'Fashioning the Future' Review. By Melissa Chaplin

On 20th May, Fashion Roundtable were delighted to participate in the ‘Fashioning the Future’ panel discussion hosted by the Young Fabians Arts and Culture Network. Our CEO and founder, Tamara Cincik, spoke on the panel alongside prominent voices in the field. These included Mary Creagh MP, who chairs the Environmental Audit Committee, and conducted the Sustainability of the Fashion Industry Inquiry. Edwina Ehrman, the curator of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s stunning Fashioned From Nature exhibition, was also speaking. The other speakers were Jenny Holloway, CEO of FashionCapital and Fashion Enter Ltd, and Vanita Badlani, founder of the vegan fashion house LaBante. Mhairi Tordoff chaired the discussion, which explored the relationship between fashion and nature, and steps to take going forward in the industry.

The Price of Fashion: our exclusive Q&A with the Chair Environmental Audit Committee Mary Creagh MP

What are the three points that you would like Defra to pick up on?

A: It is essential for Defra, and the Government as a whole, to understand that the way we make, use and throwaway our clothes is unsustainable. Our excessive fashion consumption is causing a waste problem both in the UK and overseas.

Defra should make fashion retailers take responsibility for the textile waste they create by introducing an Extended Producer Responsibility scheme for textiles and reward companies that take positive action to reduce waste. The Government’s recent pledge to review and consult on how to deal with textile waste by 2025 is too little too late. We need action before the end of this parliament (2022).

We would also like to see the Department consider whether it could apply its promised tax on virgin plastics to synthetic garments that don’t contain recycled plastic.

Defra should also bring together fashion retailers, water companies and washing machine manufacturers to work together to solve the problem of microfibre pollution. We need changes in the law to end the era of throwaway fashion.

Q&A With John McNally MP on the Environmental Audit Committee's Sustainability of the Fashion Industry Inquiry

John McNally is a Scottish National Party MP for the Falkirk Constituency and acts as the Shadow SNP Spokesperson for the Environment. John has been a member of the Environmental Audit Committee since 2015, is the Chair of the APPG for the Hair Industry and a Vice-Chair of the APPG for Textiles and Fashion.

Policy engagementTamara CincikFebruary 26, 2019Q&A, eac, EAC, sus, sustainable fashion, parliament

From The Factory Floor: Founder & CEO Of Fashion - Enter Jenny Holloway Responds To The Environment Audit Committee Report.

The EAC report is also wrong on the point that "Short lead times means that wash tests and wearer trials are often not feasible, with implications for garment quality". This is nonsense. Every single fabric has to be tested and approved. We make up to 10,000 garments a week and we have had to test every single fabric and if it fails the tests then quite simply we can’t use them.

Fashion Is Fabulous, But It’s Not Much Use If We’ve Nowhere To Live. An op-ed by Clare Press

Find me a fashion designer who hasn’t looked to Nature for inspiration, whether literally referencing flowers, trees, the oceans, the rainforests, animals, feathers or only the colours and moods of the wild or the weather. Bet you can’t, because our natural world is the source of the greatest, most diverse, most magical, spine-tingling beauty. It’s not just our home, but the source of all life. Including ours. We’d do well to remember this with every breath we take, because seriously, we’re trashing the joint.

Q&A with Dr Lisa Cameron MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group For Textiles and Fashion (pictured centre, here with Tamara Cincik and Kelly Tolhurst MP).

Have you seen a shift in perception of the fashion industry among parliamentarians?

Yes, there’s a surprisingly avid interest that I’ve noted amongst cross-party members regarding the fashion and textile industry. Since becoming chair and raising the APPG’s ambitions in Parliament, I’ve found widespread support for these aims across the house.

Informer