Policies and initiatives to help save the Australian fashion industry for future generations

We recently had Joanna visit our office. Joanna received the Young Creator of the Year Award for demonstrating strong creativity and leadership through her self-initiated school club, Passion for Fashion Fridays. She mentors younger students in upcycling textiles into functional and stylish art pieces. Her commitment to sustainability and community engagement underpins her long-term goal of opening a business that teaches others to repurpose clothing into meaningful, eco-friendly creations.

Joanna brought an terrific upcycled art piece she made with fishes made from a mix of discarded textiles. It’s inspiring to see Joanna’s hard work, talent and her dreams for the future. She could potentially make a real impact in textiles circularity. She is currently deciding which tertiary institution to further develop her skills in hope of a successful career in her future.

I had to caution her about the lack of sufficient jobs in Australian textiles industry. Every week I mentor a couple of people who is either a young person or adult wanting to have a career in the sustainable fashion space. Fashion is one of the top career choices for teenagers and young people in general. Sadly, the lack of sufficient and varied career opportunities is a real bug bear.

Many Australian clothing brands have had to close their doors in the last few years. I’m still in the process of ascertaining a more precise number but it’s a lot. Ultra-fast fashion and conventional fast fashion have played a big role in some of this but they’re not the only reason. We need This is one of the reasons I’ve been strongly advocating for reform in the industry. It’s the protection of Australian textiles businesses and also incubating the talent and dreams of young people.

The industry is currently worth $28 billion to the national economy and can potentially escalate to $38 billion dollars within a decade with the right reform and support from the federal government. This progress would mean not only more jobs but a broader array in the nature of jobs in the industry to accommodate young people like Joanna and others.

With over 300,000 tonnes of textiles discarded each year, we can invest in scaling reuse, repairs, mending, upcycling, repurposing, renting and recycling. As one of the wealthiest countries in the world, an investment into research and development towards recycling textiles could see all existing and innovations and scaling of all textile recycling capabilities in Australia. This would be a boost to the economy, even more jobs and keeping all the materials in the circularity loop which is important for the environment. Ultimately this will be a triple win for us.

Here are some of the existing government programs that can boost the textiles industry:

• The $900 million investment of the Albanese Labor Government into the new National Productivity Fund is part of an initial step towards “delivering broader ‘right to repair’ reforms – driving down repair costs, increasing business opportunities and reducing wastage by removing barriers to competition for repairs….”

• With Australia being one of the biggest consumers of clothing in the world per capita and one of the most wasteful, it’s fortunate that we also have the Recycling Modernisation Fund (RMF). This is a $200 million national initiative for the expansion of Australia’s capacity to sort, process and remanufacture glass, plastic, tyres, paper and cardboard. Textiles can be added to the RMF. The Albanese government is looking towards new and upgraded recycling infrastructure through the RMF.

• Other government programs that can support a textiles industry include the Future Made in Australia, which has $22.7 billion private sector investment over a 10-year period to help Australia build a stronger and more resilient economy.

• There’s also an Advanced Manufacturing program which is a $1.6 billion accelerator fund for to enable development of more complex domestic manufacturing industries using cutting-edge technologies and innovative processes to improve existing manufacturing operations and create new products. This could potentially suit 3-D printing initiatives, blockchain, textile software operations, chemical textile recycling and other areas.

• A new program designed to cater to the development of an Australian textiles industry with necessary investments and nuanced support can also be created by the government. However, we need to advocate for it, loudly and persistently. Think of all the young people like Joanna whose dreams depend on it.

Article by Nina Gbor

Curbing biodiversity loss in fashion's supply chain

Image: Chris Charles

‘Transforming the Fashion Sector to Drive Positive Outcomes to Drive Biodiversity, Climate and Oceans’ is a new initiative with $4 million in funding to cut biodiversity loss in the fashion supply chain. Biodiversity loss and climate change are two out of nine planetary boundaries. In a previous article, I wrote about how fashion impacts climate change and suggestions for collectively setting a net-zero trajectory. Fashion’s impact on biodiversity loss, however, has gotten less coverage than climate change.

