were finally getting recognition, she said: “We’re on our way, we’re not there yet, but we’re getting the platform. They deserve to have.”
On designer labels improving their green credentials as public environmental awareness grows, Campbell said most brands were “very aware of sustainability.”
“I feel that everyone is consciously aware now and trying to do their part. It’s amazing, you go on set now to do shoots and it has to be a non-plastic shoot.”
One of the five major supermodels of the early 1990s, Campbell has featured on the covers of more than 500 magazines. However she wrote in this month’s British Vogue she only recently began feeling more at ease in her own skin.
“Just because I’m a model doesn’t mean that I felt comfortable,” she said.
“If I would put on something that was figure hugging and I had to go outside and get a taxi in New York City, I’d always tie a cardigan around my waist because I felt a little self-conscious.”
Campbell founded charitable organization Fashion For Relief in 2005, hosting catwalk shows to raise funds for causes that have included victims of Hurricane Katrina and Typhoon Haiyan.
She began her charity work with late South African president Nelson Mandela, who referred to her as “honorary granddaughter.”
The British Fashion Council on June 24 said Campbell would receive the Fashion Icon Award at December’s Fashion Awards in recognition of her industry contribution and charity work. Campbell said the award was “an honor and thrill.”
Asked about Britain’s impending departure from the European Union and its impact on the country’s fashion industry, London-born Campbell said: “How’s Brexit going to affect the country on the whole is what I care about.
“I don’t think divide is good in any situation and there is a divide and when there’s divide there’s unrest, and unrest is not good.”
But she added that she hoped there would be more opportunities in fashion.
“When people say global to me and I ask them if they mean are they in Africa and they say no, they’re not global to me. So if this is going to open up the territories that were not included then I’m for it in our fashion industry.”
Image copy right GETTY IMAGESA report by MPs has urged the UK government to end the era of throwaway clothes and poor working conditions in the fashion supply chain.
The MPs’ proposals are designed to force the fashion industry to clean up its act.
They made 18 recommendations covering environmental and labour practices and want the government to act.
Not only is the fashion industry a source of emissions, but old clothes pile up in landfill.
Fibres also flow into the sea when clothes are washed, polluting the marine environment.
A government spokesperson said it was dealing with the impacts of fast fashion – and many measures were already in place.
Among the proposals from the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) were:
- A 1p charge per garment on producers to fund better recycling of clothes;
- Ban on incinerating or landfilling unsold stock that can be reused or recycled instead;
- Mandatory environmental targets for fashion retailers with a turnover above £36 million;
- Tax changes to reward reuse, repair and recycling – to support responsible fashion companies.
The EAC’s chair, Labour MP Mary Creagh, said: “Fashion producers should be forced to clear up the mountains of waste they create.
“The government is content to tolerate practices that trash the environment and exploit workers despite having just committed to net zero emission targets.
“It is out of step with the public who are shocked by the fact that we are sending 300,000 tonnes of clothes a year to incineration or landfill.”
But ministers cite the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), a voluntary agreement co-ordinated by the waste watchdog WRAP.
This sets targets for the industry to reduce carbon emissions, water and waste.
The government also maintains it’s better to find outlets for waste textiles rather than simply imposing a landfill ban.
A government spokesperson said: “It simply isn’t true to say we are not accepting the committee’s recommendations.
“In our landmark Resources and Waste Strategy we will take forward measures including developing proposals and consulting on extended producer responsibility (EPR) and higher product standards for textiles.
“This would make producers responsible for the full cost of managing and disposing of their products after they’re no longer useful.”
A cutting-edge business model no longer delivers blistering sales growth, but parent Inditex remains one of the steadiest bets in retail
A Zara store in Barcelona. PHOTO: ALBERT GEA/REUTERS
Zara’s once-innovative business model is losing some of its old power. But it still offers the world’s largest clothing retailer by revenue protection from problems that are causing huge damage to peers.
