An Argument For Slow Fashion

Rebecca Fullerton - McIntyre
Apr 10, 2021
25 min read

Updated: Jul 17, 2021

WHY SUSTAINABILITY IN THE TEXTILE AND FASHION INDUSTRY ISN'T JUST A PASSING TREND BUT A NESSESARY CHANGE

Let's be a voice of hope for the future and keep using our voices and making sure our choices are considered in a way that creates for us a world where we are no longer responsible for the destruction of our home, but where we are responsible for saving it.

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the argument for a cultural and industrial shift in attitude from Fast to Slow fashion. Bringing to attention the dark truths of the fast fashion industry through facts and statistics within published sources, texts, and information gathered at The Fashioned from Nature exhibition at the V&A, and why it all points to the fact that Fast Fashion just isn’t an option anymore. I also look at new and innovative ideas being used to enable more sustainability; new fibres being explored, including spider silk, and systems that can be put into place such as company transparency. This paper also explores a selection of celebrities including Emma Watson, designers such as Vivienne Westwood and companies including Eco-Age, alongside a brief interview with Siobhan Wilson, the owner of the Fair shop, and the roles they play in helping to transform what is currently a toxic fashion industry that is bleeding our resources dry into a slower paced industry that enables society to move into a more ethically sound culture, making better and more informed choices in regards to human rights and our environment. Including how I as a designer can be part of this movement by creating sustainable textiles for fashion. concluding with why Slow fashion is one of the biggest answers to a much needed change, before we destroy both the planet we inhabit and ourselves.

INTRODUCTION

Within this essay I will be delving into the dark truths of the fashion and textile industry, looking at answering the questions about what negative and damaging impacts the fast fashion culture is having on our health as well as our ecosystem. I will bring evidence of majorly flawed systems in place that leave no room for thoughts of the future in regards to using up and polluting the ever depleting natural resources that we have left, looking at how we have caused so much damage that companies are being forced to make changes due to the shocking statistics that show that it is no longer possible to continue the way that they and we as the consumers are going, unless we want to cause irreversible damage to our planet and run out of our natural resources. I will also look at new and innovative ideas being used to enable a more balanced and sustainable fashion and textile industry, such as new fibres, closed loop systems and company transparency. Looking at organisations ‘Eco-Age’ and ‘Parley to the Ocean’, celebrity Emma Watson and fashion designers that are helping to educate the next generation, including an interview with the owner of The Fair shop; Siobhan Wilson. Finally looking at how I as a designer can do my bit to not only create sustainable textiles for fashion but to join the movement that is and will continue to challenge societies perception of the fashion industry, allowing them to have a more transparent view of the industry as a whole which in turn has begun enabling society to move into a more ethically sound culture which makes better and more informed choices when it comes to fashion. I will conclude with why a slower flow of fashion is one of the biggest answers to a much needed change, before we destroy both the planet we live on and ourselves.

FAST FASHION AND ITS HIDDEN HARSH REALITIES

Fig 1 is an Illustration symbolising Fast Fashions dark pollution secrets (changing markets.org),

Fig 2 is a photo of toxic wastewater being pumped out of a textile factory(www.independent.co.uk)

Shockingly the Fashion and Textile industry is considered to be the second highest polluter in the world, with only oil topping it. (Helbig, 2018) During the 20th century the fashion industry accelerated dramatically with Ready-made clothing and high street stores becoming a normality, and by the 1970s the scale of garments being produced was so huge that production began to be outsourced overseas, particularly to countries with minimal environmental legislation and low labour costs. (a choice that continues unfortunately to this day for many large apparel companies). And as we found new and innovative ways of transforming the natural materials that surrounded us by chemically treating them, alongside the production of synthetic fibres made from the byproducts of oil and coal, the fashion industries reliance on chemicals, oil and coal both for energy and their use as raw materials caused an increasing amount of damage to our environment. Not only with the vast amounts of pollution to the air and water, and the over farming and hunting of endangered plants and animals, but also the damage to many peoples health (especially the factory workers being exposed to harsh chemicals).

