As countries like Bangladesh move up the food chain from aid to trade, the global eco-system fueling the fire, literally and figuratively, is largely the retail fashion industry, feeding the western world’s insatiable appetite for fashion. 

The November 24th factory blaze that killed 112 garment workers in an illegal factory in Bangladesh showed the world, as Reuters puts it, that “pressure from big Western brands to produce huge volumes of apparel fast and at rock-bottom prices, [is making] Bangladeshi suppliers routinely sub-contract their orders.”

As the victims — many of them young women and mothers, all of them poor — are mourned and the Clean Clothes Campaign organizes vigils at C&A and beyond as part of a bigger shame campaign for brands whose labels were found in the ashes, what’s really on trial, as the New York Times points out in a scathing article today, is ethical sourcing and a severely out-of-balance equation claiming the lives of impoverished workers with no options.Continue reading...

Wikileaks spoofed Mastercard's "Priceless" campaign this week. Watch the spot below, along with new perfume commercials featuring Scarlett Johansson and Christina Aguilera, plus place branding with a twist and more.Continue reading...

As reported by brandchannel, the famous fashion brand Tommy Hilfiger was recently rumored to be up for sale, and the likely buyer was rumored to be Phillips-Van Heusen.

Well it's official. Yesterday Phillips-Van Heusen, which already owns such brands as Arrow, Calvin Klein, and Izod, indeed announced it was acquiring the eponymous Tommy Hilfiger brand for about $3 billion in cash and stock.

Emanuel Chirico, Phillips-Van Heusen's chief executive, says this is "a unique opportunity to bring together two premier companies, each with iconic brands." The move also gives the company access to bigger distribution of its brands in Europe, since over half of Hilfiger's business is Europe-based.Continue reading...

The sale of Tommy Hilfiger, a leading premium fashion brand, may occur within weeks, reports the New York Post. The likely buyer? None other than Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation (PVH), which already owns an impressive stable of fashion brands, including Arrow, Bass, Calvin Klein, Izod, and Van Heusen.

Tommy Hilfiger went from a public to a private company in 2006 when it was purchased by equity firm Apax Partners. Of course, that was before the global economic meltdown pummeled retail brands.Continue reading...