Apparel manufacturers in the US are trying to adapt to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act with varying degrees of success at the moment. If you put CPSIA into google you get all kinds of information on the act that comes into force in February. My main source on the subject has been Fashion Incubator. Kathleen Fasanella is a pattern maker and has had a really consuming series of months as she has tried to explain why the legislation is so negative for businesses.

The reason I'm writing about this is it strikes me as something that should be understood by people who are interested in clothing internationally as it is clearly going to limit consumer choice. While everyone wants children to be safe the appropriate resources have to be provided when you bring in new legislation. If a government demands increased product testing it has to ensure that testing can be done at a reasonable price without bankrupting an industry. If that can't happen then legislation should be brought in step by step for different sections of an industry. If a government demands that more police should tackle drug crime it can't expect as much time on other types of crime or it has to provide money for policing, this is called common sense and the problem with the CPSIA is that it doesn't employ any.

Chalayan Exhibition

The Design Museum is currently showing an exhibition of Hussein Chalayan's work. The content of the exhibition is good, it has some pieces that can best be described as seminal and some newer work that I have never seen before and really liked. I felt that the space wasn't big enough though, I would have liked to sit down on a bench to contemplate the odd design and a little more division between exhibits would have allowed me more head space. If you've never seen any of Chalayan's pieces you should definitely take advantage of this opportunity.