LESSONS: PAST AND FUTURE

The story of denim starts in 11th Century with the first material that we know about that looked like denim was Fustian.

In Italy, the Catari people migrated through Europe from Bulgaria. They had extensive knowledge of both weaving and dying with woad, and they taught these skills as they moved around.

The trade route across the Atlantic was opened and the dyestuff called indigo, which came from the indigofera plant that was being grown in Asia made its way over the continent.

Over the years, we see denim like material being worn by poorer people living and working in the port area. Natural indigo had always been the dye of choice, until 1865 when Synthetic Indigo was born. Made by a German scientist called Aldolf von Baer, his man-made synthetic became the most popular dye for denim.

A Bavarian immigrant, Levi Strauss settled in San Fransisco with family running a hardware store. One sector of the business was in fabric that was imported from overseas. Levi Strauss partnered with Jacob Davies, a Latvian tailor, to patented riveted workwear, creating the iconic LEVIS brand known for its durability.

11TH CENTURY

12TH CENTURY

1498

1400'S - 1800'S

1873

The history of denim jeans is a fascinating one, denim material is like no other, due to its hard-wearing character and the indigo blue colour it is dyed with, that gradually fades with time. This means that as we wear denim it almost acts like a canvas, telling the story of the people that have worn it. Examples have survived from as far back as 1890’s, almost 140 years ago, so we can look back at denim fabrics from the past and they can tell their own stories.

It was this design of the ‘5 pocket‘jean with rivets that became synonymous with denim, and this is the style that has pretty much stayed the same for the last 150 years.

HISTORY OF DENIM

1848-1855

During the American Gold Rush period, the workers demanded heavy duty workwear and durable denim was perfect. 'Waist overalls' were a common item of clothing, very similar to what we know today as dungarees.

American Gold Rush

FURTHER RESOURCES:

Transformers Foundation:
Simon Giuliani, from Candiani Denim talks about European Denim and indigo history.

A Common Thread: Presented by Convicts and 3x1
Scott Morrison and his search for authenticity and sustainability in the changing world of denim.

Fashion Revolution / Fashion Open Studio x Isko- A brief history of denim. With Mohsin Sajid, Creative Director of ENDRIME® and Founder of educational denim platform; Denim History

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

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Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

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Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, manage forests and halt land degradation and biodiversity loss

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and incluive institutions

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development

If you consider that the fashion industry is one of the largest employers in the world, especially of women, with some estimates that women make up roughly 80% of the supply chain, it makes sense that fashion and apparel are involved in not only sustainability discussion– but development- where the sector is a powerful driver of job creation.

When we look at materials, fashion is very resource intensive, using finite resources whilst at the same time damaging or removing local habitats for biodiversity. Pollution is a big problem within the fashion industry, with our over consumption habits are directly affecting communities in the global south with our excess waste being dumped , and polluting our waterways all around the world. The SDG framework sets out to tackle all of these issues.

So, what do the goals mean for an industry like fashion?

UN 17 SDG'S

The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. These 17 goals recognise that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth - all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests. Awareness of the negative impacts of fast fashion and textile waste has increased significantly in the last decade, but so has the scale of the ecological crisis. In 2018, UN climate scientists stated that ‘urgent and unprecedented changes are needed’ to prevent climate catastrophe, and in 2019 the UK Parliament declared a climate emergency.

TAKE A LOOK AT THE 17 SDG'S BELOW:

BUT HOW DO THESE GOALS RELATE TO FASHION?

The fashion industry impacts people and places all around the world, every decision and purchase we make has an impact, it is an industry that uses both human and environmental resources in a largely inefficient, exploitative, and unsustainable manner.

Our industry should be educating the world about the ethics of fashion, and how consumers can make better purchasing decisions and learn to care for and repair their own clothing. Also, companies operating in disadvantaged communities should actively endeavour to create and sustain educational opportunities like work-related training qualifications and should also ensure all employees are able to earn enough money to send their families to school and afford quality childcare

The fashion industry must play an active part in improving the economic livelihoods of the communities in which it operates, by paying fair and equal wages to all its employees and ensuring that no one within the supply chain is living beneath the poverty line.

