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WORLD founder Denise L’Estrange-Corbet. Photo: Garth Badger
WORLD founder Denise L’Estrange-Corbet. Photo: Garth Badger

BusinessMay 7, 2018

Those WORLD T-shirts: Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet responds

WORLD founder Denise L’Estrange-Corbet. Photo: Garth Badger
WORLD founder Denise L’Estrange-Corbet. Photo: Garth Badger

The outspoken ethical fashion champion has contacted The Spinoff with further comments about the garments that were manufactured offshore but boast ‘Made in NZ’ tags.

Following the publication this morning of a story revealing the provenance of garments being sold at WORLD with a “Fabriqué en Nouvelle Zélande” label attached, the fashion house’s founder Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet has contacted The Spinoff with a further response.

L’Estrange-Corbet complained that the headline – “T-Shirts from Bangladesh. Sequin patches from China. Sold by WORLD as ‘Made in New Zealand’” – was misleading, because, she said, the sequin patches on the T-shirts are manufactured in Hong Kong, not in China. (In 1997 the British transferred Sovereignty of Hong Kong to China, though Hong Kong maintains a Special Administrative Region status.)

L’Estrange-Corbet also disputed any suggestion their clothing isn’t clearly labelled. “The tag with where it’s made is right in the neck. It’s not misleading at all. It’s in the neck,” she said.

The Spinoff visited a WORLD store shortly after this phone call at 10am this morning and took the below photos of the labelling on the neck of their t-shirts. The string leads to the cardboard tag proclaiming “Fabriqué en Nouvelle Zélande” – Made in New Zealand. The country of manufacture, Bangladesh, is only to be found in a label low in the inside hem.

Images: Alice Webb-Liddall

L’Estrange-Corbet also emailed to clarify a point made in her earlier response regarding the cardboard tags and whether or not they could mislead customers. “The SWING TAG is made in New Zealand, the garments clearly state the country of origin in all our garments,” she said.

“The swing tag is not misleading, it is a tag that the prices are put onto, and yes, the tag is made in NZ!”

She also upbraided The Spinoff, saying, “Your support of a 99% New Zealand brand is remarkable.” She added: “The Tall Poppy syndrome I see is alive and well and still raging in NZ. Please remind me again why I should keep my production here??”

As of mid-morning, WORLD had taken down the web-page selling the strawberry sequin T-shirt.

All the visible labels in the neck area (Image: Toby Manhire)

L’Estrange-Corbet asked that The Spinoff’s initial questions and her responses be published verbatim. We are happy to do so; they are printed in full below.

The Spinoff: How long has WORLD been selling AS Colour clothing?

Denise L’Estrange-Corbet: AS Colour has been making t-shirts for WORLD for approx. 7 years. The t-shirts that AS Colour manufacture for us represent 1% of our annual garment production.
We manufacture only in New Zealand unless what we require is unable to be made here

All our t-shirts were once made in New Zealand, but one by one, these factories that were able to manufacture these, closed down, due to the fact that NZ designers were producing less and less garments in NZ.

After the final one closed, we were unable to manufacture the garments here, as there are specialist machinery required, which we did not have access to any longer, and this is why I have been so vocal, as I can see this is the way the industry across the board is going, if something is not done. It was not a decision we took lightly.

Why does WORLD cut the care tags off the AS Colour clothing before selling?

WORLD does NOT cut off the care labels of the AS Colour made t-shirts, you are very uninformed and alarmingly accusatory regarding this, as it is blatantly untrue. It is illegal in NZ to not say where garments are produced, with a lot of other information also. The care tags are highly visible in all our garments, if you had visited any of our stores, you would have seen this.

The WORLD label is sewn in, as AS Colour are a supplier to us, they make our t-shirts for us, it is our product, labelled by us. The garments are not sold as they are manufactured; they are all hand embellished/printed and hand finished, by us, in New Zealand, and available within our physical stores and online store.

[The Spinoff accepts that labels were not cut off]

Are you aware that AS Colour clothing is manufactured in Bangladesh and China?

Do you have any knowledge of the working conditions in the factories AS Colour uses?