Inditex , ITX 0.36% Zara’s Madrid-listed parent company, said Wednesday that sales at constant exchange rates increased 5% over the three months through April. That was below what analysts expected and is the latest sign that the company’s days of blistering double-digit sales growth are over.
Compared with its rivals, however, Inditex is still looking very sharp. In their respective first quarters, sales at European rival Hennes & Mauritz and U.S. chain Gap dropped 4%. Both are struggling with emptying stores as more spending for clothing moves online. In the difficult U.K. market, privately held Arcadia, which owns the once-trendy Topshop brand, is currently fighting with landlords to stave off bankruptcy.
Zara and other Inditex labels famously source a big chunk of their products from countries close to the company’s European hub. Just 40% of its clothing stock comes from Asia. That is half the rate of H&M and leaves the Spanish retailer with lower exposure to rising wage inflation in countries like Vietnam.
Written by: Ram Venkatesh
In the Foreword to his book Re-Imagine bestselling author, business and management guru Tom Peters explained how his eleventh book came about.
“Because I’m pissed off,” he wrote, “I happen to believe that all innovation comes, not from market research or carefully crafted focus groups, but from pissed-off people.”
After more than 20 years in retail and several corporate sourcing reorganisations and restructures, I can comfortably say I share those feelings. It is not that every reorganisation or restructuring was wasteful or unnecessary, but for the massive process engineering that it took and the resultant impact both up and down the value chain, the results and improvement were at best incremental. In addition, organisations went through the same process again in three to five years. While changes were for the better, they were static, non-organic events until the next reorganisation.
Like every other MBA graduate of the ’80s and ’90s, I was an ardent believer in over- analysis and aggressive Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), bound by what I was taught by my mentors and limited by organisational boundaries. It was a time when price, value, quality and customer service were direct and measureable. Then, about two years ago, I took a college level course by Steve Blank, a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and academician.
Though the course was about start-ups, it was an epiphany of sorts. How does one unlearn processes and habits programmed into you? “To truly get closer to customers takes a culture of customer-centricity, empowerment and innovation,” writes Brian Solis, author of What’s the Future of Business? “We must destroy bureaucratic processes and bureaucratic structures and build a new, from a new base,” says Tom Peters.
Now, the time is for investing in fantastic and shareable customer experiences through multiple channels and platforms and multiple touch points. How can we expect people and old corporate structures to behave, collaborate and work differently just because we call them omni-channel buyers or omni-channel designers and give them more responsibilities? Irrespective of how the future merchandising organisation structure looks, if the total user/consumer experience is paramount in this new world of omni-channel retail, it is equally important that the entire ecosystem with all its touch points is more important than the sum of its parts, whether it be external or internal to the organisation.
This can happen only if there is a customer-centric value chain loop. It cannot simply be multiples of one sale in one channel with good customer service. Tom Peters points out, “We must understand that a ‘product’ or ‘service’ – even an excellent one — is but the price of entry, the bare bones beginning.” The larger the value chain loop, the poorer and less sharable the customer experience.
What are the fundamentals that the sourcing organisation should be built on to support an omni-channel business and fantastic customer experience? Here are some thoughts.
1. An extended enterprise philosophy
Jeffrey Dyer’s book, Collaborative Advantage has some great examples from Toyota’s experience of how this philosophy works. This simply means that purchasing organisations behave and engage in the spirit that the supplier organisation is an extension of them. That would create one extended enterprise with every handoff, internal or external, creating value. Most organisations, brands, or retailers say that they value their relationships with suppliers but the spirit of that intention often does not translate into the operational relationships they have. Nor does it seep into their behaviour when the first problem arises from the demand side of the business. One of the main reasons for this is that the home office departments are in their own silos and information sharing is spotty, at best.
