Peter Nygard, Disgraced Fashion Designer, Faces Trial in Toronto

Health Advice

October 2, 2023admin

Peter Nygard, Disgraced Fashion Designer, Faces Trial in Toronto

The News

Prosecutors in Canada began laying out their case on Tuesday in a Toronto courtroom against Peter Nygard, the founder of a fashion empire, two years after he was charged with sex crimes by Canadian police.

Mr. Nygard, 82, has pleaded not guilty to five counts of sexual assault and one count of forcible confinement involving five women in accusations that date back as far as the 1980s.

Prosecutors described a bedroom suite in Mr. Nygard’s Toronto headquarters that they said was used to abuse victims.

“It has a giant bed and a stone Jacuzzi, with a bar and doors, doors with no handles and a keypad-operated lock, controlled by Peter Nygard,” one prosecutor, Ana Serban, told the jury.

Mr. Nygard, prosecutors said, often played pornography on a television in the room.

Mr. Nygard has denied the allegations through his lawyers’ statements to the media. His defense team had yet to offer its opening statement.

The women whom prosecutors say Mr. Nygard abused are expected to testify, though their identities will be hidden by court-imposed publication bans to protect victims of sexual assault.

Mr. Nygard was once one of the most notable names in the fashion world, who had luxury homes, a private jet and hosted parties after the Academy Award ceremony before his business and his reputation crumbled in the face of mounting accusations that he used his wealth and fame to abuse multiple women.

The Background

The case in Toronto is the first trying Mr. Nygard on the many sexual assault accusations he faces.

In December 2020, federal prosecutors in Manhattan — where Mr. Nygard’s company had offices and a store near Times Square — charged him with sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and other crimes in the United States, Canada and the Bahamas.

The nine-count indictment accuses

…

Health Advice

September 30, 2023admin

What Uganda’s war on second-hand clothes means for fashion

Editor’s Note: This story is part of CNN Style’s ongoing project, The September Issues: A thought-provoking hub for conversations about fashion’s impact on people and the planet. It was originally published by The Business of Fashion, an editorial partner of CNN Style.

CNN
—

In 2018, fashion designer Bobby Kolade moved from Berlin back to Uganda’s capital Kampala with the ambition of creating a home-grown fashion brand using Ugandan cotton.

Things didn’t work out quite the way he imagined. Though the raw material is one of the country’s key export crops, Uganda’s textile industry has struggled since the 1970s. The country had just two textile mills that could process cotton fabrics.

ENTEBBE, KAMPALA DISTRICT, UGANDA - SEPTEMBRE 21: Second hand clothes to sell in a local market on Septembre 21, 2018 in Entebbe, Kampala district, Uganda. (Photo by Camille Delbos/Art In All of Us/Corbis via Getty Images)

So Kolade turned to something that was available in abundance: second-hand clothes. In his Kampala studio, old clothes are washed, picked apart and transformed into paneled dresses and patchworked sweats for his Buzigahill brand. Under his tongue-in-cheek “Return to Sender” concept, those designs are then sold back to the countries that originally discarded them.

It’s a subversive move designed to highlight and reclaim a local clothing industry that has suffered from a flood of second-hand clothes and cheap imported textiles from countries like Turkey and China.

But Kolade’s efforts to build a new kind of fashion ecosystem operates on the fringes of a broader and increasingly politically fraught global debate over what happens to fashion’s growing waste footprint, and who ends up paying for it.

The politics of second-hand fashion

Late last month, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni announced a plan to ban used clothing imports to the East African country in a speech, saying the trade stifles the development of the local textile industry.

“I have declared war on second-hand clothes to promote African wear,” the President said during the opening of 16 factories at an industrial park

…

Health Advice

September 29, 2023admin

Forever fashion: the art and craft of making clothes with lasting appeal | Fashion

‘Mending lets you see things afresh’: Celia Pym, textile artist

Growing up in Kent in a house full of doers, menders and makers, the textile artist Celia Pym says, “Tool kits were readily available and there was a designated drawer for elastic bands and odd lengths of string that were saved for bodge fixes.” She learned to weave and knit as a child, a skill that later re-emerged when she was studying sculpture at Harvard University.

