The price is right: collective sets sight on fast fashion harm
A fashion collaborative has set out to challenge the harm caused by fast fashion by making environmentally friendly clothing in New Zealand — with a catch.
Precious Collaborative founder Wānaka-based Claire O'Connell said what set the collaborative apart was the two prices for the sustainable Celtic Collection items.
The first price is called the true price, which reflects the true cost of making each piece of clothing.
The gift price is a subsidised cost which allows people to buy higher-quality clothing without the burden of price.
"The gift price is aimed at people who want to try to get out of this fast-fashion loop, but can't afford high-quality garments, because unfortunately that's what fast fashion takes advantage of is cost."
The website states "all we ask of you is that you pay what you can afford".
"If you genuinely want to change your fashion consumption habits, buy better and less frequently, but if price is a real barrier, then pay the subsidised gift price."
Sales of a coat designed by award-winning New Zealand designer Liz Mitchell help to subsidise the gift prices of the collection, a third of the profit going to helping fund the gift prices.
Mrs O'Connell said she had been working on the idea for five years.
The collaborative's website was launched in December.
The clothing is made in New Zealand using as much material from New Zealand as possible.
Sustainability is also important. Garments are made of 100% wool and organic hemp.
Mrs O'Connell said the basic problem she was addressing with the collaborative was fast fashion, which she was toxic.
A lot of people buying fast fashion were getting blamed for the problem, which was unfair as they were only buying what they could afford and high-quality ethical fashion was out of reach for most, she said.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Scoop
9 hours ago
- Scoop
An Economy Of Genocide: Israel And The Albanese Report
It makes for stark and dark reading. The report for the UN Human Rights Council titled From economy of occupation to economy of genocide makes mention of 'corporate entities' who have been enriched by 'the Israeli economy of illegal occupation, apartheid and now genocide.' Authored by the relentless Francesca Albanese, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967, it is unflinching in its assessments and warnings to companies doing business with Israel. What makes the investigative undertaking by Albanese useful is its examination of the corporate world and its links to the colonial, settler program of removing and displacing a pre-existing population. The machinery of conquest of any state necessarily involves not only the desk job occupants in civilian bureaucracies and high-ranking military commanders, but those in the corporate sector, eager to make a profit. 'Colonial endeavours and associated genocides,' writes Albanese, 'have historically been driven and enabled by the corporate sector. Commercial interests have contributed to the dispossession of Indigenous peoples of their lands – a mode of domination known as 'colonial racial capitalism'.' Eight private sectors come in for scrutiny: arms manufacturers, tech firms, building and construction entities, those industries concerned with extraction and services, banks, pension funds, insurers, universities and charities. 'These entities enable the denial of self-determination and other structural violations in the occupied Palestinian territory, including occupation, annexation and crimes of apartheid and genocide, as well as a long list of ancillary crimes and human rights violations, from discrimination, wanton destruction, forced displacement and pillage to extrajudicial killing and starvation.' Advertisement - scroll to continue reading Central to the multifaceted economy of genocide, the report charges, is the military-industrial complex that forms 'the economic backbone of the State.' Albanese cites a stellar example: the F-35 fighter jet, developed by US-based Lockheed Martin, in collaboration with hundreds of other companies 'including Italian manufacturer Leonardo S.p.A, and eight States.' Since October 2023, the process of colonisation and displacement has assumed an air of urgency, aided by the private sector. In 2024, US$200 million was advanced for 'colony construction'. Between November 2023 and October 2024, 57 new colonies and outposts were established 'with Israeli and international companies supplying machinery, raw materials and logistical support.' Examples include the maintenance and expansion of the Jerusalem Light Rail Red Line, the construction of the new Green Line, encompassing 27 kilometres of new tracks and 50 stations in the West Bank. The infrastructure has proven to be invaluable in linking the colonial project to West Jerusalem. Despite some companies withdrawing from the project 'owing to international pressure', an entity such as the Spanish/Basque Construcciones y Auxiliar de Ferrocarriles has been a keen participant, along with suppliers of excavating machinery (South Korea's Doosan and Sweden's Volvo Group), and providers of materials for the light-rail bridge (Germany's Heidelberg Materials AG). Beyond the structural and physical program of construction and displacement, all designed to extinguish any semblance of self-determination on the part of the Palestinians, come other features of the colonial project. A prominent feature of this, Albanese notes, is that of 'surveillance and carcerality'. Repressing Palestinians has become a 'progressively automated' affair, with tech companies feeding Israel's voracious security appetite with 'unparalleled developments in carceral and surveillance devices', some of which include closed-circuit television networks, biometric surveillance, advanced tech checkpoint networks, drone surveillance and cloud computing. Palantir Technologies Inc., a specialist in software platforms, comes in for a special mention. 'There are reasonable grounds to believe Palantir has provided automatic predictive policing technology, core defence infrastructure for rapid and scale-up construction and deployment of military software, and its Artificial Intelligence Platform, which allows real-time battlefield data integration for automated decision making.' With the report released, the dance of dissimulation began. Lockheed Martin told the Middle East Eye that foreign military sales were not their preserve as far as accountability or cause of concern was, a lofty, business-like attitude unshackled from a moral compass. Such sales took place between governments, meaning that the US government would be best placed to answer any questions. Hand washing and deferrals of guilt is a private sector speciality after all. In a more direct fashion, both Israel and the United States have continued their 'Hate Albanese' campaign, boringly reiterating old accusations while adopting novel interpretations of international law. Given the obvious loathing of international human rights conventions by Israeli officials and their US backers, this is decidedly rich, even more so given such jurisprudence as that of the International Court of Justice's Advisory Opinion of July 2024, and the International Criminal Court arrest warrants for Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. (These developments figure prominently in Albanese's assessment.) According to the ICJ, all States were under an obligation to 'cooperate with the United Nations' on ensuring 'an end to Israel's illegal presence in the Occupied Territory and the full realization of the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination'. Israel's continued presence in the OPT was illegal. 