Yes, of course I am fully aware where the t-shirts are manufactured. AS Colour were asked to meet a number of criteria put to them from WORLD. AS Colour also had to produce a certificate for the factory that would be manufacturing our t-shirts. The factory that produces WORLD t-shirts hold a Gold Certificate of Compliance, from WRAP, (the Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production). The factory has worked with AS Colour for 10 years. WORLD has always been socially aware of its responsibilities, and have always believed in supporting those that have supported us, it is as simple as that, which is why 99% of our production is still made here, we chose not to go offshore, but feel without change and awareness, we will have no option. It is so hard to produce in New Zealand, anyone who does so, will tell you.

Everybody in NZ demands to be paid a living wage, yet are quite happy to buy garments that are made by people who are not. On the recent TearFund report, not one designer listed on that, paid a living wage to their workers.

This factory that produces our t-shirts has worked with AS Colour for 10 years.

Child Labour Free (CLF) strongly supports and endorses AS Colour who are diligently working towards ethical sustainability in the area of supply chain transparency, ethical sourcing/supply and of course, the child labour free certification process.

Nik Webb-Shephard, CEO of the Child Labour Free Foundation said “it is so pleasing to see AS Colour work through their ethical sourcing policies and processes and how they integrated this into their business day to day, this shows they are going abode and beyond a tick box assessment exercise”.

“It shows a brand taking the lead in walking the talk towards an entire supply chain that is free from child labour”.

The production manager that oversees the factory making WORLD’s t-shirts, visits the factory every three months to ensure the conditions set out are adhered to. He is currently there at the moment. This is done as the factory is not owned by AS Colour, but is used by them.

How does WORLD reconcile selling AS Colour clothing manufactured in Bangladesh and China with your highly public critical stance against offshore manufacturing, particularly Ethiopia, Cambodia, India, China, and Bangladesh?

As explained in answer 1, we were unable to still manufacture them here, 99% of all our men’s and women’s Summer and Winter collections, which are sold nationally and internationally, are made, designed and marketed in New Zealand, by New Zealanders.

Where are the sequin and embroidered patches – including the strawberry, lips, and wolf – on your current range of t-shirts manufactured?

Hong Kong, where one of the founders of WORLD is from.

In light of your comments around the poor conditions and “I couldn’t sleep at night knowing that children were making my garments or stitching on sequins.” If the sequin patches are manufactured in China, are you aware of the conditions in factories, particularly those manufacturing sequinned clothing?

Francis Hooper, one of the Co-Founders, Designers and Directors of WORLD, was born and raised in Hong Kong. He travels to Hong Kong at least 4 times a year, and personally visits the factories making and producing these patches. He is more than aware of practices, which is why he chooses to source them himself.

Having heavily criticised the mark ups of labels that manufacture offshore, do you accept that it is hypocritical of you to sell clothing manufactured offshore – including t-shirts, sweatshirts, and sweatpants – at a high mark up?

I am not a hypocrite. Lets for instance, take TopShop a brand that was brought to New Zealand by a local, which was undercutting all NZ made clothing manufacturers by a mile.

TopShop were retailing t-shirts designed by Beyoncé, yes, an internationally acclaimed artist who likes to talk about ’empowerment for women’, and as we know, she has a very wide range in terms of people she talks to.

The garments designed by Beyoncé for TopShop made her, no doubt millions of dollars, whilst the factories that manufactured the garments for her, paid their workers just NZ$8.00 per DAY!

Garments sold at TopShop are made in third world countries, shipped to the UK, and these were then shipped to Australia and NZ. With all this cost, plus rental, wages, electricity, heating, GST, cleaning, sick pay, holiday pay, security, PR and advertising, packaging and the freebies sent endlessly to media etc. the garments actually retailed for very little money, and the owners were making at least a 100% mark up.

So someone, (not just one, but numerous) somewhere were being paid a pittance, which is why, when we had to make the unenviable decision to use a factory offshore, we ensured we examined the process prior.

WORLD do not use a factory that does anything like this and never have. The factory we use ensures that the workers work a 40 hour week, have lunch and tea breaks, holidays and their working conditions are modern and kept under scrutiny, WORLD shows the same respect we have for our New Zealand employees.

AS Colour is also New Zealand owned, the owner is from the North Shore, so WORLD felt comfortable using a NZ company, (that employs many locals here), to oversee the factory practices for us.

Considering your WORLD clothing tags say “Fabriqué en Nouvelle Zelande”, would customers reasonably assume these t-shirts and more have been made in New Zealand?

As already stated, the WORLD clothing tags that say Made in NZ are Made in NZ, so there is nothing misleading about this. As explained, the t-shirts do not state this.

Is WORLD misleading its customers?

