the darkening sky

Knights Point, South Island, New Zealand

The air yesterday morning was yellow, acrid, humid, and the heat didn't help much. But I wasn't thinking of that.

I woke up dreaming of an afternoon months and months ago, when we drove for hours, crossing mountains criss-crossed with waterfalls like silver threads on dark green wool.

On we drove, alone on the road, no cars in either direction. When we reached the sea, it felt like the end of the world.

The wind was cold, sharp and salty. The air that flowed into our lungs was clean and biting. We were silent, hands shoved in our pockets, a fine rain misting our faces. Where did the sea end, and where did the sky begin?

Minutes of a trip, and yet it's these moments in between destinations, these little snatches of time that suddenly bob up on a sea of memories, that bring you inexorably back to a moment when you were suspended in time, in no hurry to go anywhere. Such peace.

revival

It's always a surprise, the number of things I can rediscover in my closet. My latest "find" is a pair of black peg-leg trousers with a high-ish paperbag waist - a staple during the days when I worked in a more conservative office.

I hadn't worn these in years. Mainly because I am now free to wear jeans and lost the desire to wear many other things, but also because these are a wool blend. While they are fairly lightweight, wool-anything makes me feel hot just thinking about it.

Still, I felt inspired looking at some pictures of trousers by Jesse Kamm, and missed their slightly awkward, jaunty quality, so I decided it was time to bring them out again.

How comfortable and right they felt when I pulled them on. I remember I bought them because I didn't want to take them off in the fitting room - it's the rare off-the-rack trouser that fits perfectly. Also, they respected my office milieu while allowing me to retain a sense of personality - wearing them, I was a garconne in a room full of corporate warriors. Anyone who has ever had to adapt to a dress code of sorts will recognise that sense of satisfaction when you've found a way to play by the rules without conforming. The right outfit gives you this sense of confidence.

Also, it's quite satisfying, looking past the "obvious" things in your closet and give the long-neglected pieces a new lease of life. The "reincarnated" version always feels more effortless to wear; not only do I know exactly how I want to wear to it, sometimes the passage of time allows me to see something in a new way and wear it differently. It also feels good knowing that this little something you picked up four years ago has legs after all.

Would love to know what you guys might have rediscovered in your wardrobe.

notes for may

Gili Air, Indonesia

• Gili Air was a much-needed break - the diving was average but I love how quiet the place is, and the night dive ranks among the best I've done (fell in love with an orang utan crab).
• I came back to a few pointless dramas at work, which need only a two-word response: Grow up. 
• Took part in a survey of Singapore's marine life, which was an educational experience. I still think the muck we call the sea around Singapore is pretty gross and nothing I want to swim in, but I admire the diversity of marine life that manages to thrive in there. 
• Read "World War Z" on the flight back from Lombok (which has a shockingly comprehensive and well-priced airport bookstore) and felt paranoid the whole time, as though any minute someone was going to stand up and start chewing on passengers.
• My phone crashed while trying to update its software and in fit of disgust I left it at home and spent my holiday unconnected. It was quite effortless. 

marked for life

People often expect a great story from me when they ask about my tattoo. It disappoints them when I give the simple answer: “um, because it’s pretty”. In fact, I just disappointed another person recently, which is what inspired me to write this post.

I think because of shows like "Miami Ink" – so many of the customers go in with heartbreaking and inspiring stories –people have picked up the impression that tattoos are meant to mark momentous occasions.

Many tattoos do have great stories behind them, but mine isn’t one of them. I am one of those people who got tattooed for decorative reasons – an idea I know is abhorrent to some (I have a friend who is deeply offended by the idea, but we’ve agreed to disagree). I picked my Art Nouveau-style tattoo because I like Alphonse Mucha, but he’s hardly my favourite artist. I picked his work largely because I knew they would tattoo beautifully.

In cultures that have a long history of tattoos, they were meant to tell the story of a person’s life and his place in society. Tattoos have also been used in the worst possible ways (such as during the Holocaust) to ostracise and disfigure.

Today, tattoos are fairly commonplace and people get them for all sorts of reasons. But whatever these reasons are, tattoos are a statement because of their sheer visual impact. Whether you got one on impulse or to remember a loved one or to join a gang, they instantly say something about you.

