Blog Post 2: Theme Reflection
Better lives has informed me about the importance of Diversity, Social Responsibility and Sustainability in the fashion industry. As a styling and production student, I have researched sustainability issues in my previous works, so I pay more attention to sustainable development. Sustainability started from our everyday life, rather than being specially carried out of the behaviour. For example, I do waste sorting, for instance paper recycling or bottle sorting in my daily life. Although some people think that such action will not help the environment much, if everyone does it, the cumulative results will be tremendous. In the previous blog, I mentioned that Fashion is a vast industry, and the scope of coverage is also extensive. Many companies ignore the damage to the environment in order to obtain benefits, whether it is water pollution caused by making clothes or the destruction of too many unsalable goods has caused severe damage.
These are the current status of the fashion industry. As students who want to enter the industry in the future, from my point of view, we have the responsibility to change as fashion is an industry with great influence, which can profoundly influence people’s thoughts.
Through this lecture, I was thinking about how to make my work more sustainable. In my previous job, I collected a lot of garbage produced in daily life as my material, such as plastic bottles or paper cups. I try not to buy the materials I need to make my work more consistent with the theme of sustainability.
In the fashion industry, some brands set sustainable development as a future goal. Take the well-known fashion brand H & M as an example. H & M Conscious is a product line that aims to reduce the impact on the environment. Most of the clothes are using organic cotton or recycled polyester.
They also have an excellent project. You can donate your unwanted clothing at H & M, not only you can reuse the clothes but also get some discounts. In my view, this is what other brands can learn. The essential thing to achieve sustainable development is reuse. To reuse paper or plastic can greatly help the environment. In addition, the upcycling and reconstruction of items is also a good method.
Another perfect example is Stella McCartney. They have committed to environmental protection, have never used leather or fur and continue to develop new alternative materials. Moreover, they want to challenge and make ‘beautiful and sustainable’ products. I believe they have achieved that.
Fashion is indeed a controversial industry in terms of environmental protection. Still, it has been slowly changing the business model, no longer just pursuing benefits but for a balance between business and environment, also promoting sustainability. In the future, I would say more and more people or brands will join the ranks and contribute to the planet.
Reference: Stella McCartney (2020) Mission statement, Available at: https://www.stellamccartney.com/experience/us/sustainability/themes/mission-statement/
(Accessed: 06 May 2020)