Sustainable Fashion Week: The Catwalk Review

By Ella Crabb, Style Editor

The Croft Magazine // Sustainable Fashion Week has arrived, and it took Bristol by storm. Style Editor, Ella Crabb, shares her views on the catwalk event that took place on the 21st of September.

‘Regenerate’. ‘Rewear’. ‘Repurpose’. ‘Reconnect’.

The ideology that these words advocate for is increasingly finding a more persistent voice within the fashion industry. Sustainability and ensuring that the fashion industry leaves a minimal ‘mark’ on the planet is becoming fashionable for all the right reasons. Therefore, a catwalk show modelled on this ideology, produced by the Sustainable Fashion Week of 2022, was surely something to look out for.

The four themes beautifully set the stage for the production that incorporated clothing pieces which all found their place within the conversation - whether it was clothing made out of organic materials, items that have already been in circulation, or materials that have been repurposed from older items of clothing, the show really highlighted the manner of which people such as ourselves could aim to put sustainability at the forefront of our fashion choices.

Each theme was explored by a different company who used the opportunity to put on mini shows to exhibit their work. ‘Regenerate’ was produced by Future Leap in collaboration with Lucy and Yak. For me, this was a perfect example of synergy with a purpose of showing that business should and could be done differently. The catwalk included a mixture of the Lucy and Yak A/W collection on 7 models who all perfectly presented the organic and recycled clothes.

The rewearing of old clothes, cleverly coined within the show to be an example of ‘slow fashion’, is something that I’m sure isn’t a new concept for most of us. However, Maria Loria from Wear My Wardrobe Out, based in Bedminster, introduced a slightly more nuanced way of continuing a ‘fashion love story’, which was mixing items from your existing wardrobe with the use of a rental wardrobe outlet. Doing this within the ‘rewear’ segment of the show posed the question of why we continue to buy new clothes and designs, when there are already so many items in circulation which would also be able to fill our fashion needs. She highlighted the unethical nature of fast fashion companies from both a humanitarian and environmental point of view, with her finishing her introduction with the question “Does the devil wear Prada whilst clothing our nation in polyester”, which I thought was very profound.

The exploration of repurposing old clothes through Black2Nature’s mini show comprised of 9 outfits ‘repurposed’ through old sari’s, which I thought was gorgeous. The most notable part of it, however, was the fact that they not only advocated for such an important message within the industry, but also highlighted the importance of inclusivity within the industry, whether that be regarding ethnicity, size, age etc. The models were all younger than those selected by the other companies in the show, which exhibited the very spirit of the catwalk production as a whole – lacking any sort of pretentiousness.

Finally, the audience was asked to reconnect with themselves in terms of how they communicate their style and what fashion means to them. The consensus of the audience seemed to be the way in which fashion is a mode of self-expression, collaboration and connecting with one’s higher power. These feelings were then emulated through the final catwalk theme of ‘reconnect’, a final production created by students of the City of Bristol College who left the catwalk event on a high moment of colour and varying silhouettes.