SFW HUB: OXFORD
On 21 Feb 2024 we joined Headington School in Oxford for the first ever SFW Hub in an education setting. This was an exciting step in the development of SFW activities and in reaching younger audiences.
“We’d love to take part in Sustainable Fashion Week but it’s just completely the wrong time of year for us. Students have only just started back after the summer holidays and are still settling in.”
We’ve heard this quote multiple times in the last three years since the first Sustainable Fashion Week (SFW) in September 2021. Schools, colleges and universities want to take part, they want to host activities for their students and they want to get young people engaged in sustainability in fashion…. but our annual event takes place at just the wrong time of year!
Processing nettle stalks into fibre
Kate Turnbull, of Headington School, was so keen she suggested they did go ahead with organising a Hub, but that they did it in February instead, giving time after the start of the new academic year to get it sorted and to line up young women from other schools in the area to attend along with the Headington students.
And so there we found ourselves this week - surrounded by young women in year 10, learning about natural fibres, natural dyes, material innovation, garment workers in the global south, gardening for fashion, weaving, mending and growing your own trousers!
Each SFW Hub is very different in the emphasis their programmes place on repair or swapping and sharing, skills learning or creativity. We love the variety of activity that our Hub partners bring to SFW’s overall programme as this is what breathes life into our collective action for a more sustainable fashion industry.
The day was packed with creative, experiential learning alongside talks from inspirational women in the sector, including the following (give them a google!):
Dyeing with avocado stones and skins
Speakers
CARRY SOMERS // League of Artisans and co-found of Fashion Revolution
JUSTINE ALDERSEY WILLIAMS // Northern England Fibreshed
TILLY BINTLEY BAGOT // Pangaia
OUR AMELIA! Speaking about SFW
Workshops
BRIGITTE KALTENBACHER // Nettles & Flax Weaving
LARA MANTELL // Natural Printing
LOTTIE DELAMAIN // Gardening
ABIGAIL SCHAFFER // Mend Assembly
SKYE PENNANT // Slow Stitch Club
CASSANDRA SMITH // Weaving
KATE TURNBULL // Natural Dyeing
What inspired us about the programme Kate had created was how central land and nature were to the activities. For us - this is our main driver for the work we do. Fashion should always centre communities and land over profit. And here, amongst the students, nature was integral to the discussion and learnings.
Fibres and dyes grown and processed here in the UK
Justine from Northern England Fibreshed who led the #womangrowsjeans project to create the UK’s first ever homegrown pair of jeans talked about her journey of working with the regional landscape and indigenous plants to create a garment that had a story of land and collective action woven into its production from the outset.
This was so inspiring - and hearing this story after a morning of processing nettle and flax fibres with Brigitte Kaltenbacher - brought home the value of the resources and heritage skills that we hold here in the UK.
Sustainability in fashion can mean many things - from avoiding buying new to repairing what you have to only shopping regeneratively produced fibres - and the programme at SFW Hub: Oxford introduced these different ways of changing our habits whilst reminding us throughout that all our clothing comes from the land and should return to the land at the end of its life.
SFW: EDUCATION 2025
Ok so what’s next? Our plan is to use the brilliant example set by Kate and Headington School to create a SECOND SFW each year in February, aligning with the other annual fashion month. This week will be focused on education settings - giving schools, universities and colleges the chance to inspire their students and lead the charge for our SFW community each spring.
Do you work in or run a school, college or uni? Could you host a Hub as part of SFW: Education 2025?
Dyeing with madder root
Getting fibres from nettle stalks