No.

Read more: T-Shirts from Bangladesh. Sequin patches from China. Sold by WORLD as ‘Made in New Zealand’

If you have any information relating to this story that you’d like to share, please email madeleine@thespinoff.co.nz 


Keep going!
Composite image: Madeleine Chapman
Composite image: Madeleine Chapman

BusinessMay 7, 2018

T-Shirts from Bangladesh. Sequin patches from China. Sold by WORLD as ‘Made in New Zealand’

Composite image: Madeleine Chapman
Composite image: Madeleine Chapman

Exclusive: Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet of New Zealand fashion pioneer WORLD is this country’s most out-spoken critic of off-shore manufacturing. Yet a Spinoff investigation has revealed that multiple garments labeled as made in New Zealand are manufactured in China and Bangladesh. 

“When did you last look at the label to see where it was made?” – Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, September, 2017

She’s the highly critical champion of New Zealand fashion, calling out competitors for saving money by making their clothes in substandard conditions overseas instead of paying higher wages at home. But for the past seven years, Denise L’Estrange-Corbet’s WORLD brand has been selling t-shirts, sweatshirts and sweatpants manufactured in Bangladesh and China and bought through AS Colour.

L’Estrange-Corbet was made a dame companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in January of 2018, for services to charity and fashion. As co-founder, along with her ex-husband Francis Hooper, of WORLD brand in 1989, L’Estrange-Corbet has been widely praised for her stance against offshore manufacturing and her brand’s staunch Made in New Zealand policy.

Earlier this year, Hooper told Stuff “to survive today… when physically everything we make is here and then shipped, is very hard indeed, but that is the hand we have been dealt. We refuse to make our collections in a third world country.”

In an April report by Newshub (subsequently republished on The Spinoff), L’Estrange-Corbet criticised fellow New Zealand label Trelise Cooper for receiving an F rating on the Tearfund and World Baptist Aid Australia report. The Tearfund report grades companies around the world on their clothing production, material sourcing, and worker conditions. Newshub reported that WORLD weren’t part of the grading because “the brand manufactures all their clothing in New Zealand, and have done since their inception in 1989″.

Francis Hooper and Dame Denise L’Estrange-Corbet in February 2017 (Photo by Michael Bradley/Getty Images for Qatar Airways)

As of today, the WORLD store in downtown Auckland stocks their latest collection in full, including t-shirts with various sequin appliqués, sweatshirts ($199), and sweatpants ($199) with sequins down the legs. The WORLD tag on every item of clothing proclaims “FABRIQUE EN NOUVELLE-ZELANDE”. Translation: Made in New Zealand.

Find the care instruction label on the inside seam, however, and you’ll discover the t-shirts are sourced from AS Colour and made in Bangladesh. The sweatshirts  and sweatpants are also purchased from AS Colour and made in China.

The appliqué sequin patches can be found on AliExpress, sold by TongLiang Boutique, a Chinese online store.

The Spinoff received an email from a customer who had found identical patches to the ones on WORLD’s current t-shirt collection for sale on Ali Express. When The Spinoff visited a WORLD store to see the t-shirts, we stumbled upon what appeared to be a sample t-shirt with the Made in Bangladesh label attached to the inside back collar. Of the dozen t-shirts on offer, it was the only one with a collar label declaring its place of manufacture. The tag was identical to AS Colour tags, right down to the reference number which, when put into the US government’s Federal Trade Commission database for textile and clothing manufacturers and importers, linked directly to AS Colour.

A spokesperson for AS Colour confirmed WORLD buys clothing wholesale through its online store. While wholesale purchases from clothing labels make up a small portion of sales, AS Colour clothing can still be found under ‘high end’ labels around the country. “I don’t think it really matters where a blank garment comes from. You get them from manufacturers all around the world. It’s no different from any other surf brand or skate brand,” the AS Colour spokesperson said.

But WORLD isn’t just “any other surf brand”. In 2015, WORLD became the first fashion label in the world to be endorsed by the United Nations. The honour came after WORLD worked with the UN to come up with a logo for their Sustainable Development Goals. The logo has been printed and sold on AS Colour t-shirts in WORLD stores, online, and in the gift shop at UN headquarters.

L’Estrange-Corbet’s commitment to ethical commerce saw her recently criticise fashion behemoths Zara and H&M, who “all share the same manufacturing bases, Sri Lanka, India, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and whilst some of the factories may pay above their countries [sic] legal minimum wage, anyone with a single brain cell can work out, that this is slave labour”.

