Overheard

"In my experience it is absolutely certain that if you are buying a cheap unbranded mannequin [then] you are buying a product made in an inferior factory whose processes would not meet best pratice standards. As in all retail, cheap usually does mean nasty."

Storeworks general manager Graeme McPherson comments on the low end of the Asian mannequin industry.

"This isn't a job that anyone with an education would do. If you do this job for long enough you will get cancer."

OS & H would not be impressed. "Max" the owner of a Chinese mannequin making factory pulls no punches when describing the dangers his workers face in attempting to earn a living.

"This is a $14 billion industry if you factor in how many fashion retailers are now developing their own product; it's bigger than the auto industry."

RMIT fashion head Keith Cowlishaw responds to claims there "is no [fashion manufacturing] industry" in Australia.

"Over the past three years Australian designers have gained a foothold in the highly competitive and complex US market. This has resulted in more than 25 designers recording export sales valued at $6 million."

Austrade New York-based senior trade commissioner Gerard Seeber puts a dollar value on living proof that Australian fashion exports amount to much more than Akubra hats.