Fashion

Shein Faces Scrutiny In Italy Over Possible Greenwashing

Published

1 week ago

2024-09-26

Italy’s antitrust police are looking into Shein, the online fast fashion behemoth, for potentially making false statements about its environmental efforts.

The country’s independent competition commission said in a statement that the greenwashing investigation would focus on Infinite Styles Serves Co. Limited, a Dublin-based company that manages Shein’s website and app.

Shein Faces Scrutiny In Italy Over Possible Greenwashing

Shein was started in China and is now headquartered in Singapore. It has risen to prominence in the retail industry, thanks to a business model that enables it to produce garments in real-time and deliver it straight to clients from factories mostly in China.

That has allowed the company to sell things at extremely low prices and attract customers who can go to its website and buy $11 sweaters, $2 cellphone cases, and other items from a constantly updated range of stuff.

However, Shein’s detractors have long contended that the company’s tactics foster overconsumption and environmental waste, both of which the retailer claims it is attempting to address.

However, Italian regulators accuse the corporation of misleading customers with statements about the environmental sustainability of the apparel it sells. Environmental organisations have claimed that similar deceptive methods, known as greenwashing, occur throughout the corporate sector.

Italy’s anti-trust office, known in Italian as AGCM, claims that some of the environmental references on Shein’s Italian website are misleading or omit information. Images advertising Shein’s garments as sustainable are also made “through generic, vague, confused, and/or misleading environmental assertions,” according to the authority.

The watchdog specifically mentioned information from Shien’s “evoluShein” line, claiming that it may have misled consumers into believing that the clothing they purchased could be recycled.

AGCM also claimed that Shein’s website’s declared commitment to decarbonisation was in “apparent contradiction” with the increases in greenhouse gas emissions listed in Shein’s sustainability reports for 2022 and 2023.

The online shop stated that it would assist with the Italian probe.

Shein Faces Scrutiny In Italy Over Possible Greenwashing

“We would also like to take this opportunity to reaffirm our commitment to complying with the laws and regulations in the markets where we operate and to maintaining transparency with our customers,” Shein said in a news release.

Shein has also faced issues in other parts of Europe. Critics and advocacy groups, including Amnesty International UK, have protested the company’s potential listing on the London Stock Exchange due to labour and environmental issues.

SOURCE | AP

Fashion

Exploring the Best Mechanical Watches in Today’s Market

Published

2 days ago

2024-10-02

Geoff Thomas

Curiously enough, despite the arrival of the smart watch with all its multitasking allure and its flashy functionality, mechanical watches have grown a lot in popularity over the past few years.

And though the Quartz revolution has made watches so much more affordable and accessible to everybody, the advance in manufacturing technology has brought to us in recent decades some outstanding mechanical timepieces that rival the affordability of higher-end Quartz ones.

If you’re looking for a mechanical watch that is worth it and is also affordable, you’ve come to the right place because today, we’re going to be listing the best mechanical watches in 2024.

Best Mechanical Watches

Seiko Recraft

The Seiko Recraft is a wacky collection, out of which we prefer the SMK P27 with its lovely green dial and the rectangular case shape with slightly curved edges. It’s a rarity in the watch world, a vintage-inspired timepiece, reminiscent of the 1970s. The watch comes with only 50 meters of water resistance, an automatic movement without hacking function and without hand winding, and just a mineral crystal hard lex protecting the dial, but it’s an impressive timepiece nonetheless, and it costs a humble $275.

Tissot Everytime Swissmatic

An elegant and affordable piece that costs around $400. It’s one of the best mechanical timepieces you can get for the money. The simplicity of its dial, the clean and minimalistic esthetic with that lovely contrast between the stark the dial and the silver hue of the case, hands and indices, really make for a stunning watch. And inside, there’s a reliable Swiss automatic movement with a hearty power reserve of 70 hours with an accuracy of plus or minus 10 seconds a day, proving to be quite a capable mechanical caliber, especially for that price.

Citizen NJ0100 Automatic

One of the big Japanese names in affordable watches is Citizen and their NJ0100 Automatic proves to be quite a sight, powered by a Myota 8210 automatic movement with a water resistance of 50 meters. The price doesn’t exceed $150, so it’s perfect, but the fact that it’s an older model and not in production anymore makes it a little harder to find. But if you look around the internet, you should find plenty.

Seiko Presage Cocktail Time Blue Moon

The Seiko Presage Cocktail Time Blue Moon is a real stunner. It may be a little more expensive at $440, but still on the affordable side, and it’s worth all those bucks. It comes in a 40.5 millimeter stainless steel case with an automatic four R-3-5 movement as it’s ticking hot, reliable, and with a 41-hour power reserve. But the most captivating part of this timepiece is that dark blue sunburst style, giving the watch an artistic and captivating look.

