Santorini 2017

DISOBEDIENT BODIES - JW ANDERSON AT THE HEPWORTH WAKEFIELD

WHAT: JW ANDERSON, DISOBEDIENT BODIES
WHERE: THE HEPWORTH, WAKEFIELD, UK
WHEN: 18 MARCH – 18 JUNE 2017

Material World Debate

I recently attended the Material World Panel debate at Selfridges in Manchester on the 9^th of March. The event was part of the #MaterialWorld campaign.

The event was hosted by Katie Popperwell, and welcomed an experienced panel to “challenge the 'can't do' attitude of fashion sustainability”, and asking whether it's down to a younger generation to force fashion to clean up its act. 

The panel included: i-D magazine’s deputy editor Lynette Nylander, Illustrated People’s Phoebe Lettice Thompson, rising fashion star John Alexander Skelton and Sophie Slater, co-founder of ethical fashion brand Birdsong. 

When considering manufacturing, sourcing and selling products a lot of companies in the fashion industry are ‘cutting corners’ and it’s creating bigger problems for the workers and the environment. Brands need to challenge the concept that sustainability is bad design. The panel made a point that clothing and materials are the second biggest source of waste in the world after oil and that all of our discarded materials are going to waste.

Did you know that if you return an item that you bought online via the post, most brands incinerate or destroy the garment instead of reselling or discounting the item? Fast fashion and high demand is destroying sustainability. Did you know that when Alessandro Michele took over as creative director of Gucci he burned 3 warehouses worth of old Gucci stock? Instead of tarnishing the brand’s reputation of being exclusive and selling the stock at a discounted price.

Fast fashion and our desire for a ‘bargain’ means that we are buying clothes faster than we can toss them out. Do you ever stop to question, why is this item so cheap? Or, who made my clothes? Take a look at #whomademyclothes, a hashtag created in aid of Fashion Revolution Week 24^th-30^th April which happens at the time of the Rana Plaza factory collapse, where 1,138 people were killed and many more injured on 24th April 2013 for the sake of your fashion. Fashion Revolution is a global movement calling for greater transparency, sustainability and ethics in the fashion industry. “We use this week to encourage millions of people to ask brands ‘Who made my clothes’ and demand greater transparency in the fashion supply chain.”

http://fashionrevolution.org/

Alexander Skelton, who’s sustainable collection was recently showcased in the New York Times said, “ethical is beautiful and that attitude needs to be changed from a school level. It needs to be educated within all subjects however not enough of our current generation of teachers are educated in sustainability.”

It was brought up by an audience member asking if social media has contributed to the ignorance towards sustainability. Phoebe Lettice immediately agrees, commenting on that fact that Instagram is a huge contributor to this. We all seek approval from our Instagram followers whether we’d like to admit it or not, we’d all like our Instagram to look like someone else’s. Outfit of the day pictures are trashing sustainable shopping, why? Well who wants to be photographed in the same item of clothing several times? Despite the fact that it might be your favourite shirt and you’ve worn it to death, we don’t want our followers to know that, we want them to know that we have an effortlessly put together wardrobe of endless garments.

So what about students? What about the millennials of today? What can we do to make our fashion more sustainable? In order to be sustainable you need to rethink your attitude to trends. It may be more affordable to have fast fashion, but in the words of Vivienne Westwood, “Buy less, buy smarter” is easily applied to your shopping habits. Buy from sustainable companies and buy items that are staple wardrobe pieces that you can wear again and again. Not to your tastes? Shopping from charity shops is a great way to become sustainable, even remarking your clothes can be fun. Check out @goodstockshop on Oxford Road in Manchester, a vibrant and stylish charity shop that students love to donate their clothes to, many still with the tags on. Reformation is a great brand that makes killer clothes that don’t kill the environment. It’s always better to start somewhere, every person makes a difference when it comes to making our planet a more sustainable environment.