InterviewLooking at the entire fashion system and how to incorporate the consumer.

Kate Fletcher is a true pioneer of sustainable fashion. Having started research in the field more than 15 years ago, she is the mind behind the concept of Slow Fashion, and always at the forefront of innovation through directional sustainability projects. A prolific author, she has just published her latest book, co-authored with Lynda Grose called Fashion & Sustainability-Design For Change.

The book was launched in London last week, at the Carnaby Book Exchange, with an introduction by Dilys Wiliams, Director of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion (London College of Fashion), and in conversation with Patrick Laine, Director of Corporate Partnerships, WWF-UK.

EcoSalon had the chance to have a chat with Kate Fletcher during this occasion, to talk about the book and the solutions she presents in it – to create a new fashion system that recognizes sustainability as a fundamental element.

Who is your book aimed at? Who is the target audience, and who is the message for?

Its audience is the design community, but by design community I mean something extremely broad and inclusive. Not just the professionals who have been to design school, but everyone who is trying to change things, in a direction where they see a positive effect. So all of those who are engaging with issues in the area of sustainability. The ambition of the book is to show people a whole diversity of innovations and opportunities around fashion and sustainability, because too often things are framed as “eco-efficiency” opportunities, while that is only just the first step on a very complex journey.

You said you want to create a shift from “adding sustainability to fashion as it currently works” to transforming fashion practices at their core. Do you believe this can evolve from the current situation where a niche movement is trying to take on the whole of the industry?  How else do you think the issue should be tackled?

I think it’s important to be speaking to the mainstream sector, it’s important to be showing them what they can do today, and how they can begin to transform their business, but at the moment that’s what’s happening largely alone, and I don’t think that can’t happen alone. And if a big company doesn’t increment that with a broader vision, you end up always reiterating the same things that have been done in the past.
The problem as I see it, is that we can’t get to sustainability by extrapolating from where we are today, because this is just building in the shortcomings and the problems of the current business models. So we must dream up something as a positive step, ask ourselves “what do we want? What’s a healthy sector like?” And if we can start building from that perspective, then inherently we won’t have the problems that we have today.

Still with regards to the big fashion companies, both high-street retailers and luxury conglomerates: what’s your opinion about their efforts to incorporate sustainability? Do you think their approach is truly felt, or do you see them as token gestures to avoid criticism, and spurred by the fact that sustainability can sell?

I think it is meant and felt, but a lot of people in the industry are deluding themselves that what they’re doing is worthwhile and enough. So a lot of people are still perpetuating the same model, but they substitute one fibre with another, or try to build a more transparent supply chain… Certainly with some of the luxury sector there are some shameful practices that are going on, and blatant greenwashing and bandwagon-jumping. This doesn’t mean that they’re not sincere, but they’re certainly misguided, and that’s the problem.

Author Kate Fletcher with Patrick Laine at her recent book launch

In the UK, recently three TV programs have been aired, showing the efforts of companies that are trying to bring manufacturing back to Britain. Do you think going back to local manufacturing is feasible, is it achievable?

There is evidence this is already happening, even though the move has been driven by economic factors rather than sustainability reasons. There is every reason to ride that wave, as it is going in the same direction that we want, and we should use that energy. Also, “Made in the UK” is not the solution to all problems, firstly because at the moment there’s a major skills gap, and we don’t have a skilled enough workforce to make products the way we want them; and also because in many developing countries a lot of people depend on the manufacturing jobs created by our demands. But I think there is an opportunity there for us to think what we want our sector to be, and try to strike a balance between the two realities. From my personal perspective however, I see localism as a cornerstone idea within sustainability.

You have an important role as an academic, within the CFS at LCF. A lot of universities now offer sustainable fashion courses, forming the designers of tomorrow. But what about the consumer of tomorrow? What do we need to do to engage the young generations, and how do we communicate sustainability to them?

