Following the Bangladesh building disaster, the Guardian produced an ethical guide to the High Street. We’ve added a few thoughts of our own.

Knowledge is power, so they say. And in the world of fashion things can be so confusing it’s hard to know who the good guys and bad guys are.

Thankfully The Guardian have come along to share their thoughts with us. Their excellent guide on ethical shopping on the High Street, provides some pearls of wisdom. However we wanted to share a few more to help you make those important choices.

H&M
The Guardian says: Praise has been heaped on H&M for being the first to sign the legally binding Bangladesh Safety Accord. Once H&M led the way as the biggest player in Bangladesh, it became obvious other major brands would follow. H&M appears to have shown willingness to be more transparent and released a partial list of its suppliers. Campaigners want to see equally decisive action on paying a living wage to workers.

We say: A pretty decent summary of H&M by The Guardian. It’s important to note that while H&M have a number of green initiatives, they are still slow to progress human rights. The Clean Clothes Campaign raised this point beautifull in their recent Unconscious Collection advert spoof.

Top Shop/Arcadia
The Guardian says: It is widely acknowledged that Topshop has many good people with an appetite for ethical change; there have been some interesting ethical design collections from Topshop. However, the analysts I spoke to couldn’t separate Topshop from parent company Arcadia. Arcadia had not signed the Bangladesh accord at the time of going to press, and never joined the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) – considered the first step to cleaning up the supply chain.

We say: Top Shop have also failed to sign the Cotton Pledge, regarding the use of Uzbekistan cotton, widely known to be rife with child exploitation. The company have also been blasted by groups like UK Uncut for avoiding millions in tax.

Zara/Inditex
The Guardian says: Insiders suggest Inditex is a mixed bag. It scores strongly for having compensated the victims of the Spectrum factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2005, and is known for having good relationships with trade unions, particularly in Europe. However, it isn’t clear what proportion of its clothes are manufactured in Europe. Reformers argue that Inditex has a charge to answer in that it was one of the key drivers of the new, faster fashion and the short-termism that is often bad news for workers.

We say: Zara recently redeemed themselves by promising to act on toxic dyes in their supply chain, following a campaign by Greenpeace. However just weeks later they were blasted in a slavery scandal in Argentina. Yet again a brand acts on environmental issues while sweeping human rights under the carpet.

M&S
The Guardian says: Has a plan (“Plan A” in fact) and is praised by reformers for pushing forward without waiting for crises. It is known for stable, long-term relationships with supplier factories.

M&S is the only major retailer to have committed to ensuring its suppliers are able to pay workers a living wage in the least-developed countries, starting with Bangladesh, India and Sri Lanka by 2015. But campaigners said they don’t yet know what M&S considers a living wage to be. They also want to see less emphasis on making garment workers more productive in return for better wages, and more emphasis just on better wages. M&S has signed the Bangladesh accord.

We say: Last year’s slavery scandal involving M&S did little to earn our love or trust of the company. It also throws any agreement about a living wage into serious doubt. While they have worked with the Indian Government to improve conditions for those working in apprenticeships, there are still serious black holes in their supply chain.

George at Asda (Walmart)
The Guardian says: Walmart, owner of Asda, has worked on raising wages for garment workers, particularly after being singled out by campaign groups such as War on Want. This work tended to focus on increasing productivity.

Campaigners suggest Walmart is ideologically opposed to unions. Walmart has not signed the Bangladesh agreement, but will conduct its own inspections of suppliers.

We say: Walmart tends to be a little off the radar for most Brits, despite it owning one of our major supermarket chains. However in the US campaigners are hot on its trail. Although the company has made some moves to improve its supply chain, labour rights groups remain skeptical.

>> Is there anything we’ve missed? If you have information about a brand, good or bad, then let us know in the comments section below.

>> Finding this all a bit depressing? Then check out our directory for brands that do good.

Photo: Mad Lunatic

Our craftivist in residence, Vicky Haynes, takes us on a step-by-step to upcycling. This week she guides us through turning a tired men’s shirt into a gorgeous skirt.

Here at Ms. Wandas Wardrobe, it’s true that we love fabulous, ethically produced fashion that has minimal impact on the environment. But we’re also quite keen on recycling, upcycling and turning waste into wonders.

