Visitors to the Munichfabricstart 2010 bluezone will be the first to experience this latest step forward in Clariant’s Advanced Denim technology that lets the textile industry go beyond current dimensions in denim manufacture.

Download Clariant’s Advanced Denim Brochure here.

Pad/Sizing Ox maintains the highly-valued creative effects, colors and shades of Advanced Denim in a straightforward, one-step sizing and dyeing process that delivers a massive reduction in water consumption. Up to 92% less water is used by textile mills, creating practically no waste water. Pad/Sizing Ox allows 30% energy savings together with 63% waste cotton savings compared to conventional dyeing procedures.

Advanced Denim allows eco-bleaching wash-down with ozone and peroxide avoiding the use and consequently the presence in waste water of harmful chemicals like hypochlorite or permanganate.

The Pad/Sizing Ox process is based on Clariant’s recently patented Arkofil® DEN-FIX sizing agent innovation. In combination with its full range of Diresul® RDT sulfur dyes, including Clariant’s cutting-edge non-indigo based Diresul® Indicolors RDT dyes, Advanced Denim offers unique effects, improved fastness, better reproduction of tones and shades, and easy application for more precise results. The dyes expand the market’s potential to achieve new and interesting colors, deeper and faster blues, amazing blacks and grays, finely-graded shades and special wash-down effects.

Download Pad/Sizing-Ox-Brochure here.

The Pad/Sizing-OX process is especially suited to meeting the current market move towards maximizing efficiency through the dyeing of small and varied denim batches.

“Helping the denim industry to achieve maximum results with minimum resources is fundamental to Clariant’s Advanced Denim concept,” comments Miguel Sanchez, Head Global PL Dyes for Cellulose of Business Unit Textile Chemicals of Clariant. “Our extensive research and development to bring innovation through new products and technologies is creating new possibilities in fashion effects as well as addressing the need and demand for ever-more sustainable, efficient production by the textile industry.”

Clariant unveils Pad/Sizing-Ox a revolutionary eco-efficient dyeing procedure that gives brand owners and retailers new opportunities to offer fashionable, high quality jeans based on the most sustainable, resource-saving production method to date.

Launched online on 14th May at www.mepod.co.uk, mepod t-shirts feature a
stylised baby that expresses women’s interests pre-pregnancy – focusing on activities and indulgences that go on hold for nine months.

Whether it’s the putting a halt to gym membership, parking up the bike, missing a ski season, or simply craving a daily coffee fix – the tees provide women with a stylish slogan t-shirt with designs that are worn on the bump – far beyond anything else in the maternity market.

mepod’s creator Lucy Sibbald commented: “The aim with mepod is to create a brand of t-shirts that you would consider wearing even if you weren’t pregnant. My major gripe when I was carrying my two littlies was the lack of excitement surrounding the clothes out there – mepod is something we want women to look forward to wearing. Loving sport pre-baby, I also wanted people to know that I did ‘stuff’ too it was just on hold, and mepod does just that, letting women give an insight into their lifestyles and giving them an identity beyond the bump – the ‘me’ behind the pod.”

mepod talks beyond natural birth versus epidural, breast versus bottle – topics that so often consume mother-to-be – mepod is about the woman behind the baby bump and the life they will bring to their child.

mepod t-shirts retail at £30 – take a peek in the pod at www.mepod.co.uk
www.mepod.co.uk birth announcement: born on 14th May, 8.44am, weighs 400 KB, all vital sections functioning correctly, and mama doing well too.

Ends
For further information please contact Lucy@mepod.co.uk or 07889 125 366

The brand has also featured on MTV, T4, E4, Skins,Hollyoaks, the TV series WAGS Boutique, been worn by Norman Cook aka Fatboy Slim, M.I.A, London-born rapper Example, Tim Lovejoy, members of The Automatic, Mumm ‘Ra, New Young Pony Club and Lady Sovereign and have designed customised jewellery for the shoe designer Gil Carvalho who has worked with the likes of Madonna and Liz Hurley.

They have also recently had our jewellery featured on Project Catwalk on SkyOne and also had a one-off customized piece of jewellery worn by M.I.A on her recent cover shoot for Notion magazine.

All this has been achieved since the launch a year ago, helping to firmly establish Chateau Roux as one of the most exciting and sought after young labels around today.

www.october.co.uk
tshirt printing, screen printing, embroidery

Designed by Hannah Morrison, in a departure from the usual band merchandise, bamboo fabric T-s were printed using soft water based inks to create a retail look for Deadmau5. The garments were then re-labelled and presented in organic canvas bags, also printed with water based inks.  In a music download culture, it looks like artists are not just recognising the increased importance of merchandise, but also wanting to present a high street quality product.