If all we do, like we’re still doing today, is get them to choose between two different products on a shelf, then I don’t think we’re doing the right thing. Part of the problem is that we’re casting people in a very simple way as consumers vs. producers. I think we need to think of what they are in a very different way: as part of the whole process, as engaged persons, who take responsibility, who ask their own questions. Therefore I wouldn’t even talk about them as “consumers,” but rather as “citizens,” as people who are in the system with us, and make their choices part of their lifestyle. Perhaps that’s where the real change lies.

One thing I would really suggest to all users of clothes to do, would be to go through their wardrobes and try to remember why they bought each garment, consider what they liked about it and the reason why they chose it. So that they can be reminded of the garment itself, assess its current potential to be worn again, styled with something else, and develop more awareness of what’s already in our wardrobes. We are so overwhelmed by the shopping options out there, and we need to take a moment and re-engage with what we already have.

The post Interview: Author Kate Fletcher on New Fashion & Sustainability Book appeared first on EcoSalon.

“The more ephemeral fashion is, the more perfect it is. You can’t protect what is already dead.” – Morand

In a recent blog post, Consumerist fashion: Innovation Repressor, author and fashion pioneer Kate Fletcher wrote that “consumerist fashion not only damages the resource base, workers, consumers, etc., but also – and perhaps more insidiously – represses innovation; stifling anything other than that which benefits those invested in the status quo.”

One of the most obvious manifestations of this is in the immense speed of the fashion cycle, a system so rapidly changing that opportunities for “real innovation” are extremely limiting. The speed of change in fashionable dress is an old grievance of cultural observers. “Ah! Quelle Antiquité!” exclaim the couple in Carle Vernet’s etching dressed in the height of 1793 French fashion – “Oh! Quelle Folie que la Nouveauté!!!” replies the couple dressed in fashionable 1778 dress. The exchange roughly translates to  “Ah! What Antiquity!” and “Oh! What Madness of Innovation!” illustrating the rapid changes occurring in fashion in post-revolutionary France – and as a result the remainder of the fashionable world.

Carle Vernet

This “Madness of Innovation” is what still compels the fashion industry onward today. Author Barbara Vinken describes fashion as “the empire of the ephemeral,” in her book Fashion Zeitgeist and French writer and early Modernist Paul Morand claimed, “The more ephemeral fashion is, the more perfect it is. You can’t protect what is already dead”. Such musings are all well and good, but when the ephemeral nature of fashion leads to seemingly mountainous deposits of undesirable fashion items relegated to landfill – perhaps another attitude needs to be encouraged.

Fletcher describes consumerist fashion as a system that continually needs to “self-justify” itself, creating new styles in ever-faster cycles to replace old ones, which inevitably wear out quickly and were never intended to be mended. The phenomenal speed of this cycle relies on the ability of fashion houses large and small, from the high street to fashion week to copy and be influenced by the existing design work of other designers, either contemporary or historical. I say it “relies on it” because for fashion houses at all levels the development time for collections is growing ever shorter, leaving minimal time for true innovation and the pressure to meet deadlines and profit margins necessitates a degree of copying.

A homage or just plain knocking off? From left to right: East West Musical Instruments Co., Balenciaga, and Urban Outfitters

A good friend who was working for a fast fashion producer in London replied to an email I had sent her about my own work addressing sustainable fashion design, production and consumption systems. Describing the design process in the company she worked for she wrote “I don’t actually design them. But, in the loosest sense of design, I ‘adjust.’ Are you laughing??? I do most days. I correct appalling fit, I decided on length/print/colourways. I rip out a Lacroix skirt (out of Vogue) that I love with loads of lace and send it out to the factory with a line drawing and basic spec, cross my fingers and hope that something nice comes back.”

Current international law regarding the protection of fashion designs in theory allows designers to protect their designs, usually through the application of design patents or “trade dress,” and in the case of copyright automatically protects the patterns, textile design and sketches relating to any design and long as it is original. But what is original? The fashion zeitgeist can be described as a continuous line, a progression of ideas for which most are traceable through a cyclical lineage which marries other contemporary designers work with historical dress and often street fashion. As a result the difficulty in proving originality of idea in its entirety is immense.

