YOUR SUPPLY CHAIN: FRIEND OR FOE? By Claire Hamer

Did you know that some of the most exciting and innovative developments of history came out of periods of uncertainty? Out of the Dark Ages came the Renaissance and the Internet was initiated after WWII.

Are we currently going through a cultural revolution? What will happen during the Information Age? Perhaps this period of time will be know as when our economic and political system collapsed and then redeveloped for the better of people and the planet.

More importantly, how will it affect you and the fashion industry in which you work? Will we be part of the cure or the disease? Our supply chains are global and problems within them are systemic. This makes it hard for anyone to know where to begin but it isn’t a reason to do nothing and we need innovative folk like yourselves to get us out of this mess. With a bit of focus on where you can have influence, not only can you develop your supply chain to have positive impact on the world but you could be serving your bottom line too!

I’ve been a Buyer for 10 years and have worked for some of the most successful and innovative fashion retailers on the UK high street. Having spent most of my career at a large UK high street retailer, I have seen the impact of global cultural, economic and political changes on our Fashion supply chains. Its not been pretty but something exciting is happening in the undergrowth of our industry. With the development of the Internet and online media we are more connected than ever, and information spreads like wildfire. Supply chains that were once hidden are now in a spotlight and a business that is for the longhaul, which I’m sure is your plan! it is paramount that you protect this asset.

One of the most exciting elements of being a Buyer or Designer is hunting out new trends, developing beautiful products and seeing them fly off the shelves. However, during the last 5 years of my career I have uncovered a new, even more exciting aspect of my job as a Buyer. As I embarked on a labyrinth journey of understanding fashion supply chains, I travelled to all corners of the world which opened my eyes to the realisation of just how connected we truly are and the positive influence that we can all have within the fashion industry. Along the way, I’ve read Vogue with female Fairtrade cotton farmers in Cameroon, shared fashion tips with seamstresses on the coast in Ghana, discussed the merits of peace silk farms in Vietnam and witnessed empowerment of providing work for exiled Tibetans in the foothills of the Himalayas in India. I’ve even sat in the Zurich office of one of the biggest cotton Trading companies in the world, bashing out ideas of how we can increase access to more Fairtrade cotton to the Buyers on the high street in both financial terms and also availability.

Now this isn’t currently the typical role of a conventional Buyer for a high street retailer, however it will be in the future. We live in uncertain times and as stakeholders of the fashion industry, whose supply chains affect many people around the world, it is our responsibility to make sure that the business roles we play have only positive affects on the people within them and the planet. This is known as triple bottom line – PEOPLE,PLANET,PROFIT – whereby you have financial success but with minimal negative affect on the planet and maximum positive affect for the people. Understanding your supply chain and building trustworthy partners is going to be paramount to your success. We play a key role in addressing the systemic issues that we have within our industry.

This is one of the reasons that I work within the Vectra International network and why I set up ei8ht. We help innovative designers and businesses like yours to develop more sustainable supply chains, ones that they are so proud of that they choose to talk about it publicly as it adds value to their business. We foster and support you in your work by building on your core strengths. It doesn’t matter whether you are new to this area of the industry or are looking at ways to develop further, we are a group of specialists that can help you in all areas of the supply chain from sourcing fabrics, working with small co-operatives through to advice on codes of conduct and where you need to be most vigilant within your business. We will go through the main challenges you face in terms of people within your supply chains and also the planet and help you define an effective and exciting strategy to address them. We are also looking to develop exciting role models for the Industry that we can talk about within all the aspects of the work we do. We have a huge network for you to tap into all over the world and we want to see this new business model develop.