Students from the University of West London at a sustainable fashion event at the Students' Union.
Students from the University of West London at a sustainable fashion event at the Students' Union.

Green threads – Fashion students run sustainable fashion event

Intro

Level 6 BA (Hons) Fashion Industry: Buying and Management and BA (Hons) Fashion Industry: Promotion and Imaging students from the London School of Film Media and Design (LSFMD) recently took over Freddie’s and Coffee Union for a sustainable fashion event. 

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Students set out to produce a series of solutions in response to answering the following challenge: 

How can UWL students be educated on the negative impacts of fast fashion and encouraged to engage more with responsible consumption, and the fashion circular economy, in a fun and exciting manner? 

To this end, the students have formed the UWL Fashion Society and used this to collaborate with charity second-hand fashion retailer Traid UK, and Ealing Repair Café, who encourage people to repair or alter their clothes rather than discard them. 

Reps from Traid speaking at a sustainable fashion event at the University of West London. Two women are standing in front of a presentation that reads: "The problem with fashion (and what we're doing to fix it)

Head of Marketing and Communications at Traid Sophie Calderbank gave an informative talk highlighting the huge textile and clothing waste issues in the fashion industry and why we should all buy second-hand. Following this was a Q&A led by the students. 

Ealing Repair Café ran a workshop showing students creative ways to breathe new life into their old clothes, rather than discarding them. 

Mary Horesh of Ealing Repair Café commented, 

It was lovely to see the enthusiasm of the students – that people are starting to feel concerned about their clothes and where they come from. 

With the growth of sustainable fashion and the projects I have been involved in, I am hoping there will be more careers for students in sustainable fashion and repair.” 

Students from the University of West London at a sustainable fashion event at the Students' Union.

The students also ran a Clothes Swap and liaised with the BA (Hons) Fashion and Textiles course to showcase a range of upcycled denim garments created by Level 5 students. 

Finally, students were able to close the loop and create a circular event by having Traid collect all leftover garments from the Clothes Swap for recycling. 

Joint Course Leader for BA (Hons) Fashion Industry Heather Dupay, who worked with the students on the project, said: 

This was a fantastic experience for the students. It was great to see them working as a team to professionally plan, promote, and run the event. We hope they can use the newly formed Fashion Society to organise more creative events. 

Thank you to the SU for their amazing support in helping to facilitate this, and both Traid and Ealing Repair Cafe for their involvement.” 

Student Rebekah Daniels commented, 

The event was a great opportunity for us to raise awareness about the impacts of fast fashion, introduce the newly formed Fashion Society and get students interested in sustainable fashion.” 

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