The current state of biodiversity loss

Biodiversity loss according to Britannica is “a decrease in biodiversity within a species, an ecosystem, a given geographic area, or Earth as a whole.” Global biodiversity loss has recently been calculated to be 100 to 1000 times higher than how it should occur naturally (or by the pre-industrial revolution). And this extinction rate is accelerating. We’ve destroyed 83% of wild mammals and 50% of all plants with an average 68% decrease in population sizes of mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles and fish between 1970 and 2016. With about 200 to 2,000 extinctions estimated to be occurring each year, that comes to roughly 2 million extinctions. We are destroying the Earth’s biocapacity by at least 56% to fuel our 21st-century lifestyles driven by capitalism, overconsumption, over-exploitation of natural resources, climate change, pollution and land-use change. 30 - 50 % of existing species are projected to be extinct by the end of the century.

The threat to humanity

As the planet is facing its sixth mass extinction, biodiversity loss is one of the greatest risks facing humanity on earth. It’s impacting all life on the planet presently and will do so for millions of years into the future. In the pursuit of economic growth, colossal amounts of aquatic, terrestrial and marine ecosystems have been annihilated. Capitalist activities have wrecked the biodiversity that all life in water, in air and on land depend upon. In this sense, we’re being our own worst enemy.

Image: Europeana

Amongst other factors, biodiversity loss threatens food security. The services rendered to humanity by the ecosystems are undeniably valuable to the existence and wellbeing of human beings. Services such as water purification, carbon sequestration, crop pollination and flood protection. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has calculated the worth of the services provided by ecosystems in the world at $125-140 trillion (US dollars) per year. That’s more than one and a half times the size of global GDP! Immediate action is necessary to address the loss of the biodiversity that feeds the world and maintains the balance and harmony of life on the planet.  

Fashion is taking action

We’re well aware that fashion is one of the biggest culprits amongst industries that contribute to environmental damage and biodiversity loss. As the demand for clothing gets bigger, the impact on the earth’s raw materials and therefore biodiversity loss will also increase. On the current trajectory, the fashion industry is expected to use 35% more land for the production of fibre by the year 2030. This is an extra 115 million hectares that can be left alone to preserve biodiversity. The good news is that fashion is starting to address its role in biodiversity loss within its supply chains.

The Fashion Pact is an international coalition whose signatories represent about a third of the fashion industry by volume with 60 signatories representing over 200 brands. In 2020 The Pact committed to biodiversity restoration and protection. The plan is for the ‘Transforming the Fashion Sector to Drive Positive Outcomes to Drive Biodiversity, Climate and Oceans’ initiative to develop and provide guidance to The Pact on best practice for reducing deforestation, clean supply chain and better agricultural practices. The hope is that fashion will eventually curb biodiversity loss through regenerative approaches to agricultural supply chains and by reducing carbon emissions while improving the lives of producers.

The endless pursuit of material growth for overconsumption means constantly plundering the earth for raw materials to manufacture products to sell for financial gain. It has turned the worst parts of humanity into agents of destruction, threatening to eliminate the firm support given to us by the earth for our continual existence. Instead, we can allow nature and the ecosystems to remain natural and thereby flourish. The result? We will reap a joyful upbuilding of the planet that’s far healthier, balanced, harmonious and equitable for all species including humans.

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles

Vintage: a portal to fashion’s sustainable future

Over the years, I’ve become somewhat of an op shop (thrift store) aficionado with a deep love for vintage (clothing circa 1940s – 1960s) treasures like this grand pink ball gown. I started op shopping at age 15. The love for vintage happened in my childhood from watching style icons of the vintage era in classic films.

About 90% of my wardrobe is either vintage or preloved (secondhand). When I first started this journey, it wasn’t really cool to wear secondhand. People just thought you were either a hippy, poor or just freakin’ weird! It thrills me to know that vintage clothing is increasingly becoming more popular and it has had 46% growth in sales compared to 2017.

A league of its own

Each country in the global North has their figures but in Australia alone, over 501 million kg of unwanted clothes go into landfill each year! Another 94 million kg gets exported overseas but some of that also ends up in landfill, albeit on another continent. Why am I bringing this up? Because these figures include vintage clothes! I haven’t figured out the precise amount but it irks me nonetheless to even think of vintage being wasted like this. Vintage clothing is in a league of its own. Here’s why: vintage usually lasts at least 4 or 5 decades longer than most contemporary clothes. Secondly, if your wardrobe is blessed enough to be graced with quality vintage pieces, you possess a little piece of history that might hold clues for a sustainable fashion future. And finally, incorporating vintage pieces into your wardrobe is like style on steroids! Exhibit A: my pink ball gown. No, it’s not a costume even though I look like I’m on set of an 1800s period drama!  

