Style and Sustainability – Janice Breen Burns for The Age

Great article by Janice Breen Burns, fashion Editor at The Age wrangling with the concept of Sustainable Fashion, where she mentions my research. I just re-posted the parts relating to my work, but you can read the entire piece online over at Life and Style.  And, no I have not defected to RMIT, I’m still at good old Uni Melb.

Georgia McCorkill’s Red Carpet Project

If fashion’s eco-warriors had their way, we’d all be wearing our environmentally aware hearts on our organic-fibre, ethically made sleeves. But in between hankering for the latest fad and worrying about its ugly carbon footprint, the conscientious consumer wonders why going green costs the earth.

So, you carry your frock home in its chic, recycled, biodegradable, reusable shopping bag and now, says Tullia Jack, a master’s degree candidate at RMIT’s fashion school, the lion’s share of its negative impact on the planet is up to you.

“It’s in that ‘use phase’ of wearing, particularly washing and drying, that 80per cent of garments’ water use, energy use  and carbon emissions have the most impact,” Jack says.

Recently, for her research of sustainable fashion, Jack mustered 30 people to wear jeans donated by the ethical local brand, Nobody, daily for three months without washing them and guess what? “The jeans didn’t look filthy, they didn’t smell,” she says. If up to 80per cent of fashion’s negative environmental impact could be shrunk by  choices such as laundering less, in cold water, line drying   and avoiding ironing and dry-cleaning, why wouldn’t we?