Author Archives: Maughan Pearce

Innovative Fast Fashion

It’s not often I chose to celebrate fast fashion but on this occasion I want to share an innovative fast fashion graduate project called Urbanhermes: Fashion Signaling and the Social Mobility of Images by Christine Liu. Although this project has not come from a fashion school or from the perspective of sustainability or ethics I think it demonstrates an alternative way of thinking about fast fashion, responding to its functions rather than attempting to deny it.

Urbanhermes is a messenger bag designed to display and disseminate

meaningful yet ephemeral images between people in the public realm.

These images surface as representation of the daily zeitgeist; the image

as fashion emerges and grows in popularity as knowledge diffuses

over a very short period of time. (Lui 2006)

Usually when I think of fast fashion I think about the stress on supply chains, the abundance of waste created and the many issues that it poses throughout fashion value chains in the sourcing, manufacture, consumption and disposal of our fashion products. What I didn’t consider until recently and what seems missing from many of the discussions is an exploration of why fast fashion has infiltrated the apparel industry and become normalized in our understanding of fashion? What function does the speed of fashion serve? Urban Hermes addresses some of these issues from the perspective of signalling theory, capitalizing on the technological benefits of electronic fashion. The project embeds the notion that fashion is a way of signalling information prowess (Donnath, 2007 30:47 mins) and that fashion (in clothing and elsewhere) changes at a rate which directly correlates to the rate at which information travels through society(Liu 2006. p89). From this perspective we should expect fashion to continue to accelerate in line with our faster paced information society. Knowing what we do about the impact of the fast fashion industry any further increases in speed conjure up a grim outlook were we to rely wholly on physical fashion products. Electronic fashion innovations such as Urban Hermes demonstrate one alternative way to think about the future of fast fashion.

‘’We hypothesize that electronic fashion signals in the physical realm will

allow people to disclose and perceive expressive qualities about themselves

that would not be possible by current material fashions.’’ (Liu 2006)

Thankfully there are many approaches to the large and complex issues surrounding fast fashion, some focus on improving the supply chain, innovating new ways of recycling and changing behavior or attitude towards our products. We need so many approaches because the issue is infected with so many needs and influenced by so many factors. Our clothing, dress and fashions fulfill many different social cultural and individual needs as Kate Fletcher and Matilda Tham draw attention to in their Lifetimes project. We need to be mindful and aware of these different needs in any discussion about how we can make positive forward thinking changes towards a more responsible, sustainable and healthy fashion industry.

‘’We believe that people’s psychological and material needs have to be met, meaning that both fashion AND clothes are important ® so we need to evolve a range of responses that operate on both the symbolic and biological levels. This has led us to the idea of fast and slow rhythms of use working with fast and slow garments.’’ (Fletcher & Tham 2004)

Urbanhermes: Fashion Signaling and the Social Mobility of Images By Christine Liu 2006

Lifetimes by Kate Fletcher and Matilda Tham

EVENT// FUTURE FABRICS EXPO

“The Future Fabrics Expo focuses on the fashion industry and how its environmental impact can be lowered through innovation in the textile industry, and novel ideas to transform the fashion system and design practice.” (The Sustainable Angle 2012)

This November be sure to check out the Future Fashion Expo hosted by the London College of Fashion. This event is organised by The Sustainable Angle with the support of the Center for Sustainable Fashion. Visitors to the Expo will have the opportunity to view a diverse range of fabrics and gain a feel for their aesthetics and performance, as well as finding out about their production.

“The Sustainable Angle has been researching and presenting high quality fashion fabrics which are produced with the intention of reducing environmental impact throughout the supply chain, addressing issues of biodiversity, water, waste and energy. These materials are sourced from international mills, suppliers, and cooperatives, highlighting both environmentally considerate and ethical production.” (Center for Sustainable Fashion 2012)

Last year, I attended the first Future Fabrics Expo and found it to be an informative research opportunity that I highly recommend to others. As a fashion student interested in responsible sourcing most of my research had previously been online and I was grateful for the chance to browse at the Expo; getting up close to so many new and exciting fabrics.

Now in its second year the Future Fabrics Expo is expanding to include further information about other aspects of fashion supply chains as well as moving to the prestigious Rootstein Hopkins Space. I am excited by the broader scope of this year’s event which again promises to be an invaluable experience for designers and students alike.

