Weaving Change

Fast fashion

Fast fashion is an ever growing problem flooding our high streets, whether you're shopping for new clothes or a new pair of shoes you will get drawn in by the cheap prices, but behind every good deal, ask yourself, what effect is it having on our planet?

‘Fast Fashion’ is a business model used by many big name brand retailers: It's where companies design and manufacture clothes as quickly and as cheaply as possible, often compromising on quality to keep up with ever changing trends promoted and shared over social media, this happens at the expense of the planet and people.

Fast fashion creates a huge amount of waste throughout the product's life cycle:

Manufacturing clothes uses large amounts of water in growing and processing fibres. When dying fabrics, harmful chemicals are used to achieve the bright colours desired by the consumers, these chemicals affect the people who work in the industry but also the people who wear these clothes. The planet is suffering as well, once the dyes have been used and the water has been thrown away they enter our rivers and oceans causing a detrimental impact to the already fragile environment.

Fast fashion waste

When the product reaches the consumer they often don’t last long due to the low quality materials and manufacturing methods, this means that once they start to break the consumer throws them away instead of repairing or upcycling the item. This isn't helped by the low price tag, as the consumer doesn't value the clothes and can easily afford to buy a new one, so just puts the old one in the bin, not caring what happens to it. That clothing item ends up in landfill and either gets incinerated or finds its way into our oceans, both causing a further impact on our environment. This is ‘throw away culture’, once a consumer isn't happy or has moved on to the latest trend they throw away the item of clothing not caring what happens to it, or whose life it impacts.

A Young Solution

Some will put the majority of the blame on young people as at face value it's seen that this demographic do shop and follow these trends more and more compared to older generations. However putting blame on individuals who are just doing their best to fit in with others, isn't helping this global crisis.Young people often don't have lots of disposable income so are forced into finding the cheapest price when shopping for essentials like clothes and shoes so have no other choice than fast fashion. 

Instead of blaming young people we should be looking at the bigger picture. A lot of this comes down to supply and a lack of education on issues surrounding consumerism and their personal environment impact.

If young people knew the impact they were having by simply buying clothes then they would become more conscious of where they are spending their money and what happens to their clothes once they have finished with them, but it shouldn't stop there.

Traditional mending skills once were used all the time when fixing clothes but now these skills have been lost. If this was normalised, would we be increasing our clothes longevity by mending our clothes? 

That’s why in the middle of July I hosted my third fast fashion webinar. It was a chance for Action for Conservation’s (AFC) Ambassadors to dive into causes and solutions of fast fashion and consumerism. Held over Zoom, we spent one hour learning about fast fashion and the huge impact it is having on our planet. We also spent time learning how to be an ethical consumer: shopping from slow fashion brands, buying second hand, and mending and up-cycling your old clothes. We emphasised how any step, big or small, to decrease your fast fashion consumption was a step in the right direction.

Callum at the Penpont Project

We then moved on to an upcycling project. We used old t-shirts, a cardboard loom and some string, to make a woven coaster. This was a great chance for the ambassadors to see how our clothes can be used again once we have finished with them. 

This project was inspired by the work I have been doing with the Penpont Youth Leadership Group (YLG) at the Penpont Project. This initiative is an intergenerational, nature restoration project in the Bannau Brycheiniog (Brecon Beacons National Park). This unique project is part led by the YLG, who work with the land owners, tenant farmers and local artists to restore the land and increase biodiversity. 

When visiting the tenant farmers - the Davies family - in the shearing shed, Sally Davies explained to the YLG how the wool from her sheep had low market value. This could be put down to lack of demand for natural fibres as they are often more expensive and time consuming to manufacture into usable textiles compared to synthetic fibres used by the industry but wool is an amazing fibre that is a really good insulator, it’s biodegradable and odour resistant. This is the perfect sustainable alternative for the harmful fibres our clothes are made out of today.

I couldn't understand why we weren't using the more sustainable option. I challenged myself to spin this wool into yarn and then turn that processed wool into something practical as well as dying the piece using natural dyes made out of plants you could find at Penpont. 

The process

I started by washing the raw wool in very warm water and a small amount of dish soap. This is the most wasteful part of the process as you need very hot water to break down the lanolin, this is a natural waxy substance that holds the odour and dirt to the fibres. The waste water was used to water the plants in my garden.

The wool was then dried and then picked, this is when the fibres are pulled apart to release any remaining vegetable matter trapped in the wool, as well as making it easier to card.

The wool is then carded and rolled into rollags. To card wool you use two brushes similar to pet brushes to straighten the fibres ready to spin. 

I then started the very long process of spinning the wool. I used a wooden drop spindle that twists the fibres into single ply yarn and then I twisted two strands of the wool together, making thicker two ply yarn.

Dying the wool is always an experiment as you never know how it will turn out. Usually this process requires toxic chemicals that often put people at risk. To dye this wool I started with an alum mordant (Non-toxic solution), preparing the yarn to absorb the dye into the fibre. I wanted the rug to incorporate the colour to be blue, this is quite hard to achieve using natural plants - especially when limited to what you can find at Penpont. Red cabbage can be found in the farm shop at Penpont so I used this to create the blue wool. Red cabbage is a PH reactive dye; this means depending on the acidity of the solution it will change colour. I used baking powder to turn the dye to an alkali solution making the dye bath turn blue. Everything I used is a common ingredient in food we eat making this dye not toxic, minimising its impact.

Callum's woven artwork

This piece is a woven map of the river Usk. The river Usk flows through Penpont providing a perfect habitat for lots of wildlife. I used the blue yarn I had spun and dyed with red cabbage to embroider the river on a woven background made from yarn spun out of the Penpont sheep’s fleece, undyed it shows the wool's natural colour. This piece is hung from a wooden stick fallen from an oak tree.

This project is a great way of showing how these ‘low value’ fibres can be used to replace the toxic synthetic fibres, as well as how unnecessary it is to use toxic chemicals to dye our clothes as natural alternatives are just as effective. Although I have chosen to make a piece of art in this instance, I hope I have demonstrated how these sustainable practices can be easily transferred into making clothes without the huge impact modern day garments and textiles are having. I want this piece to serve as a reminder that we shouldn't be a part of the problem and instead find the solutions.

My journey with AFC has been long but very rewarding: from hosting webinars on fast fashion and facilitating craftism workshops at Leeds University and Penpont, as well as leading hands-on upcycling projects and weaving sustainable textiles from locally sourced wool. I've seen firsthand how young people can drive meaningful change in their communities. These initiatives not only raise awareness about environmental issues but also empower youth to take practical steps, like mending clothes, choosing ethical brands, and embracing natural fibres, to reduce their impact on the planet.

International Youth Day reminds us that small, local actions can have a bigger outward impact, contributing to a more sustainable and inclusive world for everyone.

Thank you for reading my blog!

Callum