We spent a long time searching out and finally finding a Merino wool we were totally happy with. There are many organic Merino wool’s on the market, but none that could 100% guarantee us that the barbaric act of mulesing wasn’t being performed by any of the farmers who were ultimately supplying us with the wool that would end up in our Autumn Winter collections this season.

Mulesing, If we are honest wasn’t something we at Frank & Faith had heard of up until about a few years ago and we work in the fashion and manufacturing industry. So if like us you too have no idea what it’s all about then you are not on your own.

The bare facts are these and it does not make pleasant reading. We also strongly warn you, the images attached to this piece are extremely shocking and very upsetting.

 Mulesing is practiced primarily on merino lambs and involves the stripping away of large areas of skin and flesh from sheep’s hindquarters to prevent the growth of wool. It is performed as a so called ‘preventive measure’ against a condition called ‘flystrike’ which occurs when the eggs of blowflies laid in the over wrinkled woolly areas of the Merion sheep’s hindquarters hatch out and eat at the animal flesh.

 During mulesing, lambs are thrown onto their backs and have their legs restrained while the skin and wool around their backsides is carved away with metal shears to expose the flesh. At the same time, their tails are often cut off too. The procedure is tantamount to partially skinning the animals alive without anaesthetics and is done to cause smooth, scarred skin where hair will not grow and will not allow ‘flystrike’ to happen around the back end of the sheep.

Just another quick fix we adopted to exploit animals for our own greed and one we at Frank & Faith do not and will not condone.

The good news is that 50 years ago a farsighted farmer in South Africa brought the Merion over to his farm and began a breeding program that has virtually bred out the over wrinkling problem and hence bred out the need to worry about ‘flystrike’ in the South African Merion’s.

We work closely with a German mill that buys up all this wool and the finished yarn holds the prestigious Bluesign certification. So you can be safe assured that all the Merion used at Frank & Faith has come from lambs that have not had this painful and cruel procedure done to them.

 And remember wool is a natural fibre, unlike synthetics that are made from oil and never rots away. It does not need to be washed as often as synthetics because of its natural ability to resist odour and repel liquids. Luxuriously comfortable and friendly to the environment our new Organic Merion wool is nature’s wonder fibre.

Horrific injuries caused by museling

After the mutilation

All work and no play makes the boys and girls at Frank & Faith extremely dull indeed, so off we went on a works jolly last Saturday to cheer on the reigning  ‘World Stinging Nettle Eating Champion’ Mike Hobbs who was crowned ‘King Of The Stingers’ last year.

Mike is our local landscape gardener and lives in the next village along from Frank & Faith’s head quarters, so we went down en mass to the sleepy village of Marshwood in deepest Dorset to cheer him on. It’s probably one of Dorset’s most unusual events, but competitors come from all over the world and this year there were over 65 people entered into the event. All geared up to munch their way through as many stinging nettles as they can in an hour. Faces rigid with pain and disgust as they hunkered down to consume yards of nettles in an attempt to break Mike’s winning score of 48 yards.

There is no easy way to winning the World Stinging Nettle Eating Championship but Mike reckons knocking back 3 pints of cider before hand helps a great deal. Another top tip from Mike is to squash the leaves into tight little balls which he then tries to throw straight to the back molars.

Then you try to munch them up and swallow with as little contact as possible. The problems begin when the nettles start to back up in the mouth and throat. I’ll let you imagine the rest but just remember there are only 2 rules, you swallow back what you bring up (hopefully caught in a pint pot and not all over the table) and if you leave the table to ‘powder you nose’ you are out… arrrrrgh!

Competitors are served two-foot-long stalks of nettles from which they must pluck and devour the leaves. The bare stalks are then measured and the winner, after an hour of combat, is the one with the greatest accumulated length!