To register for the event visit www.futurefabicsexpo.org

UPDATE III // The NICE Consumer Project & the Copenhagen Fashion Summit

The initial stage of the NICE consumer project comes to an end this week and the NICE Framework for Achieving Sustainable Fashion Consumption through Collaboration will receive its final revisions during the Copenhagen Fashion Summit. The framework is designed to inspire action from government, industry and civil society, it also highlights areas where more discussion is needed; for example, how can we create a transparent value chain, or an environment which fosters sustainable business models and supports sustainable behaviors?

Since my last update I have attended a workshop in London, and taken part in the final webinar, Stress Testing the NICE Consumer Framework on Sustainable Consumpt ion of Fashion. At this event there were presentations from Puma, Levi Strauss & Co., Futerra, and Vanessa Friedman from the Financial Times. The session also included a summary of the progress midway through the consultation process. Cody Sisco [BSR] spoke about the major priorities raised by participants and other important areas including supply chain transparency, and the need for increased education, understanding and collaboration. For design students out there, he also mentioned the important role designers can play in moving things forward! A full recording of the webinar is available to download at BSR.

The Copenhagen Fashion Summit

The Copenhagen Fashion Summit starts today and promises to be an exciting event, which will bring together around 900 stakeholders to discuss sustainability and CSR in the fashion industry. Organisers have been keen to include young people in these discussions and a number of student representatives from around Europe will gather today for a Youth Summit, and present the results of their discussions at the main event tomorrow. The Summit will also launch an industry specific code of conduct, a joint initiative by the UN Global Compact and NICE.

“As an industry facing serious and widely publicized social and environmental challenges, the fashion and textile industry is uniquely positioned to launch a sectoral initiative under the umbrella of the UN Global Compact.”

George Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact

If you can’t get to Copenhagen but want to keep up with the event then I know that @katetfletcher and the @NICEconsumer have already been tweeting live from the summit!

Killer Jeans: Sandblasting continues…

A new report by the Clean Clothes Campaign exposes the continued use of sandblasting in the Bangladesh garment industry, despite it being banned by some big brands and outlawed in Turkey since 2009. The CCC recognise that this problem is not exclusive to Bangladesh, and like the International Textiles Garment & Leather Workers’ Federation [ITGLWF], call for global action on the issue.

”This report shows that a voluntary company ban is simply not enough – governments worldwide should enforce a national ban as well as enforcing import bans.” Clean Clothes Campaign 2012

Sandblasting is a technique used to distress denim and the practice is widely accepted as being dangerous to workers health, including exposing them to the risk of Silicosis, an incurable and potentially fatal lung disease. These concerns are made more worrying where health and safety precautions are inadequate or non existent. The Deadly Denim report contains the findings of research conducted in Bangladesh including interviews from garment workers, suppliers and heath care professionals; it also explores why sandblasting is still widely used despite the known dangers, and offers recommendations to brands, governments and international organisations.

The issue of sandblasting is one which should lead us all to question the real cost of the clothes we buy and whether it is ever acceptable for people to risk their lives in the production of fashion items.

EVENT // Re-dress; Better Fashion Week 2012

Better Fashion Week is an annual public awareness event by Re-Dress; an organisation working towards developing sustainable fashion practices within the Irish fashion industry. Better Fashion Week hosts a mixture of talks, exhibitions, workshops and more; highlights of this years event include talks by Kate Fletcher, Lucy Siegle and Helen Steele. There is a fee for Better Fashion Week.

UPDATE II // The NICE consumer project

As promised here is an update of the second NICE consumer consultation webinars, The Art of Sustainable Consumption. At this session we heard from four speakers presenting a range of responses to sustainability. In bringing them together we were able to imagine what ‘sustainable consumption’ might look like and also how some of these approaches could be linked.

Giordano Capuano -Vivienne Westwood- presented the model of ethical production behind Westwood’s Ethical Africa collection. The project began as part of an initiative of the International Trade Centre, which aimed to link luxury brands in the West to producers in communities where poverty is high. The exciting thing about this project (and others like it), is the long term ambition which involves, empowerment through meaningful work and training, and sharing skills that will help to achieve sustained trade opportunities in global markets. Whilst this example demonstrates positive production and sourcing, it is not a solution to ethical production that could be replicated in all sectors of the fashion industry today.

