Fashioning Social Change

The Scottish Fashion Festival was held on the 17th of November at the V&A Dundee, Scotland's design museum. Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma to pay homage to the city's maritime history, the iconic ship-shaped building overhangs the Tay estuary from its riverside location. It's been a catalyst for regeneration in a city adversely impacted by decades of industrial decline, and while much work still requires to be done to address the many social issues that befall Dundee, the V&A has become a symbol of hope and a beacon of creativity for the city, a city which also claims the title of being the UKs only UNESCO designated city of Design.

Organised by social enterprise incubator Scotland Re: Design (SRD), the annual event is underpinned by that organisation's commitment to three core pillars of sustainability, equity and technology. Pillars of intentionality whose ethos sees the not-for-profit enterprise directing all funds received back into sustainable supply chains and those businesses who follow eco-friendly practices.

With Dundee renowned as a high-tech hub, the birthplace of games “Grand Theft Auto” and “Lemmings”, it was no surprise that technology played an important role in this year's Scottish Fashion Awards with SRD collaborating with Scottish innovators and agencies to present a digital collection, runway and exhibition entitled HIDDEN FLOORS. While SRD's commitment to sustainability and equity manifested itself through the ethical and environmentally aware brands showing in that medium and also at the event's physical fashion show, it was also demonstrated through their continued collaboration with Shelter Scotland, with whom they presented the "Fashion for Social Change Award” for the second year running.

It's a collaboration which has become even more timely with recent evidence showing that Scotland's housing emergency shows no sign of being adequately addressed. Scots are competing for the same few properties and often having to move miles from families and support networks to find available housing. The homes that are being built often aren't affordable, with those caught in the housing trap struggling to pay sky-high rents and spending years waiting for a social home. Those facing the consequences of this broken system are often from ethnic minority groups and people with disabilities, while forty-five children in Scotland are made homeless every day. And of course, while the partnership between SRD and Shelter Scotland focuses on the local situation, it's a UK wide crisis.

As Richard Hudson, one of Shelter's senior retail marketing managers told me " We have over thirty charity shops in Scotland, so we have been thinking about how we can engage people who are interested in clothes and fashion, with Shelter Scotland's campaigning... The wonderful thing about the competition is that it covers three bases, our social cause, sustainability and fashion. By bringing all three together, it shows how fashion can be a positive platform for change.... We link up each designer with a shop and the designer will then try to source materials and reuse materials we have in stock. We want to make sure that sustainability is at the heart of all of the designs. By taking some of our existing donations and turning them into something new, it will hopefully inspire more people to be more creative with their clothes"

The "Fashion for Social Change Award" is just one of the innovative ways in which Shelter Scotland is highlighting the plight of the homeless as part of their overarching campaign to persuade the government to build more affordable homes. As Richard explained " We hope the fashion show will generate conversations, increase awareness of Shelter Scotland and our work and inspire people to join the fight to support our campaign”.

With a shortlist of eight emerging designers selected from a huge number of entrants as "Fashion for Social Change Award" finalists , all eight were winners in our eyes. Shortlisted designer Katrina Lindsay told me that her motivation for entering the competition was because "Its raising awareness for a very poignant issue that's been going on for a long time. If you can relate to people through visual or artistic content, they can then hopefully process that into thinking about the cause if that's something they've not thought about before".

She added that she wanted to focus not only on the housing crisis but also on what people deserve "People can get desensitized to the shock value because we get a lot of that. I'm trying to appeal to people's other side. When asking people what makes a home to them, they've said they love that feeling of being cozy and comfortable. Everyone deserves that feeling of being safe at home.

It's this sense of home and security that Kat explored to create her piece for the competition which she titled " A garment of belonging". She explained that for her " home is a place to be unapologetically yourself, a safe space where you can explore your own identity, your surroundings and surround yourself with what makes you happy. There are no expectations, no pressure, it's your space to be creative and expressive. A lot of people struggle with emotions and your home should be your place where if you want to be sad you can be sad and if you want to be happy you can be happy....I think it's fundamental for people to have that home, that space, that ground zero where they can plant their roots and spread out from there. I think the feeling of comfort and security is so important".

While the Scottish Fashion Awards gala evening was imbued with social consciousness, it was also an evening where gold-standard Scottish fashion brands showed an array of stunning creations that ranged from sleek streetwear to high-impact glamour suffused with a modern twist. Among a line-up of traffic-stopping looks were those presented by Dundee-based brand "Isolated Heroes", which has achieved global recognition and been worn by luminaries such as Miley Cyrus, Paloma Faith and Becky Hill.

Hosted by Dundee influencer and style sensei Howey Ejegi, it was an event that brought the fashion cognoscenti from across Scotland to the V&A museum located on the banks of the silvery Tay. An event that confirmed that the Scottish fashion industry is thriving and is one that's commendably aware of the power of its platform to promote transformative social change.

Huge thanks to Caitlin Miller @caitlinclaremiller and Chris Hunt @mr_chris_hunt from Scotland Re-Design for inviting Swift and to Richard Hudson and Kat Lindsay for speaking to us.

Fashioning Social Change

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