Our researcher, Meg Pirie, has always loved to read and will often read a book to understand something better, before searching online. For this week’s informer she shares her top 5 books on sustainability and fashion. Click through to read more.

In a world which feels uncertain, unstable, and all too frequently it is, there is something very powerful in recognising the timelessness of sustainable values, craft skills, nature and provenance. These are core to our work at Fashion Roundtable and what I found refreshing was to see them in action from education through to business via the work of The Princes Foundation.

Salts Mill hosted the Campaign for Wool's launch event leading to the current Wool Week last Thursday night. The Heritage site in Bradford (the cultural capital of the worlds's wool industry) is to the keratin fibre what Bournville is to Chocolate.

Black Friday perpetuates a myth of boundless resources— all supported by exploitative and environmentally damaging business models, particularly in the fashion industry. However, the retail sector and morale are in need of a boost. Can these apparently divergent concerns be reconciled?

Vogue Italia’s one-off illustrated covers are a step in the right direction, but it’s not enough to bring about the systemic change the fashion industry needs to address global sustainability concerns.

On 20th November 2019, the Westminster Business Forum held a conference on Sustainability, ethics and the UK fashion industry - next steps for business practice and options for policy. Tamara Cincik, Founder & CEO, Fashion Roundtable spoke on the subject of ensuring the future growth of UK fashion and increased sustainability.

We examine the shift in attitudes sparked by the likes of Stella McCartney, the menace of microfibres, water and energy conservation, as well as providing some eco-friendly laundering tips.

"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.

As 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.

On Saturday 25th May, Fashion Roundtable hosted Democratising Fashion Sustainability, a morning at Mortimer House. The event looked to join the dots between what we wear and how we can be truly ethical. It intended to deconstruct why fashion is a global conversation, the threads of colonialism and workshop solutions and commitments to be more empowered in democratising our choices as consumers. Attendees enjoyed an intimate Q&A session with Clare followed by a series of workshops.

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.  

It was refreshing to see designers featured that don’t have sustainability at the core of their brand. Vital conversations about waste are being opened up. Louise Gray made a splendid patch worked dress whereby strands of trimmings were attached in layers. Halpern used various fabrics from past seasons, creating a mish-mashed version of his signature sequin all in ones and Richard Quinn created a red floral dress using spare sample fabric. While Dilara Findikolu used old toiles creating a Miss Havishamesque gown with an embroidered D on the neckline.

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.

The fashion landscape is a rich tapestry of innovation saturated with revolutionary ideas that have the potential to propagate sustainability. Innovations today are the solutions of tomorrow. These innovations could be in raw materials, dyeing and finishing processes, manufacturing, retail strategies, end of use practices as well as transparency and traceability. Fashion accelerators are at the crux of providing a crucial platform for these innovations to drive value, whether it be economic, environmental or social to tackle the increasingly urgent issues of sustainability facing the industry. This may be mitigating social inequalities dispersed throughout global value chains or curbing devastation to the earths eco systems and biodiversity in order to ensure a safer operating space for current and future generations.

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.

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. 

Last Friday afternoon, the press was abuzz with news that Boohoo had plans to implement a ‘wool ban’.

In a statement that seems to use the word ‘knowingly’ to suspicious effect, the brand announced that “as of AW19/20, we will not knowingly source any wool products”. PETA’s Director of Corporate Projects, Yvonne Taylor stated “PETA is toasting boohoo group's compassionate, business-savvy decision to scrap wool. Kind shoppers agree that no jumper or scarf is worth kicking, punching, and killing gentle sheep on the shearing floor, and we're urging other retailers to follow boohoo's forward-thinking example.”

From a brand that was declared as “failing to commit” by the Environmental Audit Committee in its recent investigation of British fashion brands, this move would be considered a real step in the right direction, yes?

In the depths of the basement of Victoria House, Bloomsbury Square a fabric revolution is on the rise. This year sees the 8th Future Fabrics Expo move into their new 22,000 sq ft of space, having outgrown their original show space in the Eco complex Iris Studios in South West London. Future Fabrics Expo is curated by The Sustainable Angle,  a Swiss not-for-profit organisation founded and run by Nina Marenzi.  Starting in her native Switzerland in 2011, she has now made London her home because of the size and creative nature of the UK fashion market. The Sustainable Angle provides a conduit that brings manufacturers, consumers and designers together to seek best outcomes and practice through innovation and sustainability.

On Friday I attended the breakfast launch to Disrupting Patterns at Chelsea College of Art, to celebrate a two year project by designer Filippa K in collaboration with Mistra Future Fashion as well as Professor Rebecca Earley & Dr. Kate Goldsworthy from the Centre for Circular Design at  UAL. "Circular Design Speeds" is a collection using the latest methods in innovation for production, the highlight of which is a dress which is 100%  bio-based and biodegradable, after wearing it several times, you can compost it and it will fully decompose.The "Throw Away Dress" is created with non-woven Tencel material that avoids the costly processes of spinning and weaving, before being naturally dyed using food by Heart and Earth Production. Another highlight was "The Eternal Trench Coat" that is 100% recycled using polyester from plastic bottles. The dyeing process used also reduces water usage by 75 % and chemical usage by 90%. The coat is available at Filippa K stores and online.

Within an article for Man Repeller last week, fashion journalist Pandora Sykes spoke about bringing a newfound eco-consciousness into her sartorial choices. Whilst admitting she is still not immune to the “new in” sections, her latest rule is ‘if I see something new that I like, I have to see if I can find the vintage version of it first.’ Now surely this is something all consumers could introduce into their mind-set? This weekend Fashion Roundtable hosted an event at The Festival of Sustainable Fashion to discuss fashion waste and the viable options to counteract its polluting impact. While Rafaella de Freitas covered the local, national and international governmental policies to combat waste, Jodi Muter-Hamilton offered tech solutions which could aid transparency and thereby reducing the cost and excess of overconsumption. Also speaking during the event, JJ Hudson aka Noki said: ‘the fast fashion brand is creating weapons of mass production, Brandalism is a solution. My practice as a solo customiser selling a custom built collection could be classed as a micro footprint in sustainability to create for a consumer.’