So I can see why it seems a bit lame to say that I like tattoos for their visual appeal. But I remember the first time I felt moved to get a tattoo. I was about 14, and sitting next to me on a bus was this woman with a gorgeously coloured tattoo of a Japanese carp swimming up her arm, fringed with cherry blossoms. On paper, I would consider the image clichéd. But on skin, the image was lush, rich and full of life.

Skin is a living thing, beautiful on its own, but in the right context it’s also a canvas that brings an image to life. I love looking at beautifully rendered tattoos and watching an artist at work. I also like that can be a very personal process – you have to like the artist when you spend hours with the person. I enjoyed the process of talking things over and refining the design.

Some of my friends think tattoos are a “safe” way to rebel for fairly conventional types. I don't see myself in this category (whatever it is I plan to rebel against, why would I do it with a tattoo?), but does it matter what they think? It's mine, it's beautiful and it's forever. I'm not trying sum up my life and my beliefs with one tattoo and that's why I view it with no angst-y "what does it mean?" feelings.

I dream of getting a full sleeve, a lush bouquet of dahlias wending up my arm, but I haven’t because a) I work for a very conventional employer and I need my job; and b) a richly detailed tattoo like that is expensive. But I’ve got a nice mental of ideas I’d like to execute some day, and I just have wait for the right mood to strike, and get it done.  

* Yep, that's me up there. And the picture is very appropriate, since I am flying to Indonesia tonight for a bit of diving. Have a good weekend everyone!   

pulling back the curtain

One store I have visited repeatedly over the years to buy my basics – socks, undies, plain ribbed cotton tanks – and the odd awesome item (linen shirts and knits) is Uniqlo, which prides itself on its affordability. With the Rana Plaza death toll tipping over 1,000, I felt compelled to check out Fast Retailing’s (FR) employment and CSR policies, and so I had a look at their latest CSR report for FY12.

Taking a leaf out of Jess’ book, here’s my review of the report – in particular, the section on its production partners and its monitoring efforts to ensure employment practices are adhered to and production standards are met (environmental issues were reported in a separate section).

There were summaries of FR’s monitoring efforts for FY12 -

“In fiscal 2012, 13 “Grade E” incidents (serious, highly unethical offences that are subject to immediate contract review) were reported. They included five false reporting incidents, three cases of child labor, and five instances in which required improvements were not completed within a specified period of time. The FR Group’s Business Ethics Committee (for further details, please refer to page 19) reviewed each incident and implemented response measures.

Follow-up monitoring efforts also led to one incident being dealt with appropriately. Four more resulted in the cancellation of business agreements. At the end of August 2012, the number of factories with “Grade E” evaluations had been reduced to eight production sites.”

Some details were provided on the nature of some of these incidents; here are three examples -

1) Child Labour (China)
"FR employees identified an incident of child labor at a factory in China in October 2011, when it was discovered that an underage girl, born in December 1995, was working at the site. Chinese law prohibits companies from hiring anyone under the age of 16. The employee was 15 years old at the time and had used her older sister’s ID card when she was hired. The factory’s General Accounting department verified the authenticity of the ID card at the hiring interview, but did not notice that the card was not the applicant’s, due to the similarity in the sister’s facial features. FR employees revisited the factory and confirmed that it had stopped employing the girl.

The FR Group ensured that she was paid for the hours that she had worked, as well as the regular wage that she would have earned at the factory (had she not been dismissed for her age) until she turns 16. Personnel files were then created for each of the factory’s employees. FR recognizes that this error occurred despite the factory’s efforts to follow proper hiring procedure, but due to the serious nature of the incident, it reduced the volume of business it did with the facility."

2) False Reporting (China)
"An interview with employees at one partner factory in China, conducted as part of FR’s regular monitoring activities, uncovered a discrepancy in the factory’s recorded working hours. The records and pay statements indicated that a number of employees had been paid for four hours of work on a Saturday, but four of those individuals told FR staff that they actually worked eight hours on that day. FR employees revisited the factory and discovered that during the monitoring period, the factory’s personnel administrator had provided records that only showed a portion of the total hours worked, so the reported hours would fall within the statutory limits for overtime work.

