Starting A Fashion Label?

It Couldn’t Be Easier Being Ethical…

OffsetWarehouse.com is an essential resource for start-up fashion designers and businesses, bringing together everything needed to both create fabulous, ethical clothing and buy them!

Offset Warehouse is the only business of its kind globally, where you can source ethical fabrics on both a retail and wholesale level in their Fabric & Haberdashery Shop, and find the ethical businesses and freelancers you need to complete your vision in their Ethical Directory.

Not only this, but Offset Warehouse presents a huge number of resources – whether you’re starting a business and don’t understand the implications of non-organic cotton, or you’re trying to become Fairtrade accredited, the Resources area will have something for you. Still can’t find the information you’re looking for? The Offset Warehouse team will find it for you! Amazing!

Research shows that companies can fail in the first few years because directors simply don’t delegate the jobs they are no good at. If you’re no good at design – get a designer! If you can’t use photoshop to create an eye-catching advert or logo – then get a graphic designer! Through their Consultancy, Offset Warehouse makes the process easy by understanding what you need, finding the most suitable professional for the job, often Masters and PhD holders, and completing your brief to the full, AND doing it to YOUR budget. Fantastic!

Starting out can be tough financially, so if you can’t afford a consultant, Offset Warehouse have started this amazing new “referrals” scheme, where they can refer you to the people you need – be it ethical manufacturers and producers or freelancers, at no cost to you – they simply ask for a small commission from the supplier for generating them business.

Start-ups and new businesses should definitely check it out. And who knows, once you’ve done all that hard work, they may even stock your line in their Boutique! Triple bonus!!

www.offsetwarehouse.com
info(@)offsetwarehouse.com

COMPETITION | WIN TICKETS TO LONDON FASHION WEEK

by Offset Warehouse

Want to go to London Fashion Week??  Start a hot discussion and win your ticket to Estethica at London Fashion Week 2011!!!

We're running a competition to see who can create the most stir!  Winners will receive a ticket to London Fashion Week's Estethica, to meet he hottest, innovative, ethical designers and preview their newest collections.

HOW : Start a fashion or textiles related "Discussion" on our discussions board (http://bit.ly/eQ4oU5) and the person who creates the most interesting debate will win a ticket.  Get your friends, peers and family to participate in the debate, and you could be in for a treat this February.  It couldn't be easier!

RULES : Only one entry per person allowed.  Comments on the discussion may be entered by friends and associates of the entrant, and further comments may be added by the entrant to continue the discussion.  Judging will be based on both the number of responses and content of the discussion.  Winners will be announced Feb 15th.  Winners will be asked to write 500 words on their experience at the event.

Good luck!

From The Offset Warehouse Team

"Why Green Is Not The New Black", by Eben Harrell

by Offset Warehouse on Friday, January 7, 2011 at 6:55pm

Fashion: Why Green Is Not The New Black

by Eben Harrell Monday, November 22, 2010

http://www.offsetwarehouse.com/boutique

Part of the challenge of the environmental movement in the developed world is to get people to look more deeply into their lifestyles and consumer choices: to see, for example, that cellophane-wrapped beef probably comes from a cow that fed on grain grown on land cleared of rain forest, which accelerates climate change.
But while ethical eating has gained traction in the mainstream, one aspect of our lifestyle lags well behind: style itself. In clothing, green, it seems, is not the new black—at least not yet.

At least that's according to a new, but small study, carried out by the International University of Monaco (IUM). In a survey of more than 100 Europeans and North Americans, researchers found that organic fashion did not have the same glamor as organic food.

“Although consumers are ready to pay a premium to purchase organic food, they do not yet see the interest in organic fashion,” Sandrine Ricard, Vice-President of IUM and part of the research team said in a statement released by the University. “There is a need to better inform consumers about the nature of organic fashion and to continue ‘glamorizing' both the communication and the products.”
Here is the pertinent parts of the press release provided by the university:

Researchers found that North Americans perceive green fashion more favorably, in part because eco-clothing brands have been launched by celebrities, such as the brand, Edun, run by Bono and his wife. North Americans associate green fashion with a woman in her 20's, simple but sexy, who wears organic shoes and clothing.

On the other hand, European respondents perceive organic fashion consumers as unglamorous. A typical consumer would be a simple woman in her 40's, wealthy, having a healthy lifestyle but unsophisticated. Because organic products are more expensive, Europeans associate organic with social status and showing-off.

The research team also concluded that the concept of green fashion is not clear to the majority of respondents. Consumers seem lost in the exact meaning of green fashion and lack information on norms and processes. In Europe, green fashion must become more attractive to the young generation to be a viable consumer option.

This last finding might be the most pertinent. What does green fashion actually mean? Non-toxic dyes? Organic wool? Ethical employment to offshore factory workers?

Without certification program or governing bodies to assure consumers they are purchasing ethical products, fashion is open to all sorts of green wash shenanigans—such as one brand that recently tagged a clothing line as green because it used recycled paper price tags, without offering any more information on the production of the actual clothing.

It is not impossible to shift public consciousness about fashion—think of how the mainstream turned on fur 30 years ago. But clearly the clothing industry needs to be more clear on what they mean by going green. 

 


Offset Warehouse presents everything you need to be ethical in fashion and interiors.