Next up Henrik Lampa (H&M) talked about how H&M is actively seeking to improve its supply chain through a more sustainable fabric sourcing policy, guided by research from Made By. Conventional cotton production has a negative effect on the environment and can also be damaging to people the land they rely on through the heavy use of pesticides and water; working towards ‘better’ cotton is a step in the right direction, and H&Ms efforts here will hopefully prompt other companies to follow suit!

[For insight into the limitations of current LCA models and benchmarks, check out Pulling Wool over our Eyes: The Dirty Business of LCAs, by Tone Skårdal Tobiasson, Editor at www.nicefashion.org, and Kjersti Kviseth, Partner 2025design.]

Of course we also know that fast fashion is problematic in relation to the volume of disposable goods produced, and the production speed that is necessary to be competitive. These factors can translate into difficulties for suppliers and negative conditions for production workers; however it is hard to see how improvements here can be made from within individual companies when this would compromise their competitiveness in their market sector. Perhaps tackling this problem requires a multi-brand approach that will give all companies a level playing field whilst improving conditions for garment workers?

The next presentation by Mo Tomaney of Central Saint Martins, focused on design-led responses to sustainable consumption. Mo inspired us with these case studies from the design world, Junky styling, From Somewhere and Gary Harvey. Finally she introduced the student program Reclaim to Wear, which aims to prompt the next generation of designers’ to think sustainably. As a student designer myself this is of real interest to me, and I believe design could be involved at every level of sustainable consumption in diverse and exciting ways. Design can also act as a valuable conduit between seemingly conflicting needs, such as the desire for rapid change and the need to reduce waste.

Aptly, the last speaker Ellen van den Adel, talked about post-consumer textile waste. Discussing how the consumer benefits emotionally from the knowledge that their waste will be reused, and how consumers understand the message about recycling and many do recycle or want to. However the viability of the textile recycling industry is threatened by a number of factors which are likely to become more influential into the future. In response to this Work in Progress have collaborated with Textile 4 Textile to develop an automatic sorting machine capable of sorting textiles by colour and fibre type; this sort of technological advancement may help protect the used textile trade. Education and dialogue between companies, designers and textile recyclers could also help to improve the end of life opportunities for our clothing.

The seminar inspired a level of optimism about what is already happening to improve the sustainability of the products we consume, at the same time an approach to disposable ‘fast fashion’ remains unclear. This is the most complex of topics as it is inseparable from broader themes such as our economic structure, competition, and many social and cultural factors (for example the speed at which information travels today is related to the rapidity of trend cycles), all of which go far beyond fashion itself.

Listen to the entire webinar and view the presentations here.

UPDATE // The NICE consumer project

Last Tuesday I took part in the first of three webinars on the sustainable consumption of fashion entitled Introducing the NICE CONSUMER Project and the Draft Framework on Sustainable Consumption of Fashion. The webinar experience was new to me and I was unsure of what to expect, but also enthusiastic about the opportunity to participate in such an important conversation. Over the next month I will keep you updated with this project and its development in the run up to the Copenhagen Fashion Summit in May.

The event began with an introduction by Jonas Eder-Hansen of the Danish Fashion Institute followed by an overview of the research (thus far) by Cody Sisco from BIS. Both speakers highlighted the infancy of this project and clearly set out the aims, objectives and limitations of this work….the road to sustainable consumption will be a long one, beginning with an attempt to define sustainable consumption and the NICE consumer.

The next speaker- Ian Morris, Head of Technical Services, Marks & Spencer plc.- described an on-going collaboration between M&S and Oxfam, which rewards consumers who donate their old clothes to charity. This project is an illustration of how a company has acted to positively influence consumer behaviour; in this case conscientious disposal, one strand of sustainable consumption. Part of the NICE consumer project involves analysing examples like this, which will help to inform the debate and the final framework.

Another feature of this project is its inclusive and open approach, making use of new technology and social media to extend the reach of discussions and inform a wider selection of society. As part of this, the webinar series gave attendees the opportunity to vote in online polling and ask questions directly to the speaker. This information is included in a recording of webinar which is already freely available to download. Opinion and feedback on the content of this webinar and the questions posed are encouraged and are easy to access through Twitter (@niceconsumer) and Facebook.

This event has given me an insightful introduction into the emerging conversation on the sustainable consumption of fashion. I am looking forward to the next event on Tuesday –The state of the Art in sustainable consumption– when the speakers will include H&M, TED (Textiles Environment Design) and Vivian Westwood.