When approached by The Spinoff, L’Estrange-Corbet confirmed WORLD has been selling AS Colour t-shirts made in Bangladesh for “approximately seven years”, adding the t-shirts “represent 1% of our annual garment production”. Our survey found at least 12 of the 133 garments being sold via the WORLD website, including the four UN logo t-shirts, are manufactured overseas.

L’Estrange-Corbet said WORLD once made their t-shirts in New Zealand but the factories they used had closed down. “We were unable to manufacture the garments here as there are specialist machinery required,” she wrote. “It was not a decision we took lightly.”

She pointed to AS Colour’s ethical credentials. “Child Labour Free (CLF) strongly supports and endorses AS Colour who are diligently working towards ethical sustainability in the area of supply chain transparency, ethical sourcing/supply and of course, the child labour free certification process.”

AS Colour received a C+ rating in the Tearfund survey.

Among the many op-eds and interviews in which L’Estrange-Corbet discussed the evils of offshore manufacturing and the challenges faced by local labels, The Spinoff has been unable to find a mention of WORLD having to resort to t-shirts manufactured in Bangladesh and sweatpants manufactured in China. “It is illegal in NZ to not say where garments are produced,” said L’Estrange-Corbet when that was put to her by the Spinoff. “The care tags are highly visible in all our garments. If you had visited any of our stores, you would have seen this.”

All the visible labels in the neck area (Image: Toby Manhire)

When The Spinoff revisited an Auckland WORLD store, we found 10 t-shirts with sequin or embroidered patches. All 10 had care instruction labels stating where the garment was made on the inside seam, near the hem and out of sight. Only the sample t-shirt that The Spinoff had already purchased had the place of manufacture where the consumer could see it clearly. This is not unusual. A lot of clothing companies won’t include the place of manufacture on the collar tag. But what the Bangladesh-made WORLD t-shirts did have were highly visible cardboard tags stating “FABRIQUE EN NOUVELLE ZELANDE”. Made in New Zealand.

When The Spinoff asked if L’Estrange-Corbet believed this could mislead customers into thinking the t-shirts were made in New Zealand, the answer was no. “The WORLD clothing tags that say Made in NZ are Made in NZ, so there’s nothing misleading about this,” she says. “The t-shirts do not state this.”

Left: the neck label placement on the sample t-shirt. Right: the side seam label placement on every other patched t-shirt in store (Images: Madeleine Chapman)

L’Estrange-Corbet has made specific mention of sequins recently, saying “I couldn’t sleep at night knowing that children were making my garments or stitching on sequins”. Sequins have been the focus of a number of investigations into child labour practices. Lucy Siegle, author of the 2011 book To Die for: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? wrote that while there are machines that can perform the delicate task of sewing sequins onto fabric, they are costly and, if the finished product is to be sold cheaply, rarely purchased by overseas manufacturers. Instead, the task is often given to women or to children, whose tiny fingers apparently mean they work faster than adults.

The sequin patches that have been sewn onto the t-shirts at WORLD can be found on AliExpress, sold by the same vendor, TongLiang Boutique Store. They did not answer any of The Spinoff’s questions about their factory and working conditions.

L’Estrange-Corbet told The Spinoff that co-founder Francis Hooper “travels to Hong Kong at least 4 times a year and personally visits the factories making and producing these patches.”

For 28 years, WORLD has positioned itself as the conscience of New Zealand fashion, maintaining its embrace of ethical principles and a patriotic attachment to home manufacturing throughout the globalisation era.

L’Estrange-Corbet wrote an editorial for Apparel magazine last year on manufacturing. She talked about global fast fashion giants, and how they had hollowed out artisanal manufacturing worldwide. She lamented what had happened to production in New Zealand, and about the way global luxury brands retained their value by dictating where their products are made.

“The day any of these brands decides to manufacture in Sri Lanka or Bangladesh is the day they sign their own death warrants,” she wrote, “and are no longer considered luxury or even desirable.”

Update 7 May: Denise L’Estrange-Corbet has been in touch with a further response to our questions regarding WORLD’s manufacturing and labelling practices. Read what she said, and her verbatim answers to our original questions here.

Read more: Kiwi as? The rules for claiming Made in New Zealand

If you have any information relating to this story that you’d like to share, please email madeleine@thespinoff.co.nz 


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