Rarely does a day go by at CSF when we do not actively consider the ‘what if?’ of fashion in terms of living well through its practices, cultures and its material elements. Our commitment to act is through our imaginings of what fashion can do so well, in connecting us to each other, to our identities in terms of interests, beliefs and locations, its ability to offer delight, livelihood and confidence. Our commitment is to act through our concerns too, of our current Pied Piper style moves towards a place where those who survive will leave many others behind, leave places that have been home and the ability to author our own lives.
Through our work, we have markers, laid out in our plans. We take both the short and the long view in our work, acting now and expanding our actions over time, specifically aiming to contribute to 4 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)2030. Vital to our work is to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts. SDG13. As such, COP 21 is an opportunity to amplify this work, to extend out to others to seek agreement on change actions and to draw upon fashion’s part in each of our lives, its ability to be an aspiration, a chance for reverie and its practical, factual dimensions.
Over the next two weeks, we will be in St Pancras, London, with Dress for Our Time, in ArtCop 21, with Antarctica World Passport and sailing along the Seine, with The Alternative Danish politicians and speakers for nature, in Paris, as well as on the streets, with I Stood Up to Violence Against Nature. We will be on social media and in lectures, tutorials and workshops – all of this will be to find ways to call for action on Climate Change.
Working with Julie’s Bicycle, we have also been bringing together a range of artists, musicians, designers, film-makers and others who create work that shapes and responds to our times. The Creative Climate Coalition starts here, and will present a letter to Christina Figueres in Paris with a promise to commit to our making art and design a means for social consensus on how to live well (within our ecological and equitable means). This is not about austerity, its about conviviality, diversity, common principles of humanity and the commons, where each person can drink clean water, breathe clean air, engage their assets in ways that makes their lives the best that they can be.
Please join us in London or Paris or on social media (#CSFCOP21), these two weeks are critical. Unless we demand global political and business consensus, legislation and practice that commits our ways of living to staying within a 2 degree rise in temperature, we will not be able to have these conversations in the ways and places that we enjoy now.
Please note this is an archive blog.