Unfortunaly this year Mike was toppled from his throne by a 19 year whipper snapper who consumed an amazing 74 yards which was only 2 yards short of the all time world record! Never mind better luck next year Mike and let us all know when everything stops coming out bright green at the other end, another charming side effect, hilarious!!!

By Anya Pearson

For more info go to The Bottle Inns website

 

Welcome to  ETHICAL JUST GOT FABULOUS, a new concept in ethical fashion fairs.

ETHICAL JUST GOT FABULOUS is all about raising the profile of the multitude of high quality, beautifully designed, fashion focussed, boutique ethical brands out there. Proving that ethical can indeed be fabulous.

bringing together a carefully selected, eclectic mix of the most up and coming ethical fashion & lifestyle brands in one exciting, forward thinking fashion event.

And we are sure we will provide a little something for everyone; from chic and luxurious to urban street fashions, from handbags and accessories to children’s clothes, organic toiletries and hand crafted home accessories, all at discounted prices.

ETHICAL JUST GOT FABULOUS is THE place to visit if you really want to learn more about the future of fashion, put your money where your ethics are and find a gorgeous little addition to your life at much reduced rates for 2 days only.

We will be launching this fabulous event on the 26th & 27th of June, at East London’s Rag Factory.

So come along and say hello and be a part of this exciting new fashion movement…

For more information please go to our web www.ethicaljustgotfabulous.com

With ethical fashion now becoming more established and recognised in the fashion industry and by the general public at large (fairtrade, sustainable and organic companies have now been trading for a number of years, their products are more accessible than ever and many trade shows have specific ethical sections) we thought we would give a brief critique on this market to try and illicit views from yourselves on the current state of the market and its future direction.

One thing that continues to strike us is the sheer volume of activity in the ethical fashion market, we are never amazed at the number of brands that there are, the number of new brands that start up and the column inches that ethical fashion commands in the press. This at face value would indicate a very healthy and growing market. There is no doubt that the ethical fashion market is growing rapidly. The Co-Op’s ethical consumerism report 2009 notes that ethical expenditure has grown almost threefold in the last 10 years. In fact ethical clothing has grown from £4m to £172m between 1999 and 2008 representing a whopping 4,300% increase.

However if you dig a little deeper and look behind the column inches there is certainly another story of struggle and hardship of a sector struggling to gain size and economies of scale to break into the mainstream. Despite the growth story, the sector remains tiny in comparison to both total ethical expenditure and the clothing market as a whole. For example the £172m spent on ethical clothing in 2008 represents only 0.48% of the total spend on ethical products in that year (ethical banking and finance lead the way at £6,976m and £6,825m respectively) and represents only 0.55% of the UK clothing spend in total that year (per ONS statistical data Annual Business Inquiry Report).

As in most industries these days, to be successful in the clothing industry requires scale. This gives a large number of benefits including being able to meet factory minimums on the purchase of material and in the make up of garments as well reducing input prices to provide profit. In addition scale provides an outlet that is readily found and easily shopped by the public. New ethical brands for example rarely have the budgets to open a store on the high street  (if they did they would be unlikely to be able to afford to produce a wide enough range to fill a shop) and it is becoming increasingly expensive and difficult to be seen on the internet above established stores with large marketing budgets.

The difficulty of achieving this scale has been demonstrated across the industry. Peopletree, perhaps one of the best known and established ethical clothing  brand set up in the UK in 2001 but 6 years later at the end of 2007 only reported £1.4m in sales and was still making a loss of £366,000, in fact accumulated losses to that date were then in excess of £2m. Ascension (formerly Adili) launched in 2006 to great fan fare and received substantial funding (close to £5m) was sold in March 2010 for £1 having never achieved the scale or profits it craved. Devidoll a site selling high end ethical items is currently on sabbatical. One ethical brand that has managed to break out of this was howie’s now having stores in Bristol and London’s Carnaby Street. Could they have achieved this without selling out to Timberland?

