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Bunka – Inside Tokyo’s Fashion Factory

Kenzo, Koshino, Nigo, Yamamoto - many an internationally renowned Japan designer was trained at Tokyo's Bunka College of fashion. At the college, sustainability and ethics are considered as important as good design technique in educating students.

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The KISS Principle. Or: Do we know what sustainable fashion is?

The KISS principle - Keep it Simple, Stupid. Can it also be applied to the term ‘sustainable fashion’? Can it the concept help us to clear up some of the confusion around the term 'sustainable fashion'? A discussion by Nerida Lennon.

Asides

• The term sustainability is applied [...] as the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society. In this context sustainability is about the integration of social, environmental, ethical, human rights, consumer concerns and financial performance into business operations and strategy in collaboration with stakeholders, with the aim of: Identifying, preventing and mitigating any possible adverse impacts of business’ actions on the environment and society while maximizing societal benefit. (Source: Deloitte online questionnaire) #
• In the retail gazette's article 'Fashion retailers work towards green future', dating from August 19th 2011, the following was quoted (bold font added by Shirahime): ---- New Look, the high-street fashion retailer, has an Ethical Trading Initiative Director, in charge of its environmental policies and ensuring that the focus on sustainability remains paramount during the tough economic climate. Mark Bannister, Ethical and Environment Manager at the retailer, said that in spite of squeezed margins and disappointing sales figures, green solutions are critical to their strategy. "With difficult challenges in commodity cost increases being driven by rapidly increasing global demand and decreasing sales as a result of lower consumer spending, the long-term economic trend in the retail sector is inevitably towards sustainability," Bannister added. "At present, we are finding the need to prioritise greener solutions as they offer a greater overall product potential, looking beyond the traditional metric of margins. Ultimately the transition towards sustainable fashion will be a lengthy process but we are beginning to find that sustainable choices are the most cost effective choice from a holistic product perspective." #
• In the Q&A debate on March 3rd, 2010, Lord Addington summarised what the term 'ethical fashion' means in his political/industrial understanding. "When we talk about ethical fashion, we are talking about getting away from throwaway fashion; or, if we are going to throw it away, about how we recycle." #
• In an article on eco fashion, I found a mention of 5 principles of 'good design'. Far beyond fashion, the principles apply to any good design - product, process or otherwise - and are actually very intuitive and don't require much more than common sense. (Which raises of course the question why there is little of the latter - I'll leave the answer up to you). Here hence, the 5 principle in brief summary: (1) Good design is invisible (NOT as in: 'now eco!'). (2) Good design solves problems (as in: get things right in first place). (3) Good design considers life cycle (as in: what will happen to the product, once it's discarded?). (4) Good design is transparent (as in 'open communication'). (5) Good design mimics nature. #
• I found this definition on p. 19 of the September 2010 booklet to London Fashion Week's EstEthica. The definition appears in the context of an interview with Burak Cakmak, Director CSR of the Gucci Group. Sustainability for Fashion (short definition): "Creating desirable products that evoke an emotional connection with the customer and take into consideration their impact while being transparent about the process." There is also a long definition - which I will copy off into a separate blog post at some point, as it occupies the better part of a print page. #