Collective Fashion Justice

It’s been a huge year of work towards total ethics fashion protecting and prioritising people, our fellow animals and the planet over profit. Below, our founder Emma Hakansson overviews some of our wins towards this just fashion future, and you can read our 2024 review in full here: https://lnkd.in/gcNk2uE

The fashion industry has produced 5 of the 20 richest people (all men) in the world, and yet often claims to be without funds to support more ethical and sustainable practices. At the same time, philanthropists consistently overlook funding charities and technologies that can help combat the significant harm fashion perpetrates against people, our fellow animals and the planet. In this piece for Alliance magazine subscribers, our founder Emma Hakansson explains why that’s a problem to be changed. https://lnkd.in/g4cXgp5S

We are so pleased to share that London Fashion Week has banned wild animal skins, after engaging with us and World Animal Protection UK. Announced by the British Fashion Council at a U.K. Parliament event this week, the organisation highlighted the value of ‘constructive challenges’ by organisations like Collective Fashion Justice. Our founding director Emma Hakansson who helped write the policy, said: “LFW is the first big four fashion event to prohibit both fur and wild animal skins, and we celebrate this important progress. We also know there is more to do, continuing the conversation on feathers towards what we hope will be a totally wildlife-free policy.” “For decades, brands have banned fur, stating an opposition to killing animals specifically for fashion. This is exactly what happens to the crocodiles, snakes, ostriches and other wild animals skinned and plucked for fashion too, making bans on these skins and feathers consistent with an existing and widely agreed upon ethical premise.” Thank you to the British Fashion Council! Read the Business of Fashion piece from Sarah Kent here: https://lnkd.in/gamdMXPJ

We are so pleased to share that London Fashion Week has banned wild animal skins, after engaging with us and World Animal Protection UK. Announced by the British Fashion Council at a U.K. Parliament event this week, the organisation highlighted the value of ‘constructive challenges’ by organisations like Collective Fashion Justice. Our founding director Emma Hakansson who helped write the policy, said: “LFW is the first big four fashion event to prohibit both fur and wild animal skins, and we celebrate this important progress. We also know there is more to do, continuing the conversation on feathers towards what we hope will be a totally wildlife-free policy.” “For decades, brands have banned fur, stating an opposition to killing animals specifically for fashion. This is exactly what happens to the crocodiles, snakes, ostriches and other wild animals skinned and plucked for fashion too, making bans on these skins and feathers consistent with an existing and widely agreed upon ethical premise.” Thank you to the British Fashion Council! Read the Business of Fashion piece from Sarah Kent here: https://lnkd.in/gamdMXPJ

Our founding director has been recognised on the Vox Future Perfect 50 list for her work in combating climate change. Central to our work at Collective Fashion Justice is to shift the industry beyond the methane-intensive animal-derived materials like leather and wool which remain so intensely green-washed, and to replace them with bio-based and plant-based, not fossil fuel materials. Amidst an escalating climate crisis, this change cannot come soon enough. For today, we are celebrating this recognition and the work of so many others on this list, while we continue to do the work.

One Magazine is a beautiful publication about responsible fashion: it's now committed to including no wild animal or fossil fuel materials in its editorials. Stylist guidance by the publication (in collaboration with CFJ) also encourages choosing innovative, animal-free materials, brands paying living wages, and plenty more. This wonderful progress coincides with its newest edition, where the magazine endorses our total ethics fashion manifesto, that calls for fashion to pay living wages, slow down in line with planetary boundaries, and shift beyond fossil fuel-based, animal-derived and deforestation-driven materials. It also features a stunning photo story captured at an Italian animal sanctuary, Rifugio Miletta, with a model wearing plant-based clothing, alongside an article on total ethics fashion from our founding director, Emma Hakansson. We are grateful to ONE for its inspiring work, particularly as UN Environment Programme highlights the importance of sustainable fashion communications through media.

Our consultation with businesses is an important and impactful part of our work. We are committed to helping brands shift towards total ethics fashion, one step at a time.

Introducing our new podcast, Fashion, Really? Join a New Yorker and an Australian who love fashion but hate what it does to life on our planet, as they gossip about the month’s fashion industry stories and how they impact people, animals and the planet. Quick, critical, a little sarcastic and queer, this is a podcast for people in and into fashion. Who feel like creativity could make our culture better. Who want to talk about the serious problems and have a bit of fun. Because we can. Fashion, Really? is hosted by Collective Fashion Justice’s founding director, Emma Hakansson, and CFJ board member, Joshua Katcher. Available wherever you get your podcasts, we hope this is something those in the industry can listen to, enjoy and contribute to. https://lnkd.in/gwvtYBH5

Great to have our work featured on Channel 4, pushing the industry to make change more quickly. We need emissions reduction targets and a move beyond animal-derived and fossil fuel-based materials, decarbonisation and a slowing down of production to meet Paris Agreement aligned targets. Our featured report here: https://lnkd.in/gkzmXp7U Thanks to Maeve Campbell for covering it!

Our new report finds that under 4% of British Fashion Council member brands have any climate target. Even fewer have one that is science based. The British fashion industry has failed to meaningfully invest in climate action and government policy has failed to necessitate that investment. Without science-based targets to reduce emissions, the fashion industry will continue to damage our planet and put lives at risk. We cannot allow that to happen. We invite all British brands to engage collaboratively with us, as we provide support to set these targets and implement strategies to meet them. Learn more and read our report at https://lnkd.in/gTqx9YQn Read our coverage on The Independent: https://lnkd.in/gias88z8 The Guardian: https://lnkd.in/gTg9mk4h Draper’s: https://lnkd.in/gU5Ws5zD