"The 18 Recommendations of the Environmental Audit Committee's Fixing Fashion Report provided clear guidelines to a government that admitted to a climate emergency only last month. It is disappointing that despite this, the government has not taken up any of the recommendations as a benchmark for real change in their response." Image via parliament.uk.
Read MoreAs well as submitting evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee’s Sustainability of the Fashion Industry Inquiry, Fashion Roundtable attended all of the fashion related committee meetings that the EAC hosted across Parliament and at the V&A. Image via Tolly Dolly Posh.
Read MoreOn 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.
Read MoreWhat 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.
Read MoreThe 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.
Read MoreFind 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.
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