How fashion students can shape the current state of the Fashion Industry?
Fashion is the second most polluting industry on the planet. It has a dense value chain and aggregation of raw material pooling from different sectors like agriculture, oil & petroleum, the chemical industry, etc. As fashion students, we are being reinforced with knowledge about sustainable fashion, through courses, thematic topics, and project work. While it's quite daunting and overwhelming information to process, I wanted to explore what we can do as an active part of the fashion education system to contribute to improving the current state of the fashion industry.
I believe universities can influence and shape societies like nothing else, as they have huge potential in motivating future generations of the industry. However, I have identified through research and open sources a standard theme of activities a Fashion Student can indulge in contributing and making the shift
1. Understand what is going on!
Understanding the root cause and analyzing the current state is far more important for fashion students than ever before. As we are the future of the industry, we need to initiate and dive into various topics to understand the existing problems and get to know some of the greatest innovations out there to tackle these problems. One of the recommendations I got during my lecture at my university was — The true cost movie.
2. Raise awareness about the Impact of the Fashion Industry
It starts with one friend, family member, or colleague. Share what you know, make them aware of the problem, and help them understand how they can reduce their impact. Be vocal on your social media by pushing relevant content that can help in the mindset shift of today’s consumers towards conscious consumption.
3. Avoid buying from Fast Fashion Brands and support local, homegrown brands or buy second-hand
The famous moments like Who made my clothes? by Fashion Revolution and Pay Up by Clean Clothing Campaign made us realize the underlying problems in the Fashion Value chain. The supply and demand cycle is broken, but we can opt-out by not participating in the fast-fashion culture. We being from the Fashion sphere have much more power in controlling what we wear and explore options like second-hand fashion, Ethical/Fairtrade fits, and Sustainable disposal of garments.
4. Embrace Technology and gain skills that matter
Industry 4.0 needs all of us to adapt to a newer way of working, as ways that were non-existent a decade ago leading to a massive skill gap in the industry. As fashion students, we can educate ourselves and develop some handy digital skills to reduce operational costs by embracing winning technologies. For example — 3D visualization can be used to reduce pre-production activities cost and impact, and softwares like Clo3d, Browzwear, and optitex are sought after skills.
5. Attend conferences, read papers and research
While we all are stuck at home during these unprecedented times, virtually, we can participate in various conferences, Live streams, and Forum discussions regarding our beloved topic of Fashion Impact. Research is a great path too, as you can continue your education, in a quest to find answers to the most neglected, somewhat important themes in solving the problem of conspicuous consumption of fashion items.
6. Drive Innovation through personal projects and collaboration
Finally, I think the best way you can contribute is to question the existing way of working and create a new pathway through projects, business model proposals, and collaboration with peers in order to change the world a bit. Collaboration and knowledge sharing are key to a sustainable fashion revolution and to bring the best out of this we need to be transparent and build strong values in order to materialize better Industry practices when eventually join the workforce.
Start small and influence with transparent and honest intentions. I believe by collective action, the community of fashion students can bring out changes we all are hoping for.
