Clothing quality coming apart at the seams
- Source: Global Times
- [09:03 April 12 2011]
- Comments
A woman browses in the Zara outlet at the Solana shopping mall in Chaoyang district Monday. Some Zara pants were found to have quality problems by the Beijing Consumer Association. Photo: Guo Yingguang/GT
By Yan Shuang
About 40 percent of brand-name trousers in Beijing are coming up short in the quality department, a problem that includes both local brands and international ones, according to the Beijing Consumer Association, which sampled 57 brands' dark-colored leisure trousers in Beijing shopping malls. They released their report on Sunday.
Only 37 of the brands sampled passed all 13 of the association's quality tests, which included examinations of pH values, fiber content and color fastness.
A sample bought at the Joy City outlet of Spanish clothing store Zara in Xidan did not meet the national color fastness standard, and the fiber quantity was different from what the tags claimed.
Brands such as South Korea's Bruin and Hong Kong's G2000, contained excessive formaldehyde or pH values beyond an allowed range, which can harm skin and lead to infections, the report read.
It is not the first time for Zara's quality to be questioned in China. The association found the quantity of eiderdown in Zara's coats was lower than claimed in 2009 and 2010, according to a Beijing Morning Post report in December 2010.
A PR employee with Zara's headquarters in Shanghai refused to comment. The manager of the Joy City Zara was more forthcoming, but still would not say if defective pants had been taken off the shelves.
"Our company is looking into the problem, just like we did last year," she said, adding that Zara did recall 2010's substandard down coats.
"I heard the news, but I haven't received any orders to take trousers off the shelves or to send them back for quality inspection," said Zhang Zheng, an employee with the Zara outlet in Chaoyang district's The Place mall Monday.
Zhang refused to show the reporter the problematic pants, although the reporter provided her with the article number.
"I don't know which trousers they are, and I'm not sure whether we are selling them here or not," Zhang told the Global Times.
"The quality of the clothes here is up and down. My daughter bought a dress here about a month ago, and the stitches were coming apart when we got home," said Sharon Grades, a British customer at The Place's Zara Monday. She was pragmatic about how to deal with quality problems.
"I can send them back here and get a refund," she pointed out.
G2000's troubled trousers had been removed from shelves Monday, said a G2000 store employee at the New World Department Store at Wanda Plaza, in Chaoyang district.
"I don't know where things went wrong, since we do quality checks on all clothes we produce before they enter the market," said an anonymous employee with G2000's North China division.
"I'm really surprised to know that these brands are having quality problems," said a customer surnamed Sun at the New World store Monday. "I'll check the quality reports online and think twice before buying clothes next time," she said.
Other fashion forward customers were indifferent about the report.
"I don't care. As long as the clothes feel good and look good on me, I will buy them," Zhou Binrui, a college student at the China Central Academy of Fine Arts, told the Global Times Monday.
"Chinese are faced with too many quality scandals every day. Look how many food scandals we have had. These scandals have made us invincible and immune," she said.
The problematic brands and the sample results are listed on the association's website at bj315.org.
According to a Beijing Times report Monday, the association has reported the sample results to the industry and commerce authorities, and is calling for a recall of all the trousers in question.
Wang Yanxing contributed to this story
