Welcome to
Fabric of Change is a project to raise awareness about the negative impacts of fast fashion, but not only that. We want to provide a space to envision what sustainable fashion could look like and how we can transition to an industry that is more sustainable, healthier, and better, both for people and the planet. If not now, when? Here, you'll find tips, guides, testimonies and more to collectively imagine what that new industry can look like in the Irish context.
Fabric of Change is organised around three chapters: Learn, Get Started and Imagine. You can browse each of these sections and their categories. You'll find many articles like this one, which should help you understand the industry better, as well as identify practical actions you can take to start your journey towards more sustainable habits. While you're at it discover what the future industry could look like in Ireland.
Our three chapters - Learn, Get Started and Imagine - will guide you. In Learn, we debunk the myths surrounding today's fashion industry, while Get Started will help us to make sense of this complicated landscape, dominated by fast fashion. Finally, Imagine adresses the deeper issues in the system and what needs to change.
The production of clothing requires the input of natural resources, energy and labour. The current industry, dominated by fast fashion brands, has attempted to hide the major impacts that their practices are having on people and environments across the globe. In recent years, the ultimately unsustainable character of this polluting and destructive industry has been documented and exposed for all to see.
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The first stage in our clothing lifecycle is the making of fabrics. From synthetic to natural fibres, their production has an impact
Retail is the cornerstone of this Industry, based on overproduction and overconsumption.
The manufacturing of our clothes is one of the most polluting stages, which is often coupled with terrible social issues.
The use phase is often overlooked in its impact on the overall footprint of garments. Yet, its influenced by the way we care and keep or not
Understanding and linking our own clothing with its impacts on people and the planet. The many intricacies of today's indsutry can feel overwhelming. Although tere are so many things that you can already do to start your sustainable fashion journey. This section will gives you tools and advice to be more conscious in your everyday consumption and supports a new relationship to clothing. You can already embody the change you want to see, alongside us.
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Changing is not always that easy. Here are some steps to engage with sustainable fashion more easily.
Caring for our clothes to mitigate and extend the use phase is a crucial action that we can all learn and get better at
With only 1% of clothes being recycled worldwide, it can be tricky to find the right way of disposing of our clothes ethically.
As consumers one of our action lies in the choice of what we buy and decide to valorise.
Our actions and attitudes towards clothing are crucial to mitigate the impact of our own consumption. Although it will not be enough. The industry and the people in it need to fundamentally change their perspective from a profit and growth driven focus to a circular and sufficient model that doesn't rely on consumption. We need to shift our focus towards sustainable fashion. In this section, we attempt to provide thoughts and example of what the sector could look like without fast fashion.
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The era of unregulated fashion is ending. New rules will effect all players. A great advocacy work will be needed in coming years.
A lot has to be done to change the industry. Yet, many Irish actors are already working hard to embody that change. Meet some of them here.
To see emerge a new industry, we need tools to rethink it and change our common narrative around clothing and our relationship to it.
These are elements that industry leaders and decision makers need to work on to enable that Change
