A new, sustainable approach to fashion | The Drum | ABC News

yeah

[Music]

fashion favor is upon us

and while the glamor of the week-long

event lures the big names to Sydney's

Carriage works

behind the scenes the industry is under

pressure to change the way it operates

I do believe that the fashion industry

is at breaking point I think it's

because of the way that we have been

producing designing and consuming and

not recirculating clothing we have a big

clothing waste problem

each year it's estimated that we'll buy

56 new items of clothing and a

staggering 220

000 tons of clothing will end up in

landfill

it's something that's prompted the

Australian fashion Council to partner

with the federal government to create a

new scheme aimed at reusing clothing and

recycling old Fabrics to make new

designs

it's a practice known as circular

fashion our aim is to fundamentally

transform our industry and to do that we

need to collaborate no one can transform

an industry into a circular economy by

2030 and to Net Zero by 2050 if we work

on our own

fashion is about creativity you don't

want to stop that but I think it's gone

to a point where it's just about volume

without quality being considered

it's a shift to a more sustainable

business model that many high-end

Australian designers have already

adopted like Bianca spender who aims to

ensure no piece of fabric goes to waste

we have to actually carve out a you know

real objectives around sustainability we

started with dead stock fabric which is

fabric that is over-ordered or

over-supplied and I said okay I'm going

to start only with dead stock fabrics

and then look at what I have and aim for

50 of the Fabrics that I choose to be

those dead stock Fabrics

the designer has welcomed the Australian

fashion council's initiative but says

fostering sustainability in the industry

can be a complex task there is a lot of

conversation about the waste in fashion

and it needs to be approached on so many

different levels there are huge

education pieces there are huge reforms

you know we really don't have any

manufacturing capacities to recycle

textiles in a large way in Australia

and while the fashion industry itself is

trying to reduce waste they agree

educating consumers is key to its

success it is very hard currently for

consumers to easily make educated

choices about everything that they buy

we can tackle this but we have to do it

together