Circular Fashion Future
The Centre of Excellence is a proud supporter of Seamless, Australia’s national clothing product stewardship scheme, which held its operational launch this week. We were happy to hear that 62 brands have now signed up to the voluntary scheme. As noted by Seamless CEO Ainsley Simpson in an interview with Ragtrader, the brands currently on board see the benefits of combining their sustainability investments to work toward the industry’s shared circularity vision; this strength of the scheme cannot be overstated. Many of the changes required to achieve a circular fashion economy require systems change, including trials of new business models, materials and design innovations, scaling of recycling technologies, and industry and citizen education. Federal Minister for the Environment and Water, Tanya Plibersek, reiterated her commitment to the fashion sector at the launch event, and said she’ll pursue regulation should it be required.
Our commitment to the mission of a Circular Fashion Economy by 2030 is reflected in our diverse range of courses. Having successfully brought three sessions of our Intro to Fashion + Sustainability course, we are thrilled with its impact and the positive feedback from our alumni and will run its fourth offering starting late July.
We also see the enormous potential of digital sampling to save costs, materials, and transportation emissions, and so have created a suite of short courses to upskill designers and patternmakers in CLO 3D. Our current offerings include Intro to CLO 3D and the advanced Digital Pattern Cutting Techniques with CLO 3D course, with more courses due out soon.
Looking ahead in September, we are excited to hold Writing a Fashion Sustainability Strategy and Roadmap, led by sustainability expert and educator Dr. Clara Vuletich. We have also been collaborating closely with our Fashion Educator Working Group to develop two new courses n upcycling and natural dyeing textiles, as well as a workshop on communicating sustainability in fashion. These courses are designed to provide you with practical, hands-on knowledge in sustainable fashion practices. Make sure to follow us on Instagram and LinkedIn to receive our latest course updates as they become available.
Our research interests are also in alignment with a vision of a Circular Fashion Economy by 2030. Our first industry research partnership is with The Volte, a designer fashion rental company, examining the sustainability impact of fashion rental. We are also engaged in a number of discussions regarding the Shima Seiki WHOLEGARMENT knit machine, which enables low- to zero-waste knitwear and on-demand production. Our growing cohort of higher degree by research students are also looking at a variety of solutions to circularity, and as their projects progress we will share updates on our website.
Sustainability challenges are inherently complex, but we are confident that the solutions will be found when we work together as an industry. The Centre of Excellence exists to work with industry on its sustainability education and research needs – if there is something you’d like us to work on, please let us know!