Girl About Town - Stewart Rose predicts the downfall of disposability

[Julia Crew]

On the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning (31.03.09), Stuart Rose the chief executive of Marks & Spencers, gave an interesting insight to what he felt a beneficial consequence of the current economic climate could be. He expressed the belief that the recession would herald the end of the era of disposability, that customers were no longer satisfied with cheap, throwaway fashion.

Clearly there is a responsibility for retailers and designers to ensure their businesses are as socially and environmentally sustainable as possible, but there is also the responsibility for us all, as consumers, to recognise the negative impacts of throwaway fashion and over consumption.

If a result of the credit crunch is people taking stock, and moving away from disposability to durability, and to placing value on products that have integrity or a story behind them, then I agree with Stuart Rose, it has to be a good thing!