From woke to woeful: WORLD's explanation falls short
Tuesday, 8 May 2018
OPINION: There is only so far that utter arrogance will get you. On the other hand, arrogance will get you a long way.
If you're Denise L'Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper, it appears it will see you through seven years of selling New Zealanders mis-labelled t-shirts and sweats that claim to be made right here in Aotearoa - that's actually pronounced Nouvelle-Zelande, darling - when they're not.
It will stand you in good stead to trash high-street retailers that manufacture their clothing in China, Bangladesh, and other developing countries. It will see you build your brand story on being ethical, conscious, and loyal to the local garment industry, while selling clothes in your stores that are made in the exact countries you've been so earnestly bagging.
It will see you continue to deny that you've done anything wrong even as it's patently obvious that, with every word, you are digging yourself further into a hole of your own making.
**READ MORE:
* [Fashion label World clothing not entirely NZ-made
* WORLD's Denise L'Estrange-Corbet made Dame Companion of The New Zealand Order of Merit](https://www.stuff.co.nz/business/103679887/Fashion-label-World-clothing-not-entirely-NZ-made)
* Michelle Duff: Protest props and shallow slogans - the problem with activist chic**
On Monday, website The Spinoff broke the story that WORLD are attaching 'Fabrique en Nouvelle Zelande' - Made in New Zealand - cardboard swing tags to some clothes that are being made offshore. These tags are the ones you actually look at when you buy the item; they dangle on the outside.
Stitched on the inside - on the t-shirts, it's down the bottom - is the care label, which states the garment is manufactured by AS Colour in Bangladesh. This is the tag you might possibly look at, usually after you've taken the shirt home, washed it, and are wondering if putting it in the dryer will ruin it completely.
This is a potential breach of the Fair Trading Act, which states; 'No person shall, in trade, engage in conduct that is liable to mislead the public as to the nature, manufacturing process, characteristics, suitability for a purpose, or quantity of good.'
Given all this, it's difficult to understand why L'Estrange-Corbet didn't stop for a moment, take a breath, and think: 'Hey, maybe we should just take the hit here? Offer an apology, perhaps?'
Any half-lucid three-year-old who gets caught with their hand in the cookie jar knows it's best to put on their cutest face and give mummy a cuddle, rather than running towards her and smashing the cookie in her face repeatedly.
The offending sweats make up a small percentage of WORLD's clothing range. The high-end garments, from which WORLD has made its name, are manufactured here. It wasn't impossible to emerge from this with dignity and reputation intact.
Instead, L'Estrange-Corbet went full Cookie Monster. She barrelled down a dead-end street with Elmo and Oscar the Grouch, straight towards the special trash can reserved for tragic fashion brands who seemingly find it impossible to face the fact they've been duping at least some of their customers for years.
Denise! Are you listening to yourself? Are you actually trying to argue that because the cardboard tag is made in New Zealand, you're not being unscrupulous? Apparently so: 'The swing tag is not misleading, it is a tag that the prices are put onto, and yes, the tag is made in NZ!' (The Spinoff)
Then, later: 'It's just a tag that goes on with the price and the bar code, if I had known people were going to be misled by this, I would have taken it off. I would have thought the New Zealand public was a bit smarter than that'. (Checkpoint).
It is possible we're giving WORLD too much credit. It's possible they really, truly did not know that any customer would find these tags misleading. Maybe they thought we just wouldn't care.
Whether their actions were misleading, disrespectful or just plain stupid will be for time and the Commerce Commission to discern.
In the meantime, maybe they could look to truly woke New Zealand brands for inspiration. Who knows what WORLD could gain from designers like Ingrid Starnes, Aida Maeby, Children of Promise, Penny Sage, and Lela Jacobs.
C is for Cookie. It's never too late to learn.