Grantham Supervisor Dr Chris Jones challenges fast fashion with a film that encourages people to love the clothes they have.
Each year in the UK an estimated £140 million worth of used clothing goes to landfill, according to WRAP. This is around 350,000 tonnes. And as the January sales start, people are bombarded with adverts encouraging them to buy more. Now a film from Project TRANSFER aims to get people to love the clothes they have instead of buying more and throwing away old ones.
Psychologists from the University of Sheffield and experts from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion have started Project TRANSFER. This project urges shoppers to think about the effect undervaluing our clothes has our money and on the planet.
Lead Investigator of this project is Dr Chris Jones, a Lecturer in Social and Environmental Psychology. Chris also supervises Grantham Scholars Gloria Mensah and Rob Hardie.
Chris explains the aim of Project TRANSFER. “We want people to stop and think about the clothes they already have. The escalating desire for the latest trends at the lowest cost is putting a huge strain on the natural environment.”
Project TRANSFER challenges shoppers to fall back in love with their existing clothes.
Professor Helen Storey MBE is a practising artist and designer at London College of Fashion. Helen is a co-leader of Project TRANSFER. “It is vital that we find diverse means to engage the public in active debate about how our fashion habits affect both people and planet influencing attitudes and ultimately changing behaviour.”
“Our wardrobes are a veritable Narnia of forgotten characters. And so we want to encourage everyone to bring some of these old friends out into the light in 2016,” says Alex McIntosh. Alex is a Business and Research Associate at the Centre for the Sustainable Fashion.
Project TRANSFER has teamed up with Dr Rob Speranza of the South Yorkshire Filmmakers Network and Emily&Anne Animation to create Nothing to Wear.
This short film highlights the pressures people feel to purchase new clothing. Watch the video below ↓
Helen works with the Grantham Centre on our special project at Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan. You can find out more about our work in Zaatari here.
And WRAP partnered with the Grantham Centre to create a series of films on plastic waste. You can find these films about plastic on our YouTube channel.
Project TRANSFER was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as part of the Retail Sector Initiative.
The Grantham Scholars put on a series of sustainability webinars in 2021. One of these was about fast fashion and you can find it here.