Start of my internship and first event - Shaping Fashion Night

My internship at the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC) took place in Amsterdam where the European office is located. The SAC is the apparel, footwear and home textile industry’s foremost alliance for sustainable production and has the vision of an industry that produces no unnecessary environmental harm and has a positive impact on the people and communities associated with its activities. With the goal to create one common standard to measure sustainability within the apparel industry, the coalition developed the Higg Index. It is a set of self-assessment tools to measure the environmental and social impacts of a product or company and to identify areas for improvement. 

My work was mainly the assistance of the Project Manager for Higg Transparency. The focus of Higg Transparency is working towards achieving transparency and accountability throughout the value chain, to enabling consumers to choose products based on trusted sustainability information and to supporting members of the coalition to become transparent about their sustainability performance.

In the first weeks, I was introduced to the different projects and got to know how the coalition is build up and is working with all its different members reaching from brands and manufacturers over to NGOs, service providers and civil society. I also learned about each Higg tool and especially about the communication around them. 

As part of Fashion Revolution Week, the SAC organized the Shaping Fashion Night, a consumer workshop with a deep-dive on transparency. Within the workshop, the SAC presented the prototypes of their soon to be launched Transparency website and of the Product Impact Calculator. The latter is a consumer facing tool to measure the personal impact during the use and end-phase of a piece of clothing. The audience provided a lot of input and critical feedback on the information that they want from brands and their suppliers, how they want to receive that information and how better to achieve meaningful transparency overall. It was interesting to hear all the different perspectives on this topic. I helped during the organization process as well as the evening itself to make sure the workshop would run smoothly. The event took place soon after I started the internship therefore I had a lot to do right from the start and became acquainted with all the work pretty fast which was good! 

Internship blogpost 3/3

Hi!

It has been a great learning experience doing a research based internship at Helsinki Fashion Week (HFW) this summer in Finland. Now it is time to move back to Sweden and this will be my last blogpost about the subject. Our research topic was about "Transparency and Traceability in the Supply Chain and Production of Leather".  It was interesting to work on this research paper together with another student who has a law-degree and thus was able to add legal perspective to our research. In addition, we had a team-leader from HFW and he was very supportive with our research, always giving feedback and encouraging to improve our work. I have learned that effective communication is an important key element in achieving goals. Even though we all in our research-team lived in different cities during this research period, we were able to communicate effectively via video calls and have weekly meetings to discuss about our progress with the research. Our research paper will be published later on HFW website together with Transparency Questionnaire that we created based on the research. In case anyone is interested in reading through our research paper, I can gladly add a link to the website when HFW publishes the research.

I wish everyone a lovely autumn and good luck with your studies!

Pic: My little helper throughout this project..

 

- Marita

Goodbye Asket - Pt. 3

I have now come to the end of my internship and I must say it was a journey with lot of learnings and fun tasks.

During the last phase I had to conduct a set of in-depth interviews for my research and it was so much fun to be able to contact people from different department and work with them to collect data. It was my first time for conducting interviews and hence it was a learning experience in itself. I was a little skeptical about doing it however the team here was very supportive in sharing their data and perspectives which has hugely contributed to my field study.

In the last phase I was also able to have a closer look on their marketing strategies for brand development. Asket is currently working on what is called a 360 degree marketing plan in order to reach a larger segment of consumer and spread their message. It was amazing for me as an intern to see how a brand does that. I would definitely say that working with a startup gives you such a wide lens and exposure to work with and learn from different departments and areas.

All in all , I loved my time here and cheers for the wonderful Asket team J 

Noopur

Post 3/3

Hello!

The report for my research assistant internship about consumer perspective of sustainability is almost finished. The two biggest parts have been the literature review and the analysis of the data from the survey I conducted. The hardest parts of the report has been programing how the data will be shown and analysing all the results together with the results from the literature review. The next focus will be the finishing touches of the report and preparing for the upcoming presentation!

Emma

Post 2/3

Hello!

For my research assistant internship I am now analysing all the data for the survey I conducted about the consumer perspective on sustainability. It has been fun but a little bit more difficult than I expected! For the survey I used the service Sunet, through Sunet you can choose how you want the data, which has been really helpful. However, it has not been the easiest program to use... But I’m getting some good results from the survey and will hopefully be able to present the report soon!

Emma

The Current State in Hong Kong and the end of my internship

Hello again,

like i said in the blog before, Hong Kong is in a hassle. Since the Hong Kong government tried pushing though an extradition law (making it possible to trial Hong Kong citizens in Mainland China) a big portion of the city has turned to the streets to call for more political freedom from the Beijing government.
The extradition law has been announced 'dead' but not withdrawn completely, now these protests have turned into a pro-democracy movement (descending from the umbrella movement in 2014).

