Fashioned from Nature: Addressing Sustainable Fashion in a Museum of Art and Design
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Fashioned from Nature Edwina Ehrman Fashioned from Nature: addressing sustainable fashion in a museum of art and design Edwina Ehrman Senior Curator, Victoria and Albert Museum, London [email protected] Abstract: This article draws on the author’s experience of curating Fashioned from Nature, an award-winning fashion exhibition which argues that sustainability should be embedded in design practice. Spanning approximately 350 years the exhibition shows how fashion’s environmental impact has grown to become a cause of international concern and activism. It highlights indivi- duals and organisations campaigning for change and the work of designers, scientists and educa- tors working within the field of sustainability. Its outcomes include an active network of contacts in academia, industry and politics and a deeper engagement with sustainable development within the host museum. Keywords: Sustainable fashion; raw materials; nature; environment; activism Resumen: El artículo presenta el trabajo de la autora como comisaria de la premiada exposición Fashioned from Nature, que defendía la necesidad de incorporar la sostenibilidad en el diseño de moda. La exposición partía de un enfoque histórico: empezaba 350 años antes para mostrar cómo había crecido el impacto ambiental de la moda hasta convertirse en causa de preocupación y activismo internacional. Además, ponía de relieve a las personas y organizaciones que luchan por este cambio y el trabajo de diseñadores, científicos y educadores en el campo de la sosteni- bilidad. Entre sus resultados, cabe destacar una activa red de contactos en el mundo académico, de la industria y la política, y un mayor compromiso con el desarrollo sostenible por parte del museo organizador. Palabras claves: moda sostenible; materias primas; naturaleza; medio ambiente; activismo Indumenta 03/2020 6 Págs. 6-22 Fashioned from Nature Edwina Ehrman Figure 1. Fashioned from Nature at the V&A, London. Sustainable solutions for the twenty-first century. Copyright: Victoria and Albert Museum Fashioned from Nature was exhibited in the Fashioned from Nature’s title, narrative and Victoria and Albert Museum’s (V&A) Fashion content emphasise the dependence of fashion Gallery from 21 April 2018 – 27 January 2019 on nature. They draw attention to the simple before travelling to the Natural History Museum but often overlooked fact that all the materials of Denmark (Figs.1 & 2)1. The exhibition ex- and energy consumed during a garment’s life plores the complex, uneasy and often unequal are drawn from the Earth, from the garment’s relationship between fashion and the environ- origin on a farm or in a factory to its eventual ment over a period of nearly 350 years. As well use in a wardrobe of many garments. Human as reviewing past and present-day practices, it behaviour and the ways in which humans in- looks forward, proposing a range of strategies teract with nature are integral to the exhibition to reduce the negative impact of the fashion in- story. The narrative never loses sight of our de- dustry on Earth’s fabric and species. The exhi- light and fascination with the natural world, bition champions creativity, innovation and the and our analogous but contradictory urge to benefits of collaboration and interdisciplinary control and manipulate nature through inter- research, while highlighting the critical role of vention and artifice, to suit our needs and our the textile and fashion designers who are pio- tastes (Carter, 1996). A series of displays fo- neering desirable, exciting, sustainable fashion. cussing specifically on fashions and textiles in- spired by nature support this thread of the nar- 1 A modified version of Fashioned from Nature was exhibited rative. Elsewhere, materials and manufacturing at the Natural History Museum of Denmark in Copenhagen take the lead. This enables a contrasting, darker from 11 April 2019 – 1 September 2019. The content was sup- plemented with natural history objects from the museum’s story which traces the significant environmen- scientific collections and garments created by sustainable tal damage that the industry caused as it was fashion designers working in Denmark. The exhibition, in its original form but with some object changes, will travel to oth- transformed by new technologies and grew in er international venues until approximately 2021. scale and ambition. Turning to the present day, Indumenta 03/2020 7 Págs. 6-22 Fashioned from Nature Edwina Ehrman the emphasis of the exhibition switches from environmental record. Statistics about the in- consequences to solutions. It argues for a more dustry’s impact are unreliable and sometimes ethical fashion industry in which sustainability is unproven2. Yet its significant contribution to a core principle of design. It also asks visitors to land, air and water pollution, profligate use of think about the impact of their choices. Sustain- non-renewable and scarce resources, genera- able development depends not only on govern- tion