Why Is Fashion Week In Need Of A Makeover?

54 fashion shows, 32000 mile mileage, 20000 espresso and 5000 Plo Seck sparkling wine. These are one of the statistics released by the British Fashion Association last September London Fashion week to emphasize the vitality of fashion week. But these figures also illustrate another problem: as regulators and consumers pay more and more attention to environmental protection, the four fashion week is lavish and luxurious.

"The fashion month is a party," says Orsola de Castro, co-founder and creative director of Fashion Revolution, a non-profit group. "Orsola is a party." It aims to promote the development of a more ethical and sustainable fashion industry. "The party is very happy, but now it has lost its charm."

The attendees of fashion week will have an impact on the environment by taking international flights and renting cars. In addition, the temporary display facilities usually use for only a few hours and then are sent directly to the landfill. The gift bags are full of disposable free samples. Of course, don't forget the fashion itself. They use plastic packaging in transit.

Nick Marks, founder and managing director of Ecobooth, a sustainable production company, said: "activity is only temporary, but the trash you left behind is not."

It is difficult to accurately estimate how serious the impact of fashion week has on the environment. The organizers of the fashion week in London, New York, Milan and Paris, namely the British Fashion Association, the American Fashion Designers Association, the Italy National Fashion Association and the French Advanced Fashion and Fashion Association, do not collect data on garbage generated by fashion shows, nor have they analyzed the climate impact on fashion week.

All four agencies said sustainability is the key agenda and they are taking measures to promote change. The British Fashion Association has said that all suppliers have been audited to ensure that the association uses the most sustainable products and has been renting and reusing all kinds of materials as far as possible. In September 2019, the association will introduce designers focusing on Positive Fashion (Designer Exhibition) on the London Fashion Week designer exhibition and has incorporated sustainability into the designer support program.

Pascal Morand, executive director of the French fashion and Fashion Association, said that its Commission on sustainable development is working with members to establish a common mechanism to help brands organize fashion shows. In Italy, the National Fashion Association issued a declaration on sustainable development in 2012, focusing on major social and environmental issues in the fashion industry. During the Milan fashion week, the chamber of Commerce adopted recycled materials, while avoiding the use of plastic in all its activities and all locations. The American fashion designers association has developed a comprehensive guide and kit for sustainable development. One of the themes is fashion week. Several agencies also pointed out that the real release products and production show were fashion brands rather than event organizers.

Over the years, fashion circles rarely consider the impact of fashion week on the environment. But in view of the fact that some major brands and their parent companies have published sustainable development plans, luxury and luxury shows are common, and more and more people are starting boycott. In June of this year, Saint Laurent held a series of men's wear show on a secret beach in Malibu, California. It destroyed local environment and caused anger among local residents and officials. It also attracted media attention from organizers. Louis, Vuitton, Dior and Chanel are famous for their gorgeous fashion shows.

Louis Vuitton and Dior, which belong to LVMH, have set guidelines for a few years ago to help their luxury brands organize activities in a more sustainable manner. Chanel said the company is regenerating, recycling, reusing and / or reusing materials used in fashion shows as much as possible, and says that they will not repeat the practice of transporting icebergs from Sweden to Paris's The Grand Palace in 2010. A spokesman for the brand said: "given the changing times, we are unlikely to do so today."

Meanwhile, in London Fashion Week, Burberry is one of the few brands that will host large fashion shows. The Extinction Rebellion called on the British Fashion Association to cancel the London Fashion Week and plan to organize a series of protests to disrupt the fashion week in September.

Sara Arnold, the activist of the anti extinction group, is also the founder of Higher Studio, the fashion rental website. She said: "we regard the major fashion week as the goal, because they are cultural Highlands, and culture should shoulder the responsibility. We must understand that if everyone is extravagant and wasteful, it means that we have not taken this problem seriously. "

Burberry said the company has been assessing the impact of the upcoming fashion show on the environment. At present, the company is still improving many measures, including making up for the carbon emission impact of models and guests coming to London.

To be sure, the environmental impact of fashion week actually accounts for only a small part of the overall impact of the industry. So far, the main reason for the destruction of the environment in the fashion industry is the production process of the supply chain, and the emissions of carbon and toxic chemicals are rarely handled properly.

But fashion week is the most noticeable (especially the four fashion week in New York, London, Milan and Paris), because they are the most important fashion events of the year. With the rise of social media, they are increasingly becoming a direct way of dialogue between brands and consumers. But so far, brand sustainability and climate issues, which are becoming more and more keen on discussing long-term goals, are rarely seen in fashion week.

But from a sustainable perspective, fashion week shows and activities are relatively easy targets for opponents to attack. Although its impact on the environment is less than the harm caused by production, even a small fashion show produces quite a lot of waste.

