Wednesday, 24th of November, raining and cold, and I was on my way to Nottingham with my fashion friends on a Red Arrow coach. We were headed for The Trend Boutique's annual student conference - this time focusing the the global and ethical issues surrounding the fashion industry. There could not have been a better venue - the Broadway cinema in Nottingham - it was cosy, warm, and most importantly had a bar... While waiting for the first talk to begin, I spied Sally Denton, head of The Trend Boutique - she gave me a wave - what a V.I.P!
Each 'lecture' was held in one of the cinema screen, with the screen used for visuals, and plush cinema seats for our bottoms...
Sally Denton
Sally introduced the event with a brief history of the 10 years she has been running these conferences. The story began at the turn of the millennium - times were tough for fashion and textiles graduates, and there was a need for focus, inspiration and networking with amazing speakers. So The Trend Boutique's student conferences were born.
With the economic climate looking cloudy again, a decade later, there is still this need for events such as this, as, as Sally explained, there are still "real opportunities".
So, why Global vs. Ethical? As mentioned, despite the recession, fashion is still a strong business, and the idea of being 'eco-friendly' and 'ethical' is still "high on everyone's agenda" according to Sally. There have been so many new developments within the field of 'Ethical Fashion' it has to be showcased to potential graduates, but also to 'reconnect' with the modern consumer.
Sally described this time to be the "end of 'masstige'" (mass-consumption of high priced goods) and more the "age of austerity", when people don't mind spending money, but they don't want to spend it all the time, so the product must be of excellent quality, ethically sound, and be long wearing. The Eco-Luxury market is growing all the time. To sell to the west - where how many green points you have on your clubcard adds to social status - design must be exceptional, and it is no longer good enough to do a bit of recycling here or there, or to have a 'bag-for-life' on hand for supermarket dashes. With the amount of celebrities "giving back more than they take", consumers demand more from brands.
How far have we come? Sally points out that 5, 10 years ago it would have been unthinkable for a luxury automobile brand to 'go green' in a holistic way, rather than just cutting CO2 emissions, but Lotus has with their Eco Elise - made largely out of hemp. Similarly, as the recycling/upcycling movement, organic products, zero waste and 'slow' production continue to "gain momentum", Sally goes on to explain that "there [is also] a growth in the number of collaborations between sustainable designers and the high-street", for example, Tesco.
However, while this is all well and good, new trends always bring with them their own dilemmas. With all our modern technology, we can produce products at super-fast speed, and make our own synthetic high-tech. materials. But which is best? This, or the slower/organic/recycled solutions? Should we consume less, or just actually consume more of what we produce, so that there is minimal waste?
Hopefully, these questions will be answered by some of the many speakers at the conference.
To finish, in true Trend Boutique style, Sally allowed us to see the current trend in this eco-fashion-market:
The new THROW AWAY is products made of degradable materials may only last a few weeks, but they are truly disposable, they really decompose and return to the earth - unlike those fast fashion Primark shoes you have at the back of the wardrobe, that were in fashion for all of 5 minutes.
NATURE'S HARVEST focuses on organic design, perhaps made with real vegetation. For example, chairs grown into shape, and rings with grass growing from them. These are real thing when it comes to feeling organic!
RURBAN CONTINUED has edgy, austere codes mixed in with the rural. For example, the ring mentioned above, or plastic melted with wood to create a new material.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's more to come from CSR Manager at Asda, Catherine Watkins, designer Feng Ho and ethical consultant Elizabeth Laskar.
Each 'lecture' was held in one of the cinema screen, with the screen used for visuals, and plush cinema seats for our bottoms...
Sally Denton
Sally introduced the event with a brief history of the 10 years she has been running these conferences. The story began at the turn of the millennium - times were tough for fashion and textiles graduates, and there was a need for focus, inspiration and networking with amazing speakers. So The Trend Boutique's student conferences were born.
With the economic climate looking cloudy again, a decade later, there is still this need for events such as this, as, as Sally explained, there are still "real opportunities".
So, why Global vs. Ethical? As mentioned, despite the recession, fashion is still a strong business, and the idea of being 'eco-friendly' and 'ethical' is still "high on everyone's agenda" according to Sally. There have been so many new developments within the field of 'Ethical Fashion' it has to be showcased to potential graduates, but also to 'reconnect' with the modern consumer.
Sally described this time to be the "end of 'masstige'" (mass-consumption of high priced goods) and more the "age of austerity", when people don't mind spending money, but they don't want to spend it all the time, so the product must be of excellent quality, ethically sound, and be long wearing. The Eco-Luxury market is growing all the time. To sell to the west - where how many green points you have on your clubcard adds to social status - design must be exceptional, and it is no longer good enough to do a bit of recycling here or there, or to have a 'bag-for-life' on hand for supermarket dashes. With the amount of celebrities "giving back more than they take", consumers demand more from brands.
How far have we come? Sally points out that 5, 10 years ago it would have been unthinkable for a luxury automobile brand to 'go green' in a holistic way, rather than just cutting CO2 emissions, but Lotus has with their Eco Elise - made largely out of hemp. Similarly, as the recycling/upcycling movement, organic products, zero waste and 'slow' production continue to "gain momentum", Sally goes on to explain that "there [is also] a growth in the number of collaborations between sustainable designers and the high-street", for example, Tesco.
However, while this is all well and good, new trends always bring with them their own dilemmas. With all our modern technology, we can produce products at super-fast speed, and make our own synthetic high-tech. materials. But which is best? This, or the slower/organic/recycled solutions? Should we consume less, or just actually consume more of what we produce, so that there is minimal waste?
Hopefully, these questions will be answered by some of the many speakers at the conference.
To finish, in true Trend Boutique style, Sally allowed us to see the current trend in this eco-fashion-market:
The new THROW AWAY is products made of degradable materials may only last a few weeks, but they are truly disposable, they really decompose and return to the earth - unlike those fast fashion Primark shoes you have at the back of the wardrobe, that were in fashion for all of 5 minutes.
NATURE'S HARVEST focuses on organic design, perhaps made with real vegetation. For example, chairs grown into shape, and rings with grass growing from them. These are real thing when it comes to feeling organic!
RURBAN CONTINUED has edgy, austere codes mixed in with the rural. For example, the ring mentioned above, or plastic melted with wood to create a new material.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There's more to come from CSR Manager at Asda, Catherine Watkins, designer Feng Ho and ethical consultant Elizabeth Laskar.
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