As I Write This I am Dressed in Oil

I got talking to someone from the Forum for the Future the other week - and only just getting round to sharing the discussion now is more to do with busy work and family, than it is to do with the quality of the conversation. For those who don't know, Forum for the Future 'works with leaders from business and the public sector to create a green, fair and prosperous world', and I've been particularly impressed with their previous publications such as the completely excellent Climate Futures (well worth a read).
But the discovery of the day following this conversation was their most recent piece of work, a publication called Fashion Futures, which takes a look at the issues surrounding the clothing industry and tries to plot some scenarios of interest to anyone interested in how fashion, textiles and clothing in general might 'unravel' in coming years.

This is, of course, hugely relevant in a post peak oil world. Textiles are completely dependent on a range of not very sustainable resource streams, from the 1/3lb of (petrochemical) pesticides required for each cotton t-shirt, to the huge amounts of water used in cotton production and synthetics made from oil products. Aside from raw materials, clothes production is implicated in unfair wages worldwide and has a large shipping footprint. Growing, making and shipping our clothes to us takes a lot of resources. A lot of oil effectively. And then we wear them for a short time before chucking them out for next season's number.

It would have been easy for Forum for the Future to have pulled together some burning polemic pointing the finger at public habits and big business. It is to their credit that the publication is a joint exercise with Levi Strauss. Embedded change is the only real sort surely.

So what's in this piece of work?

Scenarios are not predictions. They are a set of possibilities that might come to pass in part or in combination. Neither are scenarios a final word in any way; one of the most interesting thing about scenario planning is that it is an iterative process - it can be repeated and improved as many times as you like. So Fashion Futures tells stories that can still be changed by governments, communities and businesses alike. They name their four scenarios: slow is beautiful; community couture; techno-chic; and patchwork planet and they are all interesting to read even if you don't run a clothing empire. Slow is beautiful describes highly ethical production of clothes, techno-chic limits impact through innovation and patchwork planet opens some very relevant discussion about how national differences may play out.

However, it is the community couture scenario has particular lessons for the Transition Town movement. Within this scenario community is strong, reuse is central to how we dress and diy skills are at the heart of the matter. Some of the ideas suggested are really interesting. Second hand markets with in-house stylists, clothing libraries, community-run recycling and remaking centres, community laundries and make-do-and-mend lessons in schools... these could all be very productive transition projects.

I wonder if some of these approaches might be tried out in areas that have a lot of second hand shops already (I recall Transition Penge said this was a real feature of their neighbourhood). How many of these ideas can you fit under one roof? A Transition charity exchange with in house tailor and barter washing machines anyone? Links to local fashion/design colleges and schools curriculum perhaps...

Given that we're all dressed in oil - one way or another - that doesn't mean we need to start collecting a sackcloth wardrobe. And this is a lesson that applies across a range of resources. The largest copper 'mine' in the world is New York City (because of recycling). And maybe Transition Towns can be at the heart of a new wave of re-use and glamour!