🌿 The Fashion Letter | #22 📩

1. What is waste ownership? and who should shoulder the responsibility of textile recovery?

The Sustainable Fashion Forum delves into the concept of waste ownership and the responsibilities surrounding textile recovery. It explores the growing issue of textile waste and the environmental impact it has, emphasizing the need for a systemic approach to address the problem.

The piece highlights how brands, consumers, and governments all play crucial roles in managing textile waste. It advocates for brands to take more responsibility in the lifecycle of their products, from design to disposal, ensuring they contribute to sustainable practices.

Consumers are encouraged to be mindful of their purchasing habits, favoring quality over quantity and supporting brands with strong waste recovery programs.

Ultimately, it underscores the importance of collaboration between all stakeholders to create a more sustainable and circular fashion system, where waste is minimized, and resources are reused effectively. Click here for details

2. A Fashion Revolution: Saving the World in Style – By Tshidiso Masopha

Tshidiso Masopha explores the powerful role fashion can play in promoting sustainability and social change. It highlights the growing movement towards ethical fashion, where brands are increasingly focusing on environmentally friendly practices and fair labor conditions.

The piece emphasizes the importance of consumers in driving this revolution, encouraging them to support brands that prioritize sustainability and ethical production. By making mindful choices, consumers can help shift the industry towards more responsible practices.

The article also discusses the impact of fast fashion on the environment and society, urging a move away from disposable clothing towards timeless, high-quality pieces that last.

Ultimately, it calls for a collective effort from brands, consumers, and policymakers to transform fashion into a force for good, saving the world in style. Check the full article.

3. Wearable art: how shifting the way we view our clothes can help transform fashion.

This interview with Kashesh Bhatia Garg highlights the inspiring work of designers who blend cultural heritage with modern fashion, creating wearable art that tells a story. It emphasizes how these designers draw from their cultural roots to craft unique pieces that celebrate tradition while appealing to contemporary tastes.

The conversation explores the importance of preserving cultural heritage through fashion, ensuring that traditional crafts and techniques are not lost but rather adapted and honored in new ways. These designers see fashion as a powerful tool for cultural expression and preservation.

The interview also touches on the challenges these designers face, from sourcing sustainable materials to balancing authenticity with innovation. Despite these hurdles, their dedication to keeping cultural narratives alive through fashion shines through. Find out all the interview.

REVU

Revu is a pre-loved formal and bridesmaid dress boutique. With a curated selection of dresses available for rent and for purchase, their mission is to provide an affordable and sustainable alternative to expensive, once-worn occasion wear.

Jasmine Summers is the creative strategist and sustainable fashion founder of shoprevu.com

As a lifelong seamstress, professional fashion designer, and passionate advocate for ethical fashion, she has dedicated her career to challenging the norms of the traditional fashion industry.

Her journey began with fashion school at Kent State and continued in New York City, where she honed her skills as a fashion designer. However, after just a few years working in the traditional fashion industry.

Drawing from her extensive fashion education and industry expertise, coupled with a burgeoning entrepreneurial spirit, she founded revu.

Revu is not just a business venture; it's a manifestation of her commitment to circularity, sustainability, and practicality. By offering a curated selection of once-worn bridesmaid and formal dresses for rent, she aims to extend their lifecycle and provide women with elegant, eco-conscious options for their weddings and other special occasions.

Join her at revu as they disrupt the formalwear industry, one rental at a time.

Zero Waste Fashion Design combines research and practice to introduce a crucial sustainable fashion design approach. Highlights:

• Zero-Waste Design Principles: The book introduces and explores the concept of zero-waste fashion design, which aims to eliminate textile waste by using every part of the fabric in the design process.

• Innovative Techniques: It presents various innovative techniques and methods for creating garments without generating waste, offering practical examples and patterns for designers.

• Sustainability Focus: The book emphasizes the importance of sustainability in fashion, advocating for environmentally conscious design practices that reduce the industry's ecological footprint.

• Creative Inspiration: It encourages designers to think creatively and push the boundaries of traditional fashion design, using constraints like zero-waste as a source of inspiration.

• Comprehensive Guide: The book serves as a comprehensive guide for both beginners and experienced designers interested in incorporating zero-waste practices into their work, with detailed instructions and visual aids.

Reducing production and consumption of new clothing is necessary to reduce virgin resource extraction and achieve absolute emissions reductions targets.

Here some key actions for:

• DESIGNERS

  Overall volume of textile materials reduced. Increase the proportion of recycled fibers used.

• SUPPLIERS

  Utilize production management tools and alternative models, Ex. just in time, made to order, 3D printing custom fits. Smarter cutting room textile waste management for manufacturers.

• BRANDS AND SUPPLIERS

  Support customers to repair clothing via information, access or rewards. Explore alternative production models like on-demand or pre-order to minimize excess stock. Utilize technology to improve forecasting and procurement efficiency.

• CITIZENS

  Reduce overall consumption. Engage with new ways of experiencing fashion, such as swapping or renting. Repair and resell clothing to retain value.

• REGULATORS

  Empower citizens through educational campaigns on the impact of textile waste on the environment. Offer tax deductions to brands which offer resale and repair options.

• INVESTORS

  Fund initiatives and businesses which are proven or promising to keep products and materials in use for longer.