Most of these so-called "rioters" are young activists and students who fight for a future with perspectives of democracy. (Since Britain has given back Hong Kong to China, they signed an agreement which states that Hong Kong should keep its legal system and democratic rights for its citizens until 2047) According to activists China has already broken its promise, for example pro democracy politicians have been forbidden to run for election) I had the possibility to talk to some young men who seem extremely stressed and frightened for the future of their country, facing terrible violence of the police (called corrupt) and triads (allegedly paid by the Chinese government).
Every Sunday the city seems to be in an exceptional state where streets are turning into war zones between protesters and the riot police. It seems that the police is getting more and more aggressive as the weeks pass. I personally have only witnessed two protests - one of which I took part in (seemingly as the only foreigner but treated kindly by the people around me). Seeing these young people being beaten bloody, shoved to the ground and shot with rubber bullets and tear gas makes me feel unwell and saddens me deeply. This fight seems so hopeless to me, since China taking back Hong Kong seems inevitable. I tried to share as much material of the protests on social media to let my friends know of what is going on here, because right now the only hope these demonstrators have is the public eye of the western countries.

I wouldn't have thought it, but slowly I also don't dare to get near the protest since also expats have been arrested and I can't even protect myself without a helmet or a mask. I asked a friend and fellow demonstrator if I should worry. "Don't worry my friend, just be water. They can't get you" he said.
"Being water" is a saying coming from Bruce Lee and means to not be really here nor there and so impossible to be captured.

I have met a young woman while being out on a Friday night in Tsim Sha Tsui. "Hong Kong is sick, Hong Kong is sick. Hong Kong is not safe anymore." she almost chanted over and over again. She obviously was drunk. Her boyfriend told us that they go out drinking after every protest. She was deeply hurt and obviously desperate, being trapped in a once intact democracy and being disappointed by the violence of the police. I told her I thought I could feel how she felt and that I saw how bad it was. I promised her to do as best I could to spread the word in my home countries. She fell into my arms and started crying.

All pictures are taken from Joshua Wongs Twitter profile (https://twitter.com/joshuawongcf)

Apart from that my internship has taken a turn since Peak Performance moved offices and into a new office space together with Amer Sports (the mother company who bought PP).

The team seemed a little more tense and the tasks I'm doing seemed to be less exciting than before.
The internship obviously hasn't been what I hoped it would be. I couldn't gather enough data to create a good field study and towards the end of my internship I got sick very often, my work as been very repetitive as well. I wasn't happy always. This demotivation I'm feeling has only really been revised because of the fact I lived in this beautiful city and met the people I met. Hong Kong's buzz kept me alive, but Hong Kong is sick now...

Visiting garment factories in Vietnam and China

Hello everyone,

the situation in Hong Kong is a little crazy so forgive me for my long overdue second and third post. In my following third post I will tell you guys a little bit about the protests in Hong Kong.

But first; As part of my internship I had the awesome opportunity to visit garment factories (some already partners of Peak Performance/ some potential partners) in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang, Hanoi and near Shenzhen.

My impression of the facilities was good, let's say the negative expectations that the word 'sweat shop' draws in my head were not met. Still I couldn't keep myself from feeling privileged when walking past the lines of the sewing workers. Some were smiling or even waving, many looked at me with a rather puzzled or curious look. It was loud, hot and humid  (Im still in a south east asian country of course) but the workers still wore long sleeves, so I guess it couldn't have been that bad?

I had the possibility to see how sustainable downs (Peak Performance works with the Sustainable Down Standard, which only allows downs as a byproduct of the food and meat industry to be used) are being processed into down jackets and saw how much effort is being put into drying clothes after finishing them (because of the humidity in these countries, clothes often mold in transit).
What I found interesting was the difference in standards depending on who owns the production.
I saw Korean, Chinese and Danish owned companies. There was a danish factory which provided Air Conditioned facilities for their workers. A facility in China had a dormitory, library and a Mensa for their workers.

After talking to the owners it seemed like the factories have to move more and more outside into the country in order to still be lucrative as a work place, because big cities offer a lot of alternatives to working as a seamstress. Finding workforce in the textile industry gets harder and harder. Generally my impression was, that operating garment productions was a un-lucrative business, where the production is still mostly dealt with by hand which hinges the industry on finding cheap skilled workforce, at the same time there are different precautions to be taken into account (certifications and safety/comfort of the workers). There were some production areas in which I could see the first steps in automation, but generally it takes investment into garment technicians to develop new machines which make sewing easier and less dependent on skilled workforce. One danish factory has showed us some newly developed machines, but the industry still seems far from being automated.

