USC Fashion Week '16: Kickoff & Identi-Tee

E-Board at Kickoff

This morning marked the official start of USC Fashion Week 2016! From eleven to two in the afternoon Fashion Board members held our Kickoff event in Russell House handing out flyers, giving away free goodies, as well as proving some free coffee and snacks to passing students. We got the word out to the campus community and had plenty of interest in the events we have coming up this week. In regards to the free goodies, the koozies were the first to go, followed by the brownies and chocolate chip cookies, naturally.

USCFW Kickoff 2016

Later on tonight Fashion Board hosted a night at the McKissick Museum on the Horseshoe exploring the evolution of the T-shirt and the role that cotton plays in retail's ever-changing supply chains. The Identi-Tee exhibit displays various T-shirts of all sorts of content and cultural background, as well as some of the stories behind them. The exhibit explores the relationship between people and T-shirts and how they play a critical role in the cultural aspects of the fashion and clothing industry. T-shirts are a national staple of wardrobes that express a person's beliefs, affiliations, experiences, and just about anything they want to express or recognize. They often feature logos, group titles, band names, event branding, political affiliations, or just prints for the sake of looking stylish. They have evolved from a labor-class uniform, into an undergarment, into a symbol of rebellion, into an everyday piece of clothing that 70% of men and 54% of women own more than ten of. Speaking from personal experience, as a collector of band and artist T-shirts, I own at least fifteen in just that category. It is no surprise that T-shirts are one of the most widely-owned pieces of clothing, and tonight we got the rundown on how they make if from fiber to consumer in the documentary Cotton Road.

Cotton Road is a documentary about the unusually mysterious process of how clothing evolves from South Carolina cotton into a product of Chinese factories and then back to America for distribution and sale. I'm sure right now if you go to your closet and pick out a random article of clothing and look at the label it will likely say "Made in (insert country in Asia)". This is due to the outsourcing of labor by United States manufacturers to nations like China where the labor and production is far less expensive than the tangles of regulations and wage and conditions standards here in America. Unfortunately, most consumers do not consider this supply chain and who made their clothing under what circumstances which is an issue that deserves attention. The creator of Cotton Road, Laura Kissel, spent years making the documentary and collecting research for her project from workers and their stories in textile factories in China. She came tonight to discuss with the audience after the screening and answered questions about her research. Many audience members were unsettled by the outsourcing of labor to unprotected workers in countries like China. Those looking for work most often find it in the cities with textile factories that do not often keep up with American standards of workplace conditions and employee treatment. These factories, often under contract labor, make these workers work excessively long days with very few days off. These issues that go along with cheap labor abroad are the result of American retailers wanting to sell their clothing for lower prices, so the supply chain has to cut costs. There was a great discussion about companies that are beginning to form to create some kind of supply chain transparency such as sourcemap.com and zady.com. 

An important takeaway from this presentation and Laura Kissel's talk was that in order to combat the unfair treatment of workers in contract labor abroad is to become a more conscious consumer. We should value quality over quantity and steer away from excessive consumption of fast fashion in order to pay a little more for nicer clothes that will last longer and that were produced by a supply chain of fair, clean, transparent workers and companies. 

Fashion Board would like to thank everyone who participated in Kickoff today as well as McKissick Museum and its curators and a special thanks to Laura Kissel for leading such a great discussion of her documentary tonight! Don't forget, tomorrow night in the Russell House Theater will be the USC Fashion Week Symposium! Mila Grigg, CEO of MODA Image & Brand Consulting will be coming to speak on how brand, image, and fashion are pivotal to professional success and progression in all career paths! The doors open at 6:45pm and the event begins at 7pm. Come listen to some great advice for personal and professional development and networking!