By the 1980s several groups such as PETA, Greenpeace and Fashion Revolution along with a handful of fashion designers were already beginning to raise awareness of this damage. (Fashioned from Nature’ V &A 2018)( a subject that will be explored later on within this paper)

PUSHING THE PLANETS BOUNDARIES

Fig 3: is a Photo taken from the Carnegie Museum of Natural History exhibit ‘We are nature’ showing the abundance of plastic and other waste products that we are destroying our planet with.(t riblive.com)

The shocking acceleration of carbon dioxide emissions, rising sea levels, global extinction of species, and transformation of land by deforestation have led experts to assert that we are now in the age of the ‘Anthropocene’ an era where human activity has been identified as the main cause of profound environmental changes to the Earth. In other words ‘We are in the midst of the most urgent wake up call that humans have ever had. Anthropocene names humans as homewreckers of our only shared abode’ (Williams, 2018: p3) In 1988 the United Nations had already set up the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to assess the risk of human induced climate change, following on from this 195 nations chose to become committed to working together to insure that earth could remain a hospitable place to live (Ehrman, 2018: p151) This in itself is a clear indication that our current system is far from perfect in regards to keeping the balance.

Johan Rockström, a Swedish scientist, internationally recognised for his work on global sustainability issues, alongside a team of renowned scientists, identified that there are 9 planetary boundaries that need to be maintained in order for life on earth to continue. (Rockström, J: 2009). Rockströms full paper on the subject can be found at; https://www.fs.fed.us/pnw/pubs/journals/pnw_2009_rockstrom001.pdf First published in 2009 then updated in 2015, This framework has been used as a guide for governments, NGOs, international organisations and many other companies as a solid approach to sustainable development. Alarmingly it shows that we are already moving beyond a safe operating place, having exceeded around half of the 9 boundaries already. This means that we are no longer in the safe zone, having already crossed over beyond the: ‘safe operating space for humanity ’ (Rockström, J: 2009), Below is a simplified diagram of the earth's 9 planetary boundaries based on the Stockholm Resilience Centres 2015 Planetary boundaries Illustration. It visualises natures limits by separating it into nine quantifiable terms.

Fig 4: shows clearly the states of each of the 9 planetary boundaries as they were in 2015 (www.assembly.wales)

living in a fast fashion culture, we are bombarded constantly with new lines of clothing. This has brought about a throwaway society where we are happy to buy for example clothing that is of a lower quality because we’ll probably only wear it a couple of times before throwing it away or allowing it to get lost at the back of our wardrobe before moving on to the next purchase.

LANDFILL

When they reach the end of their life, clothes are usually sent to landfill. Approximately 300,000 tons of fashion waste ends up in landfill every year. (https://wellmadeclothes.) In the last 15 years clothes production has nearly doubled, and in 2016 it was estimated that over 1.1 million tons of clothing were bought in the UK alone (Blanchard, 2018: p.43). W hen you couple this with the shocking statistics that in just one seasons clearout the average Briton throws away 7 items of clothing, and every year in america 10.5 million tons of clothing is buried or burnt in landfills,( Liu, 2018: p.25), I ts clear to see that we live in such a fast paced world that we just don’t stop to think about the true cost of our throwaway purchases.

Fig 5: from a bbc article on fighting against fast fashion. This Image shows the scale of textile waste going to landfill. w ww.bbc.co.uk

This issue isn’t helped by the fact that in today's world of Fast Fashion, shops no longer only put out seasonal collections. Many fashion brands will put out new lines of clothing every week or month. This encourages the mentality of ‘FOMO’, the fear of missing out. ‘Fast fashion lures us into buying more clothes than we need’,e xplains Lucy Seigle, a journalist specialising in environmental issues. ‘It’s a production system that brings us clothes at intense volume.’ The more that shops produce copies of catwalk fashion at affordable prices, the more that people are tempted to keep updating their looks - and their wardrobes. (Seigle, L: 2018)

Fig 6: shows a window display to encourage quick sales (https://bbc)

The damage Fast fashion causes filters down throughout the whole fashion industry, before we as the consumers even see it. From the raw materials right to the shop floor.

