According to the Institute of Positive Fashion, the UK fashion market is one of the largest globally with revenues of £118 billion in 2019. It also states that the annual UK demand per capita for new items of clothing is higher than that of other high-income countries, including the Netherlands. The current trend is that more and more organisations are calling for embedding circular principles in the fashion industry, given the negative environmental and societal impact of the textiles supply chain. A lot of clothes still end up being burnt or buried in landfill.
The benefits of a circular fashion industry are clear, but the transition challenge is large. Together with the Dutch Centre in London, the Dutch Embassy in the UK will host an evening on sustainable fashion in a circular economy. During this event, we will explore the latest developments in circular fashion in the UK and the Netherlands. Where do we currently stand? What can we learn from each other? Experts like Professor José Teunissen (Dean of the School of Design & Technology at London College of Fashion, and Aniela Fidler Wieruszewska (designer and maker) can tell us more.
Professor José Teunissen – Dean of the School of Design & Technology, London College of Fashion (UK)
What is the single biggest challenge to achieve a truly sustainable textile and clothing industry?
“Shift away of a focus on the trend and the ‘new’ in fashion and instead highlight the product and different values as ‘how, where and under what kind of circumstances the product is made. Introducing new values in Fashion (ethics, storytelling) is the only way to de-grow.”
In your work, what’s your approach towards resource efficiency?
“Being the dean of the large Fashion Design school at London College of Fashion we are trying to raise awareness and change the design process via four elements:
- keep students up to date around the latest sustainability and circular insights (and climate change);
- explore digital technologies/digital tools to reduce waste and improve sustainable production;
- making less by introduce a different values system;
- new business models/enterprise.”
What do you suggest governments could do to support the transition from a ‘take-make-dispose’-economy to ‘closing the loop’?
“The Dutch are about to introduce ‘statiegeld’ (a deposit) on clothes. This has been very succesfull in France, where the incoming ‘statiegeld’ has been used to finance innovations to transform the fashion industry in a circular model.”
What resource efficiency initiatives in the Netherlands and/or the UK do you find inspiring?
“Closing the loop thinking, trying to collect and scale up recycling of textiles locally.”
Professor José Teunissen: “Introducing new values in Fashion (ethics, storytelling) is the only way to de-grow.”
Aniela Fidler Wieruszewska – Designer and Maker (UK)
What is the single biggest challenge to achieve a truly sustainable textile and clothing industry?
“The fashion industry operates at high speed, benefiting from ferociously short production cycles and ever-changing trends chasing future and newness. Its neither environmentally responsible nor ethical. The biggest challenge is slowing down and moving away from a society organised around product-led growth. We need to focus on degrowth-like economic models focused on sharing and solidarity rather than profit and competition.”
In your work, what’s your approach towards resource efficiency?
“Waste is culturally and socially constructed, and it doesn’t exist in nature. In my work, I like to subvert the status of waste by using discarded materials in ways that increase their value in our human eyes, for example, by processing them through elaborate craft techniques.”
What do you suggest governments could do to support the transition from a ‘take-make-dispose’-economy to ‘closing the loop’?
“Pay more attention to extending a product’s lifetime by subsidising repair services. We need to alter the destructive pattern of the current short trend-led clothing life cycle.”
What resource efficiency initiatives in the Netherlands and/or the UK do you find inspiring?
“As for fashion, I’m a fan of Dutch company MUD Jeans, which instead of selling its product, loans it for a fixed period. Afterwards, the wearer can either keep it or send it back to be turned into vintage models, leaving no waste and using 92% less water than an average pair. In the UK, I’m excited about governmental plans to reduce waste systemically by introducing the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme (by the end of 2022). With this regulation, the industry would be required to contribute to the cost of recycling. It has a high potential to make a reuse and recycling of textiles more effective, reducing their environmental impact.”
Aniela Fidler Wieruszewska: “We need to focus on degrowth-like economic models focused on sharing and solidarity rather than profit and competition.”
Join our event on 23 February!
The Dutch Embassy in London is organising a circular fashion event on 23 February which takes place in the Dutch Centre in London, starting at 6pm GMT. The panel discussion will also be livestreamed via the Dutch Centre’s YouTube channel. Register via the link below.