Well this is what makes the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) so important; they are for everyone! It’s all about global action, for positive change for every single one of us. But ‘who’ started them? The SDGs came from the United Nations, an international organisation that since they began in 1945, have evolved as the needs of the world have changed.

It is undeniable that textile waste presents one of the most complex challenges facing the fashion industry to date. Reducing consumption is an inconvenient truth for both brands and citizens, requiring drastic behavioral change and commitments to new ways of conducting business. In a world of intensifying demand for declining resources, the importance of circulating materials effectively has never been more critical. Textile-to-textile recycling offers the fashion industry an opportunity to mitigate its environmental impacts and the rising levels of textile waste entering landfills.

In a linear economy we mine raw materials that we process into a product that is thrown away after use. A circular economy is fundamentally different. In a circular economy, we close the cycles of all these raw materials.

Closing these cycles requires much more than just recycling. Designing and making products in a circular way means that from the beginning they are designed for circularity, they are designed to last a long time and to be repairable. And then when they are no longer wanted, needed or work, they can be taken apart and all the individual elements can then be recycled, these materials then going back into the production process to make new products.

CIRCULAR ECONOMY

WHY IS A CIRCULAR ECONOMY IMPORTANT?

Following the rise of sustainability within the fashion industry, it comes to little surprise that interest in the circular economy has also increased. As the cost of raw resources and materials continues to grow, partly due to climate change, logistics, and the pandemic, and also because we are becoming more aware of the harmful impact, garment production has on the environment.

If we can start to think in a circular way, so shifting away from the linear production process, and move to a circular system where we can capture all of the resources this will help to eliminates waste and pollution. It would ensure that the products and the materials used to make them can be used again and again. This system offering, fashion brands and retailers, a path to build their businesses more sustainably.

Consumers, especially the younger generations have new expectations regarding fashion and sustainability and are looking for better alternatives. By taking steps to implement more circular practices, such as a resale option, recycling used clothes or repairs, we can all try and keep our clothes in circulation for as long as possible. simply by extending the use of your clothes for one year is thought to save Co2

For retailers too, shifting to a circular economy also means a more secure, stable supply chain.

Circular fashion is such an important part of fashions future, the materials we are using for the majority of of clothing is made from finite resources such as petroleum. these will run out one day. It is essential to start to redesign now and use the technology we have to recapture these resources and start to redesign, and implement a circular model.

As well as creating new opportunities for growth, a more circular economy will:

reduce waste

drive greater resource productivity

deliver a more competitive UK economy.

position the UK to better address emerging resource security/scarcity issues in the future.

help reduce the environmental impacts of our production and consumption in both the UK and abroad.

Awareness of the negative impacts of fast fashion and textile waste has increased significantly in the last decade, but so has the scale of the ecological crisis. In 2018, UN climate scientists stated that ‘urgent and unprecedent changes are needed’ to prevent climate catastrophe and in 2019 the UK Parliament declared a climate emergency. Understanding all the issues that relate to this area of sustainability and education is of utmost importance. If I do not understand how I can possibly hope to educate others. Not only because of the ecological crisis, but also because of the global commitment to meet the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (UNSDGs) by 2030.

Simply put, the fashion industry is using both human and environmental resources in a largely inefficient, exploitative, and unsustainable manner. Systemic change is required, and we believe that greater transparency is the first crucial step towards solving the industry’s human exploitation and environmental crises.

While I have been researching for this subject area I have gathered information from many sources two of the main ones have been- Traid, a charity that I have had an interest in before I started my MA has developed an Educational resource pack. This is a wonderful resource and full of interesting facts and information all related to education. I have taken a lot of the following information from there.

Another resource I have used a lot for this research is the Fashion Revolution Educational pack. Both resources are open source and designed for educators to use. Gathering it all together here will allow me to take from in the future.

There is so much information available on line and I have tried to read as much as I can, it is an incredibly interesting subject area and I’m not sure you can every know everything but by trying to absorb as I can will allow me to be in a stronger position when I start my giant jeans project. It has also allowed me to gather visual information to use for my Giant Jeans project.

MISINFORMATION AND GREENWASHING