Retailers sell products manufactured offshore at Westfield Carindale

Nina Sudnitsin
Mar 31, 2017
3 min read

Updated: Jun 9, 2020

An assessment piece written for my first Journalism subject

Luxury Australian retailers in Westfield Carindale have most of their products made offshore in comparison to local ethical fashion brands that are emerging as online labels in response to overseas manufacturing.

Most expensive brands have China-based production and manufacturing, says Adairs Carindale Store Manager Olga Dennett.

Companies such as the Australian brand Mimco and American shoe store Nine West that retail in Westfield Carindale have most of their products made in China.

"You can go to any expensive brands, it’s really expensive manufacturing. It’s the best equipment [that] can be, but it’s China-based. Good manufacturing is based in China" said Olga Dennett.

"Adairs is slightly different, we [stock] really traditional family businesses like MiniJumbuk… but the rest is mixed: China, India, some from Portugal," she said.

Olga Dennett has 30 years of retail experience, including her biggest retail role in Moscow as a regional manager with 150 shopping centres under her management. During the last five years in Australia, Olga Dennett has been a store manager at Australian label Mimco, Nine West and is currently a store manager for the homewares retailer Adairs at Westfield Carindale.

Westfield Carindale retailers such as Mimco and Nine West offer products manufactured offshore, therefore consumers cannot realise the effort that is invested in garments.

Appreciating the time and skill that goes into clothing is what influenced the approach of online fashion retailer THE M|N|ML, says co-owner and Marketing Director Desta Cullen.

THE M|N|ML is an emerging online fashion label that co-founders Desta Cullen and Safa Itote started due to their unsuccessful search in the Australian retail industry for affordable and well-made clothing from natural fabrics.

Ms Cullen said “well-made clothing has always been standard. Equally important, was the awareness of the time and skill that goes into making something that fits well and looks good.”

“We knew for certain that we didn’t want our business to negatively impact anyone or anything and the best path we saw for doing that was Australian-made, from GOTS certified organic cotton sourced from India.”

“The factory, based in Sydney, is Ethical Clothing Australia accredited, Fairtrade certified and the only Australian Certified Organic ‘cut, make, sew’ factory in Australia and we wholeheartedly trust that our supply chain is above board,” she said.

Increasingly this awareness is becoming a new differentiator for these highly ethical local brands such as THE M|N|ML that are using this as to attract new customers to whom locally made products are important.

While manufacturing onshore for THE M|N|ML ensures ethics are maintained, this year 42% of Australian fashion companies are investing in paying fairer wages to workers, says the “Ethical Fashion Guide” released by Baptist World Aid Australia this April.

The guide, which has allocated grades to fashion retailers since 2013 based on company policies, suppliers, supplier relationships and worker rights, stated that 31% of companies have begun to pay fairer wages to workers overseas.

Australian brands which retail in Westfield Carindale such as Cue and Mimco received grades of “B-” and “B+” respectively, reflecting the transparency of their policies and ethical compliance within the companies.

These brands are included in the 81% of Australian companies that are working to trace where their fabrics are coming from, and the 45% that are working to trace where their raw materials are coming from, the Fashion Guide states.

The ethical fashion guide is a report produced by the ‘Behind the Barcode’ project from Baptist World Aid Australia organisation, who aim to end poverty and challenge injustice in the fashion industry.

Figure 1: Westfield Carindale