Another reason is that design, merchandising, product development, inventory, planning and sourcing are often on different leadership verticals with their own KPIs and priorities. In the absence of silos, information is free-flowing and problems are solved collaboratively. There are too many conflicting business interests even within an organisation so it gets more difficult to truly integrate external suppliers in an extended enterprise philosophy. The apparel supplier/manufacturer scenario is vastly different from that in the ’80s and ’90s. Even up to the 2007-08 recession when private label makers or brands had to have over a hundred suppliers because the manufacturers were small or only manufactured niche products. Today, world class manufacturers and suppliers with best in class facilities, designers, and product development teams are willing to engage, integrate and behave as an extended enterprise. This is common in the computer or automobile industry.
2. Developing and building relationships
Fashion supply chains often get a rap. They are one of the biggest players in the global economy. In some countries, fashion garment factory workers are probably one of the worst paid. Every time there is a factory fire or loss of life, it catches media attention. Then, the issue fades.
Every retailer, I am sure, cares about these issues, wanting to do everything possible for the safety of workers. The solution has always been to add layers of oversight, complexity and costs to address supply chain issues. The cost pressure always ends up at the bottom of the chain. The truly sustainable solution to this is perhaps the opposite. It perhaps takes new technology and new corporate structures’ time and pushes up costs to ensure better support downstream. This includes fair wages, better working conditions and more predictable quality and transparency.
You need to bring your supplier network closer. An extended enterprise helps with almost every challenge a brand or retailer faces including quality, speed, cost and transparency. How do you do this? In almost every large retailer’s private label, the 80/20 rule is quite true. About 80 per cent of the products in terms of volume comes from about 20 per cent of suppliers.
The change for the better starts with better on-boarding of primary suppliers and investing, training, and plotting the relationship growth you would like for your best employees. You would need to change how you buy, organisational changes and building discipline. Today, even the largest of a brand’s or retailer’s supplier partner faces seasonal unpredictability. More importantly, all seasonal planning will have even more limitations with the omni-channel transition since forecasts will be even less trust-inspiring than before. The answer can only be in making the supplier part of an extended enterprise, reorganising the buying process, moving to year round buying, reducing internal hand-offs and creating common and customer-centric metrics for all including the supplier network. If we can improve raw material planning, it would be half the battle. This will only increase flexibility in the system to respond to customer needs, not reduce it.
3. Leveraging technology for real-time visibility & collaborative solutions
In all the opportunities ahead, leveraging technology and real-time visibility becomes important. Demand-facing and supply-facing technologies have to come together more easily to find quicker collaborative solutions. There are two challenges that must be solved. Technology and information are still constrained by organisational structures. Many existing supply-side technologies (excluding logistics) like Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), merchandising software etc. will have events and measurements that must become defunct in the new process. Increased use and improvements in Vendor-managed Inventory (VMI) technologies should be part of the solution. All existing improvements and technologies in logistics, not excluding customs pre-approvals, cross docking, prepacks etc. should be seamlessly built into the value chain loop to improve customer experience. There is no valid reason with today’s technology not to have visibility throughout the process.
4. Trust and loyalty
In the seminal book Introduction to Supply Chain Management, Robert Handfield and Ernest Nichols JR wrote, “Trust is not something that simply ‘happens’. Partners must trust not only one another and also other members higher or lower in the supply chain.” Reliance and competence create goodwill. Goodwill creates trust and trust creates loyalty. It is important that the right level of knowledge exists in the right functions within the entire value chain. Every function that does not add value or is a duplicative function must go. The need for a specific function should not be defined by whether the role is internal or external to the organisation. All hand-offs and touch points must create value for collaboration to enhance. Interpersonal connections and relationships must be encouraged and a perception of fairness must prevail among all. As Handfield and Nichols pointed out, “It is important to remember that inappropriate behaviours such as shouting, ignoring the problem, or glossing over it can harm the relationship and result in deterioration in the supply chain performance.”