An added complexity is the evolution of the fashion industry from being a relatively simple “trickle-down” procession of ideas to the non-linear system we have today where fashion ideas appear to come from anywhere. When writing about and discussing Zero Waste Fashion Design with others, I often need to point out that what I do also isn’t new. Zero-waste pattern cutting has been around for thousands of years in the form of Kimono and other historical costume, and more recently many designers worldwide such as Issey Miyake, Timo Rissanen, Mark Liu, Yeohlee Teng and Zandra Rhodes have been engaging with it.

Writer and designer Holly McQuillan at the traveling Yield Zero Waste Exhibit she curates

Miucci Prada famously said, “We let others copy us. And when they do, we drop it”. This altruistic attitude only works when the copied designer is already desirable to fashion consumers and the designer has generated income from being the first to produce the design. However since the advent of the Internet and improvements in manufacturing, the translation from high fashion to high street now only takes weeks, explaining why copying is so much more of a problem now.

Previously high fashion and couture houses were relatively unconcerned by copies as they would only be on the market after the original designs had had their moment and they had made a return on their investment. Indeed the copies indirectly drive later sales due to the obsolescence they induce. The Internet, whilst making fashion more accessible to consumers worldwide, has also made it very easy for fast fashion houses to translate consumer interest into new variations.

Anna Sui spring 2007 RTW on left and Forever 21′s Maven Top on right

Once styles are gleaned from the internet and processed by the design room, manufacturing advances mean that fast fashion firms such as Zara can take as little as 14 days from design room to retail floor – consequently taking income away from the designers that invested in developing the idea in the first place. Contemporary fashion moments pass by so quickly as to negate much of the need to protect individual designs – by the time designers patent their work, the fashion value of that piece is likely to have diminished if not dissolved completely. The result is that the majority of the fashion world treats their outputs as Creative Commons – “shared resources that can be freely reused, recreated and recombined” with a mostly self-governing “shame-police.”

Instead of legislating the rights of designers, fashion savvy consumers and observers can spot, and through blogs, out an overt copy, or as it is more euphemistically labeled “homage.” The loss of reputation can be damaging so most high-end designers try to avoid intentionally referencing other designers work too heavily. The situation becomes much more complex when well known designers copy little known players in the industry. It has been argued that this “referencing” aids the original designer, by giving them publicity which they may have otherwise never received, a convenient viewpoint for those with power in the fashion industry.

Feral Childe Teepee Print

Forever 21 Knockoff Print

Despite the potential benefit to society there appears to be little motivation from either designers or consumers to slow down the rate of change and so-called “innovation” in the fashion industry. The financial benefit from the current system is great. The specter of the derivative-driven fashion cycle is however something that should concern sustainable fashion designers. Indeed if the fashion industry as a whole aims to eventually be sustaining and follow best practice then the rampant excesses of consumption need to be addressed, something that companies such as Marks & Spencer who, whilst making great leaps forward in providing organic product ranges and other sustainable initiatives, fail to address. There are few design companies who actively encourage their consumers to buy less.

There are other ways to measure success. The fashion industry could protect and nurture up and coming designers, it could develop better pay and working conditions for the millions of its workers, it could move toward being an industry which values truly innovative design and prevents the proliferation of so-called “new or innovative” products purely for the sake of a quick return.

The more often that products are released to the public, the more often the consumers feel the need for change, and the faster that consumers get bored with current offerings. This could be attributed to the idea (as French provocateur Jean Baudrillard stated) that we consume as we lack any other real purpose in our lives. So we need alternatives.

Kate Fletcher writes: “To this, the response of those of us who love nature and the creative and cultural power of fashion and design can only be to invigorate innovation of these alternatives and develop a different plan of action.”

Image: Fashion Bomb Daily

The post The Hypocrisy of Fashion ‘Innovation’ appeared first on EcoSalon.

Sustainable style news from EcoSalon’s West Coast Fashion Correspondent.