RAW MATERIALS

The raw materials that are used to make clothes need land and water to grow. Cotton alone uses around 2,120 litres of water to grow just 1 kilogram, (T aylor, T .2018)

Fig 7: shows two factory workers in Xinjiang, standing on top of a huge pile of cotton (http://matthewniederhauser)

Due to the ever increasing gross of production this process alone is creating a huge imbalance in regards to water consumption. As Lucy Seigle points out; ‘Globally, we’re producing over 100 billion new garments from new fibres every single year, and the planet cannot sustain that.’ (Seigle, L: 2018) One terrifying example of this can be found by looking at the Aral Sea, which has decreased in size due to the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers being diverted in order to provide irrigation purely for cotton production in Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan (see fig 8 below) .

Fig 8: from the V&A Fashion from nature book shows satellite images of the Aral Sea

The image on the left shows the Aral in 2000 and the image on the right shows it in 2014. This sea spanning half the size of England (covering 68,000 sq km), which was full of fish, teaming with wildlife and a huge tourist attraction, reached upto 5 meters in depth, but has now all but dried up because of the horrific over use of the cotton industry in the surrounding area(Sanghani, R: 2018). This has caused a whole array of damage including a huge loss of jobs in the surrounding villages (due to the decline of the fishing industry), has had a direct impact on poor health and has even brought about extreme weather such as sandstorms that are so huge that they can be seen from space. (Dooley, S:2018). Now sadly you can drive for over half an hour over what was once the sea bed, as can be seen from this short clip from ‘Stacely Dooley investigates fashions dirty secrets’https://www.facebook.com/bbcearth/videos/1741517099303564/

Fig 9: shows two men walking past abandoned fishing boats on the Aral Sea bed which used to be around 5 feet under water. (taglimagazine)

POLLUTION AND CONSUMPTION DURING GARMENT CONSTRUCTION

Fig 10: a still from a video playing at the ‘Fashion from Nature’ Exhibit at the V&A providing the shocking realities of the production of one pair of jeans.

water

Water, chemical dyes and finishings are also used in the garment construction process. As discussed previously, water is being used up in huge quantities and this continues on with the construction processes, with for example the production of 1 pair of jeans

taking up to 7000 litres of water. (see fig 10). Alongside this however our natural resources of water are also being polluted on an unimaginable scale

CHEMICAL DYES

Fig 11: s hows the amount of chemicals used in the production of jeans every year (from the Fashion from Nature Exhibit at the V&A) Toxic chemicals are constantly being released by the garment industry, and are polluting the waterways that millions of people depend on daily.

During the dyeing process one cotton mill can use up to 200 tons of water which can then release up to 72 chemicals into the local water supplies The Factories where our cheap clothes are made are killing off some of the worlds most important rivers, (Wilson-Powel, G: 2017). In the documentary ‘Blue River’ i t highlights the extent of the damaging impact that fast fashion is having on a global scale, (s ee link to trailer; http://riverbluethemovie.eco) We see that due to fast fashion, factories in countries such as Indonesia, Bangladesh and China are continuously poisoning the rivers that millions of people depend on for survival. The Li river in China, which was known as the ‘Pearl river’ was the catalyst for this documentary; ‘Fashion wasn’t a personal interest for me but water was, I wanted to create an environmental film about water because water doesn’t have a voice. As I was doing my research I came across a satellite photo from China where the river was an inky black blue. I looked into it and found out it was because of blue jeans - which are such an iconic item, so that became our story.’ (Williams R:2017) It is a sad and disturbing fact that predictions can be made for the up and coming trends of Paris and New York by merely looking at the colour of Bangladesh’s rivers. (Wilson-Powel, G: 2017)

This once beautiful natural resource is now nothing more than a ‘toxic swamp’ (Wilson-Powel, G: 2017) And has been declared a dead zone due to the toxic run off being constantly washed into it directly from the textile dyeing factories. There are no longer any fish in the river, as nothing is able to survive in such polluted waters, so the fishing trade is longer possible.

