Fashion Doesn’t Have To Pollute

The best sustainable textile innovators at LFW proved it is possible to make fabulous fashion with better materials—so why isn’t everyone doing it?—asks Clare Press.

Source: Susan Fang LFW Feb23 FOH Charlie Wheeler (7).jpeg Courtesy of https://britishfashioncouncil.presscloud.com/digitalshowroom/

First things first: it’s hella cool that London Fashion Week officially kicked off with a second-hand runway. Oxfam’s Fashion Fights Poverty show, styled by Bay Garnett, set the tone: second-hand certainly isn’t second-best. Just ask Sandy Powell, who (along with a pregnant Daisy Lowe and a suave Brett Staniland) walked the runway in thrifted finery, then, a few days later, became the first costume designer to win BAFTA’s highest honour. Well deserved; she’s a genius. While we’re on the subject, the Princess of Wales restyled her BAFTAs McQueen dress from 2019 for this year’s event. It’s now officially aspirational to rewear stuff. The ideas behind sustainability have gone mainstream.

  After Oxfam, the Ham Yard Hotel hosted the London premier of Fashion Reimagined, Becky Hunter’s beautiful, insightful film about Amy Powney’s quest to make Mother of Pearl a sustainable label, and the trials and tribulations of tracing her textile supply chain. Introducing the film, model Lily Cole acknowledged the debt we all owe to Vivienne Westwood, the OG sustainability change-maker, whose memorial had taken place that afternoon. Across town Harris Reed was presenting demi-couture looks made from old theatre curtains. Were we the only ones who noticed the Evening Standard miscaptioned Daisy Lowe and fellow Oxfam model Miquita Oliver’s preloved duds as being by Reed? 

Anyway, the first show of note was actually the day before. Vin + Omi always present their fascinating ideas, off schedule. They’ve been building on their relationship with The Prince’s Foundation, which has seen them repurpose the King’s plant pots into jewellery and turn nettles from Highgrove House into cloth. They call themselves fashion ideologists rather than designers, and have invented more than 30 new sustainable materials to date, from a leather alternative made from chestnuts to a fabric made from recycled paint tubes. It was discovering, 20 years ago now, how problematic the latex supply chain can be that started Vin + Omi on this journey. Today, they produce sustainable latex out of a regenerative, ethical plantation they’ve invested in in Malaysia.

  BFC New Gen star Harri has also sourced sustainable latex—produced on his family farm in Kerala, India. I was at his LCF graduate show before the pandemic and remember wondering who would buy his inflated latex clown trousers. Fast forward and we have the answer: Sam Smith. Harri now finds himself on the global stage—not a bad place to be to spread his message about ethical production. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if all that rubber and vinyl fuelling the current BDSM styling craze was produced responsibly?

  Alas, there was unsustainable plastic everywhere. And you couldn’t turn around without hitting a sequin. While UK start-up The Sustainable Sequins Company is working hard to bring biodegradable versions to market, it’s not there yet. Safe to say, 99% of the sparkly discs seen on LFW runways were pure virgin fossil fuel—waiting to fall off into a waterway near you. 

Acrylic faux fur appeared way too much too. It doesn’t have to be this way: Connor Ives, the young American-in-London designer known for his Frankenstein T-shirt dresses, spliced together from vintage and dead-stock pieces (oh, and for dressing Rihanna), debuted a faux fur alternative made from recycled wool.

Were Christopher Kane’s plastic-covered hay-bale seats recycled? Who knows—but Kane was still producing PVC bags a few seasons ago. Polyvinyl Chloride plastic, AKA vinyl, is one of the most toxic materials around. Greenpeace calls it “the poison plastic”. It’s disrupting our hormones and causing cancer. There’s zero excuse for this in 2023.

Source: CONNER IVES Street Style (Deborah Iona, British Fashion Council) 72dpi-13.jpg - Courtesy of https://britishfashioncouncil.presscloud.com/digitalshowroom/

Slovakian designer Mata Durikovic of MADbyMAD has a solution. She cooked up her ‘bio crystal leather’ on the hob in her kitchen; it’s so natural, you can eat it. The CSM grad invited guests at her extraordinary show at the Fashion Scout venue in Shoreditch to do just that. Models cut up her translucent blue coat, and handed out morsels to the front row to taste. “We can do things differently,” she told me afterwards. “Fashion doesn’t have to pollute.” 

Source: Susan Fang LFW Feb23 FOH Charlie Wheeler (4).jpeg - Courtesy of https://britishfashioncouncil.presscloud.com/digitalshowroom/

 Buzzy London-based Chinese designer Susan Fang’s optimism was also hard to resist. Her show off the Edgewear Road was worth the hike. It featured a rose-petal strewn catwalk and adorable mummy-and-me models in hyper-pretty confections of ruffled pastel silk and tulle. She described them as: “a labour of love, sometimes taking up to two weeks just to complete a single piece.” Explaining in the follow up press release that many featured fabric made from scraps, torn into ribbons and rewoven into new upcycled yarns. She even 3D prints her accessories to prevent off-cut waste.

  Indeed, some of the most striking collections married sustainable textile processes with the kind of ornate maximalism normally left out of the sustainability conversation. The idea that planet friendly fashion stops with lumpy linen is a tired trope, and designers like Fang and Durikovic pump up the prettiness to new heights, begging the question: if they can do it, why doesn’t everyone else? Too many big names are coasting along doing zip-about sustainability, and flying under the radar.

  It should not be left up to indie microbusinesses—many of them run by young grads without the infrastructure to support them—to lead. It’s time for the more established names to step up.

  J.J. Hudson, the underground icon behind Noki, nailed the context: “As we sleepwalk ever further towards the edge of environmental, economic, and social collapse,” he said ahead of his jaw-droppingly good show, chock-full of unique upcycling ideas, at the Swiss Church in Covent Garden. “Noki’s fearless and uncompromising message and anti-establishment narrative conceived as a critique on capitalism and challenge to consumerism, has never been more poignant or more powerful.” Word. Listen to Dr. Noki. He’s diagnosed the issue and written a prescription —the question is, will you take it?

Clare Press is Fashion Roundtable’s Global Sustainability Expert. Follow her on Instagram @mrspress