For more details:
www.deadmau5.com
www.hannahmorrison.blogspot.com

www.october.co.uk
t shirt printing, screen printing, embroidery

“Young girl working fairtrade Young girl working on a loom in Aït Benhaddou, Morocco in May 2008” - image is courtesy of NationMaster.com

Are you wearing or do you own anything from the high street giant Primark? If so, find the label and read where it was made.

Done? If you’re still looking, it’s because Primark’s labels don’t reveal the location of the garment’s origin. The company argues that there is no law requiring retailers to state where the clothing is made.

Primark is every bargain hunter’s candy shop, full of cheap clothes that can be thrown away when the latest trend is phased out. Last June, it was investigated by undercover reporters from the BBC who revealed that the retailer used child labour (allegedly without their knowledge) to make their products. It was claimed that clothes were created by underpaid factory workers, many of whom took their work outside the factory to family members and children.

After BBC1’s Panorama made the issue public, the head of Primark spoke to a journalist about the allegations. Primark director Breege O’Donoghue said: “We detest that children have been used; we do not support that children should be used in our supply chain. These children are not in our factories. These three factories had stringent audit and inspection in the last 18 months these children were in unauthorised production.”

She added: “It’s against our terms of trade to employ children. Our code of conduct was breached, our standards were breached – this is why these factories will no longer be doing business with Primark.”

Developing countries reportedly rely on the forced labour of thousands of 10-to15-year-old children, who pick cotton to create clothes for western countries like ours. Each September, school children are forced to miss classes for up to two and a half months for cotton-picking. The children spend up to 11 hours a day working in the fields and earn less than two US dollars.

I decided to visit Primark in Nottingham to find out what the paying public thought about this. Hordes of shoppers wondered around with trademark blue baskets full to the brim with clothes. The long queue for the tills made it feel like it was Christmas Eve, while the staff stood at their folding stations as customers sifted through the piles of jeans desperate to find their size.

Asked about Primark’s reputation on garment production, one student shopper from Nottingham said: “I do wonder how they can charge so little, but I’m well into my overdraft and can’t afford expensive clothes. Primark has high fashion at affordable prices, which is what draws me in.”

Another customer remarked: “I guess ‘throw-away fashion’ is a bit of a waste, but in the current economic climate people are hunting for bargains more than ever before. It’s a shame, but I suppose we are keeping the people who make the garments in employment.”

Although Primark has made changes to stop child labour by shutting down the factories in India, this now leaves thousands of people unemployed. It seems as though they are more concerned with the reputation of the business rather than the need to help and support these underprivileged workers.

Fortunately, some people are doing their best to change the situation. At this season’s forthcoming fashion events, movers and shakers from the high fashion world are creating, promoting and showcasing ethical clothes.

Along with London Fashion Week’s estethica, which exhibits fashion by eco-loving designers (February 21-24), Pure London has also introduced Ethical Pure as part of its campaign to promote the designers who produce clothing that follows eco-friendly guidelines (February 8-10).

Meanwhile, February 23 to March 8 sees the annual fortnight dedicated to highlighting the work of the Fairtrade Foundation, a charity that seeks to ensure everyone can maintain a decent and dignified livelihood. Since its launch, the Fairtrade mark has not only changed the way in which corporations deal with their suppliers and how consumers shop on the high street, but it is also transforming the lives of millions of farmers, workers and their communities.

The desire to make even a small contribution towards helping the environment and the social welfare of others is a trend that has been embraced by many companies, from small specialist stores to big high-street chains. Debenhams, Monsoon and Marks & Spencer, for instance, all stock a Fairtrade cotton range.

Another outspoken campaigner is Jane Shepherdson, the retail guru who catapulted Topshop to star status. Now chief executive of the Whistles chain, she is also the non-executive director of People Tree (www.peopletree.co.uk), one of country’s first eco-chic brands. In addition, Shepherdson is transforming Oxfam’s charity shops into must-have destinations for eco-fashionistas.

These are just a few of the examples of people making waves in the ethical clothing movement. Yet, while much progress has already been made, there is still a significant way to go. Does the future of fashion lie in fairly traded clothes? Only time, and our shopping habits, will tell.

Let us know what you think by posting your comments on our MySpace page www.myspace.com/freeqmagazine.

