29 Nov Vogue Business – Fashion Futures: The Important Thread of Collectivism 

On Tuesday 28^th November, Thami and Zoe from the United Repair Centre and Gee and Leah from Fashion-Enter Ltd, spent the afternoon and early evening at the Vogue Business – Fashion Futures event at the Design Museum in London.

The event showcased a beautiful autumnal gallery of start-ups that are working in line with circular fashion, one of which was the United Repair Centre in partnership with Fashion-Enter Ltd and Patagonia. 

The day was full of enlightening panel talks discussing climate urgency, the goals that are in place and the huge modern day movement towards working in roles with a purpose. It was inspiring to see the holistic yet activist approach from all the panellists when discussing the responsibility that we all have in our relationship towards what we wear on our bodies.  

Over recent years fast fashion has taken over the industry and we have lost touch with the valuable qualities that go into a garment, and this loss of touch means we tend to throw away clothes with less of a conscience, or any effort towards repairs or recycling. The truth is we are detached from the true end of life cycle – which is landfill. What we can’t see won’t hurt us…but in fact it is hurting so many other people and the land where they live. 

Liz Ricketts and Douina Wone spoke on this topic as co-founders of The Or foundation, a not-for-profit Ghanian based company. It was empowering to hear women stand up to well known fast fashion brands to call them out about their overproduction and unethical supply chains and to hear about their journey to fight environmental justice.

The creative director for Chloe – Gabriella Hearst, spoke about how she transformed the brand by working with sustainable materials and how she focused on bestsellers, which may be retailed at a lower price but they have the most impact due to quantities and repeat orders. She spoke about the importance of staying true to your vision and your end goal and not to fall into the trap of money and investors. 

There were investors touching on the topic of manufactures having larger margins instead of pricing per piece and how this would help control the overproduction and move back, in time, from volume to value.

Leah said: “Circular fashion is needed now more than ever and we can’t keep ignoring this fact, I’m so grateful to be a part of the United Repair Centre and an ethical UK based manufacturer that is growing rapidly in the heart of London. Overproduction needs to stop and throw away fashion and textile waste needs to end, we can only stop this together.”

There was a lot of interest in the United Repair Centre and its business model now operating at Fashion-Enter Ltd in London as well as its established HQ in Amsterdam. Thami, Zoe and Gee were kept busy with queries and networking and the event provided a fantastic exchange of initiatives that work for the better of the industry.