The African fashion week question. Does visibility translate into value?
Do fashion weeks sufficiently serve the designers, artisans and creative workers who power Africa’s fashion ecosystem? We spoke to the experts.
Tag: Sustainable Development
Wool, land and people of Morocco
These photos by Pierre Girardin show how craft, climate, and community are inseparable
Could the hidden chemicals in clothes be affecting your health?
Toxic chemicals are used and released all along the fashion supply chain from the production of the raw materials to the finishing of garments. These are enormous challenges to sustainability and to human and planetary wellbeing. The toxic chemicals found...
Here is what nature can teach us about circular design
We often hear the maxim that form should follow function. This equation is powerful because it prioritises the needs of people and highlights design as a tool to make our lives easier, safer, and more exciting. But by putting users...
POLO collaborates with Kenyan artisans to produce a limited-edition designer bag
Sustainable fashion isn’t about seeking out one solve-all solution to the industry’s harmful ways. In reality, it’s about nurturing localised fashion ecosystems that include a multitude of sustainable fashion designers, organisations, artisans, and changemakers. This is exactly the ethos of...
Earthshot prize: five winners that will help solve major environmental problems
Climate change is one of the greatest threats ever to face humanity. With mounting storms, fires, floods and droughts and the annual disappointment of international negotiations, it’s easy to despair about how bad the future climate will be. But exciting...
Long read: Renée Neblett on why we need an African renaissance in fashion
Social activist and founder of Kokrobitey Institute in Ghana, Renée Neblett delivered the keynote address at the fourth edition of theTwyg Sustainable Fashion Awards on 17 November 2022. She addressed a room of designers, makers, fashion visionaries and changemakers who...
World Circular Economy Forum 2022 will focus on African innovation
The World Circular Economy Forum 2022 will be hosted on the African continent between 6 – 8 December. It is focused on addressing the effects of climate change and on solutions in an African context. Despite having a negligible contribution...
PETCO Awards 2022 celebrates South Africa’s everyday environmental heroes
In a world where overproduction and overconsumption are normalised, waste has become a social and environmental concern. One of challenges is the lack of landfill capacity in South Africa. GreenCape’s latest study found that 22 out of 25 of the municipalities...
Ask Emma: Why does COP27 matter to South Africa? And what does it mean for fashion?
COP27 is the much shorter, and catchier, name for the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), also known as the United Nations Climate Change Conference. Since 2005 and 2016, respectively, the...
Q&A: Sekayi Mwila Fundafunda crafts stories about “ourselves, about Africa”
Based in Lusaka, Zambia, Sekayi Mwila Fundafunda works as a sustainable fashion and innovation management professional. She is also the co-founder and creative director of MaFashio Co. a collective that provides content creation and space for exploring the intersection of fashion...
Q&A: Teju Adisa-Farrar on using indigenous practices to shape the future
Based in the United States, Teju is an environmental equity consultant, speaker, and creator and host of the Black Material Geographies podcast. Teju’s lens includes sustainable fibre and fashion systems, urban ecologies, nature, history, activism, and art. She supports people, collectives,...
New report offers advice on how to green the South African clothing and textile industry
How does South Africa’s fashion industry become climate-compatible and sustainable? Commissioned by government, a new report titled Designing Climate Compatible Industrial Strategies for South Africa: The Textiles Value Chain explores the environmental impacts of the textiles manufacturing sector both globally...
Q&A: Madhu Vaishnav teaches slow fashion skills to change women’s lives in India
Slow fashion is a lifeline for women in the rural village of Bhikamkor in Rajasthan, India. Founded by Madhu Vaishnav in 2015, Saheli Women works with 75 skilled women who embroider and dye fabric and soon weaving textiles. They bring...
A three-year review of the clothing Master Plan
There was once a thriving local textile production industry in South Africa employing thousands of people, a country which now needs radical job creation. The three-year-old Retail, Clothing, Textile, Footwear, and Leather (R-CTFL) Master Plan outlines a vision for how...