“I picked up knitting again when I was an undergraduate,” she recalls. “I used it as a way to help me get started in the studio in the morning – like a warm-up exercise. But then, I’d get to the end of the day and realise I’d spent my whole day knitting.” In her final year, she received a fellowship that enabled her to travel across Japan for nine months carrying her knitting with her in her backpack. Pym’s finished piece was exhibited at the Crafts Council in 2005. The curator was a tutor at the Royal College of Art who persuaded Pym to enrol on an MA in constructed textiles.

While she was studying, Pym’s great uncle, Roland, died. He was a painter who had lived with Celia in her childhood home along with her great-aunt, Elizabeth, who would become “a huge influence” on her making. When sorting through Roland’s belongings, Pym’s father found a chunky, hand-knitted sweater worn by Roland. “The clothes of people who have died are extremely compelling things,” says Pym. “They smell like the person; they’re the shape of the person and they are literally a sort of second skin that is left behind.”

Pym studied the cream sweater, which was riddled with holes. “I knew straight away that the holes in the forearms were caused by the way

…

Health Advice

September 26, 2023admin

Western NY clothing line joins rise of gender-fluid fashion

Michael and Josean Vargas-Rodriguez have been in the fashion industry for over a decade and started by making accessories from their 700-square-foot apartment.

“Luci and Dona naturally evolved about five years ago where a lot of our queer family were seeking someone to make clothing for them or just have someone fit something for them that was understanding of the special needs of both Trans and queer individuals,” said Michael Vargas-Rodriguez, co-owner of Luci and Dona Boutique on Monroe Avenue in Rochester.

The brand Luci and Dona was inspired by their drag names and now their gender-fluid clothing business has evolved into something much bigger with a new storefront location.

“What really inspired us to create this space was our own need to be creative and be open and have a space where we could be ourselves,” said Josean.

“We realized we really wanted to be more visible especially today with a lot of anti-drag, anti-trans issues going on nationally, internationally as well, so it was really important to not be so hidden anymore,” said Michael.

A survey last year by Klarna and Dynata found that the United States is leading the way with gender-fluid fashion with 36% of U.S. consumers that purchased fashion outside of their gender identity in 2022 but there is still work to be done.

“Like right now the programs that I’m using to create some of the patterns that I want won’t let me use measurements unless I say I’m using a female or a male body,” Josean said. “A body is a body and a pattern is a pattern, you know, it doesn’t matter how the person identifies as long as it fits the right, your waist your chest and your hips.”

And they want to show the community that fashion doesn’t have to

…

Health Advice

September 25, 2023admin

Analysis: Shein vows to cut clothing waste, but can the ultra-fast fashion brand really change its spots?

Ultra-fast fashion brand Shein second only to Inditex in revenue, churning out thousands of new designs a day
Shein scored 7 out of 100 on Fashion Revolution’s latest Transparency Index
Campaigners see Shein as prime contributor to millions of waste textiles sent to Global South
In response it has set up a fund to help countries manage clothing waste, and is trialling peer-to-peer exchanges to enable customers to sell used clothes
Brand says waste from unsold clothes is in single digits, and has partnered with with Queen of Raw to rescue excess fabrics

August 24 – Sales of $10 tops and $15 dresses have sent the value of Shein, the Chinese-owned brand selling ultra-fast fashion to the West, soaring since it launched in 2017 in the U.S.

Churning out thousands of new designs a day, Shein has a direct selling model that targets its millions of social media followers.

The privately owned company, which is in talks with investment banks about a potential U.S. initial public offering, according to Reuters, is valued at more than $60 billion.

In February, the Financial Times reported that Shein, headquartered in Singapore, made $22.7 billion in revenues last year, on a par with H&M, though below industry leader Inditex, which owns Zara. And Shein has no intention of slowing down, targeting revenues to more than double to $58.5 billion in 2025.

