The ultimate guide to ethical fashion with Lucy Siegle

How to play a part in the sustainable style revolution

Today, to be truly stylish means more than just wearing clothes that make you look good. It means balancing aesthetics with ethics, and evaluating what brands and fabrics you really want to wear. At this large-scale evening seminar, Observer columnist Lucy Siegle gives an overview of how the fashion industry is changing and how you can play a part. She’ll discuss the human and environmental impact of the fashion industry, and what alternatives are available – from sustainable cashmere to upcycling and bio-based fabrics.

Through a mixture of talks, discussions and video clips, you’ll learn about the true cost of everyday fashion and the urgent need for reform. By the end of the event, you’ll be able to communicate sustainable style more effectively, and feel more secure about pitching your business, journalism or design ideas. Whether you’re an ethical entrepreneur, or simply want to clean up your wardrobe, this informative and inspirational event will teach you how to get involved in the ethical fashion revolution.

This course is for you if…

• You’re passionate about good style and want to learn how to clean up your wardrobe
• You’re a fashion student considering taking a sustainable route or working on sustainable collections
• You’re a journalist, blogger or author who wants to write about issues surrounding ethical fashion
• You’re a PR or marketing professional who wants to learn more about fashion and sustainability
• You’re a fashion designer, maker or stylist
• You’re an entrepreneur who wants to start up a fashion business, for example an online startup or ethical fashion shop

Course description

This large-scale seminar offers a comprehensive overview of the issues surrounding garment production and consumption, and advice on more ethical alternatives. Attendees will learn how to identify opportunities for change in the fashion industry, and how to communicate the benefits of sustainable style to others. Topics covered include:

• Fast fashion – putting the super successful fashion industry under the microscope
• The truth about our wardrobes and the fashion supply chain
• History of ethical fashion – from early sweatshop exposes to Fashion Revolution
• How to balance ethics and aesthetics
• Selling sustainability to consumers and investors
• How to read CSR reports
• The luxury sector – is it worth the higher price points?
• Cleaning up fashion – from dyehouses, to ethical goose down and bio-based fabrics
• An appraisal of eco reforms
• Why the living wage debate is important
• Alternative systems and ethical entrepreneurs – from upcycling to sustainable cashmere in Inner Mongolia
• Fashion waste as resource
• Communicating sustainable style, including how to engage people in the supply chain
• Practical exercise: try to give a current fashion trend an ethical spin
• Contacts and resources – how to take things further
• Q&A with Lucy Siegle

Tutor profile

Lucy Siegle is a journalist and broadcaster specialising in environmental and social justice issues, and ethical consumerism. She joined the Observer in 2000 and has been a columnist since 2004. She also founded the Observer Ethical Awards. Lucy’s book on the fashion industry and the need for reform, To Die For: Is fashion wearing out the world?, was nominated for the Orwell Prize for investigative non-fiction in 2012. In 2014 she co-wrote a Guardian Shorts ebook on the Rana Plaza disaster in Dhaka, Bangladesh, where over 1,100 people died in a fashion manufacturing building. Lucy is also an experienced and passionate public speaker and broadcaster, having presented for the BBC and delivered a TEDx talk on sustainable fashion. In 2009 she co-founded the Green Carpet Challenge, a marketing platform for sustainable style that aims to raise the profile of ethical fashion, and raise the bar on its aesthetic and execution. Read Lucy’s Guardian and Observer articles here.

Full course and returns information on the Masterclasses website