Bienvenido Balenciaga – The opening of the 120-piece fashion retrospective Balenciaga and Spain at San Franciso’s De Young Museum last week was celebrated with a $2,500 a ticket fundraiser attended by fashion’s elite. Guests included the exhibit’s guest curator and Vogue European editor-at-large, Hamish Bowles, Anna Wintour, Gwyneth Paltrow, Miranda Kerr and Pasadena-based Rodarte designers, Laura and Kate Mulleavy. Underscoring the De Young’s standing as a world class West Coast venue for fashion and textile arts, this don’t-miss megawatt show runs through July 4^th. The influence of Spanish culture on the designs of Cristóbal Balenciaga (1895–1972) reminds us of the enormous potential for the enlightening expression our clothing can have. Catch last weekend’s sold-out symposium on a pay-per-view online broadcast on FORA.tv.

Wearable Wisdom – At this weekend’s Craft Forward symposium in San Francisco, it’s not a garment’s designer that will be celebrated but its wearer. Kate Fletcher, author of Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys invites attendees to take part in her ongoing eco fashion project that celebrates the “craft “ involved with garment use. If you have a piece of clothing that has been creatively repurposed or has special meaning to you, stand up and be counted for Fletcher’s ground-breaking Local Wisdom project. By sharing the story of your garment, and be photographed wearing it,  you’ll be participating in what is sure to become seminal research for reevaluating the future of sustainable fashion.

Fashion Passion – Ever wondered why the green fashion coverage you love is best found online? Head down to The Hub in  San Francisco’s SOMA district tonight for Global Action Thru Fashion‘s latest event. Ecofabulous.com Creative Director, Caitlin Bristol, and yours truly will discuss the role online media has played in the rise of the ethical fashion movement. From 7-8 p.m.

The post Eco Style West Vol. 3 appeared first on EcoSalon.

Why investment dressing costs far less than fast fashion.

The term “Slow Fashion” combines many aspects of sustainability. From an industry perspective, it can refer to slowing down the production cycle, giving more attention to detail and craftsmanship in each garment, manufacturing locally, or supporting fair wages. From a consumer’s angle, it means slowing down our consumption habits, buying fewer garments that are classic, of quality, and will last us for years.

As a frequent public speaker on the topic of sustainable fashion, I find that the concept of slow fashion resonates really well with the audiences I speak to. My guess is because it’s the one area where consumers feel they can make the most impact simply by shifting their consumption habits.

Those habits are hard to break.

Like fast food, we are victims of fast fashion in North America. We feel constant pressure from the media to buy the latest trends that change with each season: From short hems to long, pointy toe to round, skinny to wide leg, we yearn to stay current. Because most of us simply cannot afford to buy quality-made garments to keep up with these fluctuating trends, we resort to shopping at the “convenient” fast fashion outlets and the big box retailer that trend-hunts runways to bring you the latest fashions in a matter of weeks.

As consumers, we are a sale-driven culture used to the quality of disposable products. We think after we wear a piece of clothing purchased at such a dramatically low cost, it’s acceptable for it to fall apart, for buttons to drop off, threads to come undone, or for them to lose shape. After all, who cares,  it only cost us $10!

The problem with this mentality is that it fuels excessive over-consumption, which comes with a hidden price tag on the environment. According to sustainable super star Kate Fletcher, who coined the term Slow Fashion, laundering our garments has a greater impact than the growing, processing and producing of the fabric, as well as its disposal. So it makes sense then that the more garments we consume, the greater the cumulative negative impact.

This is a serious problem and one that cannot change overnight. However the with our ecological clock ticking, we have to make a change sooner than later, and perhaps when it comes to fashion, we need to adopt a more European mindset. We need to invest in our wardrobe and buy quality made pieces that are timeless, and can be worn for years without falling apart.

Cost-per-wear or investment dressing is a relatively new term. But it is a very powerful tool with potential to change the way we shop. Let’s use a button down shirt as an example. On the higher end, you might spend $150 on such a top (particularly if made from organic cotton).

