Ethical Fashion – what does the future hold?

I met Frans on his recent trip to London, when he visited the Ethical Fashion Forum, that I currently support as a volunteer. And this is my first contribution to the grass routes blog, hope you enjoy it.

Yesterday I went to the Ethical Fashion Forum’s monthly social networking event, which this time focused on ‘Ethical Fashion: What does the future hold?’. It was hosted by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) in their lovely ethical fashion pop up shop on Carnaby Street. A perfect location to talk about green fashion surrounded by green fashion!

Almost 80 people – quite an increase from only 12 in January – joined in for this event, which started off with three inspiring presentations. EJF held a passionate speech about their latest campaign on climate refugees. Think Act Vote inspired us to think positively about our future and the votes we cast, and invited everybody to participate in their campaign by telling them what future you choose. And Forum for the Future introduced us to their Fashion Futures 2025 report.

I had already read the Fashion Futures report a month ago, but was again impressed with its thought-provoking scenarios of the world in 2025 and the role of the fashion industry within it. A world where resource shortages, climate change and population increase will challenge companies and consumers to explore new paths. I’d encourage everybody to have a look at the report or watch the animations as they are really inspiring and beautifully-designed.

After that much food for thought, most people treated themselves to a glass of organic wine, which also helped to encourage them to style themselves in ethical fashion and have their picture taken as part of an Ethical Fashion Photo Shoot. A lot of attention was drawn by Goodone’s beautifully designed dresses and tops, made from recycled garments mixed with end of line virgin cloth. I was tempted to buy one of the dresses myself, first because it really looked georgeous, second because I like Goodone’s approach of collaborating with retailers and big brands to create solutions for reusing or minimising their waste by turning it into beautiful clothes.

Whoever plans a trip to London is very welcome to join us at one of the next networking events every last Thursday each month!