Emerging fashion week is more aware in this regard. The practice of Stockholm is more extreme than that of the fashion week. Copenhagen is working hard to deal with this challenge. The organizers have introduced a number of initiatives, including prohibiting the use of disposable plastic bottles in Fashion Week activities, making up for the carbon emissions generated by foreign guests travel, and making up for the carbon emissions generated by their direct activities in the areas of catering, logistics, promotion and manufacturing. Later this year, the organizers will introduce a three year plan to set up minimum sustainability standards for brands that want to hold a fashion show in Denmark. This is a delicate trade-off.

Cecilie Thorsmark, chief executive of Copenhagen fashion week, admitted: "these goals are very ambitious." But if we set our goals too high, the industry may not be able to participate. Once the industry is unable to participate, we will not have any impact. "

In recent years, Shanghai fashion week has become the largest order season in Asia, but it has been promoting sustainable development. "We have always been concerned about the future development of this industry, and do not want to regard environmental protection as a concept and expectation," Lv Xiaolei, Deputy Secretary General of Shanghai Fashion Week Organizing Committee, told BoF.

In the past three years, every week in Shanghai fashion week, sustainable forums and exhibitions will be held around the topic of "sustainable development" and "green" in the fashion industry to arouse public concern and Discussion on the sustainable development of fashion. Fashion week has reached long-term cooperation with Yehyehyeh, founded by Kai Yun group and senior media man Ye Xiaowei. It has conducted a long-term case study on the front-end fabrics, middle end manufacturing and terminal consumption of fashion industry, as well as the promotion of the transformation of the old clothes of the old clothes bank, and the display of the fashion ring products.

As people's awareness of environmental protection continues to grow, brands are taking steps to conduct fashion shows in a more responsible manner. A slight but crucial change is that nowadays few brands are still sending paper invitations, which are expensive and wasteful habits left over before the popularity of the Internet.

LVMH's guidelines include recommending that companies avoid air cargo and equipment and require them to use energy-efficient LED lights. The company should give priority to the use of recycled materials as decoration products, and stipulate that the service life of products should be considered in the design stage to ensure that they can be reused or recycled. The appendix also lists a series of seasonal fruits and vegetables for entertainment.

This guide is not mandatory, but there are many outstanding examples showing that some brands are implementing it. For example, Louis Vuitton recently exhibited the latest men's wear series in Place Dauphine, Paris, and imitated the scene of the cafe. The company said the whole activity was "almost zero waste". All the elements of the show will be reused, including a bright orange LV inflatable castle, sold to the next family. Many items were found at the scene.

Some victories were easy but unexpected. When assessing the impact of the Copenhagen fashion week on the environment, it was found that in addition to the need for international flights, second of the total carbon emissions were 100 T-shirts distributed to staff every quarter. The organizers plan to produce T-shirts that do not have time to identify in the future, so that they can be recycled after the fashion week. "It's very inspiring," Thorsmark said. "This shows how much the fashion industry has to do with the environment."

Norway brand Holzweiler, who hosted the show in Copenhagen fashion week, reused the large tent it used last summer and turned it into a shopping bag. In August this year, the brand did not build the show, but used energy-saving lamps to create space and atmosphere. It also provides steel water bottles and bamboo coffee cups for all backstage staff and models. Susanne Holzweiler, creative director, said the garbage generated by the whole activity was only 1 meters long.

Lv Xiaolei said that behind the external voice, Shanghai fashion week itself is practicing the concept of sustainability and environmental protection. The "Feng Box" business launched by SF EXPRESS, one of the official partners of our fashion week, is made of environmentally sustainable materials that can be used repeatedly and repeatedly. Each time you use it, you can save the packaging materials such as cartons and tapes that you need, "she said.

What is more worth mentioning is that as an organizer, every season's new heaven and earth show will start from the perspective of "sustainable" thinking in terms of structural design and material utilization, and make production materials as many times as possible, so as to avoid the extravagance and waste of materials. Shanghai fashion week official journal Handbook and other homemade publications will also use environmentally-friendly paper and label recyclable markings, and design environmentally friendly bags with the main visual image.

In the 2020 spring and Summer Exhibition to be held in October this year, the Shanghai fashion week also used "garbage sorting" as an important agenda. It will still guide the industry to discuss the issues of "green" and "sustainable development". Lv Xiaolei revealed that this season Kai Yun group will hold a forum on "innovation and change and sustainable fashion" in Shanghai, and ye Xiao Wei will also hold a forum for "good will".

But the pace of change has been slow and uneven. Some brands and production companies still like to use brand-new items because it is cheaper and simpler. In the era of increasing environmental awareness, whether this business attitude can be sustained is a challenge for the fashion industry.

De Castro, "fashion innovation" organization, said: "I will no longer regard fashion week as a means of extravagance and waste. We need to question everything, because the system we are in is harmful.

Lv Xiaolei also said: "we believe that with the expansion of the influence of the fashion week in Shanghai, we have the ability and responsibility to bring these valuable and meaningful ideas through the platform of fashion week to gather and promote, to lead more consumers, and to make the idea possible."

Stakeholder: LVMH is one of the investors of BoF Fashion Business Review and has a minority stake in BoF. All investors have signed shareholder documents to ensure that BoF has a complete independent acquisition right.