Pauline Op de Beeck, art.5 "Where do we go post-COVID-19?"

I have intentionally not touched upon Covid-19 because the environmental impact and the solutions we need continue to be as relevant as ever. But it has been important for me to take this time during lockdown to reflect on the impact of this crisis we find ourselves in, and our place in it.

A ‘perfect storm’

As is the case for many sectors, this one has had to hit pause: pause on production, pause on shipping and in some cases even a pause on new design. The demand for clothing has slowed down to an unprecedented level and many brands are focusing on staying afloat.[1] Because of these challenges, there has never been such a ‘perfect storm’ to spur action and new systems thinking. It is a shame that, from a fashion sustainability perspective, I have never been more optimistic.

Crises bring opportunity and require creativity. Before this crisis, the fashion sector was not changing quickly enough. Yes, many brands had signed up to industry charters that commit them to reducing their emissions, restoring biodiversity and preserving the oceans,[2] but the translation from commitment to action has been limited to a minority of leading brands. On the other hand, some of the innovations, changes and discussions we have seen in the past 2 months are things I didn’t think we’d see for years to come.

On a macro level, this is ultimately a redesign challenge, and fashion at its core is about design. We have a decade to curb global emissions and this year will be key in shaping what this decade of action should look like. The micro level should instead focus on the design of garments. As people have been buying less, brands and their designers have been forced to think: what does the consumer actually want? Do they really want to blindly follow trends, or do they want to feel inspired and build a connection with a brand and its clothing?

Digitisation

Some of the changes we have seen so far include the planned consolidation of London Fashion Week’s men’s and women’s, which will now be online-only[3], with Milan and Paris following suit. This will be a fascinating example of a low-carbon fashion week and could open up a world of opportunities for digital buying.

Digital design is also on the rise. Designers are using software and 3D clothing sampling processes and virtual fit sessions.[4] This digitisation is much less carbon and waste intensive than producing samples, flying them across the world and having models present them in a showroom.

Slowing down

People are buying less. Fashion is not deemed an essential industry and production has in many cases come to a standstill. [5] Helpfully, many brands have switched their production to produce things we do desperately need: personal protective equipment. Consumers are connecting with their favourite brands on a basis other than simply shopping from them. Brands have signalled their values through their response to this equipment shortage and how they have dealt with the orders of clothes they’ve made but no longer need produced.[6]

Many sector experts predict that consumers will “become much more discerning with discretionary purchasing and their connection with brands will be important, as they ‘will want something meaningful’”.[7] Not only will consumers want to buy less, the recession caused by Covid-19 will also mean they won’t be able to spend as much after the pandemic.

And brands are taking note. For example, Saint Laurent has stated it won’t be showing a collection in Paris’ September Fashion week. The design house is looking to align the release of their collections more with when the customer is actually likely to buy it[8]. Similarly, Giorgio Armani announced that in order for the sector to regain and retain resilience it needs to slow down and realign collections with seasons in stores.[9] This is a glimmer of moving to designing and producing based on demand, rather than generating demand through supply.

What do we want this new world to look like?

When we return to the shops from lockdown, let’s not celebrate being outside by over consuming and buying outfits for our re-emergence into society. Instead, let’s celebrate the clothing we haven’t had the chance to wear during this time and relish in what we already have.

If we do feel inspired to buy something, let’s think carefully about what this item will bring to our wardrobe, how it makes us feel, interrogate how it was made and, if we do purchase it, cherish it fully. Let’s move from following trends to connecting emotionally with our clothing, its origins and the craft of its talented designers.

I love fashion – I always have. And ultimately that is why I love what I do. I love how clothes make me feel and how they can empower me to portray who I am and what I am feeling to the world. I would love for us to get to a place where we can buy an item of clothing without having to filter for sustainability or to trawl the Internet to find something we feel comfortable buying. I want to feel as morally comfortable buying a garment as I currently do physically wearing it.

The time is now for brands, producers, governments and consumers to think about the world they want to live in and how fashion fits into that. Clothing should not cost the Earth.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own as an individual.

[1] https://www.voguebusiness.com/companies/fashion-industry-crisis-deepens-amid-covid-19-chaos [2] https://www.vogue.com/article/fashion-pact-sustainability-g7-summit-emmanuel-macron [3] https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/akwbm8/london-fashion-week-is-going-gender-neutral-and-digital [4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookerobertsislam/2020/04/13/designer-and-supply-chain-digital-revolution-how-covid-19-is-changing-the-fashion-industry/#76cb6c107ccc [5] https://wwd.com/business-news/business-features/after-coronavirus-scenarios-for-apparel-design-sourcing-and-production-1203622397/ [6] https://www.vogue.com/article/paris-fashion-week-mens-july-2020 [7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/brookerobertsislam/2020/04/13/designer-and-supply-chain-digital-revolution-how-covid-19-is-changing-the-fashion-industry/#325ac3f87ccc [8] https://wwd.com/fashion-news/fashion-features/fashion-weeks-shifting-format-amid-coronavirus-1203565669/ Gif references:

