MADE IN BRITAIN

Glass and metal corporate look for rag superstore

UNMADE IN BRITAIN

Whilst travelling on the upper deck of a bus through Oxford Street, I saw the truly ugly side of British retailing. Where music stores used to trade, cheap and unremarkable clothes brands have replaced them. However, these superstores don't participate to British culture. If anything they devalue it by flooding the country with standardised clothes made abroad. There's nothing British, original or well-made with quality here, just uniforms for a mass international market which doesn't distinguish between the consumer in Madrid, Berlin or London.

What colour for your uniform?

DISASTROUS IMAGE
                                
I was looking at huge glass façades of plain T-shirts and shorts with no more character than uniforms for a docile consumer who'd buy anything as long as the picture is big enough to lure them inside with the cheapest price tags imaginable. There's nothing to be proud of, especially when you know the amount of misery and even death these labels cost, in human, environmental and financial terms. Furthermore, is that all London has to exhibit to tourists? Oxford Street is ugly enough and not the best London architecture can offer, but I wonder if the Mayor has taken a trip recently through the most commercial street of the capital. If this is what London is all about it is disastrous.

Ragmania hysteria

FASHION UNCONSCIOUS
                                             
Cheap clothes are not always bought because people can't afford more expensive clothes. They are bought on a weekly basis by people who can ill-afford them to look like celebrities, and think nothing of piling cheap and nasty clothes in their closets, wearing them a few times before burying them under even more cheap and nasty stuff. People don't buy music anymore, they buy rags instead. Deaths abroad, ever decreasing fashion cycles, problematic landfills or negative balance of commerce don't mean anything to them.

FIGHT BACK

The recent catastrophes in clothes factories in Bangladesh may have rattled some people, but too few to dent the appetite for these labels and superstores. However, there is trend to encourage the consumer with a conscience to buy British, and designers to manufacture in Britain. Here's some websites to help navigate what's currently on offer if as a consumer or as designer you are interested in buying or manufacturing British:


Labour Behind the Label is a pressure group who grades fashion brands. Click here to see how your favourite label scores: http://www.labourbehindthelabel.org/campaigns/itemlist/category/250-company-profiles


Website devoted to the promotion of products manufactured in Britain. You can add your product to their listings with a one-off fee of £25.
Visit: http://www.stillmadeinbritain.co.uk/


Make It British is devoted to British made-brands and UK manufacturing. You'll find a dierectory to guide you whether  wheryou're looking at buying or manufacturing as a designer. You can also feature your product. They have successfuly campaigned for a logo for british-made products which will be launched in September at London design Week.
Visit: http://makeitbritish.co.uk/


This is this the database of the UKFT, the UK Fashion and Textile association, the voice of the industry, with practical support and advice.
Visit: http://www.ukft.org/letsmakeithere/