Never before has understanding our supply chain been more important. Across the board, from farmers to brands, everyone is looking to form long-term partnerships in an industry in which they trust.

The current opaque nature of the fashion industry breaks down trust. You are not alone if you are confused and see the need for more transparency. No one can explain how the current fashion industry works. Quite simply the industry is broken. We are at a point where is it crumbling in on itself and to stop this, things need to change to make sense again. At the very core everyone seems to want a better, sustainable industry; an outcome that is only achievable with full commitment across the value chain.

Producers are in the business of fashion and global fashion brands are in the business of farming and conservation; As soon as we realize that we are in a co-dependant partnership that needs each other to survive, we will hopefully start to thrive.

GFS Feedback:

I was asked to represent natural fibre producers at the recent Global Fashion Summit in Copenhagen. My experience is predominantly focused on the mohair industry in South Africa, yet many of these realities are relevant across the natural fibre industry. The panel focussing on Tier 4 Realities was moderated by Claire Bergkamp, CEO of Textile Exchange.

The GFS hosts one of the most important summits in which lead actors in the fashion and textile industry come together to discuss and try to solve the industry’s most pressing concerns namely; climate change, sustainable and inclusive supply chains, the carbon crisis and regenerative agriculture. All critical issues and yet I was the only producer representative on the one panel addressing Tier 4 Realities.

How and why the industry thinks they can achieve these goals without including land-level actors in the conversation reflects the disconnect between source and environment and the great need to educate and communicate across the supply chain if we are to reach these goals.

Message from the Land to the Market

The below highlights the questions asked of producers and my response:

Q: What needs to change if we want to achieve the industry’s climate and nature targets?

The most important change we need to see is for the fashion industry to start making pieces that are informed by nature, instead of asking nature to adjust to fit the needs of fashion.

In any industry, only when you truly understand your materials do you become a master of your craft. One of the biggest problems we face in our industry is a lack of understanding materials and a disconnection from the supply chain. As a result, brands continue to source materials with specific qualities that they know will give them a specific product. For example, brands will say “We only use kid mohair”. There is nothing wrong with this statement, and yet if you engage at farm level you will realize “kid mohair” is the first two times a goat has a haircut, and yet that animal can live up to 12 years.

Should we not be asking; What can we as a fashion industry create that is different and presents a fibre in new ways which speaks to the full life cycle of that animal?

If you truly understand the ingredients of your fabrics you will become extraordinary in this industry, because this knowledge from design level is almost non-existent. We see this in the food industry; A simple tomato can be the most memorable meal. Imagine makers being inspired by the characteristics of their ingredients and designed products demonstrating all the possibilities of what that fibre can be, instead of trying to get a material to squeeze into an outfit that may fit but is obviously not in season.

When you can play around with your materials because you understand them and what your choices mean in practice to land, people, and animals, the fashion industry will become exciting, relevant, and sustainable. It is time that we work together to create products from land-up instead of focussing on collections-down.

Responsible material production does not start in factories, it starts with rainfall. Visit your producers. Only then will you feel the energy of the land, know the people, the climate, the personalities of the animals, the textures and hues of our plant life, the quality of water, and share food and stories passed around the table – All of these things make up your understanding of materials, not only their unique properties.

Once you know all the actors and elements needed to get from rainfall to the runway; One cannot help but recognise the value of each thread and the responsibility you have to make similarly. By failing to make this connection, sustainability goals are words that follow barcodes, removing us as humans from feeling any personal responsibility for what we do with these facts and figures.

There is a need and an appetite for people to start understanding where things come from to appreciate ‘value’. The ‘value’ comes from educating on the ecosystem that we choose to buy into not buy from. And when this system works, it should be simple enough to make sense to a five-year-old.

Q: What do you think the role of standards in scaling best practice on the ground?

Standards need context-specific adoption. Across the Natural Fibre Industry, we are dealing with completely different species, plant life, environments, socio-political and economic realities on the ground.

There is not a single custodian who does not care for the land. We have seen massive cooperation when standards make contextual sense. In South Africa for example we worked very closely with Textile Exchange in setting the Responsible Mohair Standard. As a country, we produce 60% of the global mohair supply, and 82% of this supply is RMS certified. More than this, these standards have allowed us into a global conversation; it has been the most invaluable outcome to have a voice at the table.

