The things I wished I’d known as a fashion designer

I gave very little thought to how the materials were sourced, and even less to what would happen to the garment once the customer no longer needed or wanted it.  The sharing economy – Uber, Airbnb, Netflix - was still in its infancy and so too the concept of rental, subscription or clothes swapping/selling business models.

It’s a far cry from today, where our international research indicates 73% of US citizens are interested in new clothing business models like outfit rental and preloved ranges and that’s even higher in places like India which sits at 90%.

Over time, awareness about the planetary crisis was seeping into my consciousness, and I began to question my own contribution to it. There were obstacles at every stage to working in a different way though. It was very hard, for example, to find the information on where to source organic cottons or recycled content, and what certifications you needed to be looking for to verify this. Then, you had to consider price increases or lead time differences with sourcing those preferred materials.

You had a really hard time convincing your merch team and senior management that it was worth taking a hit financially. You would get pushback around how it was going to affect profit margins; the business incentive was low to make changes.  Would customers pay more for ‘sustainable’ clothing?

I can see how the fashion industry is starting to get its house in order since the days when I first started out.

I joined WRAP to fill that gap and support the industry to do their bit to tackle the climate crisis. Our Textiles 2030, the UK’s voluntary agreement and the first of its kind in the world puts this front and centre. And this has been recently joined by a brand new Danish industry collaboration, run by Denmark’s Lifestyle & Design Cluster, which is supported by WRAP.

We believe these two exciting initiatives signal the beginning of a new paradigm for the fashion industry with interest building across Europe, Australia, South Africa and Latin America to work collaboratively. It’s why we have set up the Textiles Action Network to unite businesses across the global supply chain and governments to work together to transform the industry.

For us, transformation means reducing the environmental impact of the way we consume by ending the take-make-throwaway culture which is over-exploiting our planet’s resources and driving climate change. We shift to an economy which is circular; one which keeps natural resources in productive use for as many times as our human ingenuity can conceive. For textiles this means making clothes last longer, using more recycled materials and adopting innovative approaches to selling clothing.

This requires buy-in from consumers. And there are encouraging signs, with many more fashionistas showing a willingness to shop differently to do their bit for the planet. In the UK, for example, we found that over nine in ten (93%) of those who had repaired or altered an item during Covid say they will ‘definitely’ or ‘likely’ continue to do this post pandemic, as do 91% who acquired items second hand or vintage. This interest could gain traction as many confront the cost-of-living crisis.

Why do we think this approach of joining government policy, business collaboration and citizen action into a nexus for change will work? Because we have already seen results. Because they share common goals but are adapted to local contexts. Because they are always guided by evidence and insights. And because there are baked in safeguards against greenwashing as members are required to take a target, measure, act approach, evaluating and reporting their progress towards the targets.

We share learnings and resources collectively to tackle often complex challenges in a non-competitive space; harnessing all the ingenuity and out of the box thinking residing in the sector. This collaboration has been especially impressive for me, coming from an industry which has traditionally been built around competition and secrecy.

These are all things I wished I had had access to when I started out.

We know the size of the challenge. We are dealing with a very complex global supply chain made up of a myriad of small and medium sized businesses. Transparency and traceability of the supply chain has traditionally been challenging but is now widely accepted as the enabler to transformation on the known social and environmental challenges for the textile sector. Collaborative working does help to unlock some of the traditionally impenetrable parts of the supply chain.

I can see how the fashion industry is starting to get its house in order since the days when I first started out. The phrase ‘sustainable fashion’ may appear oxymoronic to some, but I believe it is, and must be, possible to resolve that paradox.