Ecoalf (https://www.instagram.com/p/B_ua6stJdHS/) Extinction Rebellion LFW (https://sustainable-fashion.com/blog/fashion-x-extinction-rebellion/) The Fabricant ( https://www.thefabricant.com) Soulland Show (https://vimeo.com/72010790) Fabric Recycle (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AjHVMhAOZa4) Psychic Outlaw (https://www.psychicoutlaw.com/) Ahluwalia (https://www.ahluwaliastudio.com/) Fashion For Good Museum (https://fashionforgood.com/) Ectinction Rebellion Cornwall (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gi-Ldj5uvtw)

Pauline Op de Beeck, art.4 "The Empowered Consumer: a wardrobe revolution"

In previous articles I discussed how much of the change required to decarbonise the fashion sector will be systemic and led by brands, governments, manufacturers and financial institutions. One crucial element we have not discussed is us, the consumers! We have a key role in making sure this new system works, and making it come about in the first place.

There is a lot we can do to signal to brands that we want the system to change. For many brands, sustainability is not only about ‘doing the right thing’. Like all businesses, they cannot ignore the profitability lens. And this is precisely where us consumers come in. The expression ‘voting with your wallet’ is overused but under- practised. In this article I aim to leave you with some key tips to revolutionise the fashion sector, one wardrobe at a time.

1. Ask questions

The more questions we ask as consumers, the more brands will listen. The more we search for sustainable clothing on search engines or e-commerce platforms, the more brands realise demand exists. Ultimately, fashion brands must make a profit to survive. As they realise their profitability is increasingly tied to consumer demand for sustainability, they will be convinced that going green is both the right and the profitable thing to do. If we don’t ask our favourite brands how their garments are produced, whether they are recyclable or if they come from sustainable sources, the move to a low-carbon circular economy will be slower.

Luckily, there are many brands who are already making this shift. By being inquisitive and finding out which brands align with our environmental concerns, we can support those who are committed to decarbonising and becoming circular. And this will also incentivise brands who aren’t already on this journey to invest in changing their ways.

Ref: A transparent product description, emphasizing the sustainability decision making that went into the development of this product and its final footprint. Click image for a link to allbirds website.

2. Cherish your wardrobe

Dame Vivienne Westwood has provided us with some wise words to live by: “Buy less. Choose well. Make it last.” (Along with creative and sustainable collections!)

Annually, 48 million tonnes of clothing are disposed of, which is estimated to be equivalent to the annual sales volume. 1 This means today we are buying as much clothing every year as we are throwing away. It is clear we cannot ignore the fact that we are buying too much.

We all have garments in our closets that we no longer like, that we’ve only worn once, that haven’t been worn for years, and even some that we may never have worn. What did we think about when we purchased those garments? Did we think how many times we were going to wear them, or what we were going to wear them with? Did we consider their quality, craftsmanship and how they made us feel?

Fashion will always be an incredibly special way to express ourselves. By really thinking about how a beautiful garment we want to buy fits into our closet and how it reflects our personality, we can re-start cherishing our clothing so much that we don’t mind being seen in it multiples times and *GASP!* having several posts of us wearing it on Instagram.

If we cherish what we buy, we want to make it last. This means buying good-quality products and not following all the latest trends just because an influencer told us to. We should only wash clothes when we really need to, so that colours don’t fade and materials don’t degrade. Clothes should also dry naturally, rather than being tossed around in an incredibly energy-intensive dryer. Finally, this also means getting clothes mended, or better yet, learning how to sew ourselves!

If we truly value our clothes and wear them a lot because they are beautiful and they make us feel great, why would we want to immediately discard them and replace them with new ones?

3. Lend, rent and resell

In addition to buying less, buying well and making clothes last, we can also trial new forms of clothing ownership. Many of us already purchase vintage clothing because we like its uniqueness. There is also a flourishing second-hand market on digital platforms for resale, as well as peer-to-peer lending. Some brands are also trialling rental, subscription and repair services.

These new services and ownership models are at the core of the new circular model that will allow the fashion industry to be sustainable.

4. Recycle

Finally, when it is time to part ways with a garment, hopefully after it has been worn (many times), lent, resold and mended, we should recycle it. As discussed in the previous article, textile-recycling infrastructure is currently under-developed. By bringing our clothing back to brands, we are helping them increase their stocks of recyclable material. They need a critical mass of clothing in order to help develop the demand that recycling start-ups need to scale.

Now, time for action!

The time for action is now. We have a decade to avert catastrophic climate change and it is time for consumers to really start voting with their wallets and use their wardrobes as a tool to revolutionise the fashion sector.

In summary, all you have to do is: 1) Ask questions & do your research 2) Buy less, choose well & make it last 3) Be open to new forms of ownership 4) And recycle!

Next week we will be looking at how the sector has been impacted by Covid-19 and how this has provided a space for reflection on the state of fashion for both brands and consumers.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own as an individual.

[1] Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A new textiles economy: Redesigning fashion’s future (2017)

Pauline Op de Beeck, Art.3 "From linear to circular"

From last week’s article, we know that the complex environmental impacts of the apparel sector are entrenched in its current linear model. Fortunately, a lot of thinking has taken place on how this can be transformed to deal with the climate crisis. Namely, by moving away from a linear economy to a circular one.