The problem is not trying to get farmers to adopt a regenerative mindset or standards of best practice. Producers are already doing this because it makes good business sense. Standards mainly formalize best practice, a demand from the market to certify products. The biggest problem farmers face, and the biggest challenge to the sustainability of the supply chain, is the price fluctuations of raw materials. With 80% of the world’s mohair supply leaving SA in a very raw form, we are almost totally dependent on external markets to set the price of raw mohair. This is not unique to other fibre-producing countries with no local textile industry.

Farmers are ultimately farming with no certainty for what they will get for their efforts; if they will break even, make a loss, or a profit. We need to start engaging in long-term partnerships that allow farmers to budget and invest in their practice with more certainty.

What happens at land level impacts our entire supply chain and ecosystem. Everyone included in this system should be investing, not because it is a requirement, but a fundamental need. It serves your business, your profitability, your ethical compass, and your human spirit.

Secondly, it is important to take stock of the incredible progress as well as complexities of setting a global sustainable standard. Many of the requirements are not suited or financially possible for producers across the board.

We understand that brands are facing huge pressure to provide customers with certification and transparency which is fantastic and long overdue. But figuring out how it works in practice takes huge engagement, constant adapting, and bettering. The biggest danger is for these standards to be set without input from actors and agents at the source and every point in the supply chain.

The truth is there is no one solution and we are far from figuring everything out. For subsistence farmers in Lesotho and Peru for example it is very difficult to comply with current standards. This is not because they are unsustainable, we are simply still in the process of finding ways to account for their way of producing. So before you swap out materials be sure you know the impact of your decision. If you don’t understand the diverse practices on the ground, the very core of what we are trying to achieve may have a reverse effect on some of the most ancient & sustainable farming practices and vulnerable communities.

Feedback:

 The feedback I received was overwhelmingly positive. Most moving was being thanked by wool growers from Patagonia, cotton farmers from Australia, and community groups from India, for speaking for them too. That the issues at land level apply across the board and they felt they were seen and heard in the process. This is something we need to start thinking about – We are not alone. Across geographies and species, land-level actors face the same challenges and it's time we get our voices heard. Because without them, our business, the business of fashion fails.

Main Messages from The Market:

New EU regulations going into effect in a few months time. These legislations are going to impact everyone, we need to get ready and prepare.

• The importance of circularity (land to land) & LCA’s (backing practice in science-based studies)

• The need for trust, which only comes from personal connections and a deep

  understanding of each actor in your supply chain.

• The Carbon Crisis

• Regenerative Agriculture / Mindset

• The need to educate those within and outside of our supply chains.

• Inclusivity; Any system where people feel excluded & undervalued will rebel against it.

Not one of these goals can be achieved in isolation. There needs to be a collective effort. Being a niche industry, we are best positioned to be the most responsive and ready for these changes.

Our biggest strength is the fact that as a country we are producing the best mohair and some of the best wool in the world, we are leaders in RMS and RWS certification. We are a progressive industry with a sustainable product, produced in the Global South. All the above gives us a huge competitive advantage, coupled with the fact that we are small enough and geographically confined enough to effect necessary change relatively quickly.

To remain relevant and meet the needs of the moment we need the entire industry’s buy-in. We cannot work in silos. Regen is no longer a competitive advantage, it's a given. LCAs a must to back our practice in science. Everyone is interested in sourcing from SA, and in the next few months, they are going to have to make sourcing decisions to comply with regulations. We have much to do, but we are in the best position out of all the animal fibres to meet these goals. The funding and business opportunities are going to be huge if we get this right.

We can only be relevant when we truly understand what brands are asking for: When you listen to the above it is clear that we need a new language, visuals, and vision to engage with the market. We are no longer asking for mohair to be included in collections. We are solving the market’s problems; by using mohair they are not only creating beautiful pieces, but they can reach their sustainable targets.

Closing Statement:

In South Africa, there was a brainstorming exercise with farmers during which they were asked why they do what they do. It was clear that it was not the money, the overwhelming consensus was wanting to leave a legacy.

Our footprint on our land is our legacy; It documents what we did with it under our custodianship. If we can scale this thinking into the industry, we will see long-term, sustainable, regenerative, self-driven change. It is both the easiest and the hardest thing to do.

Frances van Hasselt