Roundtable Discussion, EFS Paris

Last week's roundtable discussion proved to be an interesting experience for TED member Becky Earley. Eleven designers / experts were on the platform at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris, for two hours, discussing new textile technologies and their potential for creating more sustainable products.

The discussion began with a presentation by designer Florence Bost who gave a succinct overview of the fields of study and activity - a kind of history of smart textiles – which briefly covered the 1940s to the present day. The other speakers, each talking about their work in turn for five minutes, addressed:

Interaction design and smart clothing (Francesca Rosella, Cute Circuit)

Upcycling textiles and technologies (Becky Earley, TED)

LED / wind sensitive textiles (Stijn Ossevort)

Detailing menswear to prolong life (Doris Hartwich)

How luxury brands are building a new materials resource to help them with product design innovation (Alexandre Cappelli, speaking about Louis Vuitton)

PUMA’s better shoebox concept – a fabric bag – and the lifecycle analysis project (Karsten Bleymehl, Material ConneXion)

The current state of fibre development and impacts through manufacture and usage (Michael Kininmonth, Lenzing Fibers)

Carbon detecting textiles and the The Climate (CO2) Dress (Hanne Louise Johannesen, Diffus)

Fashion aromachology and our future well being (Dr Jenny Tillotson)

Artistic material explorations (Tzuri Gueta)

Questions from the floor ranged from concerns over the impacts from battery powered smart textiles at the end of life stage, to whether smart textiles were being used for ‘green washing’ by big brands.

It was a short but sweet session, and a real pleasure to hear from designers and experts who are passionate about the future of textiles. To end the roundtable Dr Isa Hofmann (chair) asked the experts to offer one word to the audience, a guiding principle if you like, to inspire progress and innovation. The words were:

Education… Reduce Waste… Dematerialise… Avoidance… Detailing… Accidental… Appreciation… Lifestyle… Well Being… Desireability...

Image: TED’s summary slide from the Worn Again / Ever & Again project, 2010

Round Table Discussion at the Ethical Fashion Show, Paris

Becky Earley will be contributing to a round table discussion next Monday, 27th September 2010, at the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris. She will be talking about upcycling textiles and the creative and innovative approaches that the TED designers explored through the Ever & Again project.

"Sustainable management is no longer a marginal phenomenon; it has become the starting point for companies that wish to reposition themselves by fully accepting the responsibilities they carry for the environment and for society...

"Textile innovation is unequivocally compatible with the principles of sustainable management. The round table on innovation aims to prove that the new technologies and the innovative new materials in the field of intelligent textiles that have appeared during the last decade are compatible with the criteria of sustainable management (social and environmental responsibility).”

Dr Isa Hofmann, quoted above, is an expert in the field of new, innovative textile technologies. She will lead the session, and will be joined by:

Florence Bost, textile designer based in Paris

Michael Kininmonth, Lenzing Fibers

Hanne Louise Johannesen, Danish design company Diffus

Francesca Rosella, founder of CuteCircuit

Stijn Ossevort, wearable computing

Karsten Bleymehl, Director Library & Materials Research Material ConneXion Cologne

Alexandre Cappelli, Head of Environment Affairs Department, LVMH

Doris Hartwich, German designer of menswear

and Tzuri Gueta, textiles designer

For those of you who will be in Paris next Monday, the discussion will take place between 2pm and 4pm at -

Cité de la Mode et du Design

34, Quai D’Austerlitz

75013 Paris

Chelsea MA student Mai Trebuil wrote: In January I attended a conference hosted by the United Nations on sustainability and biodiversity issues within the fashion and luxury industries, in Geneva. There were several panel discussions with a range of speakers including biodiversity experts, designers, representatives from large companies such as Nestle, Gucci Group and LVMH and sustainable fashion representatives from Made By and the Ethical Fashion Forum.

The panel speakers discussed topics such as responsible sourcing, legislation, certification and educating younger generations towards a shift in values.

