01
Keynote: Circularity in fashion & an introduction to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation
Clare Press, Sustainability Editor-At-Large, VOGUE Australia
The linear take-make-dispose approach to resources is out of fashion, and circular principles are driving innovation.
Design needs to remove the concept of ‘waste’
The future is circular design, new business models and new recycling technology
Clare Press, author, podcaster and representative for the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, explained the principles of a circular economy and why we need to be designing to re-use. The circular economy principle acknowledges that resources are finite - what we have is all we’ll ever have - so designing to dispose is increasingly problematic. Instead, we need to design to remove the concept of ‘waste’, with resources feeding back into production loop at the end of the product’s functional life.
Clare shared three areas of focus for the fashion industry to approach circularity:
Design for circularity with safe, renewable resources, eliminating toxic chemicals and dyes, in a manner where elements can be separated and recycled
Adopting new business models keep clothing in use for longer, such as clothing rental - and when designing for these models consider durability and laundering through the lifecycle of the garment
Developing processes to turn old clothes into new clothes, with technologies that can recycle fabrics into high quality yarns
…And recommended further reading of the Cradle to Cradle design concept, developed by Prof. Michael Braungart and William McDonough, to explore how to take an approach that is good, not just less bad.
The 5 Goods: MATERIALS, ECONOMY, ENERGY, WATER, LIVES She also pointed out that, as an industry always thinking about what’s new and what’s next, disposable resources aren’t very fashion forward.
“Does anyone want to be inspired by something sooooo last season as the linear economy?”
— Clare Press
02
Conversation: Responsible Materials Sourcing
Lucy King, Country Road Group/David Jones, Brooke Summers, Cotton Australia, Stella Smith-Stevens, Country Road Lucy King, Sustainability Manager of Country Road & David Jones, Brooke Summers of Cotton Australia and Stella Smith-Stevens, Menswear Designer at Country Road joined Melinda Tually
Country Road is increasing their confidence in marketing around sustainability, standards and textiles, clearing the path for more bold moves in responsible sourcing.
Their targets include 100% of cotton supporting sustainable practices, cellulose 100% deforestation free and 100% of products to have at least one sustainability attribute by 2020.
Lucy highlighted that messaging around textiles and sourcing always needs to be credible and accurate, with the knowledge that consumers don’t necessarily understand every aspect, and that brands should understand that making significant changes to a supply chain requires time and effort.
“We made investments in sourcing and the supply chain – finding factories who have the right tech, taken time to make sure they have the right fabrics with certifications, had to find new suppliers – it has taken 3-4 years of groundwork before launching anything.”
Country Road menswear designer Stella Smith-Stevens spoke about a holistic approach to design principles and staying on top of innovation in design thinking, rather than pure aesthetics, to drive better practice.
“Jeans are simple in terms of style, so as a designer the focus now is on the elements that can lead to true circularity.”
Country Road’s Refibra jeans, made from denim which incorporates pre-consumer waste cotton scraps combined with Tencel, have sold so well the jeans have become a core product line.
Lucy and Stella pointed out the importance of the quality of the product in bringing the fabric to market, not the other way around.
“They’re not just selling because it’s an environmentally friendly fabric – the product is great and speaks for itself.”
Stella pointed out that it’s an ongoing battle to practically access elements including notions, buttons and trims that adhere to best-practice responsible design principles, and that new technology and development is still required. Country Road work with organisations to help implement their supply chain changes, including Cotton Australia who have helped educate the teams involved.
Brook explained that Cotton Australia has been on a 30 year sustainability journey, during which they’ve worked with Australian cotton farmers to reduce pesticide usage by 90% and increased water efficiency by 60%, resulting in yield per land unit that is 3x anywhere else in the world. They have also trained 100,000 farmers in Pakistan on these practices, as see their competition as synthetic fibres, not other cotton producers.
“Other cotton-producing countries are not the competition - synthetic fibres are.”
— BROOKE SUMMERS, COTTON AUSTRALIA
“Jeans are simple in terms of style, so as a designer the focus now is on the elements that can lead to true circularity.”
— STELLA SMITH STEVENS, COUNTRY ROAD
03
Conversation: The spark of change: One brand’s sustainability journey
Lizzy Abegg, Co-Founder, Spell & The Gypsy Collective
Proof that one question can make a difference, Lizzy Abegg shared her personal journey in transforming Spell & the Gypsy Collective into one of Australia’s most responsible brands.
• One voice can make a difference
• Data is integral, both to establish a baseline & track improvement
• Transformation is about progress, not perfection
Co-founder of SPELL & the Gypsy Collective Lizzy Abegg didn’t know about Fashion Revolution until a customer asked her #whomademyclothes? While she was connected to her suppliers she realised she didn’t have enough information to really answer honestly, so set about finding out more about her production and the #fashrev movement.