Fig 12: shows large quantities of Dye and other pollutants caused by the textile industry entering a river in Tirupur, India (V&A book 2018) Alongside this, as these toxins drift down river, they have been found to change the immune and hormone systems and cause cancer so people in the surrounding

communities have now been forced to purchase bottled water for washing and drinking.(Wilson-Powel, G:2017) Another harrowing fact is that these toxic chemicals don’t just break down and disappear. Our hunger for cheap clothes has lead to water pollution of an alarming scale with toxins from the chemical dyes and acids used to distress jeans and colour clothes such as mercury and lead being found as far away as the Arctic. scientific studies have now found these toxins in polar bears thousands of miles away, which means that ‘ if the polar bears have toxic water then so do we’ (Wilson-Powel, G: 2017)

POLLUTION AND CONSUMPTION THROUGHOUT THE CLOTHING SUPPLY CHAIN

Carbon dioxide is also emitted at various stages in the clothing supply chain in huge quantities. Whilst visiting the Fashioned from Nature Exhibit at the V&A, I viewed a pair of T-shirts on display (s ee fig 13). They were part of ‘Travel behind the label’ conducted by the American radio programme ‘Planet money’ back in 2013 which tracked their production from start to finnish. It demonstrated the complex global supply chains that were included in their production, and showed that different stages such as growing, spinning, dying, finishing and printing tended to be overlooked throughout, including on the garments actual labels which only need to declare where the garment was actually constructed.

Fig 13: Tshirts on display at the V&A from the documentary following their journey throughout production

The map below (see fig 14) shows the actual journey that each batch of T-shirts had gone through in order to be completed. The journey of one batch:

The cotton is grown and processed in America
This is then shipped to Indonesia to be spun
The yarn is transported to Bangladesh to be knitted, dyed, cut and then sewn into the T-shirt
Finally they are shipped back to America to be printed

Alarmingly when the company director of textile sourcing at Jockey was asked where the cotton that made the T-shirts came from their response was ‘that's a tough one’. This is unfortunately not uncommon within the industry, and shows the vast lack of communication which runs throughout it, and shows the large number of individuals whose craft and artisan skills go unseen or acknowledged. More worrying than this though is the giant holes that it leaves open for a lack of ethics within the industry.

fig 14: The true journey of the two batches of T-shirts at the V&A Fashioned from Nature Exhibition .Y ou can see the full journeys at https://apps.npr.org/tshirt/#/people

MICROFIBRES SHOCKING ROLE IN PLASTIC POLLUTION

Petroleum-based fibres, like polyester are used in up to 60% of our clothes and have played a big part in allowing the phenomenal growth rate of the Fast Fashion world that we live in today, mainly due to being such a cheap and easy alternative to natural fibres. And now these synthetic fibres are having a catastrophic effect on our land and our oceans.(https://www.textiletoday.)

Fig 15 Illustrates the ‘ Explosive Expansion’ that Fast fashion has undertaken having doubled in scale from 2000 to 2014, with the number of garments being produced exceeding 100 billion by 2014 Fig 15:(R) the extent of consumption due to Fast fashion(www.textiletoday.)

Not only are the fossil fuels used in its production and CO2 emissions nearly three times higher than those of cotton, but they are responsible for a third of all plastic pollution due to the huge amount of non-biodegradable waste it leaves behind. The textile industry accounts for 34% of the worlds microplastic. This comes directly from the microfibres in the synthetic clothing which is being produced in huge quantities (Somers, S:p27. 2018) A groundbreaking paper by Mark Browne, a senior research associate at the University of New South Wales, Australia ( https://pubs.acs.org/) f ound that our reliance on synthetic fibres like polyester, and the gigantic scale of their production due to Fast fashion has lead to a staggering 85% of human debris on shorelines across the globe being from their microfibres alone. (h ttps://www.textiletoday) These tiny polluting fibres don't just come from the industry factories, but in fact from every time we wash our synthetic clothes.