Everyone can wear vintage

Vintage fashion is certainly not limited to ball gowns like mine and the ones you see on screen sirens like Elizabeth Taylor or Grace Kelly. You can find daily vintage-wear ties, scarves, shirts, dresses, pants, skirts, brooches, hats, etc. Each item brings its own special kind of magic. Some pieces give you all the ‘feels’ of the era they were made. Even though vintage can range from thousands of dollars in cost for luxury designer items, all the way down to merely just a few dollars in cost, the value of a vintage piece is not in the price. It’s in the magic of that piece. For instance, the way it can set your wardrobe ablaze with stylish inimitability and the power it has to turbocharge your serotonin levels when you get dressed.

Mainstreaming vintage

If you’ve been following me for any length of time, you’ll know that I abhor trends. Trends are short term and therefore fuel textile waste. And the implication with trends is that people are to wait for a celebrity or advert to dictate or bestow permission to wear something, whether or not that thing is right for you. That choice belongs solely to you and your intuition. So, instead of making vintage-wearing another trend, let’s make it part of our daily culture by giving ourselves the permission to wear it throughout life. Take back your personal power (if you haven’t already) and normalise the habit of incorporating vintage pieces into your wardrobe. The greater goal here is to for it to become an everyday thing for as long as humans are wearing clothes.

How to wear vintage

I’ve been pondering upon what it’ll take for vintage to become as ubiquitous as fast fashion with all age groups. Start with baby steps by incorporating one item at a time to mix with your more contemporary pieces. My ensemble below is an example. This white denim jacket, tan cross body bag and sneakers transform this dress from ball gown to more casual everyday wear. I literally wear this look to lunch, dinner or to hang out with friends. The next time you need something in your closet, try searching through online vintage stores, your local vintage shops, op shops or even save the dates of the next vintage markets in your area.

When we all rise to the challenge of #DailyVintageWearing, we’ll be heroes for preserving these treasures that hold the exquisite craftsmanship of artisans from past generations for the future generations to experience. And on some level, we’ll buffer the environmental burden created by clothing manufacture and textile landfill waste.

STYLING

Outfit sourced from:

Rose pink vintage ball gown: Op shop

Tan Belt: Noffs Op Shop

White denim jacket and tan cross body bag: Hand-me-downs

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles

Images by Najah Onn

A different kind of Christmas

I chuckled when I found this Grinch t-shirt at a clothes swap a couple of years ago. 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' is a culturally iconic story and popular children’s book I read as a kid. In the 2000 film adaptation with Jim Carrey, the Grinch’s home was bombarded with trash from the townspeople’s Christmas celebrations. For this and other reasons, the Grinch hated Christmas. So, he tried to stop the holiday by stealing people’s Christmas presents from their homes while they slept.  

I've never been a fan of the superfluous nature of the festive holiday period with its excessive overconsumption rituals that seem to get worse every year. Christmas has been reduced to the notion of excessive material consumption, excessive food waste, excessive packaging, decorations and presents that people don't need or probably don't even want. Most of it ends up in landfill. Australians for instance wasted an estimated $400 million on unwanted presents last Christmas! Some environmentalists even say that Christmas is the world’s greatest annual environmental disaster. Americans throw away 25% more trash during the holiday season, amounting to 25 million tons of garbage which is about 1 million extra tons per week based on data from Stanford University. And according to the OECD, about 54 million plates of food are thrown out in the UK every Christmas. Food waste and its supply chain is a major source of CO2 emissions. The IPCC report on Climate Change and Land stated that wasted and lost food is responsible for up to 10% of all global greenhouse gas emissions. This might be why my Grinch t-shirt resonates. The Grinch is in this way symbolic of disrupting the holiday overconsumption culture.   

It feels like the beautiful things about the holidays like family, culture, connection, community and the opportunity for rest and reflection have been corrupted. Now it’s all about consumerism and directing our efforts towards skyrocketing profits for big corporations. So, what if we redirected all of these resources towards making life liveable for people who are underprivileged or marginalised? What if, instead of going along with the old tradition of giving presents to someone who doesn't really need it, maybe the cost or the item/service can be donated to the people or organisations that work towards environmental regeneration?

