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Read the rest of CrOp by David Peck Celebrates New Orleans’ Resilience for Spring 2012
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Read the rest of 11 Things We Learned from H&M’s 2011 Sustainability Report
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The following is an excerpt from Fashion & Sustainability: Design for Change (2012, Laurence King) by Kate Fletcher and Lynda Grose.
Biomimicry is the practice of emulating nature’s patterns and strategies to direct product design, processes, and policies, and as such draws its inspiration from the living world. Janine Benyus, founder of the Biomimicry Institute, contrasts the rich and diverse natural world with the systematic taming and simplification of nature through human activity and the subsequent destruction of species. “We understand that the only way to keep learning from nature—and its wellspring of ideas—is to safeguard its naturalness,” she says. That the study of biomimicry can trigger this level of understanding in designers is in itself of great value. It draws us far beyond the limits of the narrow and intellectual habitat of industrialized design and reminds us of the dual nature of our present circumstances as designers: how small a part we play in, and yet what enormous responsibility we have, to the “whole.”
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“Slow fashion” is a sustainable and ethical alternative that is fundamentally reconstructing the contemporary fast-fashion system. Slowfashion principles guide my textile-based label, Slow Palette by Jessica Robertson, within which I create pieces that transform consumption and disposal habits. Our planet and workforce are already stretched at the seams; to go faster is not the option.
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Thanks to a combination of technological innovation and developing global economies, “fast fashion” is now ubiquitous on the high street. A one-two punch of low prices and targeted advertising, in particular, has stimulated the boom of a teenage market, one that can stay up to date with the latest runway trends at “pocket money” prices. Today’s youth views shopping as a necessary and exciting task. And unlike previous generations, this emerging demographic has learned that “fast” is the only way to consume clothing.
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When the Nordic fashion industry sought to devise a set of socio-environmental guidelines for apparel and textile businesses, it turned to the UN Global Compact for inspiration. Using the world’s largest corporate citizenship initiative as its framework, Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE) drafted a new paradigm for promoting a more sustainable mode of consumption. A draft version of the NICE Code of Conduct and Manual, unveiled at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit earlier this month, includes 16 principles for establishing an “industry-wide common ground for ethical and fair business,” from respecting human rights to promoting transparency in the supply chain.
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Photos by Nneka Salmon
Fashion and cultural appropriation are more than passing acquaintances. The latter, which is typically bandied about with terms like “borrowing” or “inspired by,” refers to the unauthorized adoption of elements from another, often minority, ethnic group. The issue came to a head in February when the Navajo Nation sent Urban Outfitters a cease-and-desist letter demanding the removal of the “Navajo” trademark from than 20 of the retailer’s products, including “hipster” panties and liquor flasks, both of which the tribe deemed “derogatory and scandalous,” But the sovereign Indian Nation isn’t the first culture to be gobbled up and regurgitated under the catchall—and woefully non-specific—”tribal” heading, nor will it be the last. With Africa’s sartorial influence on the ascent, one question begs to be asked: Should the practice be lauded as diversifying fashion or is it just a different form of post-colonial exploitation?
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The following is an excerpt from Naked Fashion: The New Sustainable Fashion Revolution (2012, New Internationalist) by Safia Minney.
It seems like a very small thing to us, choosing a T-shirt or a dress made of organic rather than conventional cotton. but it can make a big difference at the other end of the chain. The environmental impact of fashion is something that needs to concern us all. What’s clear is that fashion’s environmental footprint at the moment is unsustainable. The evidence is overwhelming. For example, the British clothing and textiles sector alone currently produces around 3.1 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, two million tons of waste, and 70 million tons of waste water per year—with 1.5 million tons yearly of unwanted clothing and textiles ultimately ending up in a landfill. This means that we each throw away an average of 30 kilos a year.
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