The Titian Thread
The month in fashion, condensed.
Hi ,
Last night, I went to see photographer Annie Leibovitz give a presentation at the Barbican, discussing her 50-year career, a large part of which she's spent in fashion. Her new book Wonderland is a curation of her fashion photography for publications like Vogue and Vanity Fair and it includes some pretty iconic imagery.
As someone who almost exclusively deals with the less-than-glamorous side of the industry these days, I loved being reminded of Annie's striking and evocative imagery that made me fall in love with fashion in the first place. I still remember sitting at home in Perth as a university student, pouring over huge coffee table books that included her work, totally captivated and desperate to be part of this world. It wasn't until a few years into my career here in London that the darker side of the industry started to become apparent to me, and the rest is history, etc.
If you love fashion and sustainability (which, if you've subscribed to this newsletter, I assume you're at least vaguely interested) it can all get pretty doom and gloom – my social media feeds are decidedly less fabulous and more funereal these days. Why not delve into the work of Annie or her contemporaries (the ones that haven't been cancelled, preferably) to remind yourself of how inspiring fashion can be? A few of my favourites are Tim Walker, Richard Avedon, Nick Knight, Guy Bourdin and Louise Dahl-Wolfe.
Until next month,
Meg X
Stories I Wrote
What Happens to Clothes You Return? They Might Get Trashed for EcoCult
If you’ve been shopping under the impression that your returns end up back on a brand’s virtual (or actual) shop floor, what really happens to them may surprise you. In my latest for EcoCult, I dive into the world of "reverse logistics" and find out that, despite how normalised and even encouraged returns are, most brands haven't figured out how to navigate them in an eco-friendly way.
Stories I didn’t write
Out Of Style: Will Gen Z Ever Give Up Its Dangerous Love Of Fast Fashion? by Sirin Kale for the Guardian. Gen Z are a funny bunch, oft hailed as a sustainability-conscious generation whose bleak futures have propelled them into activism, while on the other side of the coin, they're addicted to ultra-fast fashion. What's the deal?
Quick Question: Why is it so Hard to Recycle Clothing? by the Sustainable Fashion Forum. Creating a circular fashion system, i.e, keeping clothes out of landfills, is really important, but it's also incredibly complex.
Is Calling Out Fast Fashion Classist? Why That Argument Doesn’t Add Up by Maggie Zhou for Good On You. "Many people are abusing the valid arguments around classism to justify their own fast fashion consumption," writes Zhou. "When upper and middle-class people hide behind this logic that doesn’t personally affect them, it invalidates and undermines the actual hardships of those in the working classes."
The Fashion Industry Could Reduce Emissions—if It Wanted To by Alden Wicker for Wired. Committing to working with cleaner factories will make a huge impact in reducing fashion's carbon emissions. "Unfortunately," Wicker writes, "when it comes to factories, brands seem to have more commitment-phobia than a 24-year-old on Tinder."
Clothes Rental Services Won’t Break our Fashion Addiction by Eva Wiseman for the Guardian. "Clothes-rental businesses are as much of a solution to the problem of fast-fashion consumption as a tea towel is when faced with a flood – if we’re serious about real change, somebody needs to try to turn off the tap."
The Bitter Brews of Fast Fashion by Fawad Hasan for Dawn. This long-read about Pakistan's garment manufacturing industry is really eye-opening.
COP26 and Fashion: What Happens Next? by Fashion Revolution. I wasn't a huge believer in COP26 (after all, fossil fuel companies were the largest group represented – a BIG shiny red flag for me) but I really enjoyed Fashion Revolution's thorough recap.
The To-Do List
I was recently introduced to Gem, a vintage clothing search engine that scours marketplaces like eBay and Etsy, plus hundreds of independent online vintage stores, to find you exactly what you're looking for out of 32 million pre-owned items. As someone who spends a LOT of time sifting through the vast amount of crap on online stores like Beyond Retro, I have to say I'm excited about this. Gem has an app as well as a website, and it's available worldwide.
I promised myself I wouldn't bang on about Black Friday in this newsletter, but I do want to share my conversation on Instagram Live with Fashion Revolution co-founder Orsola de Castro. We discussed the impact of this sales day, the pressure small sustainable brands feel to participate, privilege, and ways to engage with Black Friday sales in a more conscious way.
I'll leave you with a short Black Friday campaign film by British poet Tomfoolery for ethical Spanish brand ECOALF. The poem is a bit cheesy, but the footage is incredibly striking, showing the sheer scale of fashion's impact on the environment.