Fashion is seeing lots of darkness these days. However, sometimes there needs to be a lot of darkness in order for the light to feel so good when it finally shines.
Most light only happens with some sort of a connection. Which is exactly what #FashionOurFuture did – it connected one of fashion’s biggest fights with its biggest influence. Founded by the creative director of Mother of Pearl, Amy Powney, it is a non-profit social media campaign that is designed to fight climate change and inspire the industry, using a community on Instagram.
Fashion is political, it’s satirical, it’s commercial, it’s digital, it’s direct, it’s influential – and a whole list of words that clog the digital and psychical fashion sphere… it’s complicated. Most of these complications are from social media. Social media, to fashion, is all at once completely flattened and so dynamic. Is it a weapon or a tool? To Powney it’s a tool. For sustainability is a subject that is not new but anachronistic to fashion. Social novelties like sustainability aren’t really novelties at all – they are just something old that we are finally ready to act on. Sustainability in fashion dates back to 1973, when the U.S. and other countries signed an agreement that set up a quota system to limit the amount of textile and apparel imports from specific countries – intended to protect U.S. business interests.
#FashionOurFuture uses social media not to be sustainable – but to be this society’s version of sustainable. For the biggest obstacle to overcome with fashion becoming more sustainable is making it appealing to consumers. Which is why Powney has used Instagram to build a community of witty, lighthearted content that people can truly relate to and incorporate in their days.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9pZf9YA_Pa/
We can’t help the fact that our digital versions of ourselves are our best selves. We meticulously curate our own feeds to project us – the us that wears, attends and looks our absolute best. Our feeds are arguably the most thought out aspect of our own identity. This is why Powney’s campaign reflects us so well as a fashion society.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B9e35uIgEMD/
It features a series of pledges that help save the climate in their own way and are Instagram equipped. Essentially, it asks you which pledge you want to add to your digital identity. For example: are you a Rent-Girl (pledge to rent instead of buy clothes), a OAP (pledge to buy vintage for a set amount of time)… and so on. The long term effects of the pledges range from reducing the demand of fast fashion, which eases the exploitation of workers in their supply chains to saving 20 years worth of drinking water by pledging to just buy one pair of organic jeans for a whole year.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B83lWopA5JV/
Tackling the scary, intimidating issue that is sustainability in a lighthearted way that everyone can relate to shines light into fashion’s future. #FashionOurFuture manages to tackle the climate crisis without the stress of extremism, which we should know by now does nothing but push a narrative that creates an us vs them attitude- at a time when we need each other most.
Feature Image from @FashionOurFuture on Instagram
