The industry’s exterior is obsessed with displays, runways, and glamorous appearances; hiding a far less palatable side: textile factories operating in the shadows, with the treatment of their workers obscured by greenwashing. Additionally, large-scale production causes significant damage to our planet, contributing to the climate crisis in myriad ways. What can we do about it?
Day one of Source Fashion, the UK’s sustainable sourcing show, highlighted the juxtaposition which lies firmly at the heart of the fashion industry. Source Fashion was both hopeful and heartwarming, showcasing responsibly sourced styles in a powerfully uplifting catwalk presentation featuring the designs of Anna Pabissi, a cruelty-free and zero-waste couture designer. At the same time, the day was also harrowingly eye-opening, revealing the drastic changes the industry desperately needs to achieve true sustainability and humane working conditions.
‘We need to think in futures, not trends,’ was the overarching message from Fashion Futurist Geraldine Wharry’s opening presentation on Future Humanity Systems. We currently have so much stock that it could clothe the entire world for the next six generations, yet fashion brands continue to over-produce without considering the future. Wharry suggested a range of both plausible and wild-card ideas (such as edible packaging for shipping) for the fashion industry’s development, emphasising the exciting potential that comes with a futuristic outlook.
A future where we use what we have
As well as showcasing her bold designs on the catwalk as one of the headline designers, Anna Pabissi shared her thoughts on stage in an interview with stylist Rebekah Roy. Pabissi’s pieces are known for their hand-crafted designs, as she gives second life to antique fabrics creating one-off statement pieces, utilising end off roll and deadstock textiles for the most flamboyant garments. During the interview, pieces of yarn are embellished across Pabissi’s top,which are scraps of vegan yarn from a previous project. In the conversation, Pabissi discusses the journey to forging your own path as a young fashion designer, and the opportunities that have formed from sticking to your values and incorporating that into design – including the influence of her love for vintage and vegan lifestyle.
Anna Pabissi at Source
A future where we talk to our clothes’ previous owners
In her speech, Wharry included exploring how social media and digital development can inspire greater care for our garments. Wharry imagined a world where we could communicate with the previous owners of our clothes or even connect online all the way back to the farmers who produced the original materials for the textiles. She highlighted Haelixa’s DNA technology, which can mark raw materials with DNA, embedding information within textiles. Transparency chips embedded in our garments could make traceability a social feature of our clothing, potentially transforming the way we think about our wardrobes entirely.
Wharry also advocated for the reconnection with nature that many of us want, but cannot quite access. Wharry spoke about how factories can strive to become more like forests, functioning with the long-term in mind and becoming places for repair and disassembly, as well as just production. Creating a new story that puts nature back into cultural conversations around fashion is vital if we want to achieve circularity.
A future where clothes are distributed fairly
Later in the day, a conversation between Give Your Best’s Sol Escobar and Laura Husband, Managing Editor of Just Style, asked how fashion can truly achieve this desired circularity, raising the important issue of clothing poverty, a topic which all too often seems to be dismissed or pushed to one side.
Five and a half million people are living in clothing poverty in the UK alone, unable to afford the countless new clothing items that are produced, consumed, and discarded all too soon. Fast fashion brands seem to forget their pieces exist as soon as they have shipped them off to a customer, with many items ending up in landfills.
Give Your Best tackles the issues of fashion waste and clothing poverty hand in hand by giving those who need clothes the choice to shop for them for free from a selection of donated pieces.
Escobar spoke about the undeniable importance of clothing in our lives: the act of opening our wardrobes each morning, leafing through our clothes and choosing our outfit of the day is quietly empowering. It is only when this choice is taken away that we may realise the true power behind selecting our clothes; they enable us to express how we feel, how we wish to be perceived on any given day, and serve as a creative means of self-expression. Give Your Best empowers people to choose their clothing while simultaneously combating fashion waste.
Ultimately, it is fashion brands that need to change their wider mindsets in order to achieve true circularity in the fashion world. Individuals and small businesses, are, as usual, demonstrating an industry that could be if we put the future in mind, and produce services that centralise around today’s largest issues. Whether that is alleviating clothing poverty by redistributing clothes or collaborating with farmers to make use of their agriculture fibre waste. As Escobar encouraged, it is time for a shift to emotive business models that put people and the planet first, as the industry’s current state of overproduction and careless manufacturing is harming both.