Tufina Sahara Mechanical

The Tufina Sahara is among the most popular mechanical watches out there, one with a dressy look and plenty of variants to choose from. Our favorite is the rose gold one, which boasts a remarkable silver dial with an intricate skeleton composition, playing with light in such a way that it creates a mesmerizing show. On the technical side, it comes powered by a mechanical movement with 17 rubies, a 3 ATM water resistance, rhodium plated case, Alpha photoluminescent hands and a superb sapphire coated lens protecting the dial. The thin bezel and classic guarded crown gives this watch a very elegant look, and the fact that you can find it for about $990 makes it that much more appealing.

Orient Kamaso

The Orient Kamaso is a worthy divers watch, bringing some impressive features for less than $300. The sapphire crystal glass, for example, is a rare feature on affordable watches. Then there’s the rugged stainless steel case that is depth rated for 200 meters, another feature that usually comes with higher price tags. When it comes to appearance, the Kamaso has a stunning black, blue, red, or green sunburst dial, complemented by the rotating vessel, finished in the same color. Under the dial, there’s an automatic Orient Calibur F692, a movement that’s said to be reliable and accurate.

Dan Henry 1970 Automatic Diver

Remaining in the diving watch world, the Dan Henry 1970 Automatic Diver, a tribute to the Compressor case dive watchers that were the thing back in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It comes with the Seco NH-3 five automatic movement, water resistance of 200 meters, and in two case sizes, 40 millimeters and 44 millimeters. What we’re most impressed with is the beautiful and refreshing dial. It’s a classic, but it’s also one that departs from the similar designs that most divers have.

Fashion

Milan Fashion Week Closes With A Gala Promoting Sustainability

Published

2 weeks ago

2024-09-23

Kiara Grace

Milan. | AP News image

MILAN — Milan designers concluded six days of runway womenswear previews with a lavish award event at Milan’s renowned Teatro Alla Scala to recognize sustainable ideas.

The first incarnation of the awards was introduced in 2017 to recognise green innovation in an industry traditionally associated with excess, as well as improve brand communication about efforts being taken to reduce their carbon footprint.

This week also celebrated the second annual Black Carpet Awards, which recognize excellence among people of color living and working in Italy as a method of fostering equity.

Black Carpet Awards Return
British fashion designer Ib Kamara and Angolan supermodel Maria Borges presented awards at the second edition of the Black Carpet Awards, which recognize the contributions of people of color working in Italy across a variety of sectors.

Honourees included shot-putter Danielle Madam, actor Alberto Malachino, educator Cinzia Adanna Ebonine, who founded a platform to promote inclusive education, Justin Randolph Thompson, the founder of Black History Month Florence, and Alice Edun, the founder of Italy’s first curly haircare brand.

Despite the multinational audience, many of the prize recipients delivered their speeches in Italian, seeing it as a political decision to highlight their full integration and self-identification as Italians.

milan

Milan Fashion Week Closes With A Gala Promoting Sustainability

“It remains correct to bet on the competencies of young Italians of foreign origin, in a context like Italy that too often marginalises or seeks to make us invisible,” Adanna Ebonine remarked. “This award makes me seen in my entirety, not just as a Black person who works in a prevalently white context, but as professional who tries to make a difference in her own way.”

Anna Wintour went by to meet the honourees before the evening ceremony.

Afro Fashion Week founder Michelle Francine Ngonmo, who launched the rewards, expressed her hope that additional sponsors will come forward so that future editions can include prize money.

Fashion-forward Ferrari
Ferrari’s fashion division uses automotive advancements to create luxury garment collections aimed at brand enthusiasts.

Rocco Iannone, Ferrari Style’s creative director, presents supple leather looks inspired by racing vehicle interiors. This season’s innovations include treated leather for a worn-in, grease-monkey look and denim with fibres pulled in lines to produce tactile pinstripes. The preferred attachment remains the hard-case clutch fashioned like a sports vehicle.

“Performance for us is craftsmanship, and it is conveyed through fabrics,” Iannone explained.

Tokyo James promotes imperfection.
Tokyo James, a British-Nigerian designer, mocked the fashion industry’s pursuit of perfection with a collection featuring minor misalignments, such as faulty seams.

“We have to stop pursuing perfection all the time,” he stated. “It’s a fight against the way the industry operates. “We need to be more fluid.”

Tokyo James made his Milan debut a few seasons ago, during what appeared to be a Renaissance of Black designers on the Italian fashion scene. He is one of the few that remain.

“I hope for better days,” James admitted backstage.

Milan Fashion Week Closes With A Gala Promoting Sustainability

Francesca Liberatore provides sculptured looks.
Francesca Liberatore pays tribute to her father, artist Bruno Liberatore, with a collection featuring his pyramidal forms as the leitmotif.

Models wore stylised bell skirts with jutting pyramids over knitwear for a lively, playful style that evolved into a more serious and wearable tiny version with pink cotton panels. Liberatore created flower motifs that were stitched white-on-white “to highlight the significance of roots.”

“It was a personal story, with my father,” Liberatore explained.

