Why fast fashion is finished

Keynote speaker for this year’s Ballarat Ethical Fashion Festival is VOGUE Australia’s Sustainability Editor-at-Large, Clare Press.

She was also appointed Global Ambassador for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation’s Make Fashion Circular initiative in 2018 and will share her thoughts, research and involvement as a dedicated advocate for the circular economy and sustainable fashion with the Ballarat community.

The fashion system as it currently stands is incredibly wasteful, Ms Press said.

“We have doubled global clothing production in 15 years and the vast majority of those clothes end up in landfill,” she said. “They might end up in the bin after being second or even third hand but most of them get chucked out when they are almost new.

“In the context of fashion waste, we need to find a new way to keep clothing in use for longer and out of the transfer station.”

Ms Press said she wants to educate people about fashion not being disposable and is delighted that her first visit to Ballarat is to be part of the Ethical Fashion Festival.

She uses her weekly Wardrobe Crisis podcast to interview fashion savvy sustainability experts around the globe to spread circular fashion enterprises and programs.

There are new technical ways to make fashion more sustainable, fibres can be recycled, new-generation fabrics breakdown or can be regenerated and repurposed.

“Ironically some of the new ways are the old ways, like mending, looking after your clothes, passing them on or down or sharing them,” Ms Press said. “The workshops at the festival are based around education and positivity, they show you how to take up these new skills, keep your clothes for more wears and have fun doing it.

“Fashion should be a way to communicate, enjoy and express ourselves.

“People just want to feel good about what they are wearing and know their clothing hasn’t damaged people or the planet during the production process.”

Ms Press said she has seen a growth in people making their own clothes, especially among young people.

They are excited about learning new skills, they go to knitting and sewing classes and treat it as a social gathering.

She predicts a growth also in the fashion sharing economy.

“I am convinced that clothing rental is going to be massive in the future, just like a collective shared wardrobe, I think it is a terrific idea,” she said.

“I don’t want people to stop buying clothes, I want them to think more carefully about what they buy and when across the board.”