European Fashion Law

On Thursday evening, V&A members and their friends convened in the Members Room for an evening of inspiring discussion about fashion and sustainability (and fair trade cocktails). The main event was a talk followed by a Q&A from Orsola de Castro the co-founder of Fashion Revolution. Her key takeaway message was that it is down to us to take responsibility for the origin of our clothes. The origins story Orsola explained that Fashion Revolution really began with the Rana Plaza

Fashion is the fifth most polluting industry in the world. The pace of pollution has accelerated in recent years due to a faster and more responsive supply chain and the increased use of technical fabrics and new faster dye techniques which bring harsh environmental consequences. The manufacturing process for many clothes can be very damaging, particularly the pollution of water courses from harsh dyes and bleaches. Not to mention the use of water in the first place - a scarc

Unmade is transforming the fashion industry and creating a revolution in how people buy their clothes. I recently attended an event where Hal Watts, one of the founders of Unmade, was interviewed by Brooke Roberts-Islam, a fashion tech and sustainability expert. Unmade is a global fashion software company which drives innovation through customisation. It offers fashion businesses an end-to-end digital solution for on-demand production at scale. Nice! Unmade works with some of

I recently had the pleasure of attending a panel discussion which looked at sustainability and the circular economy in the fashion industry. The panel considered the issues posed by smart textiles and fabrics and answered key questions like "what is circular fashion?" and "how can fashion businesses redesign for sustainability?" The panel included: Joanna Dai, the founder of DAI, a fashion business which combines technical fabrics with tailoring to create comfortable and ea

Fashion technology is not just about wearables. It includes the major innovations in textiles such as Tencel and Gore-Tex. One of the big issues with fashion tech is its sustainability and recyclability. It is hard enough to persuade people to recycle a woolly jumper but if it is embedded with LEDs it may not be possible to recycle at all. The EU has a strict regulatory regime around electrical items which set recycling and recovery targets as well as limitations on the mater

It is no great secret that fashion leaves a large environmental and societal footprint. Some disasters, such as the collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh which killed over 1,000 people, garner massive international outrage and create new activism movements. Others such as the constant pollution of water following the use of harsh dyes and bleaches receive less attention. Fashion businesses have a responsibility to make ethical choices from the use of sustai