"Dangerous, degrading, unprofessional and demeaning", all categories of work which are now forbidden by Equity's new code of conduct for models, could equally be the title for a model's memoirs. We frequently face little or no pay, no food, no privacy when changing and ridiculously long hours. The new code of conduct, which has been signed by Vogue, aims to make poor working conditions for models a thing of the past, promising no more than 10-hour days, food, water, breaks, insurance and transport – things that in most lines of work would be taken as a given. These all deal with basic

In their pursuit of an African voice, designers are often left stuttering when it dawns on them that simply being drawn to the continent, without substance, isn't quite enough. The mass clamour about how "so-and-so was inspired by Africa", together with a confusion between east and west African cloths and the question of whether it is a country or a continent, only adds to the general malaise. Animal print is another story. I use animal print all the time, as does Michael Kors; an instance of appropriation. There is no problem with appropriation, it's another word for inspiration; do we nee

  "Who invented clothes?" It's one of those brilliant questions that children ask, before they learn that the big things we wonder about rarely have simple answers. It's the kind of thing that archaeologists like me get put on the spot about when chatting to kids, and we love to have a crack at answering. Saturday's "Ask a grown up" section featured just that question, from eight-year old Harriet, with an answer by Hadley Freeman, fashion expert and fantastic writer. Hadley's response was, as usual, entertainingly breezy, with some refreshing encouragement to Harriet to experiment in de

Debenhams has become the first high street retailer to sign up to a new code of conduct for working conditions for models, with the chief executive, Michael Sharp, calling on others to follow suit. The decision to offer fair treatment to the women and men it uses in its advertising comes a month after Vogue also signed the 10-point plan agreed with the models' union Equity. Sharp said: "Fair treatment of everyone who models for us has always been a priority. The code firmly cements our ambition. We hope others follow our lead." Equity, known mainly for representing actors, said the rules

"What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing." Oscar Wilde's famous quote keeps coming back to me at the moment. I have thought of it over and over in the wake of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. More than 1,120 bodies were removed from the rubble of the eight-storey complex. For some, the Rana Plaza tragedy is a matter of criminality, and indeed there have been multiple arrests, including engineers who are alleged to have illegally added several shoddily constructed floors to the building, and the factory owner who is sai

I never felt I had my mother's love but it probably just seemed that way because my father showed it so eagerly. My earliest memory is of clinging to her legs and asking what I'd done wrong. I must have been about two years old. Glasgow was a great place to grow up – you couldn't be smug about anything, as you wouldn't get away with it. So that, coupled with my parents' openness and their desire for me to take my own direction, gave me strength and purpose. We had no money to speak of but had everything in respect of being inventive. The secret to combating bad energy is to bring

An international minimum wage, whether based on a percentage of the median country wage or on a rate set by international committees, could be destructive to emerging economies (A way to start healing the huge wound that Savar left, 13 May). Not only would such an initiative be costly to administer, but increased costs resulting from a higher minimum wage, and the corresponding incentive among producers to lower costs through automation, would reduce overall demand for labour in emerging economies. Not surprisingly, in the context of prevailing macroeconomic conditions and pent-up demand for

I cried when I saw the photograph (warning: graphic content). Two people, one holding the other with eyes closed and skin dusted grey. A single, devastating moment in a disaster killing more than a thousand workers. But if the death toll is a statistic then this scene is a personal statement. Tenderness personifies the tragedy, and it is unbearable. Their lifeless embrace is the visible consequence of a world where consumerism comes above basics like safe working conditions. It's the kind of image that echoes in the thoughts. It feels like it needs a response, an action, anything to make su

Eighties fashion gave us many things – batwings, shoulder-pads and big hair among them. Then there were style magazines, publications dedicated to the young and the cool, long before the word "hipster" entered the mainstream. Three launched in the UK in 1980 alone – the Face, which became known for a pop approach to fashion and closed in 2004, street style specialists i-D, still around and recently bought by Vice Media, and Blitz, a magazine set up by two Oxford students, Carey Labovitch and Simon Tesler. From the arty end of the spectrum, it documented the misfits populating clu

  At least eight of the UK's leading fashion retailers had last night failed to put their names to a legally binding initiative to offer financial support for fire safety and building improvements in the wake of the Bangladesh garment disaster. George at Asda, Next, Matalan, River Island, Sports Direct, Peacocks, Shop Direct and the Arcadia group – which includes Topshop, Bhs and Dorothy Perkins – all failed to meet a deadline set by NGOs and labour leaders to sign the pledge. The accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh, which has been signed by H&M, Primark,