Although another Chinese company with a similar model, Temu, is snapping at Shein’s heels, Shein is squarely in the sites of environmental campaigners, who see it as a prime contributor to the mountains of discarded waste textiles exported to countries in the Global South.

According to U.S./Ghanaian not-for-profit Or Foundation, one destination for waste textiles is Kantamanto second-hand market in Accra, which receives 15 million new garments a week. It says 40% end

…

Health Advice

September 24, 2023admin

‘They’re meaningless’: why women’s clothing sizes don’t measure up | Fashion

In my wardrobe, I have a long Cos dress with a label that reads XS. A similar style from Doen is labelled M – theoretically a whole two sizes up, while a Topshop dress that always feels a little on the large side is labelled a 6. Weird. A vintage mini that I can’t get on without undoing the zip is a 14, and two Asos denim jumpsuits are an 8 and a 10 respectively – and don’t even get me started on jeans. Despite this, all these clothes fit just fine.

The size and shape of my body has remained more or less the same for years – it’s the ability to know whether or not a purchase will fit that has fluctuated. Ask any woman, and they’ll tell you that finding the perfect T-shirt in, say, a size 10 from one brand doesn’t mean you’ll fit size 10 T-shirts everywhere. You may not even fit other size 10 T-shirts from the same shop. What’s behind this sizing debacle?

In the UK, more than a fifth of all clothes bought online are sent back. According to the British Fashion Council, incorrect sizing or fit was the top reason for returns (93%). Whenever I return a purchase, retailers want to know why. Was an incorrect item received? Was it damaged? Did I order more than one size? Or did the size ordered not fit? Usually, for me, it’s the latter.

“I think it would be better to get rid of sizes 10, 12, 14, 16 – they’re meaningless,” says Simeon Gill, senior lecturer in fashion technology at the University of Manchester. “Let’s move into a bust, waist, hip system – that’s essentially what online retail is doing. It’s just that it’s also retained this outmoded idea of 10,

…

Health Advice

September 23, 2023admin

Catholic Fashion Designer Enters the Convent After Co-Creating Modest Clothing Line

Olivia and Veronica dreamed of creating a Catholic clothing brand for women.

Shortly before seeing that dream come true, one of them felt a different calling: a vocation to religious life.

Olivia recently made her temporary vows with the Dominican Sisters of Hawthorne.

Litany, the Catholic clothing brand they founded, shared their recent reunion at Olivia’s (currently Sister Maria Dominique) first profession of vows.

Although both founders grew up on opposite sides of the United States, their search for a faith community united their paths.

“What started as a friendship over Christ, coffee, and conscious clothing, soon blossomed into a business idea as they both experienced the problems facing the fashion industry first-hand,” the brand stated on its website.

The company’s Instagram also listed the path both young women took on their journey: fabric shopping in college, their participation in a panel on modest fashion which inspired the company’s creation, opening a bank account for Litany, their first photo shoot, and Olivia joining religious life.

“Litany is possible because of [Sister Maria Dominique’s] generous, artistic soul,” the post says. “Knowing she was entering religious life, she still poured her heart into laying the foundation and making our first collection with Veronica. We are so joyful today. Please join us in praying for her as she lives out her vocation!”

Sister Maria Dominique studied fashion design at Parsons School for Design – The New School and created a collection inspired by the Sorrowful Mysteries for her thesis. Currently, she spiritually supports the brand through her prayer.

A Clothing Brand Focused on Drawing the Soul to God

On its website, Litany stated that its mission is “to offer women beautifully tailored, ethically manufactured, and functionally sustainable garments.”

“We believe you are more than just a body; you’re a

…

Health Advice

September 22, 2023admin

Meghan Markle Style – Photos of Meghan Markle’s Best Fashion Moments

Every item on this page was chosen by a Town & Country editor. We may earn commission on some of the items you choose to buy.