So what do we think about the ethical clothing market going forward. Challenges of scale and breaking into the mainstream against high street multiples and supermarkets will continue to be the major challenge. The industry’s growth rate will continue to remain very fast (albeit from a small base) from both existing brands, new brands and through ethical initiatives in the larger mainstream players such as organic ranges at Marks & Spencer, Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s. The increased emergence of celebrity endorsement in the ethical arena will further help. However unfortunately demonstrated by the success of brands like New Look, George at Asda and Primark, a large majority of the UK population for a long time yet will continue to shop on a value based proposition, particularly in the current economic climate with little regard to the impact on the environment and the workers who make the clothes.

It is all our responsibility to continue to push the ethical agenda in the clothing industry to raise awareness and to try and continue this slow change in this vast market. It will be very hard work overcoming the disadvantages (economically) of producing ethically but as with most things you get out what you put in and if successful the hard work will be evident in improved working conditions and an improved environment for everyone.  We implore all customers, suppliers and brands to continue to support ethical clothing, raise awareness of the issues and hope as a powerful group in this sub sector become a truly viable alternative to the current high street offering.

Co-Founder

Mark Swire

It’s that time of year again when fashion and textile students across the four corners of the globe suddenly realise that their dissertation isn’t going to write itself. We can almost set our clocks by the onslaught of questionnaires and none stop e-mails asking our advice and opinions on this and that.

Whilst at the time it can be quite full on, time consuming and to be honest ‘a right pain in the backside’ we do answer all requests and hopefully furnish them with something useful and interesting they can use.

However it’s not all one-way traffic. Over the years we have noticed one big thing about the types of questions and topics the next generation of fashion professionals asks us and that is they always seem to follow patterns.

For example a few years ago it was all about organic cotton, how it was made, where it is produced, toxic pesticides, excessive water consumption etc and within months the press picked up on it as a worthy topic and ran with a million and one articles about it. It took organic cotton into the main stream, we all now know the benefits both to the planet and ourselves that organic cotton gives us.

Last year most of the questions were associated with the production of bamboo and whether it warranted it’s eco alternative credentials (a topic we have discussed previously) 

This year (and I think the most exciting for us) the most popular course of questioning has been down the ‘Made In Britain’ route. Many of you want to know more about this than any other subject.

And as if by magic, YOU magazine interview us on that very theme! Look out in one of Mays issues for a fashion piece on Made In Great Britain. Hopefully we should feature.

Students are the barometers of change and ultimately what drives and interests them will eventually be what the movers and the shakers of the world will be looking at as ‘The Next Big Thing’. It is therefore paramount that we support and nurture them in anyway we can as they are one of the main creative sources of all things new.

Answer their question openly and honestly, where possible give them placements, take them on as apprentices, without bursting into song, they are the future, they are our untapped creative powerhouses.

I always wonder if I hadn’t been as lucky as I was and not been offered the two fantastic placements when I was a student from Northumbria University, how differently my career would have panned out. Both my placements led to fantastic jobs and opportunities. My first job on graduation with Jane and Patrick Gottelier at Artwork and later on in my career working as a designer with the wonderful Karen Latuske at M&Co.

Look out next month when I will be show casing one of our brilliant knitwear factories in Hinkley, Leicester.

By far the most important person behind the brand is Anya Pearson aka “Faith”. With over 20 years in the fashion industry Anya has worked for large high street names including New Look, Warehouse and M & Co in both design and buying. Throughout this time she has seen UK manufacturing decline sharply as large chains chase the lowest price around the world at great cost to UK manufacturing (and the exploitation of overseas workers) with the related student courses being closed down leading to a large loss in skills and capability in the UK. Her experience in the fashion industry allows Frank & Faith access to highly skilled UK manufacturers including our Organic Cotton knitwear factory which uses cutting edge seam free technology in its production. Anya designs our collection with a nod to the latest trends and colours to keep our ranges “on trend” but wearable and accessible to everyone.

