Regenerative Fashion is part guide, part manifesto, sharing stories of our interconnectedness with the natural world and each other.
It’s divided into sections on Nature & Materials, People, Livelihoods & Crafts and New Economy & Leadership. Full of lovely photographs – it features interviews from best-practice designers and businesses around the world.
To keep us focussed on the rapid change needed, there are thought pieces from leading campaigners working in the fashion industry.
To keep our planet safe, we must cut production by 75% and end our dependency on fossil fuels. We need to switch to low-impact materials, pay factory workers and farmers a living wage and scale up craft production – we can rebuild soils, ecosystems and biodiversity, rapidly decarbonise supply chains and support communities and build a just transition for all.
The book is about the urgent action needed to maximise our chances of survival. The systemic shift needed, how brands will need to partner with suppliers to invest in environmental innovation and social impact.
The Fashion industry must redesign itself to fit within planetary boundaries.
Interviews include; Textile Exchange, Soil Association, Oshadi, Christy Dawn, SEKEM, Earth Logic Fashion Action Research Plan, Southeast England Fibreshed, Tengri, H. Dawson Wool, Bel Jacobs, Bolt Threads, AlgiKnit, Orange Fiber, The Sustainable Angle, Common Objective, Clare Farrell, Bethany Williams, Nece Gene, Orsola de Castro, Kilomet 109, Azadeh Yasaman, Chloé, Five P, Khadi London, Birdsong, Asad Rehman, War On Want, JARAFIN, KTS, Anannya Bhattacharjee, Sabahar, Global Mamas, Dilys Williams, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, Continental Clothing, Fair Wear Foundation, The OR Foundation, The Slum Studio, Rubana Huq, Reverse Resources, Ecoalf, Elvis & Kresse, Eileen Fisher, Finisterre, Debbie Luffman, Reskinned, Patagonia, FARFETCH, Fashion Act Now (FAN), Sandra Niessen.
Safia is deeply grateful to all the people involved in the creation of the book, some of whom spoke at the launch event at the Duke of Cambridge, Angel, London, an organic pub originally opened by Geetie Singh-Watson MBE with the aim to “demonstrate you can live an ethical life whilst also living an utterly pleasurable life…and Saf’s written the most wonderful, comprehensive, collection of stories of people doing really inspiring things.”
Guy Singh-Watson, founder of Riverford spoke briefly on the importance of these initiatives for action as “naked, unbridled capitalism is destroying the planet” in agreement with Caryn Franklin MBE, Fashion and Identity Commentator, who also noted that “race and gender exclusion from leadership petitions, both in the commercial and academic world have served all this denial and detouring and dysfunctional behaviour. And as a result, progress is too slow…every single connection to fashion needs to be underpinned by the sort of knowledge that is in Saf’s book.”
Kirsty McGregor, Editor at Vogue Business said that “reading Safia’s book was a delight. It’s an important conversation to be having and what I really enjoyed about it is the fact that it’s optimistic.” Whilst Mary Creagh CBE, former MP agreed that “We have this amazing book that Safia has written, and I just want to say a massive thank you to it. It’s rich, it’s dazzling, it’s passionate.”
“One of the things that really stands out to me about Regenerative Fashion and all of Safia’s work, is the inclusion of voices from the Global South,” said Kalkidan Legesse, CEO of Sancho’s and OWNI. Followed by Tom Berry, Global Director of Sustainability FARFETCH “the book is incredible. It beings together an amazing set of stories, which themselves are incredibly positive in a time when positivity is actually quite scarce, particularly in sustainability circles.”
Where to buy the book?
UK:
Laurence King
Blackwells
WHSmith
Waterstones
Amazon UK
US:
Barnes and Noble
Bookshop
IndieBound
Books-a-Million
Indigo
Amazon
The ebook can be bought on Amazon.
Also available in Japanese (Two Virgins) and Spanish translations (Blume).
The paper is FSC and the inks are plant-based, produced in Europe. Lawrence King publishers are part of Publishing Declares.