Fashion and Nature

For the first time, the British Council is collaborating with Jakarta Fashion Week, launched a Sustainable Fashion Forum, on October 26, 2015, at Atrium Senayan City. Sustainable Fashion is the concept of sustainable designs, the fashion products which designed and manufactured with environmental consideration and its social impacts caused. Lucy Siegle, fashion expert and journalist of The Guardian who attended the talk show said, fashion is a big issue. Fashion has an impact on the culture industry. Fashion industry involving slavery, it also has an impacts towards the natural sources such as the availability of water, oil, and its impact to the environment. "Therefore we do really need a sustainable and ethical fashion," she said.

"Promoting the sustainability of fashion is one of British Council's efforts in supporting the development of Indonesian fashion industry, while we are also giving an opportunity to do a collaboration between fashion designers from Indonesia and the United Kingdom," said Director of British Council Indonesia, Sally Goggin. One of Indonesian designers who are invited to the collaboration is Dian Pelangi. "We have seen directly the process of Dian Pelangi’s products-making which strongly supports sustainable fashion," said Odette Steele and Nelly Rose Stewart, designers from the London College of Fashion who is become a speaker at that talk show.
Dian Pelangi shares her experience in making fashion products that are environmentally friendly, also her involvement in empowering local communities. "Our fashion products are using Pekalongan original products made with traditional technique which is environmentally friendly, the material is also using environmentally friendly materials such as cotton and silk. My products are colored with natural colors, instead of chemical colors. We have recycled our waste materials into a variety of accessories," said Dian.

The government itself, according to Poppy Safitri, Director of Education of the Creative Economy Agency, are strongly supports sustainable fashion. "Sustainable fashion has to be reorganized. We may learn from the past, from the wisdom culture which blended with the environment," said Poppy Safitri. She cited one of the efforts of Creative Economy Agency in promoting the use of natural colors for fabrics. "The results is not as bright as made by chemical colors, but it is safer for the environment. There are several plants of natural colors that are hard to find and rarely planted, but eventually the locals people are willing to replant those plants."
"So a piece of clothing we wear has a great impact to the environment. We have to be wise in selecting its materials," said Lucy Siegle. For the sake of raising public awareness about what is happening behind the making of a piece of clothing, there will be a screening movie "The True Cost" in Senayan City XXI October 27, 2015. The film which is produced by Lucy Siegle is a documentary film about the other side behind the glamorous fashion industry.
Author: Yudhanti