and encouragement of waste are undeni- ments, industry, business and civil society but able3. The industry is also implicit in the use also on the individual. The exhibition’s aim is to of slave and child labour. Workplace abuses raise awareness and to provide an open forum include unsafe working conditions, sexual ha- for discussion. Its engagement with contempo- rassment, denial of the opportunity to join a rary issues, support for the design community union and minimal pay rates (Williams, 2018). and creative industries, and ambition to reach It is standard practice for V&A curators out to the widest possible audience accord developing exhibitions to invite experts from with the V&A’s strategic plan and its founding outside the Museum to form an advisory pan- ideals. el. Fashioned from Nature benefitted greatly from the knowledge, enthusiasm and guidance of staff from two constituent colleges of the Sustainability and sustainable University of the Arts London (UAL): London development College of Fashion’s Centre for Sustainable At a time of rapidly increasing awareness of Fashion (CSF) and Centre for Circular Design the devastating effects that human activity has (CCD) (formerly the Textile, Environment, De- had on our planet, an exhibition focussing on sign (TED) research group) at Chelsea College the environmental damage caused by the fash- of Art. CSF became a special advisor to the ex- ion industry’s practices is opportune. Indeed, hibition and staff and students developed two during the four years between the exhibition’s thought-provoking, consumer facing interac- approval in 2014 by the Museum’s senior man- tive installations, Fashion Now and Fashion Fu- agement group to its realisation, ‘sustainability’ tures 2030. Professor Dilys Williams, Director has become part of mainstream conversations and founder of CSF, wrote the closing chapter about fashion. of the exhibition publication (Ehrman, 2018). This detailed survey spans thirty years starting Sustainability is difficult to define and prob- in 1988 when the United Nations set up the lematic to measure as each case depends on Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change many variables. Herremans and Reid character- (IPCC) to assess the risk of human-induced cli- ise it as a state in which economic, social and en- mate change. Staff at CCD were equally gen- vironmental conditions are aligned in a harmo- erous, introducing me to their academic and nious balance which can endure over the long industry networks and enabling me to attend term (Herremans and Reid, 2002). The United workshops which were not open to the public. Nations World Commission on Environment They too contributed an exhibit: a prototype and Development’s description of sustainable of an industrially compostable paper t-shirt de- development emphasises the responsibilities of signed for the fast fashion industry (Mistra Fu- the present to the future. In their words, sustain- ture Fashion, 2017). Professor Kay Politowicz able development is ‘development that meets and Dr Kate Goldsworthy at CCD developed the needs of the present without compromising its fabric with colleagues at Research Institutes the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (United Nations, 1987). In a world 2 There are, for instance, no statistics which verify the fre- where today’s youth and their descendants face quently quoted statement that fashion is the second most polluting industry in the world. the challenges of climate change, biodiversity 3 For reliable statistics and an overview of the fashion industry loss and resource scarcity fashion has a shabby in 2017 see: Ellen Macarthur Foundation, 2017 Indumenta 03/2020 8 Págs. 6-22 Fashioned from Nature Edwina Ehrman planet. The recognition that the content and aims of Fashioned from Nature had areas of common interest for the NHM was established early in the exhibition’s development in con- versations between Julie Harvey, Head of the NHM’s Arts and Humanities Research Centre and Professor Bill Sherman, then Director of Research and Collections at the V&A. This re- sulted in exceptional access to NHM curators and their collections as well as to staff from the public engagement team who joined the exhi- bition’s advisory group. The relationship led to loans of specimens, the identifications of spe- cies and an on-going exchange of knowledge between curatorial and conservation staff in the two institutions. NHM scientists also kindly agreed to take part in two short films about ba- leen and jewel beetles which were shot on-site in the NHM and V&A. These proved popular both within the exhibition and on its associated website (Victoria and Albert Museum, 2017). The Advisory Group met on two occasions, to brainstorm and critique the initial curatorial concept and subsequently to discuss the first Figure 2. Fashioned from Nature at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, Copenhagen. A display of nineteenth iteration of the exhibition’s content and organ- century feather fashions with a grebe (Podicipedidae sp.) in the isation. The latter takes a visual form with im- foreground.