Stubborn optimism
Why fashion needs a more radical imagination
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This newsletter has been on a two-year hiatus, but I’m excited to use this space again after some much-needed breathing room from various ‘side hustles’, and more importantly, new insight and experience on all things fashion, ethics, and sustainability that I hope I’ve gained since we last spoke.
First, a little (re)introduction. My name is Ruth MacGilp, and I live in London but call Edinburgh home. I’ve spent my career so far working at the intersection of fashion with labour and the environment. This has taken various forms, including social media, podcasts, articles and digital marketing, copywriting, consulting and communications for sustainable fashion brands, publications, and non-profits, most recently of which was Fashion Revolution. A few months ago, I started working with Action Speaks Louder, a new climate campaigning organisation focused on corporate accountability. My role here is to run fashion campaigns that hold big brands to account for their climate promises, with the aim of accelerating the global transition away from fossil fuels. Outside of work, I am training to be a yoga teacher*.
I plan to use The Ethical Fashion Roundup (which will probably need a rebrand in the near future) to share my thoughts on fashion in the age of the climate crisis. Some topics I’m interested in exploring over the next few months include decarbonisation, degrowth, greed, solidarity, cultural sustainability, transparency, renewable energy, craft, commons, waste, commerce, and a whole lot about the lies, manipulation, doomerism, techno-optimism and false solutions being pushed our way.
This won’t necessarily be sent on the most predictable schedule, because I’m keen to avoid another burnout. But I’ll aim for roughly once a month, so don’t worry about being spammed too much, and do share with your friends/family/colleagues if you want to help it grow.
Today I wanted to talk very briefly about optimism, hope, imagination, or whatever you want to call the ambition, belief, and desire for a better future that sometimes feels lacking in sustainability circles.
I’ve been thinking about this topic since joining a Sustainable Fashion Scotland workshop all about the Fashion Fictions project. Created by Dr. Amy Twigger-Holroyd, Fashion Fictions invites us to create alternative worlds in which our relationship with fashion is totally different from the status quo. Since launching in 2020, hundreds of hopeful people have submitted their own 100-word fictional futures which imagine, explore, and enact alternative fashion cultures and systems.
While we all strive for better, what we often forget to do is think about what ‘better’ will really look and feel like. This kind of radical imagination will help us to make ‘better’ real. I’m not the only one who feels this way. Books like It’s Not Too Late, It’s Not That Radical, and All We Can Save explore how harnessing the power of hope can help us not just paper over the cracks that social and environmental crises have caused, but to strive for something so much better than what we’ve accepted as our fate. The Fashion Fictions project offers some great ways to start thinking like a stubborn optimist. Here is one of my favourites:
…in which sewing clubs are more common than slimming clubs
This week (22nd-29th April) is Fashion Revolution Week, which presents another opportunity to put a hopeful hat on. By signing the manifesto for a fashion revolution, you’re joining a shared vision for a fashion system that enriches people’s lives. It’s important, I think, to say that out loud. Manifest, if you will. This doesn’t mean assuming everything is going to be wonderful. It means believing that things can be better and committing to making that happen. It means being a realist and meeting people where they are, while supporting them to grow. It means avoiding doomerism and apathy, and it also means avoiding perfectionism and too-good-to-be-true silver bullets. As Rebecca Solnit puts it so beautifully in this article, “hope is a gift you don’t have to surrender, a power you don’t have to throw away.”
Thank you for reading, and for sticking around. I’d love to know what you think!
While you wait for the next email, here are some brilliant fashion newsletters you should subscribe to:
The Unpublishable (beauty not fashion but so relevant)
*If like me you’re a yoga student and/or teacher, check out this open letter to lululemon urging them to phase out coal from their supply chain and invest in renewable energy. The brand loves profiting from yogis but seems to forget the principles of non-harming and care for people and planet that yoga embodies.