This is why we’ve decided to introduce a new series of posts covering crafty DIYs, from making your own clothes and accessories, to upcycled homewares. We’ll be showing you how to make fabulous things from the most unlikely of sources.

This week, we’re upcycling a mens shirt into a fabulous decorated skirt.

You will need

• One mans shirt – the size depends entirely on your size, height and the style of skirt you want. We used an extra large, for a fuller skirt, but if you wanted something slightly less voluminous, try a large or even a medium.
• Enough elastic to go around your waist.
• Embroidery thread, studs, beads or any other embellishments that you might fancy.
• A sewing machine with a zig-zag function (or you could do it by hand, if you’re extremely patient!).
• A good pair of dressmaking scissors.
• A crochet hook.
• A peg.
• An embroidery needle (or just one with a large eye).

1. Iron your shirt, and then button it up, and lay it out flat on a large surface, so there are no creases or bits sticking up.

2. Pin the bottom of the front and back together, and smooth outwards.

3. Measure the same length up each side, and make a mark – we did it just under each sleeve. This basically determines the length of your skirt. Draw a line to join both points together, to act as a guide for cutting.

4. Pin across, just above the line. This will make sure that the pieces stay together as you cut them, and you won’t end up cutting one side shorter than the other.

5. Cut straight across – you’ll now have the section you’re going to make into your skirt, and the top half with the collar and sleeves. Save this part – we can use it in another project!

6. Undo the buttons, and unpin the bottom. Open your shirt out and lay it flat on your work surface.

7. Turn the top over and hem, then turn it over again – this creates a neat edge, and also the tube that you’ll feed your elastic into, which ends up as the waistband. You can make it as wide or as narrow as you like, depending on how wide your elastic is – we used 5mm flat elastic.

8. Take your elastic and wrap it around your waist, so that it feels comfortable. Cut this length off and secure one end to your peg. This means that as you feed the elastic through the tube on the skirt, the end won’t disappear.

9. Secure the other end of the elastic to a crochet hook, and slowly feed through the waistband on your skirt.

10. As the skirt is made from a shirt, you’re going to discover that you can’t simply tie the elastic together to secure your waistband, as one side overlaps the other. Keeping both the peg and the crochet hook attached to your elastic, do the buttons up on the skirt and set your sewing machine to a zig-zag stitch – we used the closest zig-zag on the machine, for extra security.

11. Lay the skirt flat, and simply sew over the elastic – this will fasten both the elastic down, and the waistband shut. Pull the ends of the elastic taught, and snip – it will sort of disappear inside the waistband, and then won’t fray.

12. Lastly comes the best part – the decoration. We used a simple embroidery stitch to brighten up the front, but you could use studs, fabric paint, beads or ribbon – the only limitation is your imagination!

Have you tried making an upcycled skirt? Share you efforts with us in the comment section below.

How far would you go to have eco-friendly fashion? We explore the darker side of upcycling.

We’re all for recycle, reduce and reuse, but sometimes things can be taken a step too far. Mother Nature Network have compiled a rather brilliant, but slightly scary slide show of upcycled fashion.

There’s 14 delightful designs on offer. Which ones make your skin crawl the most? For us it’s a tie between the teeth rings and the bacterial jacket.

>> For slightly more sensible eco fashion choices visit our ethical fashion directory

Despite pledges to compensate the victims of the building disaster in Bangladesh, no long term plans have been agreed. This must change because this can’t happen again.

The disaster in Bangladesh shows how much has gone wrong with our fashion industry. And while there have been pledges by Primark to compensate the victims, they still have not made any promises to review the way they operate.

So far their promise is nothing more than aid. But we need much more than aid. We need fundamental changes to operations, and that means more money and time spent on sorting these problems.

Sign the petition demanding companies invest a minimum of 1% into solving the problems in their supply chain.

If we do not get these promises a disaster like this will happen again.

So please sign the petition and let companies like Primark know things have to change. We also have some banners and avatars you can download and use on your Facebook and Twitter pages to tell others you support change.

>> Download our Facebook banner (right click to save the image to your desktop)

>> Download our Twitter avatar (right click to save the image to your desktop