Weekend

28.04.2018

Good
as new
Celebrating vintage on
Fashion Revolution Week

Photo: Miki Barlok

Feature |

Talking
about a
revolution
W Fashion Revolution Week and the
HEN Richard
Malone opened
London
Fashion Week millennials behind it want to break
in February, Vogue’s Sarah
Mower wasn’t the only
the spell of fast fashion.
critic applauding the Irish
designer’s ongoing commit-
Carolyn Moore meets the new
ment to sustainability.
“Was there ever a time
generation of Irish designers
when sustainable fashion
was in its own special lane
prioritising sustainable style
for ecologically worthy but
Textile artist Aoife Banks believes fast fashion is a feminist issue. slightly meh clothes?” she
Picture: Matthew Thompson wondered. Commending the more clothes, but if that’s tween 25 and 28, with back-
“cheerfully chic energy” of what you’re going to do, you grounds in fashion, her
Malone’s autumn winter have to at least consider sus- classmates share a common
collection, she heralded a tainability, otherwise interest in understanding
change: “A new generation you’re just pumping more and negating the impact of
that does its ethics by show- ‘stuff’ into the world that’s the fashion industry on
ing exciting fashion.” not really needed.” people and the planet.
And it’s true that Malone, Call it millennial mindful- “Fashion is a medium for
27, is one of a growing ness, or simply a gener- people to express them-
number of young designers ational response to being selves and show their cre-
putting ethics and the en- raised in a throwaway cul- ativity and their personal-
vironment at the heart of ture that wasn’t of their ity,” Byrne says, “but that
what they do; treating sus- making, but Malone’s ap- shouldn’t have to come with
tainability not as a novelty proach exemplifies a new at- a huge environmental or so-
or a selling point, but simply titude to sustainability; one cial impact.” If fashion is re-
— as he says himself — “a that seeks to make fashion volting, millennials are
given”. low-impact by design. leading the charge, and
For Malone, it’s been a Fashion designer Jen- many brands now employ
founding principle of his ap- nifer Byrne, 26, agrees that experts to advise on improv-
proach since he was a stu- segregating ‘sustainable ing their ethical credentials.
dent at Central St Martins. fashion’ distorts the conver- Now the largest and most
Now, eschewing the values sation. “It needs to be incor- powerful consumer group,
and techniques of mass pro- porated into our approach millennials represent over
duction, he works with hand to fashion across the $200 billion (€164bn) in buy-
woven fabrics produced by a board,” she says. “Rather ing power in the US alone;
small collective of female ar- than having two separate and with recent studies
tisans in India, using envi- streams, it just needs to be from Nielsen and Deloitte
ronmentally safe dyes to the new way — that’s the showing millennials are
produce his vibrant prints, only option.” most likely to pay more for
and combining them with Raised with an awareness sustainable products,
recycled fabrics and inno- of environmental issues, as they’re driving the push for
Corks Leading Restaurant for vations like machine wash- a fashion undergrad in Lim- industry-wide change.
able evening gowns, for high erick School of Art and De- It’s a push that’s also
Private Dining & Events fashion that’s low-impact.
“It’s something I can be
sign, Byrne studied sustain-
ability for her dissertation.
being fueled by activism,
much of it propagated on-
Available for Confirmations excited by, and customers Now she’s completing a line, and this week, Fashion
and Communions and stores can be excited by, masters in fashion ethics in Revolution Week — an an-
because I’m looking at new Scotland, and along with nual campaign marking the
Perfect For Family Get Togethers ways of making things, and continuing her ethical anniversary of the Rana
the conversation about sus- fashion line, she hopes to Plaza factory collapse which
Special Rates For Corporate Accounts tainability is really import- work as a sustainability killed more than 1,000 gar-
Meeting Set Ups And Catering ant to the design,” he says. consultant — a job Business ment workers in Bangla-
As his business grows, it’s of Fashion recently declared desh five years ago — has
Business Breakfasts something he’s not prepared one of six “Fashion Careers been encouraging con-
Private Dining With Private Bar Available to compromise on. of the Future”. sumers to take to social
“Once I compromise I’ve In August, Byrne will be media and ask, “Who Made
34 Washington St, Cork | Tel: (021) 239 0613 lost the battle,” he says. “I among the first class to My Clothes?” Byrne says
don’t think you can make graduate from the fashion the campaign helps raise
Open for Breakfast, Brunch, Lunch and Dinner anything contemporary ethics course, a broad area awareness amongst people
7 Days a week from 9 am to late. without considering sus- of study encompassing “not immersed in the
tainability. Sometimes I feel everything from the threat fashion industry”, but adds:
E: hello@thespitjack.com like a bit of a narcissist for of modern slavery to the en- “We need to reach a point
doing this. Realistically, the vironmental impact of where we don’t have to ask
www.thespitjack.com world doesn’t need any microfibers. All aged be- the question, because we