My questions about working hours and breaks for the workers were answered satisfactory. Over-time work only seems to be a problem in China, where the workers - often migratory workers - want to work overtime in order to be able to return to their homes with as much money as possible earned. Social Compliance Certifications like BSCI thus often don't grade Chinese factories very well. But the Vietnamese factories did not seek to have problems with social compliance.

My bottom line is actually rather positive. Textile workforce does simple work in a simple environment but what I saw was no exploitation. Of course I can only speak for south-east asian countries in the middle to premium priced sector, I don't know what it looks like in, for instance, Bangladesh.

I can not show you too explicit pictures (because there were products of other clients being sewn) but here are some examples:

workers walking to the cafeteria to have lunch in a manufacturing site in South China

Cutting tables in a manufacturing site in South China

Storage room in manufacturing site in HCMC, Vietnam

'Down Machine' in Da Nang Factory, Vietnam

Drying room and my boss taking pictures of it

#OneVoiceforCraft - Chapter 1: India - 12 days of interview transcriptions (ethnographic research)

I decided to leave the third field study post for after my return from India.

I couldn't have predicted that the analysis of the data gathered would prove so challenging. 

Being the first ethnographic study I ever conducted, I went equipped with a folder full of questions not realizing that many of the answers I would get would only generate more questions.

It took me more than a month to process all the information I collected, categorize the responses and map the relationships between the interviewees and the Initial Connectors (see #OneVoiceforCraft - Chapter 1: India - day 48 in India - http://textilemanagement.blogspot.com/2019/05/onevoiceforcraft-chapter-1-india-day-48.html). There was little surprise to find out that after doing so it became clear from the data that the subject of the Field Study needed to be reformulated. "Designing & Conducting Ethnographic Research" by LeCompte, M.D, & Schensul, J.J (1999) has been a fundamental tool.

It became clear that during the 60 days in India the most relevant result of this study was the actual profiling of the artisans - artisans with different personal stories, different degrees of access to opportunities, different levels of income, different dreams - all part of the same culture and with access to the same heritage in textile knowledge. 

As such I decided to restrict the focus of the Field Study Report to concentrate on artisan profiling. Out of the 30 interview questions I selected the 11 most relevant to profiling and grouped them in 3 categories - questions relative to competences & relationship with the craft (role determinants) - skill level and design autonomy determine the artisans' professional role in the craft community; questions related to income and reputation  (status determinants) and personal, intimate questions. 

I. ROLE DETERMINANTS (COMPETENCES & RELATIONSHIP w.CRAFT)

COMPETENCES: 

1. How did you learn to do this specific activity/craft? 

2. Do you conceive/come up with the design yourself?

RELATIONSHIP WITH CRAFT:

3. What are you thinking about when you exercise your craft?

4. What does your craft mean to you? To your family? 

5.     Do you enjoy what you do?

II. STATUS DETERMINANTS (INCOME & REPUTATION) 

6. What distribution channels are available to you (how do you sell?)

7. What nationalities do your customers have?

8. What do you consider to be a fair payment for your contribution?

III. PERSONAL:

9. What is your biggest dream?

10. If you could choose anything else in the world to do, what would it be?

11. What is your life advice for me?

The actual transcription of the interviews (short form as per the 11 questions selected) took 12 days. Inevitably listening to a recording implies re-living the actual interview, it takes the ethnographic researcher back in time and often reveals new meanings of the information. It also gives you the opportunity to analyse yourself as an interviewer, potential biases, mistakes or limitations. 

I never transcribed more than one interview a day in an attempt to mirror the initial interviewing process. I also kept the initial interview sequence for the transcriptions, in accordance to the #onevoiceforcraft interview timeline - https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/d5b008_e4583b861e52455487873d0524f81db8.pdf.

After completing the stages presented about and once I applied the Pentagon of Research test (Rieneker and Jörgensen, 2006), I am now elaborating the content of the Report.

I hope this information proves useful to anyone conducting ethnographic research as part of their Individual Field Study project.

Internship blogpost 2/3

Hello again!

In my previous post I told you about my internship at Helsinki Fashion Week where I and another intern are conducting a research on animal leather transparency. This time I will update you a little bit about our progress with this project. One of the biggest issues that we discuss in our report is the lack of efficient traceability for leather raw material, which consequently affects negatively to the overall transparency of the entire leather supply chain.. The report is nearly finished but now we are also developing a transparency questionnaire for brands that sell animal leather products. We hope to publish them both simultaneously since they are closely connected to each other and together they will create even bigger statement for the transparency requirements within the leather industry.