The opening panel sought to redefine biodiversity and sustainability within our current consumerist society. Petko Draganov (UNCTAD) emphasized the necessity of the inclusion of all stakeholders, by building lasting partnerships between local producers and multinational companies. This was later seen in the Weleda Group presentation on their model sourcing of arnica. By offering basic training to insure quality as well as set up biodynamic farming to increase habitat biodiversity, Weleda insures a long lasting partnership and strives to create win-win situations.

The panel on how to implement a successful sustainability strategy included Allana McAspurn from Made-By (UK) who discussed her business as a sustainable fashion consultancy, and Made-By's aim to “make sustainable fashion common practice”. Made-By has developed a labelling concept, with a track and trace component, as well as a supply chain support service with scorecards to encourage benchmarking. Their report 'Environmental Benchmark for Fibres' is available to download, and controversially places bamboo as one of the least 'sustainable fibres' and recycled polyester as 'highly sustainable'.

The next panel discussion was about The Rise of the Ethical Consumer and Eco-fashion in the Mass Market. Claire Hamer, founder of ei8ht, related her experience as a buyer for Topshop and her upcoming partnership with ASOS to set up a “Green Room”. She stated matter-of-factly: “We’ve outsourced our supply chains”. Fast fashion has been focusing on the consumer and short-term profitability. There has to be an increased consciousness. Her work for high street giants like Topshop sourcing fairly traded garments & accessories has showed her that partnerships, collaborations and the creation of platforms are essential to harbour change in the industry. Her advice was also to target buyers rather than designers or managers, as they are really the one deciding which materials are chosen for production. Her quadruple approach – profit, people, planet, product – aims to produce a clear message of what the label is all about especially in age where brands are marketing lifestyle rather than pure product.

The final panel was titled The Influence of Affluence: Luxury Brands as Sustainable Role Models. Burak Cakmak from the Gucci Group emphasised business longevity in sustainable sourcing as well as fostering innovation around sustainability by funding research in leading universities. He cited the example of the recent funding by the Gucci Group of the TFRG PhD 'Sustainable Technology for Future Luxury'.

The Forum for the Future have launched a great new initiative called Fashion Futures: 2025, a series of films that propose four scenarios for how the future of the fashion industry may look in 2025.

The films include visions on 'slow fashion' and 'community couture' and are really insightful tools for imagining how we may produce, buy, live with and dispose of fashion and clothing.

They are designed as tools for all parts of the fashion industry, from retailers to manufacturers to designers and consumers and are set in 2025 for a good reason. According to Matilda Tham, future forecasting often uses a 15- 20 years time span for scenario building. Tham calls this time 'uncontaminated space' - if it was any shorter it would not allow for enough scope for change and if it was any longer, it feels to far out of our reach.

Hopefully these films will help all of us to steer our fashion future in the direction we want it to go.

The UN have organised a seminar on the fashion and luxury industries and its impacts on the environment. A very good line up of speakers will be attending at the two day conference in Geneva this Wednesday 20th and Thursday 21st January.

Redefining Sustainability in the International Agenda: Inspiring Greater Engagement in Biodiversity Issues will include panel discussions with the founder of Noir fashion label, Tamsin le Jenue from Ethical Fashion Forum, representatives from high street brands Gap and Mango, luxury label Hermes and model Erin Oconnor, to name a few.

An MA student from Chelsea will be attending the event and will be feeding back to TED on the outcomes which will be made available on this blog.

Chelsea graduates shortlisted for Sustainable Fashion competition

Clothes made from recycled cotton paper, exquisite design that need less laundering, hand crafted luxurious hemp satin pieces and hand-knitted pieces that are fastened onto basic wardrobe staples to create a completely adjustable wardrobe to cherish. These are just some of the winning ideas from this year’s Fashioning the Future Awards, organised by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion.

Several Chelsea/TED graduates were shortlisted in the competition including Lauren Palmer (MA 2009) a finalist in the 'Water - the Right for all Citizens' award and Julia Roebuck (BA 2008), a finalist in the 'Role of Materials in a Sustainable Fashion Industry' award.

