Better lives lectures
Nowadays the fashion industry has a harmful impact on our environment. Indeed, climate change is today a challenge that faces us all and the fashion industry represents today the second high carbon footprint industry amongst all as well as an extremely high water footprint. I believe the fashion industry needs to adapt and use every single talent to address this challenge. This is a cause which should not be taken lightly and which requires radical as well as imminent changes. The phenomenon of fast-fashion, which involves mass production of clothing over a short period of time, is pushing for mass consumption as it offers very affordable prices for their customers. Overconsumption has led us to an unsustainable ecosystem. You need to reconsider what “your needs” are versus “your wants”. The abundance offered to consumers is much greater than their needs. In addition, we can observe that the production of clothes has almost doubled during the last fifteen years. Despite the fact that prevention increases daily this has almost no impact on the way of consumption, we must find a way to prevent the negative impact on the environment as well as on the humans who make their clothes. In response, events such as Fashion Revolution Week are set up to educate consumers about production techniques. Transparency and traceability are essential. Transparency involves openness, communication and corporate responsibility. We can no longer afford to live the same lifestyle we are used to. In order to answer this issue we need to make the fashion industry more sustainable by promoting other ways to be fashionable by buying vintage clothes, rent, resell, reuse, exchange, repair, adapt or share. I accordingly particularly admire the work done by the brand “Encré” as it promotes a new perception by recycling stylish clothes to which embroidery are added and this way giving them a second life. The brand is therefore not only fashionable but also encompasses two characteristics I admire in fashion: uniqueness and sustainability. Moreover, well known designer such as Stella McCartney which only designs sustainable and environmental friendly products should be taken as an example in the fashion industry. Personally I want to use my voice to defend sustainable fashion and raise awareness about climate change. However in recent years the sustainability of these sectors has taken over as we can see in 2018, 48 brands and large groups signed the Fashion Industry Charter for climate action under the aegis of the United Nations , saying they are ready to join forces to reduce the industry’s greenhouse gas emissions by 30% by 2030. An ambitious but inevitable bet, knowing that fashion is one of the most pollutants to the world. It also happens that consumer expectations have changed. Better production conditions and more transparency, these are our fashion requirements nowadays. This shows a positive shift in the awarness on sustainability in the world of fashion. We must all continue in this direction so that the impact on our environment decreases taking into account that it is not the only industry with harmful impacts on our earth.
20th April 2020 @ 7:31 pm
To begin with, I think the theme you choose, climate change, is a very good idea and an important subject to consider. It is related to sustainability which is one of the themes related to the ‘Better Lives’ unit so you couldn’t be more right.
I agree with you, Fashion has an enormous influence on the problem of climate change and now is the right and best time to act. You talked about the Fashion industry, Designers and how you wanted to use your voice to raise awareness and this is what I think as well, people working in the Fashion industry are the ones who need to act and encourage others.
After that , the example of fast fashion is very good as as you said, people keep buying more and more. This was a way to get people’s attention, which is what you want to do, as I think that buying items coming from fast fashion happened at least once to everyone. It would help them reconsider what they buy and this is exactly what the Better Lives lectures did to me.
To continue with, I really liked this example you gave about the Fashion Revolution Week. I didn’t know about it and it got my curiosity. This is the reason why I would’ve loved you to give more details and informations about it as much as your opinion.
On the other hand, it was a good idea to give different examples of sustainable brands. It raises awareness, shows people that it already exists and that yes fashion can be sustainable, that it is not too late and changes can still be made.
Once again, you said you wanted to use your voice to raise awareness, you could have also give examples of what you could do that would make fashion more sustainable. You could have also give more your opinion for example what you think of sustainable fashion and those brands you talked about in more details. It is always a good thing because it can give ideas to other people and make them realise things they hadn’t think of.
Finally, it was a very good thing that you choose to talk mainly about only one of the subjects as you can talk about it more in details and search more deeply for examples and explanations. Even if the two other themes are also very important choosing only one was, in my opinion, the best thing to do. However, you still included the theme of social responsibility by suggesting we could change our habits and help fashion to be more sustainable. About the last theme, diversity, you could have included it in your solutions which could have been for example more sustainable but about diversity in fashion as well. To conclude with, your explanations were clear overall and easy to understand for the reader which helped the reading to be more pleasant.