Described as, ‘an afternoon of shared ideas and community conversations about sustainable style. with insights from makers, thinkers, and change-makers’, on Sunday afternoon I was both inspired and entertained by the Sustainable Fashion Forum at the Old Print Works, Balsall Heath.
Attendees at the Sustainable Fashion Forum – part of Birmingham hub of Sustainable Fashion Week
It was also an eye-opener in many ways, and featured more worthwhile content than could be contained by a single blog post, and so I will be posting an article on each section over the coming days.
First off was a talk by Eleanor Warr and Jane Thakoordin, on how crafting and remaking can promote self care, and drawing upon the our writing of Maddie Ballard, help us construct our identity and navigate our history. Unfortunately I missed the start of this talk, but I certainly picked up on the gentle, reflective vibe of the presentation, and indeed through out the afternoon we were encouraged to craft ourselves with the materials that had kindly been provided for us on our tables.
This chimed for me with a feature by Sarah Corbett I had seen that morning on BBC1’s Sunday Morning Live. Sarah explained how she had been inspired to become a craftivist through her Christian faith, but also by her sensitivity and introversion, requiring a different kind of approach to activism that focused on gentle creativity, rather than the strident fury that had left her feeling burnt out, and disillusioned. As an introvert myself I can certainly identify with this feeling – and appreciated this reminder of a different, kinder way of approaching activism.
Threads of Resilience – a film depicting ingenious indigenous approaches to western garment dumping in Ghana
Next was a showing of Threads of Resilience a documentary equally inspiring and shocking.
Shocking, because of the way in which Ghana’s own clothing industry, but also its environment, are undermined by the practice of western countries dumping second hand clothes in Ghana’s Kantamanto market.
Inspiring, because of the incredibly innovative ways that Ghanese entrepreneurs are responding to the situation.
Like elsewhere in the global south – see this troubling article in the Guardian about Panipat, in north India, known as the “castoff capital of the world” where waste recycling is making the workers sick – the Ghanese situation is part of the practice of Waste colonialism.
Yes, it turns out when we throw things ‘away’, or even recycle them, the ‘away’ is often another, usually poor country. This isn’t just in clothing, but also electronics and plastics.
In fact, the situation is worse even than that, owing to the cut-price cycle of post-colonial world clothing trade.
First, clothing is manufactured in places like India and Bangladesh, in the informal economy, for very low wages, at high environmental cost. (It takes around 1000 litres of water to make a pair of jeans, for example.) Then the clothes are transported to western countries, and often sold very cheaply to make a quick profit, requiring a very high turnover of new clothes. Then, after being worn a few times, the clothes are thrown away, or given to charity shops. Then, because charity shops have many more clothes than can be sold second hand (owing to condition, or sheer quantity) the clothes are passed on to waste traders and dumped back upon to poor countries.
If this seems shockingly wasteful and exploitative – that’s because it is.
Nonetheless, the Ghanese show great resilience and resourcefulness in the way they repurpose and recycle the bails of disposed of western clothes. For example Kofi an upcycling designer makes new clothes from the old and sells them successfully back to France. But there is a limit to how much this can be done – 40% ends up in landfill or littering Ghanese beaches. Watch the documentary to find out more.
Joy in Enough 