Fashion News Alert: Lochte Loses Endorsements, Alber Elbaz Heads to Oscar de la Renta, Myanmar Factories Employ Underage Workers, and Professor Tyra Banks

Image courtesy of zimbio.com

Swimwear manufacture Speedo as well as Ralph Lauren have dropped sponsorships and endorsements for Olympic gold medal swimmer Ryan Lochte amid his false statements involving vandalism and false claims that he was held a gunpoint and robbed by police during the Rio Olympics. Lochte will also lose endorsement deals with Airweave and Gentle Hair.

“While we enjoyed a winning relationship with Ryan for over a decade and he has been an important member of the Speedo team, we cannot condone behaviour that is counter to the values this brand has long stood for. We appreciated his many achievements and hope he moves forward and learns from this experience,” the Speedo statement read.

Ralph Lauren said in a statement: “Ralph Lauren continues to proudly sponsor the US Olympic and Paralympic Team and the values that its athletes embody. Ralph Lauren’s endorsement agreement with Ryan Lochte was specifically in support of the Rio 2016 Olympics and the company will not be renewing his contract.”

Since the incident Ralph Lauren has pulled Lochte’s image from their website and social media pages.

Image courtesy of notorious-mag.com

Alber Elbaz’s new gig, well maybe

According to reports in Italian newspaper MFFashion, Alber Elbaz is set to join Oscar de la Renta as creative director in time for the fall 2018 collections. Since Peter Copping left his position as creative head of the iconic brand a little over two months ago there has been a frantic search for a suitable reports.

There have been rumors that Anna Wintour was instrumental in getting all parties at the negotiating table when it came to choosing the next creative director of Oscar de la Renta. Wintour has been a loyal fan of Elbaz’s work while he was the creative director of Lanvin from 2001 to late in 2015. Though neither Elbaz nor Oscar de la Renta have confirmed the appointment, inside sources contend it is a done deal!!

Image courtesy of timeinc.com

Just call me Professor Banks

Who would have thought that teaching models how to smize or giving aspiring models runway advice could lead to a teaching job at Stanford? Well, it has, especially if you are Tyra Banks.

For two weeks during Stanford University’s spring semester Banks will co-teach an MBA level course on marketing and personal branding. Alison Kluger, Stanford University’s business management professor, contacted Banks after hearing her speak at a previous Stanford event.

Accord to Tyra Banks syllabus she will cover branding in old and new media, dealing with the press, and how to protect your brand.

Image courtesy of mmbiztoday.com

Get them while they’re young

Post the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013, leading retailers and manufacturers around the world pledged to improve the working conditions of millions of garments workers. Some substantive changes have been made, such as some wage increases and shorter workdays. However, when one country improves working conditions, retailers will move their factories to countries where the working conditions are inhuman. Myanmar, formerly Burma, is one such country.

The book Modeslavar details the inhuman working conditions of garment workers in Mynamar where 14-year-old girls work up to 12 hours days, six days a week for some of the lowest documented wages. Though all these worker abuses violate the International Labor Organization (ILO) convention on child labor, which allows children as young as 14 to work in developing countries such as Myanmar, as long as it does not threaten their safety or health or affect their education, the abuses continue.

The two factories that are involved in these child labor violations are Myanmar Century Liaoyuan Knitted Wear and Myanmar Garment Wedge, and H&M is one of the factories clients. Other retailers include Marks & Spencer, Primark and New Look, C&A. and Gap.

In response to the allegations, H&M responded, “H&M does of course not tolerate child labor in any form” …. “It is of utmost importance to us that our products are made under good working conditions and with consideration to safety, health and the environment.”

—Staff