-Marita

Blog 2/3

I have been a bit behind on my postings, so I will have my next 2 posts quite close in time. Since my last post not much has changed. I am still doing influencer marketing and it is quite difficult since the owner gives herself many parameters. We can basically only contact Swedish influencers and since we are in a certain age group there are only so many influencers with our parameters in Sweden. Also the age group is older women and they ask for a lot of money. I have discovered there is a whole sector of older women influencers, it's crazy! Unfortunately they are quite hard to reach and in my experience can be very rude. I honesty think we have only had a sale form an influencer but we continue doing the same anyways. Before starting this internship I was very interested in influencer marketing and I truly believed this was something I strongly wanted to work with in my carrier. I have written one of my past thesis in this topic and it always fascinated me as a marketer. This internship has allowed me to put that into practice and explore other areas and I have come to terms with myself that I do not like the practice of influencer marketing but more the science behind it.  I have also been able to talk to others whom have done influencer marketing before, for other companies, and get tricks and tips as to how to find them. It is very interesting, but I find it all very false and you have to basically be "extra nice" and fake to them offering them free things and money in the hopes they are interested in your brand. I tried different tactics because I feel our brand is very unique and not a basic ff brand.  For example I invited them to our shop and have them get free measurements and customize their own garment, but unfortunately it is very hard to get a reply. Due to this we only concentrate on the micro influencers, which honestly do not give us sales. I did though get one with many followers to be interested, around 14k followers but unfortunately my boss did not find her as interesting and we lost the contact. It is quite difficult to have a lot of freedom on a task or project, but then receive the restrictions after you do something.  Aside of this I am on my own a lot of the time, my boss went on a family trip for a week, so I was basically in charge of the whole store that week, also on weekends when I have to go in, I open and close the shop myself. It is quite a big responsibility as I am the only one there. I did sell a scarf the other day from a mother's day campaign I made, so I was happy from that. 

There is a man who comes in the shop and has meetings with us. He is a consultant and runs the web page and campaigns. His name is Zlatan and he comes in every 2 weeks or so for 2 hours and basically shows us analytics. We discuss the web page with him and any bugs or technical issues we might find within.  That is all from now, happy summer to all! 

TIMEOUT Jeans Chapter 3: end of a great experience

Hello everyone,

My last weeks at Timeout have been great, I had a lot of work to do, but everything has been super interesting and involving.

It was time for our suppliers to start sending some new ideas for the SS2020 collection. We have been buried in garments, literally! We have been receiving new deliveries everyday, which implied a lot of cataloguing work, but also a lot of fun: new colours, new designs and patterns and the best part of it was choosing what to keep and what to leave, of course. Most of our clients go for a very simple and formal style, which makes it sometimes difficult for suppliers to reinvent their propositions for the upcoming collections, particularly when it comes to spring-summer, a season that naturally brings bright colours and loose garments. Anyway, a lot of pieces means a lot of choice that enabled us to pick the right garments and put the final collection together.

The next step was organising quantities and deliveries, hoping that suppliers will keep up with the schedule. Some of the pieces we decided to introduce in the upcoming season have been ordered in lower quantities, since they represent a little test we wanted to do with our customers, and lower quantities mean less risk.

Overall, at the end of this journey, my experience has been wonderful. I have been able to deal with the reality of a buying office and managed to understand a lot of complex inner workings. Now that it is over, I am sure I will miss it! I had a great mentor that guided me with a lot of patience and gave me great knowledge throughout these months. I hope to be back very soon.

Have a nice summertime!

Cecilia

Travel @ Asket - Pt. 2

In this blog I want to talk about my experiences outside of ASKET office. I was fortunate enough to visit the Asket’s warehouse in Estonia and also one of their probable innovation partners in Gothenburg.

I went to the warehouse for a 3 day visit which mainly dealt with audits and inspection of a new product Pique polo that were to launch soon. We had seen some issues on the samples that arrived in our Stockholm office for approval and hence the product team decided to go all the way to Estonia to check the production sample.  We did a  100% quality inspection to make sure no faulty products reach to the customers and that Asket stands by its promise to provide quality clothing. It was amazing to see such decisions made by the founders and learn how important it is to defend your core values. I also got to learn a lot about warehouse operations as I had never visited one before.

The second exposure that I got was with a Gothenburg based company that helps fashion companies to transform their physical products into 3D virtual garments. The scope of 3D product development and retail experience is limitless in the future. It was great to see how Asket is investing to be a part of this transformation and how important it is to continuously include innovations in the business to keep thriving in the competition.

Both these visits were quite a learning for me and of course I also got to spend some time with my colleagues outside of work which was quite fun to understand them a little better.

Until next time,

Noopur J