TED hosts ethical textile trade fair

TED was the host to the largest ethical fabric trade fair seen in London, organised by the Ethical Fashion Forum (EFF). The EFF brought together over thirty suppliers of sustainable and ethical textiles from around the world including Zameen Cotton from India, Made By and HEBA, a training and enterprise organisation in east London.The event took place in the Triangle Gallery at Chelsea and in a marquee on the Parade Ground.

The event was attended by over two hundred designers, students and large retailers and brands including Marks & Spencer, Ted Baker and Topshop.

Traditionally, designers and students have found it very difficult to source ethical fabrics, often because suppliers require large orders or because many of the suppliers are based in countries where communication and an understanding of designers' needs, is difficult.

TED was delighted to be able to offer the space to link these suppliers with designers and students and it seems that some productive and worthwhile dialogue was begun which will lead to some new future working partnerships.

The event was covered by Treehugger and several other ethical fashion blogs/websites.

Gucci Group fund new sustainable fashion PhD

The Textile Futures Research Group (TFRG), which TED is part of along with researchers and academics from London College of Fashion and Central St Martins, have announced that the Gucci Group are to sponsor a new three-year fully funded PhD studentship in ‘Sustainable Technology for Future Luxury'.

There will be a seminar to introduce the studentship, for MA students, on Friday 27th November, 16.00-18.00, at the Innovation Centre, Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design. There will be some talks from academics including Rebecca Earley from TED who will talk on recycling polyester and Carole Collett from CSM will discuss biomimicry.

For more information on the seminar email Itamar Ferrer at tfrg@tfrg.org.uk

For more information in the studentship go to the TFRG website.

The Uniform Project

Bridget Harvey wrote: Wearing one dress every day for a year is not a new idea (see brown dress project) but The Uniform Project has taken it to a new level.

In order to raise money for the Akanksha Foundation one New Yorker is wearing an identical dress for 365 days, making a statement against fast fashion and trends while also showing a commitment to dressing individually without having to own lots of different garments, shopping for and discarding items all the time.

She has 7 identical dresses (one for each day of the week) and donated, thrifted or pre-owned accessories to adorn herself with. The dress itself is a well thought out design. It is reversable and can be worn open or buttoned, the material has been chosen for its seasonal versatility and it is a fairly classic design enabling the dressing up or down for all occasions.

Although washing the dress after each wear is not the most eco-friendly idea the whole concept of the uniform project is a very interesting comment on consumerism and individuality from a sustainable perspective.

Hand Me Downs

Ethical clothing label Howies have launched a new clothing range called Hand Me Down. It comprises of a small collection of 'long life' garments including a jacket for men and women, and three types of bags – a backpack, messenger bag and a satchel.

Each item is guaranteed for 10 years from the purchase date but is expected to last a lot longer than that. The idea is also that you can hand it on to someone else when you are finished with it. As it is designed to have a future heritage value it may inspire you to treasure it more, adding to its emotional value. Your choice of recipient is likely to be careful selected, and its modern design (laptop pockets etc) mean that this is also a functional, practical item.

As most companies would prefer you to buy new goods from them rather than keeping something for a decade or more, this collection is somewhat an anomaly in the retail world.

Howies look upon it as good use of our limited resources. These items also have Slow Design connotations, as the materials and design have been chosen to have longevity – the organic ventile cotton is exceptionally tough, the location and environmental production values are taken into consideration - the tweed is produced in Scotland and dyed with woad, a natural dye with an indigo style colour to it and the zips, buckles etc designed to be rust-proof and long lasting. All part of Howie's desire to make people think about the world we live in, and, in my opinion, a good way to do it.

Ethical Fashion Forum

I have finally joined the Ethical Fashion Forum, and can't believe that I haven't got round to becoming a member before now! The free to join social networking site has been set up as a not for profit organisation and focuses on environmental sustainability in the fashion industry.

