sustainable southbank

[Jackie]

The Queen Elizabeth Hall hosted on Monday the work of fashion environmentalists, inaugural graduates of London college of fashions new masters degree.
The main message was memory, most of this group of twelve, delved into an emotional journey of nostalgia. A surprise to find young people in their twenties, their lives ahead of them, their heads turned towards history. Only Felicia Felton explored the true avenues of fashion business in a more commercial sense, I discovered she used to be a buyer for Maceys. The others searched the past, either through collecting vintage clothing, abandoned garments, lost unwanted items or treasured shawls handed down from the dead. Is this the result of all that outsourcing? An absent textile culture, with no contemporary textile business to turn to, young designers feel no future and turn to the past in search of identity, design reference? Globalization has killed our references through abusive use of pesticides?Whilst conventional fashionistas work a futurist look, think Alexander McQueens geomorphic prints, should sustainable fashion be a collection of memories; were we better in the past?Better people? Or is that brave new vision of the future still dawning?
Jackie Andrews Udall