Tamsin Lejeune

Tamsin Lejeune is the founder of the Ethical Fashion Forum, a network of designers,businesses and organisations focusing upon social and environmental sustainability in the fashion industry.

What do you consider is the biggest issue facing the fashion industry today?

Sustainability! The way the industry is moving is unsustainable, labour conditions and environmental impact are growing concerns. There needs to be a cultural shift away from fast fashion, everyone expects to own large quantities of disposable clothing bought at very low prices.

What first got you interested in the ethics of fashion?

 At 18 I spent a year working in Central America, where many indigenous people have amazing skills and are creating beautiful clothes and textiles. They are paid incredibly low wages for their work given the huge amount of time and effort that goes in to production. I also worked in Cambodia in a shanty town that had grown up to house workers in the garment industry. People existed in terrible conditions because of poor wages being paid by major multi national corporations; they didn’t earn enough money to pay rent so they lived in makeshift housing. Eventually the shanty town was bulldozed leaving many homeless. These experiences got me thinking about the whole fashion industry supply chain and the need to consider the people behind the clothes we wear.

Who do you consider to be your greatest inspiration?

Bibi Russell- a designer from Chittagong in Bangladesh. She is a huge inspiration. After raising money to study at the London College of Fashion she became a model, travelling the international cat walks. When she retired from modelling in 1994 she invested the money she’d earned into setting up a fair trade fashion and textiles business in Bangladesh called Fashion for Development. As of 2004 she employed 35,000 rural weavers in Bangladesh and has won numerous awards and international acclaim.

What do you consider is the greatest barrier to success in the ethical fashion industry?

Many designers produce fashion ranges which may be beautiful, but which do not sell well because they are not right for the target market. Fashion design and market understanding need to go hand in hand- designers need to establish who will be buying their clothes, and for how much, from the outset.

How important is innovation and enterprise to designers interested in sustainable fashion?

Critical, even more so as you need to overcome preconceptions of what ethical fashion means;boring, unfashionable, shapeless, hemp are all words that spring to many people’s minds. Marketing ,  image, and creativity are the keys to success! Be innovative about the  process as well as the product.

How did you become involved in the Ethical Fashion Forum and what is the aim of your work?

I did a masters degree in fashion and fair-trade and set up a business sourcing textiles from Bangladesh. I produce high end women’s wear using fair trade and naturally died fabrics. I came across lots of people facing the same barriers as me and many of us were doing the same research. It seemed sensible to set up one body to do the work for everyone. We aim to create a network of businesses and individuals working in the ethical fashion industry and encourage sustainable practices and initiatives to promote these. We also aim to ensure that social and environmental considerations are embedded in fashion education as well as influencing main stream manufacturers, suppliers and retailers.

What skills do you think are required to start and sustain an ethical fashion business?  

Education is important but at the same time some of the world’s leading designers – for example  Roland Mouret -don’t have formal training. Creative thinking is the key. Understanding your market and having a commercial approach is vital but you must also be aware of the social and environmental issues driving the ethical fashion agenda. Perseverance and staying power are at least as important as creative flair, skills and ability.

Do you think the industry should be considering a shift back to UK manufacturing? And what do you think are the key challenges involved in achieving that shift?

The environmental costs of manufacturing thousands of miles away from where products are sold are high. Therefore manufacturing locally is relevant to the sustainability debate. Manufacturing costs in the UK For example, garment production could support local communities and sustainable livelihoods, provide opportunities to reduce poverty , or preserve or build upon traditional skills. will be higher, however for small scale designers producing small quantities of high quality products it can make very good sense. When deciding where to manufacture, designers should also consider the possible benefits to garment workers and communities.

Do you think major UK retailers are beginning to take on board the social & environmental issues surrounding fashion and act on them?

Yes, although,  they could be doing a lot more. Some are taking small steps by  working with other businesses or bringing out ethical or organic clothing lines. To make a real difference retailers need to implement sustainable practices throughout the supply chains for their mainstream products.

What would you say to a young person thinking of starting an ethical business?  

There has never been a more inspiring time to start a fashion business in the UK. The new generation holds the key to achieving positive change by creating products that are stunning in terms of design and innovative in terms of sustainability.

http://www.makeyourmarkinfashion.org/sustainable_fashion/interviews

24th February 2009…

SUSTAINABLE ACTION PLAN LAUNCHED BY DEFRA

London Fashion Week not only saw the latest collections strut down the catwalk from our favourite designers, it also witnessed the launch of a SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING ACTION PLAN by Defra Minister Lord Hunt. The aim of the plan is to make fashion more sustainable and less environmentally damaginf and has brought together over 300 organisations including high street retailers, designers and textile managers to battle the environmental impacts of ‘throw away fashion’.

Research has found that clothing has significant environmental and ethical impacts such as increased carbon emissions, waste and pollution to unfair trading conditions, child labour and sweat shops. In the UK alone, the clothing and textiles sector produces approximately 3.1 million tonnes of CO2, 2million tonnes of waste and 70 million tonnes of waste water and results in 1.5 million tonnes of unwanted clothing ending ip in landfill sites.

The action plan will focus on several key areas:

1) Improving environmental performance throughout the supply chain. To include…sustainable design, fabric and fibres, recycling and clothes cleaning.

2) Increase awareness through media and education on the sustainability of clothing.

3) Promoting markets for sustainable clothes.

4) Improving traceability along the supply chain (environmental, ethical, and trade).

Lord Phillip Hunt, Minister for Sustainability has said:

• “This action plan represents a concerted effort from the fashion industry, including top names in the high street and manufacturers to change the face of fashion.
• “Retailers have a big role to play in ensuring fashion is sustainable. We should all be able to walk into a shop and feel that the clothes we buy have been produced without damaging the environment or using poor labour practices, and that we will be able to reuse and recycle them when we no longer want them.
• “I’m delighted that so many fashion companies have signed up to the sustainable clothing action plan and I look forward to seeing these actions come to fruition.”

So far, retailers have showed their support and willing by committing to certain actions already:

Supermarkets

• Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury are going to increase their ranges of Fair Trade and Organic, increasing take back and recovery of unwanted clothing and supporting fibres/fabrics that enable clothing recycling.
• M&S and Tesco are supporting green clothing factories, improving animal welfare across their supply chain and increasing consumer awareness on washing at 30 degrees centigrade.
• Tesco – are extending their traceability programme across cotton supply chains to ban cotton from countries known to use child labour as well as carbon labelling of Tesco laundry detergents.

Retailers

• Nike – applying their Considered Design ethos to improving the sustainability performance and innovation of all their product ranges

• Adili and Continental Clothing – Continental Clothing have measured and reduced the carbon footprint of their clothing products. They are now working with sustainable online retailer Adili to promote carbon labelling to consumers.
• T Shirt and Sons – already using organic cotton to manufacture their T Shirts, T Shirt and Sons are now developing the first Global Organic Textile Standard (GOTS) certified system for eco printing on Organic cotton.

Other

• Association of Charity Shops, Oxfam, Salvation Army Trading and Textile Recycling Association – increasing consumer awareness on the environmental benefits of clothing reuse as well as increasing clothing recovery infrastructure in the UK. They will open more “sustainable clothing” boutiques of high quality second-hand clothing and new sustainably designed garments.

• Fair Trade Foundation UK – will increase the volume of Fairtrade cotton products to be in at least 10 per cent of cotton clothing in the UK by 2012.
• Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion – setting up this centre to provide practical business supports to the clothing sector on sustainability and fashion.

For more information on the SUSTAINABLE CLOTHING ACTION PLAN by Defra visit www.defra.gov.uk