For more information on Fairtrade Fortnight, visit: www.fairtrade.org.uk or http://www.bbc.co.uk/thread/blood-sweat-tshirts.

http://www.freeqmagazine.com/

came runner up in the 2006 Observer Ethical Awards for ‘Best Fashion Product’, and was also shortlisted for ‘Environmental company of the year’ at the ‘Re:Fashion Awards in November 2009′

THTC

THTC’s CEO Gavin Lawson was also listed in the ‘Future 100′ social entrepreneurs of 2008. Visit the Future 100 Here

THTC is a member of Ethical Junction Visit Ethical Junction Here

THTC also use Bamboo:

Some of the THTC range is made from 70% bamboo, mixed with 30% organic cotton. The company we source our bamboo fibre from has Oeko Tex 100 certification, which is an internationally recognised standard in sustainability. Bamboo is one of the few plants that grows faster than hemp, and as it comes from an interconnected subterranean root system, the plant is not killed, just the shoots harvested. The supplier is internationally recognised for its sustainable processes regarding not only harvesting but also production of the bamboo. The fibre is a bamboo viscose (as is 99% of the bamboo fibre found in the textile industry) meaning that it is an extruded fibre made in the same way as other viscose fibres, so there is a chemical and energy footprint, however the raw material is bamboo cellulose which is very sustainable

The last range of men’s bamboo t-shirts have been sourced from Continental Clothing, a London-based supplier. Continental have full certifications of all their fabrics on their website, which can be found on their website:

(Plain bamboo garment also available from www.october.co.uk)

• All factories that THTC uses comply with ISO 9000 standards – (international organisation of standardisation) The hemp is trucked to the mill for de-gumming and processing into fibre. No caustic soda is used during this process, keeping it as environmentally sound as possible.
• The clothing is manufactured by people who receive full safety training, and belong to a labour union. The minimum age of employees is 19, the maximum age being 54. They work 8 hour shifts and have weekends off – (That’s more than us at THTC central!)
• All our Hemp is grown on small family farms in North Eastern China. It is and always has been grown organically
• All our certified organic cotton is also grown in China. This is a fledgling industry that THTC supports and saves the energy and expense of shipping in from Europe or India.

• THTC now uses water based inks (comply with GOTS) with a discharge screen printing process for almost all new designs.
• Eco Paper is used for poster printing, and will soon be used in all THTC flyers, swing tickets and catalogues.

Currently, THTC is working endlessly in order to join forces with the Fair Trade Foundation. Although already doing so, attaining the Fair Trade Mark will signify the THTC products as an independent guarantee that disadvantaged producers in the developing world are getting a better deal. For a product to display the FAIRTRADE Mark it must meet international Fairtrade standards.

Visit our main site: www.october.co.uk

Urban clothing widget

You can now get our blog as a widget (news feed) and plug it right into your own site or blog. In order to set it up,  just follow the link below and get your widget in the size and colour which best fits in with your site. Get the code and follow the instructions. You can embed into Myspace, Wordpress, Digg, Facebook etc… check it out.

Support Urban fashion, streetwear and design.

http://www.widgetbox.com/widget/urban-clothing-review

Visit our main site: www.october.co.uk

[polldaddy poll=1191028]

Visit our main site: www.october.co.uk
t shirt printing, screen printing, embroidery

There is a growing demand for ethically and environmentally credible bags, as more and more retailers, brands, corporate and promotional users are no longer content with using cheap cotton carriers as an alternative to plastic bags.

The rising levels of awareness mean the users of such products demand the same high values of the bags as they do of their cotton clothing.

Corporate and retail brands wish to communicate their ethical messages using an equally ethical communication medium.

The EarthPositive® Organic Shopper Tote (code EP70) is a plain weave, fine gauge canvas bag in undyed natural cotton, in the standard shopper tote dimensions (38×42cm) with long shoulder straps. The smooth fabric provides an ideal surface for screen-printing. This is the ultimate ‘sustainable’ shopper bag.

The EarthPositive® Organic Fashion Tote (code EP75) is a premium weight, twill weave cotton bag, with quality stitching detail, produced in a range of seven vibrant colours. This product is designed to meet the demand for a bag as a ‘fashion accessory with a conscience’ in a market place where the vast majority of similar products are produced in cheap quality raw fabrics of unknown origin. Again this bag is perfect for screen printing.

View our main website: www.october.co.uk
T shirt printing, screen printing, embroidery

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