Fashion Bleak?
In the spirit of New York Fashion Week, I wanted to discuss the hot-button, controversial topic of the runway fashion show and fashion week in general. With over 50 shows happening throughout this week, the fashion industry and its accompanying enthusiasts do no less than completely take over New York City (Browchuk, 2020). From near and far, fashion lovers come to view the Fall 2020 collections from the industry’s most respected designers. While fashion week is an exciting and entertaining week of events, the environmental impact it leaves behind is no matter for celebration.
“Events are temporary, but the waste you leave behind is not.”
Despite the fact that fashion week has been around in some form since the 1940s, no one really knows, or has ever even questioned, the environmental impact of fashion week and the runway show (Milliner-Waddell, 2017). The dominating groups that organize fashion week in London, New York, Milan and Paris – the British Fashion Council (BFC), the Council of Fashion Designers of America, Camera Nazionale della Moda Italiana and La Fédération de la haute couture et de la Mode respectively – don’t actually collect any data on the environmental impact of the shows (Kent, 2019). But when you really think about it, the impact is hard to miss. Considering the international flights needed and the hired cars used, the temporary show sets constructed, the massive amount of goody bags with disposable samples given out, the thousands of plastic champagne flutes for all the celebrating and not to mention, the clothes themselves, oftentimes transported in plastic hanging bags, there is no doubt that fashion week is leaving its lasting mark on the environment.
Khaite’s Fall 2019 show.
While the fashion industry has turned a blind eye to its environmental impact for quite some time, the current social environment is more than ready to rip off the veil and demand both answers and measurable change. Environmental group Extinction Rebellion has led the resistance against fashion week, taking a substantial step by writing to the British Fashion Council and staging protests at previous fashion weeks (Siegle, 2019). In February 2019, “the group formed a human blockade around venues to highlight the excessive carbon footprint of the industry and to force the BFC to declare a climate emergency” (para. 3). Despite this pushback, many fashion enthusiasts argue that cancelling fashion week is too extreme a response. I mean, think about it, not only is fashion week a platform from which young, unknown designers can launch their careers, it’s also a hugely successful financial asset. According to the BFC, fashion week generates more than 41 billion dollars in cash flow, so it’d also be crazy not to see the value in that.
Extinction Rebellion protestors outside headquarters at London Fashion Week 2019.
While I definitely don’t think fashion week will be cancelled any time soon, I do think it’s time to consider some other options to the one in use now. For example, it may be time to consider a virtual fashion week – one that is done entirely online or through virtual reality. Fashion is intended to be a voice – “a cultural signifier of our times” – and if the industry is going to continue to claim that title, then I think it’s time to reevaluate fashion week (Farra, 2019, para. 10).
Bye for now,
McGee