FR found evidence that the unreported hours had been recorded by hand and that the appropriate overtime compensation had been paid. This was a particularly serious incident, as it involved the extremely unethical falsification of data, so FR implemented measures to cease its business ties with the factory."

3) Wage Calculation Methods (Vietnam)
"Monitoring efforts at one partner factory in Vietnam revealed that the employees did not understand the method for calculating their wages. FR Group employees visited the factory and discovered that the policy on wage calculation methods had not been communicated properly to the local employees. FR proposed holding a staff meeting and publicising information on factory bulletin boards. Follow-up monitoring efforts confirmed that the required improvements had been implemented."

A table -



The report included features on two of its partners: Chenfeng Group in China, PT Pan Brothers in Indonesia (they also produce clothes in Bangladesh, Thailand and Vietnam). These are likely the “model” partners, and the focus was on their production process rather than employment practices.

It’s reassuring that FR actually monitors its factories, but it looks from the report that the company doesn’t monitor all of them. The company monitored 229 factories in FY12, up from 174 in FY2010, but I can’t tell from the report how many factories FR works with, and whether 229 is a significant proportion of that. So, in short, the report could be more comprehensive in terms of statistics, such as frequency of monitoring, proportion of factories monitored, just to name two.

I find the tone of the report less self-congratulatory than the much bally-hooed one from H&M about their eco efforts, although it is of course, still very upbeat and positive.

Overall, I find the report too “summarised”. Perhaps they thought no one would want to read a dictionary-length report about their production processes, but it’s probably because reports like these are likely also a PR exercise, and not intended to be a rigorous disclosure effort. FR mentioned that they work with NGOs and third party organisations to conduct reviews to improve the effectiveness of their monitoring efforts – how about sharing which groups they work with and publishing one of these reviews or evaluations?

Also, I didn’t read the other sections of the CSR report as closely, but briefly, the section on minimising environmental impact didn’t impress me much, at a glance.

I confess, the report did have the effect of assuaging my unease about shopping at Uniqlo (and by extension, other FR brands like Helmut Lang, Theory, Comptoir de Cotonniers), which is probably what FR intended. Still, I took a look at Inditex’s website and couldn’t find similar information, which I suppose puts FR one notch ahead of at least one major apparel company on the disclosure front.

After thinking it over, I decided I was cautiously encouraged by FR’s efforts (because I am an optimist) and am hoping they are: a) honest in their reporting and b) improve on their efforts. But it doesn’t change my quest for retailers who fare better on the ethical scorecard, and also to buy less and make better use of things I already have.

Have a gander at the report here. What say you?

PS: A report from NYT that should please fans of Everlane.

offended

Scott Schuman via The Sartorialist

Came across this comment when I browsing the Internet (this is how you lose a couple hours doing nothing): “Women wear outfits. Women dress up. A man ought to simply dress.”

The post was largely about other things, but this offhand comment stayed with me. It's so disdainful and sexist. Why is there so much veneration (and overveneration) of the way men shop and the whole menswear industry in general, when womenswear comes in for so much flak?  It's not like trendy fast fashion is exclusive to women (take a look at Topman).

Men are applauded when they take an interest in style and can wax lyrical about chambray and be taken seriously, but somehow I think a woman who discusses her Birkin bag collection the same way won’t be in for the same treatment.

I can see the sentiment behind the comment – for a start, a glance at any women’s fashion title on the newsstand and you’d be hard pressed to think otherwise.

But I also think a strong strain of sexism lies behind this sort of thinking. And this is such a disservice to all the women out there who don’t fit into this stereotype and are frustrated about constantly being marketed to like we’re a bunch of spendthrift, trend-seeking, "women love to shop" archetypes.

And that's my angry thought of the week.

notes for april

Koto Bolofo for Margaret Howell via The Practical Dresser

• There is no lack of good coffee places in Singapore, but must they all be so hard to get to?
• I wish more people would pay attention to the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh and make the connection to the clothes many of us buy without second thought. As usual, a nuanced take from Jess.
• Booked a flight to Istanbul for July. The unfamiliar is exciting
• Erm, how did it take so long for me to get hooked on the original “The Killing”? “Forbrydelsen” (“the crime” in Danish) has everything I love in a TV drama – taut pacing, subtle acting, a layered plot, characters you care about.
• That hole in my chukka boot is getting bigger.