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FEBRUARY 2022 CAMPAIGN RELAUNCH
February 2022 saw the relaunch of our Cancel Fashion Week campaign. XRFA are calling for the fashion industry to resist a return to 'business as usual' after the pandemic. Instead we must take this opportunity to rethink, redesign and reinvent the fashion industry. The pandemic has proved to the world that we are pushing our planetary boundaries to the point of collapse and if industries do not adapt and change, they will fail. Two national lockdowns saw the majority of British people confined to their homes for months, living in tracksuits and pyjamas - visible proof in this country that there is 'no fashion on a dead planet'.
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We delivered a new letter to the British Fashion Council (BFC) in which we reiterate why London Fashion Week is a damaging practice that supports and sustains unsustainable levels of consumption. The BFC must take radical action in order to actively break away from the fashion industry's damaging practices: cancelling London Fashion Week would allow the industry the time and space to conceptualise new ways of manufacturing and consuming fashion.
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Read our latest letter to Caroline Rush (CEO of the British Fashion Council) & the BFC below.
JUNE 2020 WE HEAR YOU
To mark the launch of the British Fashion Council's first digital and gender neutral London Fashion Week we issued an open letter to the fashion industry; a collage of voices from within the industry itself, re-contextualised through the lens of XR Fashion Action. It is clear that there is a collective awareness within the fashion industry that the system is broken and that we need to act now to transition to a system that does not exploit people or the planet, a system that is not built on a model of constant overproduction and overconsumption. We hear you and we support you.
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Read our open letter below.
FEBRUARY 2020 THREE DEMANDS
After witnessing another year without substantive change, we wrote to the BFC again in February 2020. This time we presented the BFC with three clear demands:
1. TELL THE TRUTH about the scale of climate crisis and the scale of the fashion industry's contribution to climate & ecological breakdown
2. ACT NOW to redesign the system and take emergency action to transition towards a greener fashion model
3. DEMAND URGENT CHANGE from the government and regulatory bodies, using your influence within the industry to push for real commitment in the form of legislative action
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Caroline Rush responded to our letter with a brief summary of ways in which the BFC are supporting eco-initiatives within the fashion industry but did not directly address any of our three key demands. The BFC remains fully committed to continuing to hold London Fashion Week which Caroline Rush assured us will be 'showcasing businesses that are re-imagining our industry and using this event to further engage businesses and the public to address the significant issue of sustainability'. XRFA firmly believes that the BFC are still not taking sufficient action to address the fashion industry's ecologically damaging practices and systemic social justice issues. It is not enough to 'encourage', to 'support' or to 'showcase' green initiatives at London Fashion Week, instead the BFC must be a fully committed driving force for change. It is time for radical leadership and we will continue to lobby the BFC until action is taken in line with the catastrophic threat posed by the Climate & Ecological Emergency.
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Read our 2020 letter to the British Fashion Council and the formal response from CEO Caroline Rush below.
JULY 2019 CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
XRFA first called for the British Fashion Council (BFC) to cancel London Fashion Week back in July of 2019. In our letter we explained that the BFC have a responsibility as industry leaders to raise the alarm and demonstrate to the global fashion industry the seriousness of the climate crisis and the urgent need for action. We put forward the argument that cancelling fashion week and instead channelling time, energy and resources into crisis talks would show the world that the BFC understands the gravity of the Climate & Ecological emergency and is willing to take positive and meaningful action to tackle the fashion industry's complicity in the crisis.
Caroline Rush (CEO of the BFC) formally responded to our letter, agreeing that ‘we are facing a climate change emergency and all need to act'. However, Caroline did not demonstrate any willingness to accept our demands to Cancel Fashion Week, insisting instead that Fashion Week is 'a platform to discuss societal issues'. Although this may partly be true, we believe that Fashion Week is also a cultural signifier and driver of overproduction and overconsumption and that the BFC are not taking sufficient steps to address these major systemic issues. We have agreed to meet with the BFC to discuss our demands but will go ahead with disruptive actions during London Fashion Week until we see emergency action taken in line with the seriousness of the threat we are facing to life on Earth.
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Read our first letter to the British Fashion Council and the formal response from CEO Caroline Rush below.