On the main website there are several informative areas to guide the conscientious follower of sustainable textile and fashion design, through the most recenet topics, events and the complex issues discussed on the Ethical Fashion Forum. This site covers many issues from fast fashion to fair trade, from recycling to real-life stories from the manufacturing process.
The Resource section is particularly useful as reports regarding the different stages of a garment's life from supply to buy have been compiled in easy to download PDF formats.

The Ethical Fashion Forum also conducts several events throughout the year. Places at the workshops and seminars, like the ones being held today on working with cooperatives and sourcing from Asia are limited and are like gold dust, so it's a good idea to register early! I unfortunatley, haven't registered early enough and so will miss the discussion tonight, but Clara has informed me that the EFF events she has attended previously have all been very stimulating, informative and interactive, so definitely worth penciling the next one in the diary now!

The social networking side to the forum site is somewhat new to me. I have joined facebook (so that my sister can send me photos) and I do read blogs on various design-led sites, but I have never really socially networked in an online environment before.....I love it! Already, I love it! There are lots of friendly, proactive members working in areas of fashion design, consumption and retail. Various discussions are set up to allow people with similar interests to interact on a professional yet informal level and lots of people seem keen to collaborate, share ideas and develop their projects with a little help from their forum. It is also a great place to integrate student desingers with professionals in the field, which is a hugely important initiative if you ask us at TED.

Image credit: Ruffle skirt £40 by Round London

Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference

The Fashioning an Ethical Industry annual conference was hosted at The Rich Mix, London – a fitting venue being that it used to be an old garment factory.

The conference was opened by director Hannah Higginson, who advised that global sourcing was the theme of the day bringing together speakers from all areas of the supply chain.

The audience consisted of fashion, marketing and business students as well as industry experts and designers. You could feel the tension in the audience as these difficult issues were discussed and feel the genuine passion for fairer and more ethical approaches to be applied within the fashion industry.

The speakers talked about the difficulties surrounding production methods, working conditions and global sourcing. There was a representative from ASDA who talked about their plan to be the number one retailer for women’s fashion in the UK by producing quick affordable fashion in an ethical way.

A representative from People Tree talked about their grass roots approach to re-skill workers whom they refer to as artisans. They talked about their application of traditional handcraft and how it can take ten times longer to produce clothing but this is more sustainable as they eloquently referred to our hands being the oldest source of renewable energy.

One of the most inspiring talks of the day was by Dr Kate Fletcher, reader in sustainable fashion and textiles at London College of Fashion. She talked about systems thinking and the complexity of the fashion industry. Kate advised that we should not look for and can not find one complete solution but instead seek out ways to inspire and initiate lots of small changes, as this can collectively inspire big change.

The day closed with delegates being divided into three workshops focusing on design, marketing and business. In teams we were challenged to address an ethical fashion dilemma. I really enjoyed this part of they day as I got to meet new people who were passionate about fashion but committed to finding ethical ways to make, consumer or engage.

Overall this was a great day I left feeling really inspired, more educated about ethical sourcing and I even made some new friends. The day offered a holistic view of the sustainable issues challenging the fashion industry and I think it motivated delegates to find small ways to contribute towards making a difference.

Visit their website for further resources
http://fashioninganethicalindustry.org

TED consults on Estethica guidelines

The TED Project has been asked to consult on the 2009 questionnaire which has been developed for Estethica, the ethical fashion initiative at London Fashion Week.

Fashion labels who wish to be part of Estethica are asked to fill in a questionnaire which details their sustainable practices and helps the organisers to choose companies who are in line with Estethica's core ethical principles.

Filippo Ricci and Orsola de Castro (of fashion label From Somewhere) the founders of Estethica, have chosen the TED Project, to be part of an 'expert panel' who offer advice and expertise to the initiative. Other organisations involved include the Fair Labor Association, Ethical Fashion Forum and the Environmental Justice Foundation.