Defining Sustainable Fashion
Is there a clear definition of what "sustainable fashion" is?
What does it mean to you?
We asked our participants in the Fashion Futures: Rethinking the T-shirt workshop last Friday evening, and got responses ranging from "natural ingredients" and "don't buy" to "organic" and "humane".
The complex nature of the fashion industry's supply chain makes it difficult to clearly define what is "sustainable fashion" - there are so many intervention points right from the source of the materials, where the fiber is spun, the textile mills, the cutting, the garment factory and eventually the retail outlet. Not forgetting of course, the design process and the consumer. So where do we start? It boils down to the values of the business.
Redesigning the T-shirt
Participants were asked to think about what they thought was crucial to making a t-shirt sustainable. Slightly over an hour later, the teams pitched their newly designed sustainable t-shirts (and yes, they did do some sewing!).
The designs revolved around the concept of the circular economy - designing to reduce consumption and textile waste.
So how would YOU define sustainable fashion?
This workshop was a collaboration with Sustainable Living Lab as part of the Future Making series. Thank you to everyone who came and made it happen!
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