Additional Resources //

Cody Sisco [blog] The Journey to Sustainable Fashion Consumption Has Begun

GET INVOLVED // A framework for sustainable consumption

“Consumers can play a pivotal role in transitioning the fashion industry toward more sustainable business models.” (BSR)

This year the Copenhagen Fashion Summit follows the theme of consumption, and will see the launch of a framework for sustainable consumption, developed by the NICE Consumer project. The framework will also be presented to the EU presidency council, and at the Rio+20 UN Conference on Sustainable Development later in the year. The NICE consumer is a collaborative project between the Danish Fashion Institute and BSR, which actively engages stakeholders from the industry, civil society and the government.

So how can we be involved?

As consumers we are an important part of the discussion on sustainable consumption. This project is giving people the opportunity to take part, through a series of free interactive webinars taking place in March and April. The sessions will introduce the project and track its development in the run up to the Copenhagen summit. Participants will also be able to interact with the speaker through online polling and Q&A sessions.

Anyone who is interested can sign up through the website, but hurry the first event will be held on the 13^th of March!

The Fair Wear Formula

The Fair Wear Foundation (FWF) has recently produced a short film which presents a clear summary of what they do, how they do it, and the reasons why. The organisation works towards fair labour conditions for garment workers. To define this they identify eight labour standards based upon the UN human rights principles. These objectives include maintaining a living wage, an end to child labour and the right for workers to form or join a union. The FWF supports brands in achieving these aims in an open manner and provides consumers with the information they need to shop ethically.

The position of the FWF is one of rational and constructive action, working in collaboration with many stakeholders to implement and monitor clear strategies for improvement. Brands who sign up may find they have work to do, but by signing up they are showing a genuine commitment to change. This is in contrast to the reactionary cut and run approach that is sometimes taken in response to exposure for labour rights abuses which can be more damaging to the workforce and does not help to address the long term issues.

When doing some customer research last year, I found that a lack of transparency in garment supply chains hampers efforts for change. I was told by many people that they didn’t have the information they needed to make ethical purchases. There was also a lot of confusion about what to believe, for example, when a brand’s ethical policy did not seem to reflect the reports in the news. The FWF provides consumers with a verification of labour conditions, however in the UK, there are still only a handful of brands signed up. This leads to another opinion repeatedly expressed to me: the lack of choice for ethical shoppers. If we as consumers want transparency and choice in the purchases we make, then maybe we should be the ones asking brands demonstrate their commitment to ethically produced fashion. One way may be to sign up for the FWF code.

Source: Fair Wear Foundation

Fashion Futures 2025: Global scenarios for a sustainable fashion industry

New Resources for tutors and students!

What will the fashion industry be like in 2025? How might the role of the designer or consumer change? And what can we do now to shape our future?

Thinking about the future can be daunting because we are bound by what we know and what we have experienced, but it can also help us to see things from another perspective; to inspire debate and innovation. In response to this, Fashion Futures has designed four scenarios that help us to picture the future beyond our existing knowledge of the fashion industry. Each scenario is presented through a range of materials that are creative and thought provoking. Although the project has been available since 2010, a new set of educational resources has recently been added to support the use of these scenarios at the university level.

In my experience, sustainability can be off-putting to some tutors and students, especially when the issues appear to demonise fashion or where there is a negative focus. For others who are already engaged with these issues, social and environmental concerns can sometimes lead us to question why we are in fashion at all. This project opens up the sustainability debate by presenting it in a broader context, challenging preconceptions, and exploring opportunities. A highlight of this program is that it introduces ‘design thinking’ to a fashion audience. Design thinking involves taking a human centred, collaborative approach to complex design problems. Its methods include user-centred research, brainstorming and prototyping. With this practical framework, students are guided through a thinking process that addresses these ‘big’ issues in a positive and empowering way.

Fashion Futures 2025, is a good introduction to a wider debate on how we can redefine the fashion industry to better suit the needs of both people and planet. Information about this project, including the new materials for tutors and students, can be found on the Fashion Futures website.

Stay tuned for more on this project, as SA will be featuring this Forum for the Future resource in the SA Google Earth Module which will be released later this year.

Other Resources //

Ted Talk Tim brown urges designers to think big

Design thinking for social innovation By Tim Brown & Jocelyn Wyatt

Social Alterations

An education lab for responsible fashion