Versatility is a great path to a more ethical fashion industry

Yesterday I attended a great short course at RMIT Fashion School, Sustainable Fashion Restyling, led by the wonderful Nina Gbor. Nina and I have a number of passions in common; self expression through clothing, sustainable fashion and the empowerment of women to benefit communities and the world more generally. So it was really interesting to me to hear Nina’s take on these topics.

As Nina explained, 80% of fast fashion is made by women, and as fierce price wars and consumer expectations have pushed the prices of clothing down to barely covering the manufacturing cost, the lives of garment manufacturers have become akin to slavery as they are required to make more garments for less pay. This needs to stop.

One way we can do this is to buy fewer ‘single outfit’ pieces while becoming more creative with the pieces we have and thinking more about the versatility of future purchases. To encourage us to think down this path, Nina set us a challenge. Initially we were asked to bring along 15 pieces of clothing plus a collection of accessories. We each spread our pieces out.

We then paired up and were tasked with styling our partner for a corporate look, for a formal event and to do a casual look but the challenge was to use one base piece (of our own choosing) throughout the exercise. Excitingly, we could use any piece of clothing in the room that others had spread out for the exercise!

Below is my lovely model, Hayley in my creations; corporate, formal event and two casual outfits. And can you see my base piece? It’s the jacket.

Thanks to Nina and RMIT for a fun and informative session!