Our passion for UK manufacturing is linked to Anya’s close connection to this industry, the minimisation of “clothes miles” and our ability to monitor the working conditions of these factories which would not be achievable if we manufactured overseas.

Working in the background is “Frank” her chartered accountant husband who takes the burden of the all the unsexy areas of accounting, legal, systems and IT to keep the show on the role.

If you want to know any more about us why not drop us a comment?

There has been a lot of debate recently as to whether bamboo should be classed as an alternative Eco fibre or not. None supporters of bamboo say it shouldn’t be classed as Eco friendly because of the chemical process needed to convert the raw bamboo into a fibre.

Chemically manufactured bamboo fibre is a regenerated cellulose fibre similar to viscose or modal. Chemically manufactured bamboo is sometimes called bamboo viscose because of the many similarities in the way it is chemically manufactured and similarities in its feel and handle.

For us Bamboo has it’s GOOD and BAD sides: 

GOOD BAMBOO:

Botanically categorized as a grass and not a tree, bamboo just might be the world’s most sustainable resource. It is the fastest growing grass and can shoot up a yard or more a day. Bamboo reaches maturity quickly and is ready for harvesting in about 3 years. Bamboo does not require replanting after harvesting because its vast root network continually sprouts new shoots, pulling in sunlight and greenhouse gases and converting them to new green growth. And bamboo does this the natural way without the need for petroleum-guzzling tractors and poisonous pesticides and fertilizers and gallons of precious water. Bamboo also grows on degraded lands and helps stop soil erosion and cleanses polluted and discarded land designated as unfit. 

BAD Bamboo:

Bamboo the plant is wonderfully sustainable; bamboo the fabric isn’t so easy to categorise. There are two ways to process bamboo to make the plant into a fabric: mechanically or chemically. The mechanical way is by crushing the woody parts of the bamboo plant and then use natural enzymes. This is essentially the same eco-friendly manufacturing process used to produce linen fabric from flax or hemp. Bamboo fabric made from this process is sometimes called bamboo linen. Very little bamboo linen is manufactured for clothing because it is more labour intensive and costly and is quite harsh fabric when finished.

While specifics can vary, the general process for chemically manufacturing bamboo fibre is by using hydrolysis alkalisation with multi-phase bleaching technology – which is the dominate technology for producing regenerated bamboo fibre.

 SO:

We at Frank & Faith agree, not ideal but we are working on it and hope to have a more sympathetic and less chemical based process soon. We are looking at the newer manufacturing techniques using other technologies to chemically manufacture bamboo fibre that are more benign and eco-friendly. The chemical manufacturing process used to produce lyocell from wood cellulose can be modified to use bamboo cellulose. The lyocell process, also used to manufacture TENCEL®, uses N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide to dissolve the bamboo cellulose into a viscose solution.  N-methylmorpholine-N-oxide is a member of the amine oxide family and is considered a less harmful chemical.

THE GOOD NEWS:

Is that our bamboo is processed in Italy and not in China, so our mill has to follow strict procedures regarding protecting the workforce and the use and disposal of harmful chemicals and not dumping waste water into the water supply and damaging the environment. We made the decision to pay double for our bamboo fabric because we did not believe bamboo processed in China would follow the same strict EU regulatory laws as we know our factory in Italy does.

We allow our customers (both wholesale and retail) to view all side ‘of the fence’ and make their own educated decisions on what they feel is more beneficial to the environment, a wonderful crop alternative to cotton with all it’s benefits listed above or dismiss it because the majority of bamboo viscose is produced with chemical processes in China with no controls or protection for the workers or the environment?

 It is a tough one to call I agree but by being transparent and honest and changing things one small step at a time we allow everyone to make their own minds up.

Our technical guys have been working hard and we can now welcome you to our blog page!

We shall be blogging about issues in ethical fashion, and the world in general. Answering questions, debating issues and having a bit of fun. We hope you like it and feel inspired to give us your ideas and comments as well.