Tag Archives: Change

The Slow Revolution: lunchtime discussion at the RSA

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Royal Society of Arts, London
4th October 2012, 13:00.

The last ten years has seen a burgeoning of the Slow Movement in all aspects of life from management, travel and education to science and work.

The RSA brings together a group of thinkers and practitioners who have each been exploring ways to bring the principles of ‘slow’ to their life and work – whether in finance, culture or fashion. As well as sharing lessons from their own fields, they will discuss how more of us can deal with the addictive nature of speed, apply the brakes and improve our quality of life, creativity and well-being.

Speakers: Carl Honoré, author of In Praise of Slow; Kate Fletcher, Reader in Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion; Deepa Patel, co-director, Slow Down London; Gervais Williams, award-winning fund manager and author of Slow Finance.

Just out… Fashion & Sustainability: Design for Change

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Hot of the press and available in English, Spanish and Portuguese Fashion and Sustainability: Design for Change.

By Kate Fletcher and Lynda Grose. Published March 2012 by Laurence King (London).

Sustainability is arguably the defining theme of the twenty-first century and the issues it presents to the fashion industry are broad ranging, including labour abuses, toxic chemicals use and conspicuous consumption. This book examines how sustainability has the potential to transform both the fashion system and the innovators who work within it.

The first section transforming fashion products, sets out ways in which the impacts of garments can be reduced and their resourcefulness increased across the garment’s lifecycle, including innovation in materials, manufacture, distribution, use and re-use. The second part presents ideas that are transforming fashion systems at root, including emerging business models that find commercial opportunity in reduced material throughput. The third section is dedicated to transforming fashion design practice and explores new opportunities for designers, which extend beyond the traditional role of creator, to include working as communicator, activist or facilitator to bring about systemic change.

Reviews of the book:
On ‘Shirahime‘ website by Pamela Ravaiso
On the ‘Design Observer‘ website by John Thackara