Hugo Boss rejects from wool from mulesed sheep

According to reports published by Peta.org on the 15th of April Hugo boss has rejected the use of wool from badly treated and "Mulesed"

Mulesed is a task which involves slicing the skin from a sheep's rear end to prevent flystrike.

German-based Hugo Boss, one of the world's largest fashion houses, has released a statement declaring it "dissociates itself from mulesing because it contravenes our corporate values".

The company has given Australian farmers until 2010 to stop mulesing or the company will boycott the use of wool in its products.

Hugo boss are currently working along side peta to find a alternative to obtaining wool from sheep.

Currently the wool industry and animal rights activists working on how the phase-out of mulesing completely, but still sustain a strong wool industry for the farmers.

When looking on the main web site of hugo boss, under their company respoabilty "Animal rights" they have made a clear statement about the Mulesed sheep but have made a overal statement of how they feel about animals rights.

"Another principle affecting corporate responsibility at HUGO BOSS entails ensuring that animals are treated properly and considerately. This principle has been anchored within the HUGO BOSS Social Standards and is therefore communicated directly to our suppliers. Compliance with these standards is mandatory for all HUGO BOSS suppliers.

Beyond this, HUGO BOSS respects the need to protect endangered species and therefore supports efforts to maintain biodiversity."

Angry Sex and the city fur protest

The cast of Sex in the city are very well known in the fashion industry, as being the starter influence to what's going to become the next key look in our fashion stores.

But clearly one day a anti fur protest, saw red and attempted to boycott the chances of one item becoming a key trend, a Snowy White Coat, worn but Kim Catrall's character Samantha.

Whilst in the middle of filming a scene on sex and the city, a angry protester burst onto the set of sex and the city and throw blood red paint onto the fur coat, so prevent the further usage of the coat.

The images flashed around all fashion fan sites, such as glamour mag, handbag.com, and even briefly appeared on the forum of fashion bible's VOUGE, with fashionista's expressing a shocked reaction, to the protest.

Many fashionista knew that the clothes featured on the movie will have a strong effect on the fashion industry but none really thought about the signifficant affect the use of the fur coat would have from the movie.

The protest has brought a fresh reminder to the cruelty of many fashionista's and kim catrall her self.

Horrified by the reality of how the coat has been made, when filming sex and the city ended she kindly donated it to PETA 's fur campaign charity. In which it gives the coats to the homeless to help them stay warm, as these are the people who cant afford coats, and really need them to stay warm.

Blood Sweat and Tshirts

Following the recent BBC3 documentary blood sweat and t-shirts, in which is follows the journey of 6 teenagers as they travel to the back streets of India making items of clothing which will later be sold on the high streets, in chain fashion stores, such as Primark.

In today's throw away fashion, in which items of cheap high fashion clothing are becoming increasingly more popular with today's fashion concious nation.

This documantry see how the points of view of these teenagers, change as they discover the real truth to how their clothes are produced, before it hits the high streets.

Based in shahi enterprises in New delhi, they take on the jobsand live the lifestyles of what all 4,000 workers have to experince everyday. Working to earn as just 20p a hour, 15 hours a day, and 6 hours a week.

The documentary open up your eyes to the reality of the fashion industry, and how unless we all vow to make a difference things will never change.

Video link

Interesting facts:

• 1,000 machinists stich six days a week just to earn on average 20 p a hour
• Three million garments are manufactured and exported a month
• On average every garment goes through 30 stichers before reaching the uk high street
• The daily target for an factory production is 10,000 garments, which is 300 for each production line
• Every minute there is a collar turned, out a hem every 30 secounds and 50 shirts an hour

The great fur debate

Following the recent press coverage from the Bafta awards 2008, many fashion websites such as, handbag.com, the fashion section to Dailymail.co.uk and Glamor mag.com reported on what today's hottest stars wore.

Dresses from Chanel, to Dior were worn, but one that stood out from the crowd was a royal blue dress one worn by the ever beautiful Kelly Brook. The dress was made from elegant satin and fitted Kelly beautifully, but sadly for Kelly the show was stolen by her fur shawl draped elegantly over her shoulder. Many websites published her picture as one of the best dressed at the Bafta awards but as Handbag.com added "We hope that's not real fur though!", it brings back the golden question of whether is socially acceptable? Even if the shawl was made from fake fur, wearing a fur imitation to such a high profile event would draw attention to fur being fashionable and glamors?

