Talk by Dr. Sass Brown on Sustainability in Fashion

Dr. Sass Brown  (Course Leader, Sustainable Fashion: Business and Practices, KSA) presented a talk on “Great Fashion Design’ that has the imperative of sustainability and the environment at its core”.  This is talk is a part of the ongoing design collaborative JAMBOREE, between Kingston School of Art, London and Indian Institute of Art & Design Delhi. JAMBOREE, is a design platform  conceptualized, by the students and for the students at both KSA and IIAD, which transcends the conventional formats of seminars and masterclasses and creates a reformative space for high energy and no barrier discussions, questions, debates, innovations and issues that concern the global design diaspora.

Dr. Brown is a researcher, writer and educator. She has spoken around the world on  sustainable fashion and has served as a sustainable design advisor to women’s cooperatives, educational institutions, governmental agencies, NGO’s and small and medium-sized enterprises globally.

The key takeaways form Dr. Brown’s session brought to light how the fashion cycle, particularly fast fashion, is contributing to environmental pollution and unethical labour practices. This has been expedited by weekly, even daily ‘micro-trends’ on social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram.The talk also elaborated on current initiatives, which governments and industry can and are signing up to, e.g. UK’s Environment Act, 2021, UK Modern-slavery act, 2015 and the UN’s Sustainable Development Agenda. However, more legislation is needed, and needs to be much more far-reaching on a global scale, to address the complex range of issues, impacting on people and planet. More and robustrRegulation is needed to make brands and companies accountable for the pledges they make, so as to avoid ‘greenwashing’ and to take action and prevent further harm to people and planet. This shouldn’t be just down to the consumer. Sustainability is a collective responsibility of all policymakers, brands, corporates, designers, researchers as well as consumers.

The practices within the fashion sector have impacts on social and environmental development. A major change to design education and how fashion is being taught is critical to our planet’s health. Essentially, this collective initiative worked to support coordination between the two institutes working in design academia ensuring that the fashion contributes to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals’ targets.

The talk by Dr. Sass Brown was followed by a panel discussion and open forum. Members of the panel were Shipra Kukreja, Faculty, Fashion Design, IIAD, Caroline Alexander, Faculty, BA Fashion KSA, Shreya Goel, Student, Fashion Design, IIAD and Eleana Ward, Student, Fashion Design, KSA. The panelist brought together a balanced mix of faculty and students who have worked on or are interested in working towards a sustainable future.

Other Student ambassadors who were the driving force behind making this talk making it a huge success were Millie,  Level 5 BA (Hons) Fashion Design (KSA), Fran  Level 5 BA (Hons) Fashion Design(KSA), Kriti Aggarwal, Level 5, Communication Design (IIAD), Sumeet Mitroo, Level 4, Communication Design (IIAD), Reetika Singh, Level 5, Interior Architecture & Design (IIAD).