The Centre for Sustainable Fashion launches

The London College of Fashion has launched the very first Centre for Sustainable Fashion headed by Dilys Williams with Caryn Franklin as an ambassador and announced its first conference in October 2008.

There are plans to launch a resource-based website which is aimed at helping everyone from designers to consumers access information about ethical suppliers, fabrics and production. "It's not exclusive in any way" explains Dilys Williams whose work with Katharine Hamnett and Stella McCartney has given her experience at the coal face of ethical fashion. "The whole idea is to be available to everybody."

The Centre is based at the London College of Fashion in John Prince's Street W1 and will be working with organisations and industry to help promote sustainable fashion from encouraging debate, providing training to those working in the industry and support for students and emerging designers. Currently, 90% of clothes bought in the UK are not made here. "We need to look at our behaviour - it's not all about the buzz a consumer gets when they make a purchase something, we must look at the true implications of what we buy" says Dilys. Research shows that fashion consumers are increasingly demanding transparency from retailers and want to know what conditions garments are made in. Alongside offering information to all, the Centre will also offer accredited short courses aimed at helping those working in the fashion industry address issues of sustainability.

On April 25 Dilys will be chairing 'Fashion Evolution', a debate being held in Dublin aimed at bringing together key people in the Irish fashion industry to discuss whether "fashion can bring about a long-term lifecycle change". The open approach of the Centre means that they are genuinely interested in what everyone with an interest in fashion has to say about sustainability, so get in touch if you have anything to contribute.

Words & Photo: Marian Buckley

http://www.fashion.arts.ac.uk/csf