Perspectives Archives - The New Fashion Initiative

An Interview with Rob Hiyas: Deconstruction via Design

Could you tell us about your work in the fashion space, and your background in integrating sustainability into fashion? My design practice draws inspiration from reflections on socio-cultural constructs like gender and sexuality. My present work explores the intersection between gender and clothing in which I interrogate and cirque the construct and performativity of gender—in…

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Hawa Patel on Sustainable Development Goals: Climate Action

As we reach the end of this series, I am quite excited to go out with a bang! Reader, this is your final call to action: it is the call to take climate action. United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 13, Climate Action, aims to take urgent measures to combat climate change and its impacts. My…

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Hawa Patel on Sustainable Development Goals: Responsible Consumption and Responsible Production

For the fashion industry, constant consumption and endless trends are the norm. This cycle is not sustainable nor is it ethical. However, big, bad brands polluting the planet and mistreating garment workers are not only to blame for sustainability and ethics issues visible in the industry—these concerns are also brought about by consumers who drive…

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Hawa Patel on Sustainable Development Goals: Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure for Better Fashion

I am a member of the fashion industry as a consumer, style enthusiast, student, and researcher; it is safe to say fashion is almost always on my mind. As I contemplated my beloved fashion industry’s environmental and social conundrums, I couldn’t help but wonder…What is the fashion industry doing to help itself? In my two…

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Hawa Patel on Sustainable Development Goals: Quality Education for Better Fashion

My torrid affair with fashion has spanned years, 25 years to be exact. In college, I wrote a monthly fashion column – it was pretty much the low down on the latest trends and my take on the latest fashion shows; London Fashion Week was my jam. I shopped at ASOS and Zara weekly. It…

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The 4-1-1 on Fast Fashion

Diving into the world of sustainable fashion can feel like an information overload. So with closets full of thrifted finds, two first-year students at Brown University, Mariana Fajnzylber & Lily Chahine, decided to create an introductory mini-magazine or “zine” on the subject. The goal? To succinctly acquaint anyone on the environmental harms of fast fashion…

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Impact of Coronavirus on Supply Chain & Factory Workers

By Sydney Badger, Co-founder of Public Habit In recent weeks several major apparel retailers, including Gap, Arcadia Group, Macy’s and J.C. Penney, have canceled factory orders or delayed payments to suppliers to mitigate the impact of COVID-19 on their business. With stores closed and global consumer demand suppressed, they can’t sell the clothes they’ve already…

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The Future of Fashion Is Sustainable: Interview with the Executive Director of TNFI

Executive Director Lauren Fay’s interview for Life and Style Mexico magazine. Check out the original Spanish here. Text: Lauren Fay Illustration: Alberto Caudillo The Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in April 2013 brought to my attention some of the problems associated with the fashion industry and sparked my interest in learning more about its…

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Skin in the Game: Circumfauna

Image by Isabella Marino Barnes This post is part four in a four-part series written by Joshua Katcher – fashion designer, educator, and author of the award-winning book Fashion Animals. In this series, Katcher examines how the fur and leather debate became a debate about plastic. Don’t forget to check out part one, part two,…

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