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Sustainability and Fashion

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No one wants your old clothes. Updated | Visitors who stepped into fashion retailer H&M’s showroom in New York City on April 4, 2016, were confronted by a pile of cast-off clothing reaching to the ceiling.

No one wants your old clothes

A T.S. Eliot quote stenciled on the wall (“In my end is my beginning”) gave the showroom the air of an art gallery or museum. In the next room, reporters and fashion bloggers sipped wine while studying the half-dozen mannequins wearing bespoke creations pieced together from old jeans, patches of jackets and cut-up blouses. This cocktail party was to celebrate the launch of H&M’s most recent Conscious Collection. The actress Olivia Wilde, spokeswoman and model for H&M’s forays into sustainable fashion, was there wearing a new dress from the line. Try Newsweek for only $1.25 per week.

Livia Firth to Unveil First Biodegradable Mannequins During LFW – WWD. On Sunday night, at an event titled “A Night To Remember,” Livia Firth and the Green Carpet Challenge will join forces with the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and the British Fashion Council to unveil an exhibition of vintage couture gowns unearthed by William Vintage founder William Banks-Blaney, including work by designers from Hubert de Givenchy to John Galliano and Alexander McQueen.

Livia Firth to Unveil First Biodegradable Mannequins During LFW – WWD

Keira Knightley is among the event’s cohosts, who also include Colin Firth, Amanda Berry, Natalie Massanet, Banks-Blaney, Anna Wintour and Andrew Bolton, curator in charge of The Costume Institute at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Plastic bag 5p charge cuts usage by almost 80 per cent, Tesco says. The reduction is even greater than the supermarket itself had expected and in line with the top-end of the Government’s estimates of the impact of the levy, the proceeds of which – less VAT - are to be given to good causes.

Plastic bag 5p charge cuts usage by almost 80 per cent, Tesco says

Rory Stewart, the environment minister, said he was “delighted” by the figures which showed “the 5p plastic bag charge is starting to have a real impact and is raising thousands for good causes”. “Cutting the number of plastic bags we use is a small but vital step in reducing plastic waste. It will not only tidy up our towns and countryside, it will also help protect our precious beaches and sea life,” he said. Tesco declined to say how many 5p bags had been bought from its stores, but its market share suggests it is likely to have handed out in excess of 2 billion single-use carrier bags in 2014 – or about 200 million bags a month. Tesco said it has also seen a 50 per cent increase in the proportion of online shoppers selecting ‘bagless’ deliveries. How PETA Won the Angora Debate and What It Means for Fashion. NEW YORK, United States — In the spring of 2016, a group of top-tier fashion executives convened in midtown Manhattan for a closed-door meeting.

How PETA Won the Angora Debate and What It Means for Fashion

The conversation centred on the treatment of animals and the ethics policies they had in place. It was clear that many brands felt more pressure than ever to cooperate with the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — the international non-profit organisation widely known as PETA. “Look at what PETA did to angora,” one executive said. Protecting Female Workers, Primark on Sustainability, Cotton R... "Low Wages, Unsafe Conditions and Harassment: Fashion Must Do More to Protect Female Workers" (The Guardian) "While approximately 80% of the world’s garment workers are women, the number of women heading the 15 largest mass-market apparel companies on the Fortune 500 list is zero.

Protecting Female Workers, Primark on Sustainability, Cotton R...

" "'I Don't Like Setting Targets' — How Primark Plans to Forge Its Own Path for Ethical and Environmental Change" (Business Green) "According to Lister, the firm's low prices are not achieved through artificially depressing worker's wages and eroding supply chain standards, as some critics allege, but through a combination of volume buying, zero advertising, and tight margins. " "How Cotton Recovery is Changing the Game for Sustainable Fashion" (Triple Pundit) "I:CO has created a closed-loop system in which textiles and shoes can be recycled and remade into new products. " "Can the Throw-Away Fashion Industry Lead a New Trend Toward Sustainability? " Why sustainability—and not just speed—is the future of fashion retail. Do We Have a Responsibility Towards Sustainable Living? Kevin Dooley - Flickr Creative Commons.

Do We Have a Responsibility Towards Sustainable Living?

The Cultural Value of Second-Hand Clothes. Second-hand clothing is somewhat contentious.

The Cultural Value of Second-Hand Clothes

Buying used clothing, quite obviously, is one of the easiest ways to improve your fashion sustainability, however, clothing brands will never encourage it, as their business model revolves around consumers buying more and more, at an ever increasing pace, new clothes. Used clothes are often imbued with a poetic sense of loss, a reminder of the body that once inhabited them. My MA History of Dress teacher, for example, admitted that she couldn’t bring herself to wear second-hand clothes because they felt like ghosts of the previous owners, still marked and affected by the body that used to wear them. Met Gala 2016: Emma Watson wears a Calvin Klein dress made from recycled plastic bottles.