12 IRISH EXAMINER Weekend | 28.04.2018

 | Feature

know brands have taken quality, and conscious,” she

Low-impact, timeless de- sustainability and ethics says. “Conscious means
sign — Alanagh Clegg’s into consideration.” being fully transparent, so if
Textile artist and activist someone asks, ‘Who made
Four Threads collection is Aoife Banks agrees. A final my clothes?’, I can say, ‘This
made to last. year student in NCAD, she man, I’ll show you his
believes, “At end of the day, photo’.” As a teenager im-
it shouldn’t be down to the mersed in the culture of fast
consumer to make sure fashion, Clegg admits sus-
someone, somewhere isn’t tainability and ethics were
suffering for their fashion never on her agenda. “It
choices.” wasn’t until I went to college
Banks was midway that I began to question why
through a fashion degree we buy so much,” she says.
when, realising how compli- Summer internships with
cit fast fashion was in the ex- a sustainable textile special-
ploitation of women, she de- ist in London first intro-
cided it was an industry she duced her to both the con-
wanted no part of. Switch- cepts of sustainability and
ing her area of study to fine the Indian producers she
art textiles, she has taken “a now works with. During her
more radical route”, ad- final year in college, Clegg
dressing the high cost of travelled to India to re-
cheap fashion through search ethical production,
sculptural rather than and what she experienced
wearable textiles. changed the course of her
Last year, Banks visited career. “It was never about
the Rana Plaza site, and met fashion for me,” she says.
with Bangladeshi garment “But I met artisan pro-
workers and labour welfare ducers making things with
organisations. “It was quite craftsmanship, love, and re-
harrowing, as a sheltered spect for tradition and the
western woman, to step into environment, and it meant
that world. As consumers in so much to them. From saris
the west, we’re not exposed handed down from mother
to that side of fashion,” she to daughter to stitches and
says, and as an activist, techniques passed down
she’s working with Fashion through generations, there
Revolution Week to educate was so much more to what
and inform consumers; they wore than just fashion
keeping the welfare of gar- or trends.” Studying tailor-
ment workers to the fore ing by night, for her final
long after the news cycle has year project, Clegg designed
moved on from a tragedy an embroidered coat LSAD fashion grad Jennifer Byrne is on her way to becoming a sus-
like Rana Plaza. “The move- through which she would tainability expert.
ment is growing,” she says. trace the production process
“And these concerns are of a garment. When Empori-
more prevalent in the um Kalu in Naas bought six
younger generation — we’re coats, the concept for Four
becoming more conscious of Threads was born.
the impact of our consumer In addition to using hand
habits.” woven fabrics, low-impact
Textiles graduate-turned- workshops, having a com-
fashion designer Alanagh pletely transparent supply
Clegg, 24, agrees Fashion chain, and embracing com-
Revolution Week “helps am- plex traditional production
plify the message and put techniques that are labour
pressure on big companies intensive but provide em-
take this seriously as an ployment for hundreds of
issue.” When she started women, Alanagh’s trans-
her ethical brand, Four seasonal approach is about
Threads, “The ideals repre- buying less and keeping
sented by Four Threads things longer. If and when
were: inspired, handmade, she introduces new styles, it
won’t be to answer to sea-
sonal demand, but rather
“to answer a question as to
BLACKPOOL
what I can wear when it’s
really hot”.
The Commons Inn,
“I know it’s not how New Mallow Road
everyone else does it,” she
says. “And it’s hard when Every Tuesday
someone says ‘we need
something new, now’, and I 5.30pm & 7.30pm
have to just say, ‘that’s not Every Wednesday
what I do’.” But with the
planet groaning under the 7.30am & 9.30am
weight of discarded fast Call Sarah: 087-9591866
fashion, millions falling vic-
tim to modern slavery, and
our seas awash with micro-
plastic, much of it coming
from textiles, it’s clear
GLANMIRE
there’s something radically
wrong with the way ‘every-
Glanmire GAA Club,
one else does it’. Sallybrook
With young designers
committed to making (Near The Brook Inn)
changes, one small step at a Every Saturday
time, perhaps there’s hope
for the future of fashion. “I 7.30am, 9.30am & 11.30am
can do things right and Call Lorraine: 085-1931790
know I’m doing a good job,
but we need to see the bigger
picture,” says Clegg. “We
need to hold the big brands
Richard Malone is committed to account. The demand for
to sustainabilty in fashion. change is there.”

IRISH EXAMINER Weekend | 28.04.2018 13