POISONING OUR FOOD SUPPLY

Millions of microfibers are released into the water which then make their way into the world's rivers and oceans as they are too small to be filtered out. Considering that just 1 piece of clothing can release 700,000 fibers in a single wash(https://www.textiletoday). It is no wonder that these microfibres have now found their way into the food that we eat. Gregg Treinish the executive director of adventure scientist has stated that ‘if you eat fish, you eat plastic’ (Somers, S:p27. 2018) This is a very sobering thought.

fig16 A poster showing how we are now eating the pollution we have create

(https://oceanbites.org)

The NCCOS which provides ‘ecosystem science solutions for stewardship of the nation’s ocean and coastal resources’, Found microplastics in the gut of a bottlenose dolphin. microplastics have been visibly detected in many other marine species, but had not been seen in bottlenose dolphins until now. This discovery happened during the filming of the (BBC) Blue Planet II documentary at the NCCOS lab. And shows how these tiny pieces of plastic are causing increasing amounts of damage to the ecosystem.( https://coastal science)

fig 17: from https://coastal science of the extraction process of microplastics from a dolphin.

back in 2016 many studies had already pointed towards the possibility that the fibers in our clothes could be poisoning our waterways and food chain on a massive scale (www.theguardian.com) This is because these Synthetic microfibers are able to be consumed at an alarming rate by fish and other wildlife, which then continues to infiltrate further up the food chain due to their microscopic size, and have been found to be incredibly dangerous, having the potential to absorb persistent organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and bioaccumulate, concentrating toxins in the bodies of the larger animals(www.theguardian.com) These fibers are being found in fresh water as well. And as Abigail Barrows, principal investigator of the Global Microplastics Initiative, states ‘This is not just a coastal or marine problem, ’ Out of almost 2,000 aquatic samples that Barrows processed, about 90% of the debris was microfibers in both freshwater and the ocean. ( w ww.theguardian.com) When Sherri Mason a professor who works for the State University of New York Fredonia, cut open a Great Lakes fish, she was alarmed to find that Synthetic fibers were everywhere. although she had been studying aquatic pollution around the Great Lakes for several years, she said that she’d never seen anything like it. And when examined under a microscope, found that they seemed to be ‘weaving themselves into the gastrointestinal tract’. (www.theguardian.com)

Fig 18: shows microfibres in several water samples (h ttps://ensia.com)

It’s when we look at the fact that as well as in fish and other wildlife it has also been found in things such as table salt (De Castro, O: p27. 2018), that we must realise the enormous scale of the damage that is being done to our world. There is no getting away from the fact that we have reached a whole new level of disregard for our planet, where we have now got into such a severe state that we are even polluting the food that we eat. Baring all of this in mind it is no wonder that their are a great number of companies, designers and celebrities, alongside a vast movement of people who are dedicating their time and resources to turning things around before it’s just too late.

MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN THE FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS

Fig 19:On the panel was Dezeen editor-in-chief Marcus Fairs, geologist Sjoerd Kluiving, designer and researcher Pirjo Haikola, designer Jalila Essaïdi and journalist Rab Messina

(https://www.dezeen.com)

In A recent talk during Dutch Design Week as part of Dezeens Good Design for a Bad World they discussed how design could help some of the big issues the world is facing in regards to in the Anthropocene era that we are currently living in. There was much discussion about the need for more imaginative ideas and less small scale experiments. ‘We should stop praising little projects, we should really start to think of bigger systems where we can get involved.’ (H aikola, P 2018;https://www.dezeen.) Geologist Sjoerd Kluiving stated that we urgently needed to work together to usher in an alternative era called the ‘sustainocene’.(https://www.dezeen.com) Unlike the ‘Anthropocene’ state, where we continue to pollute and use up our ever depleting natural resources, we can create a world where we live in harmony with our Earth's own system. Producing and putting into practice sustainable solutions for the long term preservation of life. ‘We need the humanities working with scientists and designers. We need social scientists working with religious people. We need all kinds of different collaborations between scientists to tackle the problems.’( Kluiving,S.2019 https://www.dezeen) Y ou can watch the highlights of this discussion by following the link below; https://youtu.be/VoNKTJc_Xjg

A NEW MOVEMENT

Cyrill Gutsch and his partner Stepken used funds they had saved or borrowed from friends to recreate their design firm into an environmental organisation dedicated to combating the plastic pollution crisis. Partnering with creatives, media and lifestyle brands, the main focus of Parley for the Ocean is to speed up the environmental movement with creative collaborations, eco-innovations and AIR which stands for Avoid, Intercept, Redesign (Radojcin,D.p.59.2018) (a fitting name considering we are currently killing off the very life in the ocean which provides us with up to 70% of the oxygen that we breath, with an ever increasing torrent of toxic pollution.)

