Good evening everybody, and welcome to the first installment of How Ethical is the Fashion Industry? - According to the Fashion Industry.
In this series I will be asking members of the fashion industry the following questions:
What efforts are you (as an individual and/or company) making to ensure that your practices are being performed as ethically as possible?
as well as questions specifically built for recipient
For this first installment, I chose to ask Nick Lenzini, owner of holidaybrand, as well as creative consultant / costume director / merch designer / whatever for BROCKHAMPTON; what he is doing as an individual in order to ensure that his work is as sustainable, and also made in as much of an ethical manner as possible.
On Monday, the 23rd of November, I messaged @nicksholiday, @holiday.brand, and @holidayhidden, on Instagram from @wizardzonly, as well as sent their customer support link an email, and asked the following:
“Hello, holidaybrand
On behalf of my website, wizardzonlyfools.com, I was looking to ask for some insight into measures that holiday is taking as a brand concerning sustainability and ethical practices within production.
What are you, as a brand / individual doing to try and make sure that your business is as sustainable as possible? Between distribution, production, printing, dyeing, etc.
Best regards
- Conall”
Then, on Wednesday, November the 25th, I made a post on r/holidaybrand, stating the following:
“Hey everybody, I run a website named wizardzonlyfools, and I’m beginning to write a series titled, ‘How Sustainable is the Fashion Industry? - According to the Fashion Industry’
In this series I’m going to be messaging brands in every way possible in order to hopefully get a response on efforts that they’re making to ensure that they’re producing their products in as much of a sustainable manner as possible. Besides that, I’m going to do some of my own research to hopefully give people insight into how ethical their favorite brands are.
With that being said, does anybody here have any insight into where Nick gets the clothes produced? My two $10 tees both say made in LA, but does anybody know of what factory he works with? Any help or leads would be greatly appreciated, and sorry if this isn’t the usual sort of content that you’re used to seeing here.”
Unfortunately for me, there were not too many experts to be found on r/holidaybrand, and as of 1:32 AM on Monday, November 30th, I have not received a response from holiday, or Nick on any fronts. However, reddit user, twitchy_assvag informed me, “also I don’t know if this is helpful but the blanks he uses I think are from LA Apparel, correct me if I’m wrong on that” Well, u/twitchy_assvag, I’d love to correct you, but unfortunately neither Nick, nor any of his platforms state which manufacturer they rely on for their blanks. However, as I noted before, my two t-shirts from holidaybrand do in fact claim to be made in Los Angeles on the tag. So, that following day, I made a post on my instagram story:
Following that post, my good friend Ashley Girourard sent me pictures of the tags belonging to her three pieces from holiday, and they were all made in Los Angeles / U.S.
thank you ashley :) (@atayloe on instagram)
Now, if we were to assume that Nick is using Los Angeles Apparel to supply his blanks, then it would be a step in the right direction. Right off the bat, that eases some concerns of how the hands that are producing your holiday clothes are being treated. According to Los Angeles Apparel’s site, they pay their workers between $12-$18 an hour, which they claim to be a living wage. While this may seem low for a full time job, even having an hourly wage is an immense privilege for garment workers in Los Angeles. Oftentimes, garment workers are not paid an hourly wage, but instead are paid according to the number of pieces that they complete in a day, a payment method known as a piece rate. According to garmentworkerscenter.org, “62% of garment workers indicated working daily overtime hours, but because of the piece rate many are not paid proper overtime. 48% work 10 hours or more per day. Almost a third of garment workers reported not being allowed to take rest breaks when they needed them.” Not to mention, the piece rate can sometimes be as low as 4 cents. So while LA Apparel’s $12-$18 an hour may seem shabby, it’s sadly not the worst that a garment worker in LA could be doing.
As for sustainability, neither holiday, nor Nick present any information concerning efforts that they are making to strive towards sustainability within his production methods. If we’re going to continue to assume that Nick works with LA Apparel, then that would likely make holiday more sustainable than your average streetwear brand.
On their website, LA Apparel state,
“We use advanced manufacturing techniques to reduce waste byproducts during our production process, and plan to recycle almost 100% of our textile waste by 2018. California also has stringent environmental protection regulations, and by dyeing and finishing almost all textiles in California, it ensures that our fabric processing is as environmentally friendly as possible. Additionally, we are adding a significant portion of recycled and/or organic cotton into our supply chain.”
However, this statement is about all they have to present concerning their efforts for sustainability. They display no information concerning their dyeing methods, nor do they state whether they met their goal of recycling 100% of textile waste by 2018. Not to mention, organic cotton does not mean sustainable. Sure, it is better than standard cotton, but it’s not perfect.
So is it super duper ethical to shop from holiday?
It’s impossible to say. But, if their clothes are completely made in the U.S.A, then that means the hands producing holiday’s apparel are likely better protected by the worker’s laws here than they would be somewhere like Bangladesh. Not only that, but if production is limited to the US, then that also means there’s less air transport going on, so there’s less of a strain on the environment. However, since we really don’t know where the blanks for Nick’s clothing come from, it’s impossible to determine how confident you can be in buying his clothes. But, considering how sporadic his releases are, I think there are many companies causing much more harm than holiday.
Thank you for reading Part 1 of, How Ethical is the Fashion Industry? - According to the Fashion Industry.
note: This series is not intended to guilt you for giving anybody business, but rather to hopefully spark even more conversation and awareness surrounding the topics that I have discussed within this post.
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