I think the moral of the Grinch story was that after lamenting on the stolen presents, the townspeople realised they could have a happy Christmas without the excessive material stuff. We too can create a different kind of Christmas. During the super consumption period that goes from Black Friday through to the holidays and into the January sales, we buy and consume a lot of stuff in richer countries. It’s a good opportunity for low-income earners to afford necessary items and luxurious treats. It’s also a time to shift this modern trend of THE NEED TO BUY things we don’t need. We spend a big portion of our lives shopping and spending. This isn’t necessarily about being frugal. This is about filling our lives with purposeful activities that have a more lasting impact on our souls than just inanimate objects we pay for.

The holidays carry a different meaning for everyone, but I hope the end of this year is a time of positive introspection for all of us. A time we use wisely to do some self-love and self-care by alchemising the things within us that keep us from evolving to our highest selves. And shifting habits like unnecessary consumption that damage ecosystems and hurt the environment. And by doing random things like showing bundles of love and acts of kindness to the people that would never expect it from us both online and in-person.

The holidays done differently

If we choose to resist the status quo and #MakeChristmasGreatAgain, here are a few tips:

Personalise the holidays. It’s important to recognise that we don’t have to stick to doing the same thing we’ve been doing for decades or centuries. We can make brand new holiday traditions that hold personal meaning for you, family and friends. Ones that don’t have to rely on excessive use of things or products to make the holidays fun.

Giving – Have you noticed that people who have a lot, get given a lot too? Consider giving to people who really, actually need resources and things for their survival and personal growth. This is one way to tip the scales towards more balance and equality in society. Seek out people in need within your local community or even in parts of the global South to give to. Giving need not be something limited to the holidays. It can be all year round.

Quit holiday sales – Reducing overconsumption is about finding alternative habits to replace excessive shopping. Buy what you need, reuse, recycle and repair when you can. Place a higher value on experiences over things.

Photos by Madé Kosala

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles

Exposing fashion's Jedi mind trick

It was many years ago that I started working in ethical & sustainable fashion.

Today, I'm going back to basics. Back to my first and original eco styling messaging and ethos of getting off the fashion trendmill. It means personal style (individual preference, lifestyle) alone should be the premise for choosing our clothes and NOT TRENDS. The concept is psychological, environmental, and spiritual and also rooted in social justice, self-awareness and confidence.

This ensures you'll likely love, keep and wear your clothes for much longer. As opposed to following the wear once-disposable throwaway culture that has resulted in Aussies sending 6000 kg of textile waste to landfill every 10 minutes!

Invest in timeless, ethical, sustainable pieces that you know you'll wear for a very long time to come. Pieces that give you joy when you wear them.

Throughout our lives, fashion has taught us that we're not enough. And that we need to stay current with the latest trends. This brainwashing is the JEDI MIND TRICK that has grown and kept their profits super high for years. That’s because it keeps us in a hamster wheel loop of buying consistently to fill that void of not feeling enough. To get out of this loop, we need to step out of the fashion trendmill.

Meanwhile, fashion trends are the root cause of many of fashion's evils. They do nothing good for the consumer's self-esteem, body image and psychology. They fuel waste and overconsumption. The fast trend culture also influences the exploitation of garment workers. While many of us don't wear trends, the notion of constant consumption is a CULTURAL TREND we need to address.

This will require shifting our individual and collective psychology, relationship and behaviour around clothing consumption. It's not just about whether or not you have a lot of clothes. It’s about acquiring clothes with a specific plan of keeping and using them long term. And ultimately, how we will dispose of them at the end of their life cycle.

STYLING

The flower on this preloved skirt inspires love feelings. Inspired by its beauty and elegance, I paired it with plain black tops so that the focus remains on the hypnotic beauty of the flower.

To restyle an elegant skirt like this one into something more casual, I’d wear it with a t-shirt and a pair of sneakers like the ones below. I’d also wear less blingy jewellery or no jewellery at all.

Outfit sourced from:

Preloved black top - Salvos Op Shop (thrift store)

Preloved floral skirt - Marketplace

Red, vegan sneakers - Etiko

♥ Nina Gbor

Instagram: @eco.styles