SOURCE | AP

Fashion

Madonna Makes Veiled Entrance To Dolce&Gabbana For Show Celebrating Her 1990s Heyday

Published

2 weeks ago

2024-09-22

Kiara Grace

MILAN — Celebrities flocked to Milan Fashion Week on Saturday, the final day of runway shows, sending masses of adoring fans from venue to venue.

Madonna sat in the front row at Dolce & Gabbana, alongside Naomi Campbell and Victoria De Angelis of Maneskin. Damiano David, the frontman of Maneskin, attended Diesel, one of the season’s most popular shows, across town. Jacob Elordi took a seat in a bunny-shaped bean bag chair to watch the Bottega Veneta show.

Highlights from Milan Fashion Week’s largely womenswear previews for next spring and summer, held on Saturday.

Dolce & Gabbana celebrates Madonna.
Madonna made a semi-stealth entry to the Dolce & Gabbana catwalk show covered in a black veil, echoing her 1990s glory and praising the cone bra.

Models paraded in Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana’s iconic corsets and fitting jackets, each incorporating the aggressively feminine cone bra, in a collection that notes stated: “pays homage to an ironic and powerful female figure.”

Madonna Makes Veiled Entrance To Dolce&Gabbana For Show Celebrating Her 1990s Heyday

Madonna was not particularly mentioned, but the Milan designers and pop singer have been working together since 1993 when they created costumes for her Girlie Show tour. The tour supported Madonna’s “Erotica” album, which was released alongside her taboo-breaking coffee table book “Sex.”

Madonna has always been our icon. Many aspects in our lives have changed because of her,” the designers stated in a message.

The collection, titled “Italian Beauty,” brilliantly depicted that point in time. Cone bras poked out of cropped jackets with pencil skirts, garters hung from corsets, and coats molded the figure. Floral designs reappeared to enhance a black, nude, red, and white color scheme. Oversized crucifix earrings completed the look. The heels were unashamedly high.

After taking their bows, the designers headed down the runway to meet their guest of honor. Madonna, still wearing the Chantilly long lace veil with a gold and crystal crown, stood to embrace them both.

Bottega Veneta taps Wonder.
Bottega Veneta’s sometimes misplaced, sometimes crinkled, always intriguing collection delves into the crossroads of reality and dream, adulthood and infancy. Matthieu Blazy, the creative director, has a simple meaning: to delight.

“We need beauty. “We need joy,” Blazy stated backstage. “We need the experimental act. It’s also an act of liberation.”

In this reality, a dental clinic receptionist wears a skirt with a pant on only one leg, which Blazy describes as a fun gesture. In a typical sight, a well-dressed father transports his daughter’s pink and purple schoolbag. Do we like the bag? I do not know. Does it tell a story? “Yes,” Blazy answered.

Each element is intentional, from a flat collar on a dress styled like rabbit ears to large colorful raffia wigs, even if their ultimate goal is simply for fun. Crinkled garments represent a child’s attempt to dress up, which is wrecked at the end of the day.

Blazy’s characters carried what appeared to be typical plastic shopping bags, but they were constructed of nylon and leather as part of the brand’s continual technological breakthroughs. The faux plastic bags represented everyday life and were joined by the brand’s signature woven bags, one for a violin and another for a wine bottle.

Ferragamo’s freedom of movement
Maximilian Davis, Ferragamo’s creative director, praised the freedom of movement inherent in ballet in his new collection, which was inspired by archive pictures of company founder Salvatore Ferragamo fitting African American ballet dancer Katherine Dunham with shoes.

Dunham frequently taught and worked in the Caribbean, allowing the British designer with Jamaican ancestry “to find a link between Ferragamo’s Italian-ness and my heritage.”

The design is inspired by 1980s fashion, with broad shoulders and exaggerated tailoring, and pays homage to Russian ballet great Rudolf Nureyev, another long-time Ferragamo customer.

To emphasize movement, Davis designed long parachute gowns in silk nylon, suede, and organza with a billowing bubble form. Ballet dancers are honored with color-blocked cashmere shawls and layered leotards. More subversively, torn denim shorts resembled a tutu.

Madonna Makes Veiled Entrance To Dolce&Gabbana For Show Celebrating Her 1990s Heyday

Diesel enhances denim.
Diesel models walked through 14,800 kilograms (almost 33,000 pounds) of denim shreds to showcase the beauty of waste and create a dystopian atmosphere for their current enhanced denim collection.

Under creative director Glenn Martens, the Veneto-based business has transformed into a textile experimental laboratory. Short shorts are embellished with a waterfall of extra-long fringe, creating a skirt-like look. Jeans are laser-cut to look ruined, and cotton sweatshirt necklines appear distressed, but the impression is actually a jacquard with the cotton burned away to the tulle.

Marten’s stated that the brand’s “disruption” extends beyond its design. “We are pushing for circularity in our production,” he explained. In similar vein, a coat was constructed from discarded spools of denim thread, and giant jeans were made from recycled cotton, some of which was produced by Diesel itself. The scraps on the floor were to be recycled after the show.

SOURCE | AP