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Sustainable fashion: The community you want to be a part of
2020 has been a chaotic year; politics has become so polarised, the world has gone into lockdown, and our climate is descending into madness. But in reality, this could be our future if we don’t act now. 2020 was the year to save our planet and to hold the big industries accountable. 2020 was the year to redeem ourselves, but the pandemic has diverted our gaze to the immediate threats we’re facing. It’s time to make our consumption sustainable. Climate crisis Environmental activists have been flooding the media with statements trying to draw the world’s attention to our planet’s cry for help. We are rapidly depleting our resources and most…
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The Horror Story of the Fashion World
Simply put, we are killing the planet. And one of the big contributors to this is the fashion industry. It is the third biggest pollutant on the planet and it continues to rip through our natural resources on a daily basis. We have the solution right under our noses, yet we still do nothing. We, as consumers, need to become more aware of the impact this industry is having. Our money is single-handedly funding our planet’s demise and the majority of us have no idea how. The life cycle of fashion The life cycle of your typical fashion garment is probably a bit of a mystery to most – other…
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How Technology Is Improving Sustainability in Fashion
In recent years, the need for sustainability in fashion has become apparent. The fashion industry is an energy-exhausting market, it accounts for about ‘10% of global carbon emissions, and nearly 20% of wastewater‘. That’s more than the aviation and shipping industries combined. The fashion industry is now the second biggest polluter in the world. Water pollution caused by toxic dyes and chemicals is harmful for aquatic and human life. Large quantities of fresh water used to produce cotton depletes an already scarce resource. Textile waste contains synthetic fibres such as polyester, which can take up to 200 years to decompose, and the list goes on. Consumers are becoming more aware…
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Fashion, Suppliers & the Global Crisis
The role of mainstream media during the Covid-19 global pandemic The media is undoubtably an incredible tool which allows news to be presented on a variety of platforms to the entire nation and beyond. Despite its positive implications, the delivery of news through media outlets can often cause negative emotions and provoke panic. This is something that we, as a nation, have experienced throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. There have been criticisms surrounding how Covid-19 news updates have been presented by the media. The focus has heavily been on the negative aspects of the pandemic, without a healthy balance. The positive aspects, such as communities coming together and showing a united…
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COVID-19: An Opportunity for Change?
How is the global crisis affecting consumer behaviours towards fashion? It seems an increasingly difficult question. Will the drastic changes we have seen in the short-term result in long-term positive change for the fashion industry? The complexity of our buying habits may need more than a month of lockdown to untangle the skein of consumerism. The complexities of aspirational culture: In an article on luxury fashion in China, the Journal of Retailer and Consumer Services looked at the relationship between the culture of aspiration which drives the luxury goods market and the economic reality behind its incessant growth. They look at fashion as a symbol and how this affects what…
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Fashion’s future: during difficult times and post-pandemic
There is very little break from the complete coverage of coronavirus across the news currently. A lot of fear for public health is still hanging (and quite rightly so) but a lot of perspective is starting to come to light. People are looking more at their values and what matters to them. With people staying home to help keep the population safe, this is of course having an impact on the local and global fashion industry. Of course, the news closer to home for many of us in the UK will be the concern around fashion retail workers and job uncertainty (regardless of the 80% government initiative). However, as usual,…
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What the Coronavirus really means for fashion
What our media and fashion industry are (and are not) telling us about the Coronavirus. For the past few weeks ‘coronavirus’ has dominated our media’s headlines. Every second, minute and hour, a new piece of information or advice is put out into the world. We know everything there is to know on the coronavirus (thanks to the media, we are all now experts). But, how much of what we are being told is true? Has this information really been amplified enough? Where it all began What started off being a virus from a far away place, has became a global pandemic. Starting in China, it travelled across the globe, which…
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Is fashion killing our planet?
The UN has predicted that the global population could reach a whopping 9.8 billion people by 2050. If this happens, we will need the equivalent of 3 planets to provide the resources needed to sustain our current lifestyles. So how can one planet create all these resources? And how can we as consumers change our behaviour to stop us killing our planet? How Bad is the Fashion Industry Environmentally? We all know that fast fashion is causing the fashion industry to be one of the main pollutants of the environment. Each year we, as a planet, consume more than 80 billion items of clothing. Another £12.5 billion worth of clothes…
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Can we find a sustainable solution to the business of fashion?
The need for growth? Sustainable fashion, can we find a solution when it comes the business side? I think we can all agree that the concept of a business model striving for growth and pushing for more sales and higher profits is generic. Everybody is going for this and it seems as though there really is no alternative. Ofcourse a business wants to grow and make more money, why else would somebody make it? Even charitable organisations, although they are not keeping all the money themselves will still push toward more sales and growth in order to make more charitable funds. The ethical impact? When it comes to the fashion…
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What’s new with vegan fashion?
Words by Olivia Penn I’ve been in the vegan scene since 2015. Things have changed a lot since then. With veganism growing substantially it is becoming easier than ever to live a vegan lifestyle. I’ve also changed a lot since then. Particularly regarding fashion. I’ve become more conscious about how I choose to dress and I have tried to minimise my effect on the environment. But back in 2015 when I first went vegan I remember really having no trouble at all trying to find vegan footwear. My go-to shops were the likes of New Look, Topshop and River Island, all of which had plenty of vegan footwear on offer;…
