Contents

Section 1: Introduction

Section 2: A visit to “Fashion from Nature “ exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum 

Section 3: Analysis of Katharine Hamnett’s “Clean Up or Die” outfit.

Section 4: Analysis of Vivienne Westwood’s “Climate Evolution” outfit

Section 5: Compare and Contrast

Section 6: Conclusion

Section 1: Introduction

Green beetles

Dress decorated with green beetle shells

Since the beginning of time, fashion has always been linked to nature in one way or another. Designers have consistently sought inspiration from nature, be it through the patterns, structures, and colours or even the materials that are made from nature itself. A well-known example would be Alexander McQueen’s Spring Summer 2010 (The Plato’s Atlantis) in which he was inspired by nature, specifically reptiles and the sea. The fashion world really depends on nature, meanwhile, nature depends on us to take care of her too. In fact, the fashion industry has been damaging nature adversely and is ranked as the second largest polluter in the world. 190,000 tons of textile microfibres are going into the oceans each year based on www.sustainyourstyle.org. This is a toxic relationship! In this essay, I hope to explore what fashion designers are doing to tackle the issue of sustainability.

Water pollution due to fashion 

Dye-contaminated river

I have currently been exploring the link between surface design and nature in my A-level coursework project. As part of my research for this project, I visited the “Fashion From Nature” exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum. At the museum, I was drawn to the fact that fashion can have such a powerful impact on people. A section of the exhibition is called “Protest!” which is based on the various fashion movements aimed to tackle different issues such as sustainability or climate change. The two pieces of work that awed me the most were the “Clean Up or Die” ensemble by Katharine Hamnett and “Climate Revolution” by Vivienne Westwood in which both focused on spreading awareness about environmental issues. The works of Vivienne Westwood and Katharine Hamnett all aimed to act as a voice for change. While Vivienne used her collection to call for action for people to join her in fighting against climate change, Katharine amplified the impact of the excessive use of pesticides in the cotton industry in developing countries. 

The "Protest!" section in the echibition

However, I would like to question how effective it is for Vivienne and Katherine to convey their intentions about sustainability to the public through fashion.