Web Briefs

Kids fire risk
NATIONAL: Australian homewares and apparel retailer Lincraft has recalled a range of bath robes after authorities found they failed to comply with mandatory safety standards for children's nightwear. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has accepted several court enforceable undertakings from Lincraft and the producer of the bathrobes Cotton Dreams, because testing indicated the garments failed to qualify for fire hazard categories and posed a burn risk if worn. The two companies have conducted a voluntary product recall and agreed to destroy all non-compliant garments. Cotton Dreams will also implement a trade practices law compliance program while Lincraft will conduct an independent review of its existing program. 

Prize for Verge
NEW ZEALAND: Organisers of the Verge Breakthrough Designer Show, taking place as part of Air New Zealand Fashion Week from September 16 to 19, have announced that this year's winner will walk away with a $10,000 prize, dubbed the Verge Business Development Grant. The grant is a new addition to Verge's Breakthrough Designer Programme, which has been running for five years and has helped progress the careers of labels including Cybele, Adrian Hailwood, Lonely Hearts (formerly Lonely Hearts Club), Michael Pattison and Charmaine Love. The Programme will also continue to offer designers mentoring and support to show at Air New Zealand Fashion Week.

IP help for designers
NATIONAL: Fashion designers grappling with intellectual property law will be better served under a new regulatory scheme for patent and trade mark attorneys. Minister for Innovation, Industry, Science and Research, Senator Kim Carr has announced new changes to the way attorneys operate when advising industry. Under the new regulations, registered patent and trade mark attorneys will be required to undertake professional development activities each year to keep abreast of changes in the intellectual property field. "The intellectual property environment is always changing," Carr said. "It is important that innovators have access to professional services which keep pace with these changes. Continuing professional development is essential."

FGI panellists
SYDNEY: Fashion journalist Patty Huntington, Farage founder Joe Farage and eveningwear buff Matthew Eager will take to the stage at Fashion Group International's autumn/winter 2008/09 conference. The bi-annual event will kick off in Sydney on July 29 and follow in Melbourne on July 30. Vicious Threads founder Ivan Gomez will join Farage, Eager and Huntington as a guest panellist for the Sydney instalment, while Razak Design founder Razak Mohammed is confirmed to join Huntington and Gomez on the Melbourne panel. The conference and panel discussions are designed to offer audiences an insight into how international fashion trends relate to the local market.

Fabric fall out
NEW ZEALAND: Trelise Cooper has been ordered to pay nearly $NZ200,000 (around $A160,000) to a former supplier. The Kiwi fashion designer has been given a deadline of August 1 to pay NZ$184,877 to Cooper Watkinson Textiles, a company formerly co-owned by her husband Jack Cooper. According to reports in New Zealand newspaper The Herald on Sunday, the dispute arose over fabric supplied by Cooper Watkinson to Trelise Cooper, who claimed it was "shoddy". However New Zealand's High Court claimed while the fabric may have been unsuitable it was "not arguable that the fabric was of unmerchantable quality". The High Court issued a judgment warning that if Cooper did not pay by August 1, Cooper Watkinson could apply to put her company into liquidation. At the time of writing, Cooper was understood to have filed a counter-claim for $NZ293,000 and was planning to appeal the judgment.