‘Fashion takes so much from nature, it’s time to give back’.
Fashion has a multitude of ties to Nature, many of which people are unaware of. For centuries fashion has had a strong relationship with nature, which can be seen through materials, designs and patterns. Fashion has taken inspiration from plants animals and other organisms to create patterns used for embroidery or printing (Ehrman, 2018). The relationship expands even further from plants being a main source for materials, large fashion houses have has successful collections based around nature like Iris Van Herpen and Alexander McQueen who both have been inspired by the significance of how wonderful wildlife is, this shows that the relationship is deeply rooted. Countryside’s, seasides and mountainsides are all locations used frequently within fashion photography to help capture a story and message the brand is trying to sell, it is a relationship definitely worth celebrating.
Although The relationship isn’t always positive it is immensely complex and does have a negative side. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change calculated that the fashion industry produces 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions each year, as well as it is estimated to use around 1.5 trillion litres of water annually, it is one of the most polluting industries in the world (Davis, 2020). Fashion takes so much from nature, it’s time to give back, we draw inspiration and materials from nature that create beautiful clothing, but a lot of this is damaging the earth specifically the rise of fast fashion companies that are contributing a large amount the waste the fashion industry produces. Cheap accessible clothing has fuelled people’s need for fashion, causing an influx of shopping. However, not only is this clothing made by sometimes harming the environment, due to it being made out of cheap materials that aren’t as durable it leads to it usually being thrown out after a couple of wears ending up on a landfill amongst thousands of other people’s clothing waste.
This is a huge growing problem, but it is a problem that can be fixed. Millennials and Generation Z communities are more aware of the effects of throwaway society they are becoming more conscious about what brands they are buying from and how often hoping to combat the negative effects of fast fashion to protect the planet and preserve their futures on it. This community encourages people to buy from sustainable brands, to buy clothing for good, and buy from second-hand stores to reverse the negative impacts fast fashion is causing. Taking these steps as well as recycling clothing and reducing your purchases is becoming more accessible to people, there are more clothing stores selling sustainable products and more apps allowing people to sell old clothes, making it easier to make a switch in some of your purchase habits even if it starts as a small change. As mentioned an example of creating a more sustainable wardrobe, is to buy second-hand clothing that is made of good quality materials that you can keep for a prolonged period, the images in the zine demonstrate that as well as showing that Fashion can still be creative, stylish and inspiring when it is sustainable, the model in the images is wearing vintage pieces styled in a modern way, located outside incorporating the amazing features of nature to celebrate nature and to convey that we can take from nature as long as we give back.