Thanks to a recent petition from Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) Gucci has stopped the sale of Seal fur in its stores, and using synthetic and natural fibers instead.

Though Gucci has stopped the sale of Seal fur from its stores, it still continues to sell other kinds of fur in its stores, so Peta have released another petition to send to Gucci to stop the sale of ALL fur from its stores, as each item made from fur represents the suffering of another innocent animal.

Im not a plastic bag...

Following the release of of Anya Hindmarch's famous I'm not a plastic bag on April 25 th 2007, many supermarkets, and fashion stores have all followed suit to create there own Eco friendly bags.

Before the release of the "I'm not a plastic bag", there was a lack of concern for the environmental aspects of using a free plastic bag from the super markets, but thanks to careful placements of the canvas bag in the goodie bags of the Oscars, many stars had been seen carrying this much wanted bag. Stars ranging from Hollywood actress Keria Knightly, to super models Lily Cole and Erin O'Connor led a media hype for the bag, making it 2007's IT bag. For a mere £5 it has to be the cheapest it bag to date.

Sainsbury's even teamed up with Anya Hindmarch to sell the bags in the store, to help spread the message of how you can be Eco friendly and fashionable at the same time.

Now that it was as no longer being socially acceptable to be seen carrying a plastic shopping bag and all eager to get there hands on this £5 wonder, women in their millions all flocked down to their nearest Anya Hindmarch or Sainsbury's.

Within the first hour Sainsbury's sold out all 20,000 of the stocked Hindmarch bags, and 30 women in Beijing china had to be hospitalised for injuries caused by the scrum to the door.

Thankfully the message to be eco friendly spread with a a postitve effect with sainsbury's proudly annocing that over 6 months the number of bags used has dropped to almost half.
And with Other leading brands such as B&Q and Marks and Spence calling for a total ban from the free bags on there checkouts.

Peta naked protest shocks mothers day shoppers

On February 28 th just days before mothers day, Peta launched a shock pr campaign to shock the mother's day shoppers into action.

Held in central convent garden around 1 pm a pregnant lady positioned on all fours in a tiny cage was unveiled to represent pigs which have been badly mistreated.

The message of the event was to make people go vegetarian, and with a combination of shock images and the closeness to mothers day to generate as much publicity and attention as they could.

Effective? or just plain stupid? this event generated some very strong mix opinions from the press, which nearly overrode the original message its self.

The shock protest did add a reality check to everyone about the treatment of animals but to use a pregnant women makes you think how little dignity she has for her self and her unborn child??

To do a naked protest is one thing, but to do it on a cold afternoon in early spring, whilst heavily pregnant makes you wonder whether it is a clever or a completely stupid idea?

Press coverage of the event was high with articles printed in national newspapers, but the message had very little difference in the peoples views to go vegetarian.

Has these images changed your views to go vegetarian?

London Fashion Week

On Wednesday 20th February 2008 the doors opened to one of the most important days of a fashionistas diary, LONDON FASHION WEEKEND.

London Fashion Weekend was proudly hosted by Grazia Magazine in support of London Fashion week, to offer the highlights of the week and to allow fashionistas the chance to shop the best of the sample sales and to catch a glimpse of the best of London Fashion week .

Updating wardrobes was high on the priority list of these determined visitors, as the queue to get into the venue went around the block.

With a tight hold of the golden tickets the chatter of voices filled the air as everyone discussed about what they hoped to see inside the much anticipated event.

Noise slowly quietened to silence as the doors finally swung open to the lucky people who had been able to buy a ticket.

Goody bags was defiantly a must have bag in these fashion fanatic minds as every one dived for the goody bag men, who were handing out the bags packed with goods.

The bags acted as one of the strongest highlights of the event, as they were packed with a Grazia Magazine, hair products, a mini bottle of martini (which was in a beautiful bottle), vouchers, chocolate, hand made soap, and many more mini treats.

The fashion shows showed a highlight of the best of London Fashion Week, with Gok Wan as a guest presenter. With full skirts, bold prints, and bright colors being the key trends to this seasons spring/summer 2008 look.

With free samples and make up demonstrations this is clearly a areas for a woman's dreams, as stands around the catwalk areas, were filled with a mixture of vintage, jewels, sample bags and clothes at cut prices.

This is one event on the calender which is not to missed!