It’s about providing the right tools! “How many products get a fully life cycle analysis performed on them?” Professor Rebecca Earley, from Mistra Future Fashion and University of Arts London, asks in the latest episode of “Fashionomics”, a tvodd by Veckans Affärer and Swedish Fashion Council. A new pallet of materials is promoted when it comes to fast fashion, focusing on the younger, emerging consumer cultures, aiming to provide the tools for a sustainable, positive and innovative future within fashion.
See the full “Fashionomics” episode on sustainability
In collaboration with Swedish Fashion Council, Veckans Affärer’s [Weekly Businesses] most recent episode of the tvodd “Fashionomics” discussed sustainable fashion. The panel consisted of Professor Rebecca Earley, researcher within Mistra Future Fashion and University of Arts London, fashion hybrid and Hybrid Talks founder Annika Shelley and Eduardo Escobedo, founder of RESP, the responsible ecosystems sourcing platform. Moderators were Ulf Skarin, Creative Director Veckans Affärer and Elin Frendberg, CEO at Swedish Fashion Council.
“How many products get a fully life cycle analysis performed on them?”. Rebecca Earley points out that there is a lack of scientific and academic information out there to help companies make decisions that they can really rely on. Mistra Future Fashion’s program is about raw material, new fibers and textiles, consumer behavior, design and recycling. Professor Earley, focusing on the design part of the program, explains the concept of speed of clothes. People are consuming products that are made very quickly using traditional manufacturing processes, but the fabrics are actually really slow. One example brought up is polyester, which after being dispatched lasts as landfill for 200 years, creating toxics and gasses as it decomposes and rots.
Mistra Future Fashion focus on all different sectors within the fashion industry, for example, promoting better materials and considering the younger consumers who want to change their appearance more often. Earley explains how there is a class perspective to the issue, as emerging cultures across the globe are being influenced by the mass consumer-culture found in social media. By being motivated and encouraged to show similar consuming habits, this sector is going to increase the demand for cheap clothes. By evaluating these consumers, taking into account their needs, the research program is working with a whole pallet of new materials and how to make these products more sustainable: from domestic recycling to composting; to developing new charity looped systems as well as collaborative consumption models.
Summarizing Mistra Future Fashions positive look on the future, Earley concludes “It’s going to be about collaboration, cross-sector communication and big systemic changes. We’re all trying to get too this other place, this innovative future – where we can see people flourishing, planet flourishing and businesses providing the right kind of benefits.”