In a more mature phase, increased knowledge sharing among supplier partners must be encouraged. This can eventually lead to sharing best practices, conceptualising and cross pollinating new ideas and improvements and behaving as a true extended enterprise. As Jeffrey Dyer states, “Generating value from an extended enterprise takes time and the orchestrator of the enterprise must patiently put in place and nurture, the value creation processes.”
The global apparel industry is nudging US$ 3 trillion. With omni channel business evolution and the millennials coming into the prime income earning years, apparel brands and retailers have both a business and a moral imperative to relook at how they do things from end to end.
About the Author:
Ram Venkatesh is a Supply Chain and Strategic Sourcing Consultant based in Madison, Wisconsin.
In 2018, Converse in partnership with brand and communication agency, Joe Public, launched their ‘All The Stories Are True’ campaign. A series of long-format 90″ films featuring trailblazing Kwaito group, Trompies, and well-known South African personality, J’Something, who shared their real-life ‘Chuck’ stories – based on the brand’s most famous sneaker.
In 2019 Converse then went on to bolster the creative concept for this year’s campaign. To redefine the brand’s conversation the concept includes women who add their voice and share their stories, bringing relevant and much-needed dialogue to the fore.
Approaching the creative execution in an honest and unique way, the concept did not prescribe script lines to the narrators but rather let them authentically share their stories, as they should. Using an intimate production crew, the team brought to life in typical Converse flair – rebellious and edgy narratives aimed at showcasing the women as they push boundaries, challenging stereotypes and perceptions through their work, passion and lives.
The latest stories feature Stacey-Lee May, a young motorsport enthusiast who is taking the car-spinning world by storm. Karabo Poppy, an award-winning illustrator, digital designer and street artist whose work is critically acclaimed locally and internationally. Zulaikha Patel, a young activist who is passionate about women’s rights and Robyn Brophy, a talented performer and choreographer who has been at the forefront of the women’s evolution in the world of dance.
“As a brand, we acknowledge the power in storytelling and the history that our brand has played in South African people’s lives. We partnered with the very capable and talented crew at Joe Public who helped us pull this all together creating this platform where we were able to share truthful narratives about what makes South Africans truly unique under the banner of our campaign, All the Stories Are True,” says Bradley Knowles, Group Marketing Executive, Skye Distribution.
The film is packaged as a fast-paced 60” which is flighting in cinema with a 45” cut-down for TV, while shorter versions that focused on the women’s individual stories and journeys live online.
This year’s real-life ‘All The Stories Are True’ aim to uplift and inspire women throughout South Africa so they too can share the extraordinary things they do and challenge the norm.
“As creative partners at Joe Public we have a responsibility to grow our clients’ brands, but more importantly, we need to make sure that we deliver on a creative product that is relevant, important and critical to our country at large. These films and narratives aim to go beyond advertising as they shape perceptions and our world at large,” said Xolisa Dyeshana, Chief Creative Officer, Joe Public United.
Credits
Brand: Converse SA
Client: Bradley Knowles, Lee-Anne Mckenzie
Agency: Joe Public United
Group Chief Creative Officer: Pepe Marais
Managing Director: Khuthala Gala-Holten
Chief Creative Officer: Xolisa Dyeshana
Creative Director: Claudi Potter
Art Director: Mphela Mamabolo and Katlego Baaitse
Copywriter: Galaletsang Kgoathe
Strategy: Katlego Ditlhokwe
Account Management: Andrew Wright and Koketso Kganyago
Agency TV Producer: Vanessa Borthwick
Production Company: Dolph
Director: Katlego Baaitse
Director of Photography: Diego Olivier
Executive Producer: Chad Goddard
Lead Actresses: Karabo Poppy, Stacey Lee May, Zulaikha Patel and Robyn Brophy.
Stylist: Matt Hazel and Lenny-Dee Doucha
Post-production: Dolph
Editor: Dolph
Audio: Sergio de Cruz, Dolph
SFX: Sergio de Cruz, Dolph
