Green Thinking: Fashion

The fast fashion industry stands accused of depleting natural resources, creating vast carbon emissions and producing endless garments destined for landfill. So, what can be done? Researchers across creative and scientific disciplines have been looking at how the fashion industry can cut waste, recycle, consume less – and, critically, change our attitudes to what we wear. Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough talks to Professor Jane Harris and Professor Simon McQueen Mason about how we can change clothes production and curb our shopping habits.

Professor Jane Harris is Director of Research and Innovation (Stratford) and Professor of Digital Design and Innovation at the University of the Arts London. She has over 25 years’ experience in transdisciplinary research, with a background in textile design and extensive experience of computer graphic imaging. Through her research, Professor Harris has devised novel approaches to the digital representation of dress and textiles. She is also Director of the Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT), a five-year industry-led project, funded by the Industrial Strategy through the Arts and Humanities Research Council and part of the Creative Industries Cluster Programme. The project, which delivers sustainable innovation within the entire fashion and textile supply chain, aims to create a new business culture that supports fashion, textiles and technology businesses of all sizes to use R&D to grow. Its focus on sustainability centres around sustainable design and business practice, material usage, and new methods of manufacturing. You can read more about the project here: https://bftt.org.uk/ and its recent report co-authored by here: https://bftt.org.uk/publications/

Professor Simon McQueen-Mason is Chair in Materials Biology at the University of York. His research encompasses various aspects of plant cell wall biology. He is a member of the UKRI-funded Textiles Circularity Centre (Royal College of Art, RCA) and its Materials Circularity Research Strand where his work plays a critical role in helping to establish new processes for using biotechnology to convert household waste and used textiles into new, functional and regenerative textiles designed for circularity. His research makes use of waste cellulose to create textile fibres, which are sent from the University of York to the University of Cranfield where they are spun to make new textiles. These textiles are then sent to the Royal College of Art for the students to design and make new clothing with. You can read more about McQueen Mason’s work around sustainable fashion here: https://www.plasticexpert.co.uk/york-biologists-discover-method-of-turning-waste-into-fashion/ and his latest project, funded by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and here: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=BB%2FT017023%2F1#/tabOverview You can also read more about the Textiles Circularity Centre here: https://www.rca.ac.uk/research-innovation/research-centres/materials-science-research-centre/textiles-circularity-centre/ and find out more about the five UKRI-funded circular economy research centres here: https://www.ukri.org/news/circular-economy-centres-to-drive-uk-to-a-sustainable-future/

Dr Eleanor Rosamund Barraclough is a New Generation Thinker based at the University of Durham.

You can find a new podcast series Green Thinking: 26 episodes 26 minutes long in the run up to COP26 made in partnership with the Arts and Humanities Research Council, part of UKRI, exploring the latest research and ideas around understanding and tackling the climate and nature emergency. New Generation Thinkers Des Fitzgerald and Eleanor Barraclough will be in conversation with researchers on a wide-range of subjects from cryptocurrencies and finance to eco poetry and fast fashion.

The podcasts are all available from the Arts & Ideas podcast feed - and collected on the Free Thinking website under Green Thinking where you can also find programmes on festivals, rivers, eco-criticism and the weather. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07zg0r2

For more information about the research the AHRC’s supports around climate change and the natural world you can visit: https://www.ukri.org/our-work/responding-to-climate-change/ or follow @ahrcpress on twitter. To join the discussion about the research covered in this podcast and the series please use the hashtag #GreenThinkingPodcast.

Producer: Ruth Watts