Photo by Zoe Schaeffer on Unsplash. Image shows farmer at work.

by Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys

The Regenerative Fashion event at the Conduit last week, supported by the Farmer’s Footprint, was an interesting, inspiring and eye opening discussion about Regeneration within the fashion industry particularly around British wool and natural dyes.

Panellists Amy Powney, creative director of Mother of Pearl; Katie Allen founder of Loopy Ewes; Ruth Rands founder of Herd and Gloria Mazzer of Wovenbeyond – all experts in their field led the discussions and debates within this space.

Firstly the basic principles of Regenerative Agriculture within farming practices were discussed. The main points are looking after soil health and keeping it covered, preventing erosion and run off, soil microbiology (something needs to grow in it), minimise soil disturbances whether that be chemical or tilling and the integration of livestock. There are very little brands actually doing what they claim and using farms that run in this way with a tiny percentage of regenerative wool and garments in circulation.

As discussed by Katie Allen founder of Loopy Ewes, the conversation around Regenerative vs Organic farming was a talking point for the audience with questions around the differences between the two and which one is the ideal standard. We garnered the understanding that organic farming is the gold standard, where pesticides and chemicals are forbidden from the land with set paperwork, guidelines and audits to complete the certification.

Regenerative on the other hand allows for some use of pesticides (although considerably less compared to conventional farming) making it more accessible to a wider range of farmers, being both land and field specific hence the difficulties with certification. Many designers however, assume that regenerative is the better option and is a current ‘buzz word’ in both the industry and the high street.

However, this seems a tricky space to navigate especially for new designers and students like myself. Organic farming seems to display the gold standard in terms of land and animal practises, but one could argue how realistic this is in terms of scalability and accessibility within the current fashion supply chain. If designers were to commit to using only organic wool this could become almost inaccessible to small designers and artisans due to the increased price margins and availability, risking the current resurgence in Regenerative movements which is more accessible and inclusive to the wider population.

Conversations continued regarding the idea of scaling up, where the focus should be on repeatability over scalability working with local farmers in the area to produce small production runs.

Although this framework is an idealistic model if repeated correctly throughout the country, it leaves the question as to why this cannot in fact be scaled up and effectively placed in order to be more accessible to a wider range of designers and brands, in turn making for a stronger and more sustainable long-term business model.

Amy further discussed Regenerative Fashion as something that should leave no trace on the land at any stage of production, with future goals of getting to a place where we can not only leave no mark but actually give more back to the soil than was extracted. This is very much an idealistic approach rather than a current possibility.

She also stated that people have lost their connection with nature and in fact a lot of the problems go much further than just the fashion industry leaning into both politics, ecology and human cost and this cannot be solved with just fashion alone.

Ruth Rands, spoke about breed specific wools with the suggestion of designing garments with specific fibre characteristics in mind, such as garments close to the skin using a Bluefaced Leicester wool due to its soft handle and outer garments hardier, coarser breeds such as Jacob.

There was an overall agreement that there is a huge disconnect between students and what is being taught on fashion programmes and the relationship between farmers, makers and the land. This is something I resonate with completely working with British wool for my undergraduate collection ‘From Field to Fibre: an exploration into British wool’ which used regenerative wool from Fernhill Farm in Bristol which I both sheared and spun myself and used only natural dyes. All of the knowledge and skills I learnt about this space and Fibreshed was from being hands on at the farm.

There is very little taught on these courses about the importance and awareness of working with British sheep, local wools and the story behind the cone of yarn which feeds into the overall sustainability and life cycle assessment of collections. The default is always on merino wool being the best and most luxurious fibre to work with for knitted garments.

British wool should be something that is taught and covered in UK universities in order to support local farmers, mills and manufacturers working from the ground level up to educate the new generation of designers about closed loop supply chains and encouraging the importance of local production. This would in turn create a platform for systemic change, encouraging a resurgence in local jobs and infrastructure keeping the production process within the UK.

A closing statement which captured the minds of the audience ‘We look forward to the day that people ask not why is sustainable fashion so expensive but why is fast fashion so cheap?” something we can all resonate with.

Designer Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys with her collection.

More on Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys

Harriet Fletcher-Gilhuys is a designer, currently completing her Masters at the Royal College of Art. Her undergraduate collection was inspired by the Fibreshed movement, a non-profit organisation founded by Rebecca Burgess in California which challenges designers to work within a 150 mile radius from field to final production. Due to her involvement with launching a natural dye garden at Nottingham Trent university, Harriet challenged herself to create her own internal natural fibre and dye system to not only work with the land, local sheep and plants but to explore what was achievable solely by one designer.

The collection is 100% biodegradable, using a combination of British hand spun wools, alpaca, linen and all natural dyes harvested from Bristol. Harriet sheared one sheep and knitted an entire jumper from it, attaching the ear tag number on the back to create full traceability and a connection between the wearer and garment. She has now continued this area of research into her Masters, where she is looking at how to make regenerative ways of working more accessible to both students and designers.

Instagram: @from_fieldtofibre

Graduate portfolio: https://www.graduatefashionweek.com/search-portfolios/harriet-fletcher-gilhuys

Op:Ed – Is Regenerative Fashion Possible?