When asked his reasoning for collaborating with creative leaders he replied; ‘That's the beauty of fashion and Art. They can create a process of change without the need for too many words. We decided that the artist is the true agent of change; the best host for what we call ‘collaboration spaces’, and the best catalyst for ideas, the best translator, and also the best connector between different layers in society. Because the artist is the only one that is accepted in every part of society’ (Gutsch,C.P100.2018)

As well as working with the creative industries Parley also works alongside a huge network of scientists, inventors and investors to create materials that can replace plastic for good. (Radojcin,D.p.59.2018) You can find out more about Parley for the oceans by following the link below; https://www.parley.tv/#fortheoceans

Fig 20: showing the original source and end product when recycling ocean plastics (www.parley.tv)

Fashion activism

It is true that words such as ‘Sustainable’ and ‘Eco friendly’ have become popular buzzwords over the last couple of years, but this as we can clearly see is by no means a passing Trend. Many people and organisations have been trying to raise public awareness as to the crippling damage of the Fast Fashion industry since the 70s. Designers such as Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett began using their designs as a platform for political statements such as raising awareness of the negative consequences of our consumer society back in the 80s. (Fashion from Nature Exhibit.V&A:2018) And continue to do so today, as can be seen in Fig 21 which shows a display at the Fashioned from Nature exhibition.

Fig 21: shows garments by Katharine Hamnett and Vivienne Westwood designed as political statements to raise awareness (Fashion from Nature Exhibit.2018)

Vivienne Westwood openly urges us as the consumer to ‘buy less, choose well and make it last’ (Fashion from Nature E xhibit,2018) And Katharine Hamnett uses graphic, direct messages in her designs such as her ‘clean up or die’ collection which drew attention to the terrible impact of the cotton industry (leather jacket can be seen in fig 21 on the left) Fibres of the future Other high profile figures within the industry such as Stella Mccartney a High end fashion designer who has been using her time and resources for many years to bring about a much needed change within the fashion industry, are working with scientists to create new sustainable fibres, such as spider silk which can be seen below in fig 22 and 23 This is just one of the new and innovative ways of making fabric (originally from spider silk) which is a new frontier in textile production and one that would fit into a more sustainable way of creating fabric in the future.

Fig 22; (t)close up of the spider silk (h ttp://www.vam.) Fig 23;(b) the cape www.zimbio

Other innovative new ideas include fabric made from paper as seen in fig 24, on display at the V&A Fashioned from Nature exhibition;

Fig 24 Photo taken at the Fashion from nature exhibition. V&A (2018) of an innovative fabric made from paper

USING LIFE IN THE PUBLIC EYE AS A PLATFORM FOR DRIVING CHANGE

Fig 25: the poster for the film the true cost h ttps://fashionunited.com

Livia Firth (Colin Firth's wife) is the executive producer of the documentary The True Cost w hich is an eye opening documentary delving into and exposing many of the dark truths that have been discussed within this paper. You can watch the trailer by following this link:h ttps://truecostmovie.com Livia is the founder of t he sustainability consultancy Eco-Age, which is committed to helping brands to create a culture of purpose & sustainability, and is dedicated to reaching a new generation of conscious consumers. (h ttps://eco-age.com) Eco Age started as a small shop offering luxury eco products, but soon became something much bigger. As a global ambassador for Oxfam, Livia went to look at a project on domestic violence in Bangladesh: ‘While I was in Dhaka with Lucy Siegle we asked to be smuggled into a factory. It was my first experience of a factory and I was completely shocked. So when I came back I told Nicola we had to forget about the shop and homeware etc - this is gigantic. We have huge human rights and environmental issues within fashion – what can we do about it? And that was the new phase of Eco-Age. (Firth, L:2018.https://eco-age) ‘So the inspiration came from Nicola (Livia’s brother) originally and then from meeting a lot of amazing women on the fashion scene - Lucy Siegle, Orsola de Castro, Jocelyn Whipple - and learning from them. Then in 2009 Colin was nominated for an Oscar and Lucy and I had the Green Carpet Challenge idea

