News / Fashion
Sustainable Fashion Week returns for 2023
In 2022, models glided down the ornate hall of the Mount Without dressed in golden fabrics, extravagant headpieces and 3D technicolour florals.
Everything at this fashion show was second hand – made and styled over the weekend for the runway, in the hopes of demonstrating how secondhand fashion could be upcycled, revived and trendy-fied.
Sustainable Fashion Week, which takes place from September 25 to October 8 in Bristol this year, is the only fashion week of its kind, bringing Bristol and the rest of the country together to take creative action and change the fashion system.
is needed now More than ever
Last year’s runway took place in the ornate Mount Without – photo: Sustainable Fashion Week/Sophie Saint
Currently, fashion contributes five per cent of total global greenhouse emissions, and this is projected to grow to 25 per cent by 2050.
Fashion is a highly extractive industry in terms of water, land and labour, and its production and fashion communication is driving high carbon lifestyles and ultimately climate change.
Sustainable Fashion Week, which began in Bristol, works closely with organisations in different regions to change this, through inspiring, upskilling and empowering people to take action and boldly demand a fashion industry that is clean, green and fair.
This year’s theme is the ‘Rewear Revolution’. Events include repairs for sequin and beaded garments, introductions to embroidery, visible mending and applique patches, kids t-shirt upcycling and a special exhibition called ‘Voices from Fashion Factories’.
Visitors will also get the chance to swap and thrift second hand clothes – photo: Sustainable Fashion Week/Swopz Shop 2
The week-long program launches with the much-anticipated runway show, which will see models gracing the catwalk in “revolutionary style”, “rebelling against fast fashion and the cult of the new”.
Discussing what Sustainable Fashion Week is all about, the event’s founder, Amelia Twine said: “At SFW we see a sustainable fashion system as one that is low-impact, is based on a culture of exchange, and is fuelled by collective action.
“We want to see new models of fashion continue to emerge – where we swap and share clothing, where we keep garments out of landfill and in circulation, where we mend our clothing until it is worn out, where we reuse and repurpose existing textiles and where we stay acutely connected to how new clothing is produced.
Sustainable Fashion Week will take over Sparks in Broadmead from Monday, September 25 to Sunday, October 8.
Main photo: Sustainable Fashion Week
Read next:
- See the catwalk from Bristol’s sustainable fashion show
- ‘Repair is an act of protest against consumerism and fast fashion’
- Sustainability and creative hub opens within former M&S
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