SUSTAINABLE FASHION

Event information

According to the UN Environment Programme, the fast fashion industry is the second-biggest consumer of water and is responsible for about 10% of global carbon emissions – more than all international flights and maritime shipping combined, with 85% of all textiles ending up in landfill.

Winding up London Fashion Week (20 – 24 Feb), Muswell Hill Sustainability Group (MHSG) is turning its speaker meeting attention to fast fashion, presenting a fascinating evening of expert talks from three SUSTAINABLE FASHION trailblazers, who between them are innovating, changing consumer behaviours, reducing waste and emissions, and supporting improved farming practices and working conditions to change the future of fashion.

A Q&A with the three speakers and refreshments will follow the three talks.

THE THREE SPEAKERS …

1) Ali McAleavy, ZIG+STAR sustainable kids’ footwear brand ...

After over 20 years in the fashion industry, including Head of Buying at Top Shop, Ali launched her Muswell Hill-based, sustainable kids’ shoe brand ZIG+STAR in 2021.

Classic yet cool, ZIG+STAR designs are focused on planet-conscious, ethically sourced materials. The brand focuses on circularity and longevity, by extending the life of a shoe through durability, universality of design, their “Good to Grow” innovation and a proactive donation and recycling programme.

It has earned her a clutch of prestigious awards, including Gold and Platinum at Junior Design Awards 2021 and 2022, winning the Drapers' Sustainable Fashion Awards 2023 and 2024, and a finalist in their 2022 and 2023 Footwear Awards.


2) Tim Browne, Ministry of Denim, international denim consultant ...

Muswell Hill-based Tim Browne has worked in the fashion industry for 40 years, specialising in that most environmentally impactful culprit: denim. It has been estimated by Levi Strauss that producing a SINGLE pair of jeans uses 3,780 litres of water and releases 33.4kg of carbon during its lifetime.

Tim will examine the impact of fast fashion on the denim industry, how it affects workers’ conditions and how we should all be consuming less denim. He draws on huge, specialist reserves of experience. working internationally with leading denim retailers, brands, fabric mills and manufacturers, including the Bangladesh Denim Expo, a trade fair which actively promotes sustainable initiatives within the denim industry.

Over the last two years he has been working with Grivec Bros, an independent, Holland-based denim brand, developing their own atelier and creating premium, hand-crafted, sustainable denim wear.


3) Jose Baladron, Traid, second-hand charity retailer ...

Reuse is one of the most powerful weapons of waste warriors and is becoming increasingly and reassuringly normalised in the fashion industry, such that one in ten people in the UK claim that the majority of their clothing purchases over the next year will be second-hand (source: 2024 Mortar Research study for Oxfam).

Jose Baladron has over 15 years within the textiles recycling and reusing sector, and now leads TRAID Partnerships, managing the contracts for the collection of clothing with different enterprises. He will talk about the global impact of the fashion industry and the clothes we wear on environment and people, what Traid does to mitigate it and what we can all do to help.

Launched in 1999, Traid is a charity retailer, shaking up high street fashion and advocating for a better fashion industry. In the UK they collect, sort, and sell quality, second-hand clothing in twelve London stores, taking practical action to give clothes a new lease of life to drastically reduce waste.

Globally, they fund projects supporting garment workers, organic cotton farmers and their children, in India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Africa, to help make fashion fairer for everyone.