“As a mainstream person - conscious, but mainstream - I was getting emotionally involved in the conversation and figured customers definitely would be too.”
This kickstarted a journey of transformation for SPELL, which the team were on board with straight away. Describing a communal sense of relief knowing her team were as passionate about this as she was, Lizzy acknowledged that change needs to be supported at all levels.
Change isn’t easy - Lizzy recounted feeling lost and overwhelmed at the start - but employed a sustainability consultant to help the brand focus and progress.
Their first step was to map out a clear sustainability strategy - SPELL’s is based on seven pillars - with clear targets to achieve each year to 2025.
Lizzy explained that SPELL also signed up to several global sustainability commitments in order to feel part of a community in their journey and not face challenges alone, choosing initiatives that are most relevant to the pillars in their sustainability strategy.
“We wanted to be part of larger force driving change in the industry. Collaboration to amplify via community.”
— LIZZY ABEGG, SPELL & THE GYPSY COLLECTIVE
SPELL has established open, transparent communications with their customer base, inviting people to join them on the journey of continuous improvement, countering the attitude that success or failure in this space is binary.
“If you want to join - join us, and we’ll teach you as we learn”
Lizzy highlighted the importance of data, both establishing a baseline and measuring impact along the way. SPELL released their first impact report in 2017, with an independently-audited follow up released in January 2019, detailing impact and progress in the SPELL Sustainability Program.
Find the SPELL 2018 impact report here.
“As a mainstream person - conscious, but mainstream - I was getting emotionally involved in the conversation and figured customers definitely would be too.”
— LIZZY ABEGG, SPELL & THE GYPSY COLLECTIVE
04
Conversation: The Australian Modern Slavery Act & the fashion industry
Mans Carlsson-Sweeny, AUSBIL, Alexander Coward, Department of Home Affairs, James Bartle, Outland Denim
The Australian Modern Slavery Act took effect on January 1, 2019. Alexander Coward of the Modern Slavery Business Engagement Unit in the Department of Home Affairs, who is instrumental in implementing the Act, was joined by ESG researcher Mans Carlsson-Sweeny of AUSBIL Investments and James Bartle, founder of Outland Denim in conversation led by Melinda Tually to discuss the realities of modern slavery and the impact of the Act.
The Australian Modern Slavery Act provides a framework for Australian businesses to assess and address slavery risks in their supply chains, and communicate this to the community.
The Act will require businesses and organisations with revenue of A$100 million+ to report annually on the risks of modern slavery in their operations and supply chains, the action they have taken to assess and address those risks, and the effectiveness of their response.
Smaller businesses can report voluntarily.
Mans explained the importance of top-down influence from investors in promoting responsible business practice, and the role of ESG research to capture the intangible drivers of value, including company culture, impact and values.
“The Ausbil investment philosophy is to create long term sustainability within business and deliver value over time. By undertaking ESG research we gather the knowledge required to put trust in a business and their capacity to achieve their plans.
By addressing issues we build more resilient companies - investors do have the power to influence change.”
“The elephant in the room is pricing - if you cannot feasibly have a living wage in the supply chain that is a problem.”
— MANS CARLSSON-SWEENY, AUSBIL INVESTMENTS
There wasn’t a dry eye in the house as James Bartel, founder and CEO of Outland Denim, shared the emotional journey of developing a business that exists to remove people from modern slavery and provide the training, skills and opportunity for them to rebuild their lives with dignity.
“We witnessed the reality of modern slavery and exploitation and could never be the same. We needed to create an opportunity to remove people from this trauma.”
He explained that far from being a charity of a ‘give back’ program Outland Denim is a business that invests into the lives of its workers, providing training across both practical and emotional skills.
Outland Denim employees learn end-to-end jean construction skills, which are more valuable than piecework, and are educated in life skills including healthcare and financial literacy. James explained that as people have come from traumatic backgrounds Outland collaborates with experts from NGOs to provide emotional support.
“Outland is not a charity or a ‘give back’. We’ve investing into a life, which creates the opportunity for the worker to continue to change their own life.”
— JAMES BARTLE, OUTLAND DENIM
05
Keynote: Traceability 2.0: Technology taps nature for answers
Sandon Adams, ORITAIN
In an era of fake news and rampant greenwashing sometimes one has to get back to science for cold, hard data. Sandon Adams, Managing Director of ORITAIN Australia, explained how forensic technology can be used to trace the origin of textile fibres.
Fraud is an issue across the food, pharmaceutical and fashion industries, as complex supply chains make traceability challenging - and false claims create risk to reputation.
