At Twin&Chic we resume our 'Sustainability Journal' talks with Elisa Regadera González, professor of Fashion Communication, Trends and Sustainability at the Faculty of Communication at UIC Barcelona and director of the Master in Communication, Brand Management and Sustainability in the Fashion Industry. Fashion in the same Faculty.
Thank you for your collaboration, Elisa. We leave you with his article.
EDUCATE FROM FASHION FOR A MORE SUSTAINABLE WORLD
I am especially excited to write these letters for Twin & Chic, a brand in which its founder has done extraordinary work from the beginning to be consistent with its purpose - to become an outstanding skin-healthy and ecological children's fashion brand - and its inspirational message. : future is for our children.
It is precisely this future of our children and young people that I would like to write about today, since I am dedicated to the training of university students and I perceive that this education should begin at an early age.
I teach a subject on Fashion, Trends and Sustainability at the International University of Catalonia (UIC Barcelona) and for years I have tried to study how this powerful and beautiful industry impacts our planet from different perspectives: socio-labor, environmental and economic. It is urgent that young people delve deeper into these issues, since it is not only about acquiring knowledge about fashion, but also about being able to freely modify their consumption behaviors.
The United Nations declaration (2015) “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, with its proposal for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), has been one of the most ambitious and transcendental global agreements in recent history and , among its specific proposals, has encouraged Universities to implement these SDGs in their academic curricula. Furthermore, this year 2022 the European Strategy for the circularity and sustainability of textile products has come into force, which in Spain has inspired the new Law 7/2022 on waste and contaminated soils for the circular economy, which will soon come into force and will impact in the business activity of fashion brands.
But connecting again with my experience in training new generations, I observe that the vast majority of students are sensitive to the climate and health crisis, as well as the socio-labor injustices that exist in the fashion industry; They are even capable of proposing projects and solutions for a more sustainable world. However, most of them continue buying fast fashion or consuming technology in an exorbitant way, among other actions.
After various investigations carried out at UIC Barcelona, we realized that, although many students are aware of these realities, the step from raising awareness to transforming consumer habits is somewhat more complex. Many would like to change customs regarding the use and end of life of their clothing, but they are not able to put it into practice in many cases. It is difficult for them to perceive “that our individual actions have global repercussions and that our consumption is directly linked to the use of resources and the destruction of nature and its ecosystems” (Fernández M. et al , 2020).
This evidence is allowing us to show that, so that children and young people can choose truly sustainable fashion brands at the moment they can make that decision personally:
- The acquisition of responsible consumption habits should begin at home, through family education that is based on experience.
- Education at the school and later professional and/or university stages should continue to teach these contents in their curricula, accompanied by concrete actions aimed at transforming consumer habits.
I would really like to know what the Twin & Chic families think about this. Do you try to get your children to take some small action from a young age to acquire more sustainable habits when using their clothes?
Elisa Regadera González
Fashion, Trends and Sustainability Professor
Faculty of Communication (International University of Catalonia)
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