'It is a wrongful act of a continuing character which has been brought about by Israel's violations, through its policies and practices, of the prohibition on the acquisition of territory by force and the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.' From Israel came the view that the report was 'legally groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of [Albanese's] office.' A June 20 letter to UN Secretary-General António Guterres from the Trump administration obtained by The Washington Free Beacon took issue with Albanese's supposed record of 'virulent antisemitism and support for terrorism', bitchily sniping at her legal qualifications. Little is actually mentioned of international law in the bilious missive by US Ambassador Dorothy C. Shea, acting representative to the UN, other than a snotty dismissal of UN General Assembly resolutions and advisory opinions by the International Court of Justice as lacking any binding force 'on either States or private actors'. Shea claims Albanese 'misrepresented her qualifications for the role by claiming to be an international lawyer despite admitting publicly that she has not passed a legal bar examination or been licensed to practice law.' A fabulous accusation, given the surfeit of allegedly qualified legal members working in the Israeli Defense Forces and other offices executing their program of displacement, starvation and killing. The accusations against various corporate entities, notably over 20 US entities, were 'riddled with inflammatory rhetoric and false accusations', making such daring claims of 'gross human rights violations', 'apartheid' and 'genocide'. These charges, ventured through letters of accusation, constituted 'an unacceptable campaign of political and economic warfare against the American and worldwide economy.' It comes as little surprise that the security rationale – one that says nothing of the Palestinian right to self-determination, let alone rights to life and necessaries – marks the entire complaint against Albanese's apparent lack of impartiality. 'Business activities specifically targeted by Ms. Albanese contribute to and help strengthen national security, economic prosperity, and human welfare across the Middle East, North Africa, and Europe.' Just don't mention the Palestinians.
NZ Herald
17 hours ago
- NZ Herald
On the Up: Wānaka tradie-turned-tailor resurrects forgotten NZ fashion label from backyard shed
A Wānaka tradie with no background in fashion has revived a long-lost New Zealand clothing brand from a backyard shed. Nikolai Solakof, a former builder and self-described 'marketing nerd', stumbled across a vintage canvas jacket at a Queenstown vintage reseller in 2022.
Otago Daily Times
17 hours ago
- Otago Daily Times
IT experts developing revolutionary technology
Two New Zealand-based IT experts are working on a ground-breaking technology that promises to revolutionise computing by creating a computer inside a computer memory chip. The innovative project, known as SADRAM (Symbolically Addressing DRAM), is being developed in Oamaru and could dramatically change how data is processed worldwide. Dr Robert Trout and Nicolas Erdody bring more than a century's combined experience in information technology to the ambitious endeavour. Dr Trout is the original inventor of SADRAM, a new type of memory chip architecture that can organise, access and even process data internally — without relying heavily on traditional central processing units (CPUs) to micromanage operations. "This is a paradigm shift," Dr Trout said. "Instead of the CPU managing every step of data processing, SADRAM moves computing power closer to the memory itself." Nicolas Erdody, director of Open Parallel and a key partner on the project, elaborated on the current state of computing technology. "Multicore processors, with multiple CPU cores on a single chip, have been the norm in phones, laptops and supercomputers for decades," he said. "But this architecture has barely changed in 50 years, and CPUs have hit a performance wall." Mr Erdody said designers could no longer extract significant improvements or better efficiency using the old designs. "SADRAM's architecture addresses these limitations head on." The new "information architecture and concept" behind SADRAM was designed to boost performance, reduce energy consumption and streamline the computing processes that modern technologies demanded. By embedding computation directly within the memory chip, the technology could reshape everything from artificial intelligence to data centre operations. Mr Erdody's company, Open Parallel, was selected in 2012 by the New Zealand government to help design software for the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the world's largest radio telescope project. The company worked on SKA until 2019. He also directs the annual Multicore World Conference held in New Zealand, which attracts leading global thinkers in computing innovation. Originally from Uruguay, Mr Erdody has lived in Oamaru for over two decades with his family. He met Dr Trout earlier this year at the Multicore World Conference in Christchurch, where the two "like-minded" experts decided to collaborate on further developing SADRAM technology from North Otago. "We're jamming like musicians in a band — when like-minded people come together, ideas flow naturally," Mr Erdody said from their shared office space at the Business Hive in Oamaru's Thames St. Dr Trout, who hails from Palmerston North but now lives in Hamilton after decades in the United States, holds the worldwide patent for the SADRAM concept. Over his career, he has built several tech companies and pioneered novel computing architectures. As founder and president of Pico Computing Inc (2004-15), he developed FPGA (field-programmable gate array) products widely used in cryptography, genetic analysis and CPU acceleration. "FPGAs can outperform conventional CPUs in many specialised tasks," Dr Trout said. "The real revolution in computing came in the 1970s when the industry shifted from discrete components to printed circuits, separating design from fabrication. This enabled exponential growth in computing power for the past 50 years." But he warns: "We are now hitting physical and quantum limits. We cannot keep squeezing more performance from the same old CPU-centric design." The pair are focused on designing cost-effective technology to overcome these challenges. Their plan includes creating a company, hiring experts and developing hardware kits — either manufacturing them or licensing the design to major industry players such as Samsung. "The big picture is to build a design centre in New Zealand that proves cutting-edge tech can be developed anywhere. We want to inspire future generations to innovate locally with global impact," Mr Erdody said.
