From Field to Shelf

The fashion industry is multifaceted: manufacturing, sourcing, design, merchandising, and consumerism, to name just a few examples....

America celebrated its Independence Day on July 4th. Well, yippee. It's challenging to get too excited about traditional American...

When I was a kid (a long time ago, in a country far, far away), I was taught that over-population was inevitable. There was some vague...

With the pandemic weighing so heavily on our industry, I got to thinking if there were lessons from the past that could help illuminate...

A boat blocked the Suez Canal. Global trade ground to a halt. Huh? After all, accidents will happen; that's nothing new. But the Suez...

It seems that a vaccine for the Covid-19 virus may be available soon. Well, it couldn't come too soon. A year's worth of devastation...

(Co-Authored with Fashion+Sustainability advisor, Thomasine Dolan Dow.) As Americans, we're concerned that the presidential transition...

Oddly enough, when writing this month's column, I originally intended to discuss likely economic recovery scenarios and how those could...

Anecdotal evidence suggests that consumer demand for mass-market jeans has plummeted during the Covid pandemic. In contrast, demand for...

For most of July, I worked closely with one of my clients, Vidalia Mills, to install five automated mask-making machines. During that...

(Co-Authored with April Kappler, consultant to the cotton and textile supply chain.) Thomas Hobbes, the 17th Century English philosopher,...

We live in such difficult times. It's like the world has been turned upside down. What worked before is now failing. Darkness has...

In the famous 1976 movie "Network," a distraught fictional American television news presenter, Howard Beale, had a breakdown on live TV....

Two recent articles left me wondering about where our world, let alone our industry, will end up once the Covid-19 pandemic eases. The...

Are we witnessing the end of globalization? The simple answer is no. But, there is a more nuanced answer that I'd like to suggest:...

Allow me to begin this column with an apology: I’m now going to sound like an economics wonk. Yikes. Economics. Growth rates, GDP, trade...

Having worked in the cotton business for many years, one of the things I’ve noticed about various clothing brands when pressed about...

Years may change, but some things stay the same. For sure, many of the problems we faced as an industry last year still plague us at the...

Have you ever wondered why so many companies in our supply chains like to talk about how much water they've saved or how little energy...

In case you hadn't noticed, our industry is changing. For many companies, extended supply chains are out; sustainability is in. Cheap is...