The concept of circularity is in itself quite simple. Instead of making, using and disposing, we move to a circular system where waste simply does not exist. Regeneration rather than extraction. In this system, everything is designed and produced such that it can either be reused or recycled. Waste is removed from the economy and from our vocabulary[1]. Circularity is inherently less carbon-intensive than the current linear model.

This sounds fairly simple, logical even. And, to a certain extent, it is. Many have compared the principles of a circular economy, a new concept, to the principles by which previous generations lived by. It is only since the 20th century that companies have been producing more goods of lower quality, and in many cases built to be prematurely obsolete[2]. So, while much of the technology needed to re-engineer our economy towards circularity will require innovations that are under development or do not exist yet, the principles themselves have existed for hundreds of years. For the apparel sector, re-engineering to a circular economy will require a combination of structural changes and the development of new forms of consumer ownership. So what will this future look like?

Circular design

Circularity is in essence a design principle. Design in a circular economy is governed by the need to utilise a material in its best conditions for as long as possible[3]. For fashion this means:

1. Designing for durability, so that clothing can be worn for a long time and by many;

2. Using fibres that either already exist (i.e. recycled fibres) or natural fibres that come from regenerative agricultural systems that give back as much to the Earth as they take out;

3. Sewing and assembling garments in an energy-efficient facility powered by renewable electricity, and

4. Shipping through more efficient sea freight and even rail, as some production will have shifted closer to the point of sale and the sector’s slowing down will make faster air-freight less necessary.

Slow Fashion and new ownership models

Slower fashion means less seasons in a year, less consumption and more wears. If clothing breaks, brands will offer repair services, or we might even all learn to sew again like our grandparents did(!) This will extend the life of our garments. It will hopefully no longer be shameful to wear the same dress to five weddings in a row and post a picture of the same dress on Instagram. If we do buy something, we will wear it for longer, wash and dry it less, and then be able to resell it or lend it with ease.

Also, new ownership models will become the norm. Some consumers might stop purchasing clothing altogether and have subscriptions that allow them to switch out their wardrobe without having to purchase and discard their clothing. We might only rent garments for special occasions and no longer buy something to only wear once.

After a garment has been worn, lent, rented, fixed and resold many times over, we will be able to recycle it with the confidence that it will indeed become a new garment and not end up in landfill.

Is this realistic?

This may sound like a long way off. In some ways it is, because for this to work there will have to be a dramatic shift at a systemic level with a critical majority of consumers, brands and even governments participating.

But we are starting to see shifts towards a circular economy. Many large brands have circular economy and recycled content targets and are trialling rental and repair services. Today, many brands’ unique selling point already is that they build clothes to last, and they do not want you to buy their jacket more than once in a lifetime[4].

There is also a flurry of innovation and action in this sector. Chemical and mechanical recycling start-ups that can break down complex blends and spin these into new fibres are approaching scale[5]. Re-sale and peer-to-peer lending platforms are also gaining traction. Media and consumer engagement with the question of fashion sustainability is also at an all-time high[6]. Crucially, textiles are one of the four key sectors that the EU is focusing on in its European Green Deal. In fact, the proposed regulation centres on circularity[7]. These are all essential components of a circular economy and their development is very encouraging.

The road ahead

Two key catalysts are needed for these developments to transform into systemic change.

The first is collaboration. No brand, or even a collection of brands, can be circular in isolation. Circularity is a system and in order for systems to work they need a critical mass of players. This means that:

1. innovation can scale, helping to finance energy efficiency and the switch to renewable energy in factories and bringing down the cost of recycled or recyclable materials;

2. brands can work with governments to create the right regulation to develop recycling infrastructure and incentives to recycle, and

3. systemic pressure can provide encouragement for enough consumers to recycle their clothing to develop sufficient stock of material to make new garments without further resource extraction.

The second element is financing[8]. All of these innovators need financial assistance to get to scale – there needs to be investment in recycling infrastructure so that enough clothing can be collected in the first place and there needs to be investment in factories and their processes. Brands also need to invest in training their employees in circular design thinking. We see these elements developing, but they will have to accelerate at an unprecedented pace in the next decade to keep this sector’s decarbonisation on track.

The road ahead is hopeful. So, what can we as consumers do today to keep our wardrobes sustainable and help change the system? Stay tuned for my next article and you’ll find out.

The views expressed in this article are the author's own as an individual.

[1] Ellen McArthur Foundation, Towards the Circular Economy, (2013) [2] BEUC, Factsheet Premature Obsolescence: When Products Fail too Quickly, (2018) [3] https://www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org/circular-economy/concept [4] https://www.patagonia.com/stories/dont-buy-this-jacket-black-friday-and-the-new-york-times/story-18615.html [5] https://renewcell.se/news/ [6] Lyst, The 2020 Conscious Fashion Report, (2020) [7] European Commission, Circular Economy Action Plan: For a cleaner more competitive Europe, (2020) [8] Fashion for Good, BCG, Financing the Transformation in the Fashion Industry, (2020)