Fashion

https://www.instagram.com/p/B-Y6STxD--I/?igshid=1soacrqir1awz

On the subject of French Labourer jackets.

got a link?

Here you go: https://bronsonshop.com/collections/jackets-coats

I've wanted to order something from them for a while, as I do like the appeal of paying a quarter of the price of a Buzz or McCoy's piece. But at those prices I've always thought that someone, somewhere is getting fucked over and I don't know how I feel about that.

However, it now states: 'made in our own studio' and the only address listed is in Stansted. Company listed is Middle Bridge Ltd who also seem to own 'yearnshoes.com'. So it's obviously not a studio in the UK.

The site's owner is: Luoyang Luoyi Trading Co.Ltd.

I have no issues with buying something made in China, but when it's that cheap - it doesn't give me a good feeling.

piece

@fizzy.bleach

someone, somewhere is getting fucked

The marketing department.

Have some A vontade gear and confirm it is lovely stuff.

If the quality is good on these the prices are unbelievable

Seems to be heaps of these around: https://www.reddit.com/r/rawdenim/comments/65vu9e/good_taobao_brands/

You're buying straight from source. If you buy something from Gymshark for £29.99 which costs £6 to make, would you feel bad buying from the factory for £7.50?

Dont mean to come across obvious but at those prices the people selling the clothes are fine - the factory workers are the people in this you wanna feel for but lets not open up that can of worms..

the factory workers are the people in this you wanna feel for

Sorry - those are the people I was talking about. Appreciate buying direct is cheaper. But yes, that is another can of worms. The more I look into every day products like toiletries and cleaning products, the more I find out prison labour in the U.S. creates those products. Very hard to avoid at times.

You might be buying directly from a factory but you aren’t buying from the factory that the actual brands use.

They could still be great factories with good standards for their workers but the price difference definitely isn’t just cutting out marketing spend / brand hype.

Probably not an outfit most of you would wear but in made my afternoon today, on the towpath under the Westway just past Meanwhile Gardens

1 Attachment

need more info here but it's a very tasty lead.

what is 'buzz' and 'mccoy's'?

recreationists

Maybe, maybe not. the Chinese factory thing is really hard to know and varies so massively that it’s impossible to say.
The above types of clothes I don’t know enough about how the branded versions are made, where and which materials. Which is why I used Gymshark as an example.

Only way to say is buy something a see if you’re happy with the quality - which @jv seemed to indicate was ok.

Ethical stuff is just gonna be waaaaay more expensive. It’s a lot of the reason why a brand like Noah’s T-shirt’s are 50$ a pop but they’re pretty transparent with this. I don’t think lots of other brands can say that

Food and clothing and many other items are artificially cheap these days. When I can I try to buy from (so-called) first world countries. It requires more research than just that, but that's often my starting point. So many parts of things are made in multiple countries and then assembled somewhere else so it all gets real complicated real quickly. Bottom line I'm trying to buy less.

Yeah if the quality is there and people are happy with buying it from a relatively unaccountable source then go for it. It’s not like western brands all have amazing transparency so it’s impossible to say one is better/worse than the other.

For me these direct from factory brands are basically fakes / replicas, not saying that’s inherently bad but I don’t think they deserve much reputation beyond that.

I don't think buying from "first world countries" is always a guarantee that you're getting a more ethically made product though. For example I know that Gildan make (or made, I haven't looked into it for a while) a lot of their t-shirts etc in the US but the people making the shirts are prisoners paid pennies an hour, so effectively slave labour. I'd rather buy a t shirt from a company that pays closer to a living wage in a developing country than one that relies on slave labour from a more developed country.

I don’t think the prices are that cheap that I automatically assume they’re made unethically but it did worry me too. The thing is so much stuff is made in China and we don’t really have any idea about the conditions for the workers.

On the plus side, Bronson and Bob Dong (another brand) have been set up by aficionados of the scene and it’s mainly aimed at the Chinese market. I don’t think it’s mass produced to be a huge money spinner.

Certainly cheaper than other brands, interestingly I have this T-shirt branded as YMC bought from Oi-Polloi about 8 years ago. Identical shirt, but I paid around £50 for mine.

https://bronsonshop.com/collections/t-shirts-undershirts/products/bronson-rare-indigo-series-railroad-watch-pocket-t-shirt

Aren't all of these things replicas? They're repro ww2 stuff etc whether it has a Buzz Rickson tag in the neck or not.

If someone had posted a LV handbag then yeah you're buying a fake/rep but these designs dont have copyright and I can't see a disclosure about where the more expensive branded versions are made. I don't think they're made in US/EU @JB might know better

I'm not against any of these Taobao labels who are influenced by / copying bigger brands and I can see why people would buy them especially given that the quality on a lot of the stuff seems great. My point was that this isn't a case of buying direct from the factory and saving on bloated marketing and branding costs as a result.

Taobao is a market place full of everything from straight up knock offs, things that are 'inspired by' other brands and I'm sure some genuine small brands doing their own thing. I'm not saying any of these options are bad but the lines between them can get pretty blurry on platforms like Taobao.

TLDR - buy the stuff or don't buy it, some people will be happy with what's on offer and others won't.

That's where my third sentence comes in.

It requires more research than just that, but that's often my starting point.