No Logo: 10 years on

The international bestseller, ‘No Logo’ exposed the bitter truth behind global brands. A decade on, how has the fashion industry changed?

Uncovering the truth behind the brands, No Logo has become a cultural manifesto of the anti-globalisation movement since its publication in 1999. But has anti-capitalism thrived in the last decade? Or have consumers just got sucked in deeper?

The full article can be found at http://runninginheels.co.uk/articles/nologo/

If you haven’t read No Logo it’s well worth a look. It was published at a time when brands were booming, and an anti-consumerist movement was gearing up to fight back. It highlighted the issues behind the shiny exterior of well known global brands, particularly the people involved in sweatshop labour.

Writing this article was really interesting because it made me go back to the book and consider what had actually changed. I think branding is still hugely important and prevalent, but with the huge surge in value retailers like Primark, is it all that important to the consumer anymore? We’ve moved more into a society where people boast about their latest Primarni bargain, and sometimes names and logos are a bit naff.

Then there’s the issue with sweatshops. With huge companies manufacturing in hundreds of factories worldwide and holding the power to move to a different factory at the drop of a hat, it’s no surprise that the sweatshop culture grew. The question is, how much did the Western retailers really know? Or did they turn a blind eye? The media coverage of such practices in the last ten years has really put pressure on brands to buck their ideas up and many now have special teams responsible for ethics and corporate social responsibility. As I say at the end of the article, brands have a huge power over us as consumers; they should use that power for good, and communicate something worth knowing, like where our clothes really come from.