Oritain - “forensic science for the textile industry” - tackle this by conducting forensic testing of products to confirm claims of origin.
Traditionally, traceability relies on information that is one step forward or one step back - so inaccuracy or influence at any point will disrupt the reliability of the origin story.
By assessing the isotopes and chemical trace elements that plants absorb from their surroundings Oritain maps an “origin fingerprint” that accurately identifies exactly where in the world the specific fibre originated.
Oritain is able to test the fabric at almost any stage of the product lifecycle to determine the origin fingerprint.
06
Conversation: On-shoring and the revival of Australian made
Bianca Spender, BIANCA SPENDER, Mary Lou Ryan, Bassike, Andrew Cucurrullo, Waverley Mills
Three key voices in the Australian fashion industry - Bianca Spender of her namesake brand, Mary Lou Ryan of Bassike and Andrew Cuccurrullo of Waverly Mills - joined David Giles in conversation about reviving the value of “Australian made”.
Well and truly raised in the ragtrade, Bianca developed a deep appreciation for quality construction growing up in mother Carla Zampatti’s atelier - but recognises not everyone of her generation has the same appreciation.
“Globalization took away the recognition of the value of Australian made. Older and younger generations seem to care more - I remember the Italian grandmothers would come in to the shop and look through for quality.”
— BIANCA SPENDER
She is seeing a shift back to recognising and valuing construction with younger generations wanting to learn the practical skills of sewing and creating.
Mary Lou explained that Australian made has always been part of Bassike’s DNA, which their broad demographic has always responded to. Over 95% of Bassike product is made in Australia, and will continue to be.
As for the rest? We might not own it at all. The fashion rental market is exploding, having evolved far beyond tuxedos.
When Andrew joined Australia’s oldest mill the future looked uncertain - but support from the community allowed them to turn prospects around to revive Waverly Mills.
“We raised over $90k to save the mill in 10 days on Kickstarter, which demonstrated that Australians do still care about Australian made.”
— ANDREW CUCURRULLO, WAVERLEY MILLS
07
Conversation: The future is here
Gosia Piatek, KOWTOW, Courtney Holm, A.BCH, Zoltan Csaki, Citizen Wolf
Artisan-brand partnerships are sustained through transparent, community-driven collaboration.
While heritage brands need to find ways to change existing processes, new players can get it right from the start. Gosia Piatek of KOWTOW, Courtney Holm of A.BCH and Zoltan Csaki of Citizen Wolf shared their innovative, disruptive and forward-thinking approaches with Ragtrader editor Assia Benmedjdoub. The future is inspiring.
The epitome of slow design, KOWTOW has been sustainable before being sustainable was cool. Founder Gosia shared how the label was launched on staunch values that still form the backbone of the brand’s values.
“It was a naïve start - I wanted to create something from the heart, do something good for the world.”
— GOSIA PIATEK, KOWTOW
Started on a 5k government grant KOWTOW has now grown to 28 staff, but is self-supporting with no debt or investment. Gosia explained that the mentality of being conscious and working frugally is core to the brand, but she has always been value driven, not price driven. KOWTOW works alongside factories to upskill when necessary, as strong supply chain relationships are fundamental to longevity.
“Don’t swap and change because price fluctuates - work WITH manufacturers, not just call on them when it suits.”
Gosia has bold plans for the future, working on a take-back program for end-of-garment-life and compostable packaging that will be utilised on local orchards in Auckland.
A.BCH is an independent, Melbourne-based fashion label founded on hyper transparency and circular design, creating pieces with intent and responsibility from concept to garment afterlife.
A pioneering voice for a new fashion system that demonstrates radically responsible creation, founder Courtney considers education to be a tool to empower customers to make better decisions. Digital garment care manuals form part of the A.BCH product.
She acknowledged that as a small designer it can be really tough to access best-practice materials and notions due to large MOQs. Courtney has created a Facebook group to help independent designers collaborate towards a circular economy by sharing costs and resources - search ‘Sustainable Fashion Source Australia’.
“It’s about collaborating towards a circular economy ”
— COURTNEY HOLM, A.BCH
Citizen Wolf crafts ethically made to measure t-shirts in Sydney with zero waste proving unequivocally that fashion can be fast without hurting people or planet, and co-founder Zoltan is on a mission to redefine how clothes are made at scale in the 21st century.
Zoltan explained how Citizen Wolf’s disruptive model evolved from ”constant process of knocking our heads against the wall of the legacy of the industrial revolution”.
The business encompasses three verticals that work together to deliver an innovative solution to on-demand manufacturing: the shop, the factory and the tech.
“We like to talk about ourselves as a tech company with a fashion problem.”
— ZOLTAN CSAKI, CITIZEN WOLF