If you’re a lover of fashion, or curious about designing a stylish but more sustainable life for yourself, this is for you! In this workshop, you will learn the elements of a sustainable style:
- understand where your clothes come from,
- get an overview of the 7Rs of Fashion practices,
- brainstorm with others on how to repair and repurpose your clothes, and
- create the beginnings of a style inspiration board!
Everything you need to influence the fashion industry and align your style to a true reflection of you.
There are two ways to participate. 1) connect with us about booking a workshop in your community or workplace. 2) 2-4 times a year FTA will organize a workshop with our community partners and Members.
Our next two sessions are coming up on the evenings of March 5th and March 6th, hosted by our FTA Member, Boro at 16 Soho Street in Toronto. (During our breaks and afterwards you’ll get a chance to check out the rental fashion racks!) Tap the dates to take you to the individual ticketed events to register. Bring a friend or date! Space is limited at just 10 spots each evening.
Why is revolutionizing our wardrobes so important?
It used to be that there were 2 cycles in the fashion calendar, Spring/Summer and Fall/Winter, but now with fast fashion, there can be as many as 50+ micro-seasons. That means new stuff going on racks for us to purchase every week! Between 2000 and 2014, global fashion production went up by 60%, yet nowadays we tend to keep things half as long*. We send a lot to the landfill, and not to the donation bin. (70% of clothes found in landfill in a European study were found to be ruined because of improper laundering** (stains, shrinking, colour fading etc.), which probably has something to do with that!)
Fashion Takes Action has a way to encapsulate what we think is a solution with tons of potential — the 7Rs of Fashion.
Most of us can easily list off the 3Rs — Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, but our global fashion consumption problem is so off the charts, it’s time for a few more Rs — Research, Repurpose, Repair & Rent!
In these workshops led by our in-house slow fashion stylists & educators, you’ll learn all about the life cycle of your pair of favourite jeans, dive into the 7Rs of Fashion, try out some repair and repurposing ideas, and learn why developing a personal style can be a powerful first step to a more sustainable wardrobe (all while taking climate leadership, too!)
This workshop is participatory and hands-on! You are encouraged to bring a design or fashion magazine you don’t mind cutting up (we’ll be making a style inspiration board) and one item from your wardrobe (garment, footwear or accessory) that is bound for the donation bin because of rips, stains, fit, boredom, style etc. We’ll be sharing repurposing and repairing ideas for these items.
If you would like to host a 7Rs of Fashion workshop in your community, with a group of friends, or as a workplace Lunch & Learn, drop us a line at education@fashiontakesaction.com and we’ll help you get one organized!
* http://www.wri.org/blog/2017/07/apparel-industrys-environmental-impact-6-graphics (retrieved February 2018)
** https://www.aeg.co.uk/care/inspiration/care-label-project/ (retrieved February 2018)
