When people in the West throw their clothes away, their cast-offs often go on a journey east, across the oceans, to India’s industrial interior. From the Kutch District of western India to the northern city of Panipat, garment recyclers turn into yarn the huge bales of clothes that come from people and places distinctly strange. With little exposure to Western culture other than the Discovery Channel, the garment recyclers rely on their imagination and the rumours that travel with the cast-offs to create an an intriguing perspective on the West.
This is a story about clothing. It’s about the clothes we wear, the people who make them, and the impact the industry is having on our world. The price of clothing has been decreasing for decades, while the human and environmental costs have grown dramatically. The True Cost is a groundbreaking documentary film that pulls back the curtain on the untold story and asks us to consider, who really pays the price for our clothing? Filmed in countries all over the world, from the brightest runways to the darkest slums, and featuring interviews with the world’s leading influencers including Stella McCartney, Livia Firth, and Vandana Shiva, The True Cost is an unprecedented project that invites us on an eye-opening journey around the world and into the lives of the many people and places behind our clothes.
The Next Black is a documentary film that explores the future of clothing. Watch as we meet with some of the most innovative companies on the planet to get their opinion on clothing and its future, including: heroes of sustainability, Patagonia; tech-clothing giants, Studio XO; sportswear icon, adidas; and Biocouture, a consultancy exploring living organisms to grow clothing and accessories.
Yvon Chouinard, creator and owner of the sportswear giant Patagonia, which devotes much of its profit and energy to environmental causes, and sees the greening of capitalism as a core element of its mission. Yvon Chouinard is remarkable blend of passionate environmentalist and reluctant businessman whose passion for rock climbing led him to create a number of products and techniques that are today standard practice in the sport. Chouinard, 74, is the founder of Patagonia—a sporting gear and clothing company committed to environmentally responsible business practices. Despite his success, Chouinard is a trenchant critic of capitalism who has at times rejected profits and “business sense” in favour of environmentally sound choices.
In August 2020, cultural anthropologist Sandra Niessen published the seminal article: Fashion, its Sacrifice Zone and Sustainability. Using a decolonial perspective, Niessen investigates why and how the clothing systems of the Other have been systematically undervalued and obscured by the fashion system of the Global North, and instead proposes a “revision to the customary framework of sustainability that is being used by dress scholars, environmental activists and policy makers, so that it includes the putative “non-fashion” clothing traditions of the world.” In Fashion Act Now’s third panel investigating Fashion & Degrowth, Niessen will be in conversation with Extinction Rebellion co-founder Clare Farrell, looking at why an ethical, ecologically aware fashion system must also be a decolonised fashion system.