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FASHION ESSAY

Visiting Stine Skytte bookazine 8

True to tradition, the first half of February has been the season of fashion and interior design events, beginning with the Copenhagen Fashion Week, which featured trade fairs, fashion shows and talks.

February 2023

 

I skipped the trade fairs and fashion shows, but I did attend a debate held at Christiansborg Palace, the seat of Danish Parliament, organized by the Think Tank Mandag Morgen under the heading Green Solutions For the Fashion Industry Calls For New Policies. The panel included Marie Busck, head of CSR and Sustainability in the industry association Dansk Fashion and Textile; Lars Fogh Mortensen of the European Environmental Agency (EEA); Anne Paulin, spokesperson on environmental and circular economy issues for the Danish Social Democratic Party: Pernille Weiss, Member of the European Parliament for the Danish Conservative People’s Party; and Else Skjold, professor of Design & Sustainability at the Royal Danish Academy.

The debate took its point of departure in the EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles, which aims to make the textile industry sustainable in order to live up to the EU’s climate goals.

According to strategy’s vision for textile consumption and fashion and textile production in the EU, by 2030, all textile products that are marketed in the EU must be durable, repairable and recyclable, to a great extent made of recycled fibres, free of hazardous substances, produced in respect of social rights and the environment.

The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles contains explicit criticism of fast fashion and expresses a clear desire to fight overproduction and overconsumption.

One hour was allotted for this debate, perhaps some of the participants walked away with new insights? We all learned that Denmark has decided unilaterally to speed up the timeline and is beginning to sort used textile in a similar manner to the way we sort cardboard, plastic and other categories. We also learned that we are doing this despite having no plan for how to use the textile waste! (The bulk of it is not recyclable because it is made of mixed fibres.)

As a consumer, I am pleased that my many years in the fashion business have taught me to distinguish between good and poor quality and has, hopefully, prepared me to spot false prophets. I am also pleased that I’m no longer in the business – it is getting ever harder to be a small-scale manufacturer. Perfectly reasonable demands for traceability are difficult, if not impossible, to live up to for someone who is not backed up by a large organization.

I agree that the pace of the business has to be reduced considerably – the fashion industry that has emerged over the past 25 years is unbecoming and completely irresponsible. The most sustainable clothes are the ones that are already in your closet, and of course, a fresh look does not require a brand-new purchase.

In a comment in the newspaper Weekendavisen after the Fashion Week, Professor Else Skjold argued that the path forward for future Fashion Week events should be for fashion shows to develop into an independent art form rather than their current role as a stylish engine in a vehicle carrying commercial fashion to the people.
This leaves the major question of what to do with the fashion industry and all the people who are earning a living in it.

In the fashion-themed HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 8, which will be released on 23 March, you can meet a range of individuals who passionately practise fashion in a variety of ways and who are successful, even though the system is under pressure. You can order your copy of the bookazine here.

Den første halvdel af februar har vanen tro stået i mode og indretningsbranchens tegn, begyndende med Fashion Week i København, som både bød på messer, fashionshows og talks.

Messer og shows hoppede jeg over. Derimod var jeg til en debat på Christiansborg arrangeret af Tænketanken Mandag Morgen under overskriften ”Grønne løsninger til modebranchen kræver nye politiske rammer”, her medvirkede brancheorganisationen Dansk Mode og Tekstils CSR- og bæredygtighedschef Marie Busck, Det Europæiske Miljøagentur (EEA) blev repræsenteret af Lars Fogh Mortensen, fra socialdemokratiets deltog ordfører for miljø og cirkulær økonomi Anne Paulin, konservativt Europa-Parlamentsmedlem Pernille Weiss deltog, og fra det Kongelige akademi bidrog Else Skjold hun er Professor i Design & Sustainability.

Debatten tog afsæt i EU strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles har som mål at gøre tekstilbranchen bæredygtig for at leve op til EU’s klimamål.

Strategien definerer en vision for den europæiske mode- og tekstilbranche og for tekstilforbrug i EU, som betyder at alle tekstilprodukter, der markedsføres i EU, i 2030 skal være:
Holdbare, mulige at reparere og genanvendelige, i høj grad fremstillet af genbrugsfibre, fri for farlige stoffer og være produceret under ordentlige forhold ift. sociale rettigheder.

EU strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles udtrykker en meget direkte kritik af fast fashion og udtrykker et tydeligt ønske om at bekæmpe overproduktion og overforbrug.

Visiting Designskolen Kolding bookazine 8

En time var der sat af til debatten, nogle blev måske lidt klogere?
Alle lærte vi, at i Danmark har besluttet at overhale tidsplanen indenom og begynder at sortere brugte tekstiler i vores affaldshåndtering, på linje med hvordan vi sorterer pap, plastic og andet. Vi lærte også, at sådan gør vi, uden at have en løsning på hvad tekstilaffaldet kan og skal anvendes til! (langt det meste er ubrugeligt, fordi der er tale om blandingsfibre)

Som forbruger er jeg glad for at mine mange år i modebranchen har lært mig at mærke forskel på god og dårlig kvalitet, og forhåbentlig har klædt mig på til at spotte de falske profeter.
Jeg er glad for ikke længere at være i tøjbranchen – det bliver nu endnu vanskeligere at være lille producent. Helt rimelige krav om sporbarhed er vanskelige, for ikke at sige umulige, at leve op til, hvis ikke man har en stor organisation i ryggen.
Jeg er helt enig i at tempoet bør ud af ligningen – modeindustrien, som den har udfoldet sig de seneste 25 år, er uklædelig og helt uansvarlig. Det mest bæredygtige tøj er det du allerede har, og det er ingen naturlov at der skal nyt til, for at gestalte sig selv på en ny måde.

Professor Else Skjold argumenterede i Weekendavisen efter modeugen for, at en vej for fremtidige modeuger er, at lade modeshows udvikles henimod at være en selvstændig kunstnerisk udtryksform, i modsætning til nu, hvor shows udgør en elegant motor spændt for en vogn som fragter kommerciel mode ud til folket.
Tilbage står det store spørgsmål om hvad vi skal stille op med modebranchen og alle de mennesker der tjener til livets ophold i branchen?

I HÅNDVÆRK bookazine no. 8 som udkommer d. 23. marts, med temaet MODE kan du møde en lang række mennesker som på forskelligvis praktiserer mode passioneret, og gør det godt, selvom systemet er under pres.

Bookazinet kan forudbestilles her.

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