• First, divide the cost of the shirt by the number of garments in your wardrobe that can be worn with it. For example it can be paired with 3 pairs of jeans and 2 pairs of pants, so $150/5 = $30. The $150 shirt has now been reduced to a cost of $30;
• Next, divide the new cost of $30 by the number of times the shirt will be worn per year (say 4x per month for 12 months ie: $30/48 = 62.5 cents). The $150 shirt has now been further reduced to a cost 62.5 cents;
• The last step is to divide the new cost of 62.5 cents by the number of years the shirt will be worn – and if it was quality made and off trend it should last at least 5 years. So $.625/5 = 12.5 cents.

The final result is a $150 shirt reduced to a cost of 12.5 cents per wear over a 5 year period. Compare this to a cheaper option that falls apart in 6 months or is no longer in fashion and thereby rendered unwearable by the fashion gods. Your cost per wear can be up to 10 times more than an investment piece.

All this talk of slow fashion forced me to reflect on my own wardrobe. I was curious to know how many pieces I still wear that I have owned for 5+ years. I was surprised to see that about 40% of my wardrobe is of that vintage. I was then inspired to poll other eco fashion experts to see if they own, and still wear, items purchased from 5+ years ago. Not surprisingly, here is what I found:

Above (right): Anna Griffin, Publisher and Editor in Chief, Coco Eco Magazine pictured with astrologer Susan Miller

“I was at the Susan Miller Event at the W Hollywood Residences and wore my most treasured piece, a vintage Ozbek which always stops traffic and is absolutely stunning.”

Jasmin Malik Chua, Managing Editor Ecouterre

“I bought this sweet gingham dress from Benetton shortly after 9/11, after a harrowing 11 days away from my Ground Zero apartment.  It was a splurge for a graduate student living on a shoestring, but it’s held up magnificently over the past 10 years. Weddings, brunches, picnics, you name it. I even wore it when I was five months pregnant, so you can’t say I haven’t made the most of it!”

Emma Grady, Fashion Correspondent for Discovery’s TreeHugger, Lifestyle Correspondent for The Daily Green and Founder of PastFashionFuture

“This is a London Fog trench coat that I found at a consignment shop in Newport, Rhode Island when I was still in high school, which was more than five years ago. I have only had to mend the belt and sew on a couple of the buttons since then and it is still in fine shape and still very much a wardrobe staple of mine.”

Johanna Bjork, Founder & Editor of Goodlifer

“I’m wearing an olive green miniskirt that I bought over ten years ago. It’s been in and out of rotation in my closet, but the basic color and cut makes it a timeless piece .”

Kate Black, Founder & Editor, Magnifeco

“I bought those boots before I even knew what ‘sustainable’ fashion was, but I wanted a pair of boots with longevity, that offered both a style and brand that would see me through the years. And they only get better with age! Being a North American living in Japan, I can’t buy jeans here in my size. This means I have to ‘borrow’ from my partner’s closet. This pair, which he bought in 2006, reside permanently on my side of the closet”.

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, Founder/Editor of Ecostiletto

“I bought this cotton shirt and jeans before I knew what sustainable fashion was! Even though I was eating and cleaning organic, I never thought about the implications of cotton production–that this outfit alone probably required about a pound of pesticides to produce. The empire waist has seen me through two pregnancies–my kids are 12, 9 and 4 so I’ll let you guess which ones. And the jeans are soft as butter. So I guess my non-sustainable fashion purchase turned out to be sustainable after all!”

To explore this a little deeper, there are some great organizations helping raise awareness with consumers around slow fashion, such as Make Do and Mend, which, according to Maureen Dickson, co-founder of of Slow Fashion Forward “Advocates consumers make do with what they have rather than buying new to combat over-consumption. The creative one-off Six Items or Less Experiment and The Uniform Project challenge consumers to minimize consumption by simplifying their wardrobe.”

Image: Zitona

Take a look at your wardrobe. Do you own any pieces that are more than five years old and still wearable? Why do you think that is?

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