2018 Fashion and Sustainability Forum

Join the conversation and let’s consider how we can change the future for the better. Don’t wait for someone else to solve the problem – respond to the challenge and become the expert.

This event is open to staff and students of Winchester School of Art, University of Southampton and selected guests and visitors. Tickets are free and the event is all day, so drop in to see one speaker, or stay all day. Availability of seating may be limited at some of the talks.

‘There are three things we touch upon every day that greatly impact the world around us: fuel (energy), food, and fashion. The first two are now wholeheartedly studied and worked upon. It is now fashion’s turn to inform and dazzle us with what is possible, to provide the moral imperative to change every aspect of producing and purchasing our second skin.’ (Paul Hawken)

The MA Fashion Design and Textile Design Interim Exhibition opens on the same day, showcasing our MA students’ work in progress, highlighting non-waste, zero-waste pattern cutting and sustainable design.

Agenda for the day:

11.00 – Start of the forum

11.05 – Julian Payne, Creative Director of De La Rue – and designer of the Jane Austen bank note! Talking about cash.

11.45 – Sarah Klymkiw, educator, researcher and campaigner from TRAID – Can We Fix Our Reationship with Clothes?

12.30 – Zoe Olivia John, lecturer, researcher and co-founder of Engage by Design, presenting her Strategies for Sustainable Fashion and Textile Design.

13.15 – Lunch

14.15 – Sarah Hellen, menswear designer, lecturer and researcher. Talking about her collaborations with local, independent, sustainable businesses in Wales.

15.00 – Katie Jones, knitwear designer mixing playful aesthetics with serious ethics. Talking about the two sides of sustainable fashion that relate to her brand.

15.45 – Catherine Weetman, Director of Re-think Solutions, and author of A Circular Economy Handbook for Business and Supply Chains. Talking about fast fashion and the circular economy.

16.30 – Kate Langham, lecturer and researcher, and formally Creative Director of Interface, recognised as one of the most sustainable businesses worldwide.. Talking about Interface’s global rebranding project and the development of Mission Zero.

17.15 – Charty Durrant, ex fashion editor of Vogue, The Sunday Times, and Fashion Consultant and Ethical Fashion Expert, ending the day with a call to arms, offering some groundbreaking new solutions for fashioning the future.

18.00 – 20.00 Drinks, networking and Private View for the MA Interim Exhibition. All welcome.

#wsa_sustainabilityforum

Fashion & Sustainability Forum at WSA this Thursday 10th March

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10.00 Delia Crowe – Introduction to the forum

10.15 Linda Mackie – ‘Sustainable Studying’

Considerations of Sustainable and Ethical practice within students’ work, across the full scope of the topic, and seeing Ethical practice as a core element, not an added benefit. Designing resourcefully requires skill, innovation and above all a strong understanding of the cycle, the implications of this in the development of their designs will be explored.

10.45 Mei Hui Liu – ‘Working in a Sustainable Fashion’

Questions about sustainability when working in the industry. Including:

>>> How did sustainable fashion brands come to be included as part of London Fashion Week in past years?

>>> How is work different for a sustainable fashion designer?

>>> Does being sustainable affect the size of your market?

>>> What advantages and disadvantages are there to being a sustainable brand?

11.30 Melanie Plank – ‘The Consumer Lifecycle’

With the increasing influence of lifecycle analysis in our understanding of the environmental impact of a garment, the consumer experience is the next frontier for sustainability. How denim brands are using clever marketing campaigns and innovative business practices to win consumers over to the cause, and change consumer behavior will be examined.

12.15 Clio Padovani – ‘Sustainability in the Community’

Teixidors is a socially sustainable cooperative. This presentation will look at why they were formed, their USP, and how they have carved out a devoted following, of consumers and in their community. Their sustainability is in creating a product that is made by marginalized communities and sustains the community through work and integration. W: teixidors.com

12.45 Alison Jane Reid interviewing Lucy Tammam

Journalist Alison Jane, will be in conversation with Made in Britain, sustainable couturier, Lucy Tammam, of Atelier Tammam London, about her journey from fashion undergraduate to ethical fashion trailblazer, making luxury fashion more sustainable, her journey, her challenges, her successes and her inspirations.

13.30 Lunch and networking – Westside Building, downstairs foyer.

14.15 Charty Durrant – The Truth about Sustainability

Sustainability in fashion is a huge and important issue, but one that all too often gets side-tracked by small details and individual agendas. This talk will outline the many large problems faced by those attempting to bring sustainability into the world of fashion, addressing some serious and potentially shocking issues. By tackling them head on, however, the hope is to bring hope and inspiration for the possibilities of a more sustainable future.

15.00 Kate Hills – ‘An insight into truly British brands and the importance of a Made in Britain label’

British-made brands are having a renaissance and now more and more fashion labels are choosing to manufacture in the UK. Find out why this is, and what the many benefits are to a brand of choosing to manufacture locally.

15.45 Mallory Giardino – ‘The Business Case for Sustainability in Fashion’ 

Fashion businesses can actually be more profitable by engaging with ethics and sustainability. This presentation will point out the financial opportunities that come with improving social and environmental standards, as well as three types of business models that are currently being used to achieve commercial success alongside positive impact.

16.30 Jonathan Faiers – ‘Fashion Thinking: Sustainable Systems of Thought’

The methodology of picking and choosing from the sweep of textile and dress history has become a common practice, and fragmented histories have been fundamental to a variety of design practices and sociocultural readings of fashion and textiles. Walter Benjamin’s figure of the rag-picker, which provided him with a model for literary montage, can be usefully employed to consider the relationship between fashion and sustainability and seems to inspire much contemporary fashion and textile design with its assemblages of styles and references from different eras and cultures. This presentation will draw upon Benjamin, alongside other thinkers from Nietzsche to Bourriaud, to explore the sustainability of Fashion Thinking itself and how this is translated practically into fashion design.

17.15 Caryn Franklin – ‘Fashion and Emotional Sustainability’

In the early 80s, fashion editor of i-D Magazine, Caryn Franklin experienced clothing and fashion culture as a liberating space and a tool to investigate personal identity and celebration of uniqueness. The high-street, with its multiple-choice, value-shopping experience or the concept of brand building did not exist. And neither did the Internet. So while the democratisation of both retailing and the publishing and broadcasting sectors is seen as progress, the proliferation of the fashion normative body: tall, thin, white and young together with a speeding up of trends and product life begs the question of who benefits from such progress. Has the status of the individual shrunk while the power of the brand has expanded? Can new generation creatives become part of the solution not the problem by successfully bringing in their own values for emotionally sustainable practice and what will that look like?

10.00 Delia Crowe – Conclusion to the forum

18.00 – 20.00 Drinks reception & networking Westside Building, downstairs foyer

18.30 – 20.00 Film showing ‘The True Cost’ Westside Lecture Theatre