N.Y. Authorities Raid Alleged Sweatshop

NEW YORK — An investigation conducted by the New York State Department of Labor has uncovered significant labor violations at a factory manufacturing garments for Macy’s, Gap, Banana Republic, Express, Victoria’s Secret, Limited and Coldwater Creek.

 

Jin Shun Inc., a garment contractor operating out of Long Island City, in the borough of Queens, is alleged to have underpaid more than 100 mostly immigrant workers by nearly $3 million in minimum and overtime wages since 2005.

 

The investigation found that prior to 2005, Jin Shun Inc. operated under the name Venture 47 and allegedly withheld nearly $2.5 million in minimum and overtime wages.

 

Officials raided two factories this morning and tagged more than 10,000 garments with a label stating the garments were unlawfully manufactured.

 

Jin Shun contracted with a Manhattan-based manufacturer called Urban Apparel that has already paid $60,000 in underpayments to have the tags removed on the items tagged this morning.

 

The DOL’s Apparel Industry & Fair Wages Task Force found factory workers worked 12-hour days, often six or seven days a week. Employees were paid on a piece-rate basis and were instructed to fill out two time cards — one for Monday through Wednesday and a second card for theremainder of the week — ensuring that no more than 40 hours of work would show on any card. According to the timecards and the factory’s production, workers were completing an entire item of clothing in less than a minute. Investigators even found a question-and-answer sheet meant to coach workers on how to respond to labor investigators without raising suspicions.

 

By Ross Tucker

For complete coverage, see Thursday’s WWD.

U.S. Identifies $80M in Illegal China Transshipments

WASHINGTON – Trade officials said today they had identified more than 1,000 cargo containers of illegally transshipped apparel from China valued at $80 million that entered the U.S. in 2006 and 2007.

The goods, shipped from China but declared to be from 11 other countries, will be charged to China’s quotas. Ten apparel categories will be affected, including cotton knit shirts and cotton trousers. The shipments contained more than four million dozens of apparel from over 900 individual importations, according to trade officials.

Transshipments are defined as goods made in one country, but labeled as having originated in another country, usually with the intention of sidestepping quotas and tariffs.

The announcement was made by U.S. Customs & Border Protection, the Committee for the Implementation of Textile Agreements, a group chaired by the Commerce Department, and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative.

Farewell Yves Saint Laurent

Yves Saint Laurent, one of the greatest designers of the 20th century, died at his home in Paris on Sunday after a long illness. For more than 40 years, Saint Laurent captivated the world of fashion and beyond with an extraordinary repertoire marked by his unique color sense, provocative androgyny and passion for fantasy.

Funeral services for Yves Saint Laurent are scheduled for Thursday afternoon in Paris, with French President Nicolas Sarkozy expected to attend. Pierre Berge, the late designer’s longtime business partner, said the service is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the Eglise Saint-Roch at 296 Rue Saint Honore. Afterward, Saint Laurent will be incinerated, and his ashes will rest at his famous Majorelle Garden in Marrakech.

Yves Saint Laurent, one of the greatest fashion designers in history, died at his home late Sunday at 71 after a long battle with brain cancer. He had been bedridden recently and friends said in the last week he had been unable to eat or talk. Saint Laurent had been rarely seen over the last year, and even then he was wheelchair bound and weak. The legendary couturier passed away in the presence of Berge and longtime friend and muse Betty Catroux. Catherine Deneuve arrived shortly after he died, at 11:10 p.m. Paris time.

The designer’s health had been precarious throughout his life. At age 21, he burst onto the scene as the sensational new designer at Christian Dior, replacing the late Monsieur Dior himself. The bespectacled, shy, soft-spoken designer quickly became an icon — and would remain so for the next five decades.

Saint Laurent’s contributions to fashion were unquestioned — even if, in later years, many of his collections were considered repetitive of his signatures. In this century, only Dior, Coco Chanel, Cristobal Balenciaga and Karl Lagerfeld, his peer and rival, were said to be on the same plateau.

Saint Laurent’s grip on the world of fashion that if he made a slight change in a hemline or a subtle shift in a waistline, the repercussions rippled around the globe. At the minimum, fashion owes him credit for the invention of ready-to-wear through the launch in 1966 of his Rive Gauche collection. But there also were his iconic tuxedo suit “le smoking,” beatnik fashions, the use of safari jackets as a style statement for women and men, the Ballets Russes collection, his unparalleled sense of color combinations, the artistry of his cut, designer denim and the launch of a significant fragrance and beauty business with a designer name.

One of his newest designs :

Visa IPO - Biggest US IPO In American History

Visa IPO - Biggest US IPO In American History

Visa’s shares surged 28 percent in the first day of trading. Volume was heavy, with more than 175 million shares changing hands. Visa planned to sell as much as $17.1 billion of stock in late March, following in the footsteps of its smaller rival MasterCard, which went public in May 2006. The company sold 406 million shares in the offering, raising just under $18 billion. This is no surprise since Americans use plastic over paper now a days. How often do you pay with cash anymore?