That’s when the consultancy and the communications all came together.’ (F irth, L:2018.https://eco-age) The Green Carpet Challenge (GCC) couples glamour with ethics. This began with Livia herself walking down the red carpet in sustainable gowns in order to raise their profile. “I wanted to use the fact that I was going to be walking those red carpets next to Colin to campaign about environmental and social justice issues through my gown,” (Firth,L.2018.h ttps://eco-age.com) Now it includes a huge array of famous designers and celebrities, including Vivienne Westwood and Giorgio Armani who have created sustainable garments for celebrities such as Michael Fassbender and Thandie Newton.(https://eco-age.com) Fig 26 shows Emma Watson wearing a Calvin Klein gown designed with sustainability in mind at every stage; right from the fibres used to the way it was put together, she collaborated with them to produce this gown in the most sustainable way possible. Emma who herself is now an ambassador for change was moved by a trip to Bangladesh where she visited the Rana Plaza a few years before it collapsed.

The visit was brought about after writing her A level geography paper on sustainable fashion and interviewing fair trade expert Alex Nichols. It was during this process that she realised just how little she really knew about the fashion industry and how much more she needed to understand. ‘I started to re examine my participation in fashion and the Urgency of a healthier, more responsable system, utilizing the red carpet, I pledged to wear sustainable designs by creatives embracing concepts and materials that could help reshape the future of fashion’ (Watson, E.2018 )

Fig 26: Emma Watson wearing calvin klein for the green carpet challenge (Fashioned from Nature, book)

Alongside these high profile celebrities there are many businesses working to make a change. Siobhan Wilson is the owner of The Fair shop in Brighton and during an interview I did with her it became clear that the inequality of rights and shocking mistreatment of many who play a key role in the production of fast fashions garments is an area of the industry that she was passionate about changing.

Fig 27: campaign by Fashion revolution which encourages people to ask ‘who made my clothes (https: //up-fuse.)

Although Siobhan thinks that there’s still a lack of understanding in the changes needed, like many of us she has seen a clear increase in awareness about where our giants are coming f rom. “it's really shocked me how many people are unaware. A s consumers we need to support the Fashion Revolution campaign, starting to ask the question who made my clothes?” (Wilson, interviewed by author 2018) Siobhan and her team work with several sustainable companies such as People Tree and focus on income generation for people living in poverty. Making sure everything that they sell is fair trade;

“Working with People Tree I know how much work goes into the sourcing of everything. We make sure all our sourcing is ethical and the production methods are very thorough, checking every component of product” (Wilson, interviewed by author 2018) When I asked her about the daunting task of competing against the giant that is Fast Fashion she admitted that it was difficult;

“It’s still tough as a business, as the consumer isn't quite there yet in regards to being a sustainable consumer” (Wilson, interviewed by author 2018) Being so very aware of the damage the Fast fashion industry is doing Soybeans frustrations at the lack of knowledge and understanding, particularly in the UK; “The uk consumer has become driven by price, the whole idea of a bargain has brainwashed people. It makes me physically ill honestly when people will put getting a bargain over the exploitation of another human being. When your buying less your behaving sustainably and often saving money so it’s a false economy to think that you need to have cheap sustainable clothes in fashion because that is a complete contradiction of what sustainability is. “People have said its undemocratic and when cheap fashion is based on exploitation of both the environment and people I don’t see how cheap fashion is democratic I obviously get cross about it and frustrated” (Wilson, interviewed by author 2018) However she was clearly optimistic about the future; “As soon as you present a problem you’ll find that there are people working on a solution” (Wilson, interviewed by author 2018)

Siobhan does a lot of workshops to improve knowledge and understanding in the next generation. This I think is one of the major necessities for change; educating both ourselves and the next generation to allow us to make more informed choices going forward. Company transparency As previously discussed, knowledge about where our clothes come from is essential, in recreating our fashion industry. Therefore Transparency throughout the industry is key. It requires brands to share its policies with the public; goals and commitments, procedures, performance, progress and real-world impacts on workers, as well as communities and the environment. This would allow concerns such as pollution and human rights to be dealt with swiftly. Also aiding in accountability and restoring an element of trust with the consumer which has undoubtedly been lost as a result of the fast fashion industry.(https://www.fashion revolution)

