It's our Anniversary! From Dumfries House to Parliament, we share a week of disrupting the status-quo in fashion

Image shows our CEO Tamara Cincik in a red dress in a panel discussion at Dumfries House. Image credits Eleanor Kelly @mastrelli.media

by Meg Pirie

This week has been a whirlwind, and has seen our CEO, Tamara Cincik travel across the country – quite literally – from Manchester for a DCMS event with Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport – Lucy Frazer, and then on to Scotland and London.

In Scotland, Tamara attended Dumfries House and spoke at the King’s Foundation (formerly Prince’s Foundation) x the Fashion Council Germany conference entitled ‘Disruption’ which was this year supported by TENCEL™, eBay and The PVH Foundation. The King’s Foundation's Future Textiles initiative is designed to breathe new life into a renowned British textiles industry.

The high-profile speakers included TENCEL™ brand partner and designer Patrick McDowell, British Vogue’s Emily Chan, CEO of Fashion Roundtable Tamara Cincik, celebrated German fashion journalist Christiane Arp, Director of Centre for Sustainable Fashion Professor Dilys Williams and designer Alice Robinson.

Tamara spoke alongside Emily Chan as well as Ayan Yuruk on a panel discussing the role of change-makers within the fashion world. Tamara also delved into the hidden barriers and opportunities within the fashion sector along with Oyla Kuryshchuk.

On further panels our Board Member, Professor Dilys Williams, spoke of challenging the fast-fashion status quo and linear paradigm, as well as the need for fashion to place earth and equity at its core.

Image shows from left to right the speakers in the Jubilee Room in Parliament: Sam Ludlow-Taylor, Kate Hills, Patrick Grant, Mary Creagh CBE, John McNally MP, Tamara Cincik, Anna Bryher. Image source: Jeremy Fusco

Back to London, we then hosted one of our largest events on localism in Parliament, in our capacity as Secretariat of the Ethics and Sustainability All-Party Parliamentary Group. Speakers included:

• Mary Creagh CBE | Chair of the Ethical Trading Initiative, Former MP and Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee

• Patrick Grant | Founder of Community Clothing

• Professor Dilys Williams | Fashion Roundtable Board Member and Director of Centre for Sustainable Fashion

• Sam Ludlow-Taylor | Head of Human Rights at John Lewis

• Kate Hills | Fashion Roundtable Board Member and Founder of Make It British

• Anna Bryher | Policy Lead Labour Behind the Label

  The key takeaways from the event were that:

• Homegrown Homespun was an initiative which grew flax and indigo; processed by hand and built end to end production. Every stage of this production employs people and offers a more rounded system.

• Supporting ‘Made in Britain’ can have the same economic value as procuring overseas. An example of the Covid pandemic was offered around PPE, where the government spent a huge amount of money. British made masks were more expensive than those made in China, however if billions of pounds is spent on masks in another country it adds to their economy. This procurement is worth far more to our economy and we should stop making purchasing practices that don’t add value in this way.

• Localism requires a care-based relationship, people centric focus, and the wealth of ‘place’ to be seen. The great challenge is about moving power to local and there is a tension here.

• There are advantages to making in the UK, such as quick access to market, quick reactions, resulting in niche high-end products and there is evidence that customers favour goods made in the UK. However, it is not always straightforward and ‘Made in the UK’ doesn’t necessarily mean that brands are meeting due-diligence requirements or indeed happy workers.

• Localism increases the interconnected network of small businesses –  fostering business and competitiveness. This needs strengthening in these 4 ways: 

  • Legislate so that brands are forced to be transparent.

  • Encourage uptake of technology and data driven processes to increase best-practice transparency and accountability. 

  • Tax Incentives for sustainable brands to aid in levelling the playing field.

  • Create training programmes to ensure sustainable jobs.

    Policy asks discussed within the meeting included:

  • The need for a certainty of policy. The ‘Clicks versus Bricks’ concept which John McNally MP asked at recent PMQs is something that the government could incentivise straight away.

  • Better legislation around purchasing practices. One direct action might be the Garment Trade Adjudicator (which the EAC recommended) and over 60 MPs are already involved with.  

  • The UK needs to work towards mandatory due diligence legislation for human rights and the environment. This is already in place in Europe and the UK must follow suit. Specific mention to Germany. 

  • Functioning labour market bodies working with communities. 

  • Factories need investment. We should look at how we can support suppliers on how to reform and in producing high quality products.

  • Our education system has let us down and the need for a STEAM education for all children.

  • More stringent procurement practices from government, e.g. procurement of police uniforms with locally—produced buttons and the need for an understanding of intersection between the environmental and social.

  The full minutes will be shared here shortly.
  

Image shows: Patrick Grant sat down speaking, with John McNally MP, Anna Bryher, Mary Creagh and Tamara Cincik in the background. Image source: Jeremy Fusco