Say WHAT? “By gentleness I don’t mean passive or weak,” adds Corbett. “It’s soft power. The gentleness for me is about being kind, considered and thoughtful with what you do, and just treating people how you’d want to be treated. That doesn’t make you a weaker activist. It’s actually really hard to do. But if you think about the rest of life [outside of] activism; you wouldn’t go to a staff meeting and scream and shout at them and throw eggs at them, would you? No. You’d say, ‘Did you realise you were doing that? How can we change this? How can we all be part of the solution?’”
As Sarah says, “If we want a world that is beautiful, kind and fair, shouldn’t our activism be beautiful, kind and fair?”
4 Things That Need to Change about Fashion – Fast
1. Transparency. The global fashion industry remains opaque and most brands still don’t know exactly what’s going on in their complex supply chains.
2. Environmental impact. Fashion remains insanely polluting. According to the UK Parliament’s recent Fixing Fashion report, if current levels of consumption continue, the fashion sector could account for one quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions by 2050.
3. Waste. We’re still buying clothes to throw away. What’s with that? It makes zero sense. First, there’s the precious physical and often finite resources expended. Then consider all the love, care, sweat and toil that go into growing, spinning, weaving, designing, cutting and sewing a piece of clothing. On average, during their production, your clothes have been touched by about 80 pairs hands.
4. Wages. Many brands that produce off-shore are still failing to pay living wages to the workers who make our clothes.
Find out what happened when Clare Press spoke to Livia Firth about the Green Carpet Challenge, being an active citizen and her childhood on the Wardrobe Crisis podcast.
Subscribe to Wardrobe Crisis for more inspiring conversations about the fashion system and its impact on people and the planet.