KNOWLEDGE IS POWER

Sustainable fashion, why now? (Hethorn, J:2008) i s a fantastic book and although it was published 10 years ago it shows the forward thinking in regards to the textile and fashion industry and the awareness of the need for a broad change in both. With chapters on the environmental impact of the Textile industry, green fibre options, a Technology enabled sustainable fashion system and fashions future. Books like these point towards a necessity for change but also importantly I think bring forward plausible solutions. Such as the fact that ‘the cornerstone to sustainability is delivering programs that are effective in changing people's behaviour’ (Luke, R.p.82) i f we as the consumers stop buying into Fast Fashion it will be forced to evolve These changes within the industries are also explored. Not only looking at what systems are flawed and why, but also presenting innovative solutions such as a Technology enabled sustainable fashion system. (see figure 27 below)

fig 28: is a diagram of a Technology enabled sustainable fashion system by loker’s 2009

Suzanne Loker who is a Professor Emerita in the College of Human Ecology, is a retired member of the. Department of Fiber Science & Apparel Design and has written Books such as Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry (https://www.human)

Loker brings forward the idea of a Virtuous circle in which collaboration amongst members of the supply chain take socially responsible action within their area. As she describes here; ‘collaboration between agricultural entities providing raw materials; the factory owners producing the fibres textiles and apparel;union leaders representing workers;retailers that source products;universities that educate future industry executives;governments that create laws and policies that impact the workplace. When consumers value the workers creating their apparel and are willing to pay more, members of the supply chain are able to build connections with one another directed towards social responsibility. The circles of positive results have the potential to benefit all involved. A virtuous circle has the potential to offer consumers products they can feel good about. Businesses can increase productivity among production workers, which provides increased revenues to support the creation of product innovations and better marketing tools, which in turn increases market share. Expanded market share then leads to reduced costs through economies of scale and the circle continues’ (Loker,S.2009.P:84)

virtuous circle noun

a recurring cycle of events, the result of each one being to increase the beneficial effect of the next.
"economic expansion would itself produce a virtuous circle of increased productivity, increased exports, and increased growth" Fig 29: showing the meaning virtuous circle

THERE IS HOPE

As a designer I am aware of the platform that I have and I want to use my designs to inspire others to make ethical choices, both within the industry and as consumers. Continuing to explore areas in which I can develop more sustainable practices such as limiting waste and pollution, designing zero waste patterns and processes such as digital print using eco friendly inks to provide designs all on a made to order basis, in turn providing garments that have been made with love and consideration both ethically and environmentally, offering full transparency in in regards to their creation at every stage. I feel encouraged to know that there is already a huge movement working towards a more sustainable future for fashion and although according to the terrifying new report from the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we have just 12 years to prevent environmental catastrophe. https://www.dezeen.com I agree wholeheartedly with the following statement by Marcus Fairs; "Humans are clever. They can solve problems. There is hope"(https://www.dezeen)

CONCLUSION

We all have a voice. And that voice continues to grow, creating a movement that has the ability to bring us all towards a future where we work together, sharing knowledge and new innovative ideas, bringing in a new era for the Fashion industry. Slow Fashion is a mode of production which incorporates knowledge, and transparency throughout, leaving no room for unethical and unsustainable choices such as exploiting labor where adults and children are subjected to inhumane working conditions, animal cruelty, the use of hazardous material or chemicals and environmental damage. An industry which incorporates a circular system, Producing garments where every stage of production is considered and acknowledged, where waste is limited through consideration of environmental impact throughout production, a world where we as consumers slow down, buy less and perhaps pay a little more to ensure fair wages for the artisans who helped create them. And as we appreciate the skills involved in making them, create for ourselves a deeply personal wardrobe Full of treasures, a collection of garments that are timeless, precious jewels to us, reflecting our individual personalities and appreciating them on every level.

The future is in our hands, we can be the ones that bring order back into the fragile balance of this planet we call home by helping to change the toxic fast fashion system currently in place. It's not too late, If we work together to synchronize our economic system with nature's ecosystem there is still hope for our future generations. Let's be a voice of hope for the future and keep using our voices and making sure our choices are considered in a way that creates for us a world where we are no longer responsible for the destruction of our home, but where we are responsible for saving it.