THIS year marked the 40th anniversary of both Katharine Hamnett’s fashion brand and her mission to conquer sustainability in fashion. Best known for her famous slogan T-shirts, emblazoned in phrases challenging controversial topics such as politics and the climate crisis, veteran Hamnett is a pioneer in sustainable fashion. She was among one of the first to utilise organic cotton, long before many were even aware of the environmental impacts caused by its production process.
With this in mind, she is openly inspired by the mantra to abide by “ethical business behaviour” which means “making a living in a way that does no harm to people and the natural world”. Glass spoke to the trailblazing fashion designer to discover more about her childhood, the sustainable initiatives she’s adopted, and the currently uncertain future of the fashion industry.
You became politically active at the age of eight – what inspired you at such a young age?
We were living in Romania during the Cold War. My father was the British Defence Attaché for Romania and Bulgaria, a three-year post. We had to give 24 hours’ notice to the police if we wanted to leave the capital. We were followed everywhere by two cars of secret police. We had five microphones dug out of the living room walls alone, and the only place you could have an interesting conversation was in the bathroom with the loo flushing and the bath running. We weren’t allowed to speak to the Romanians as they would get tortured to find out what we had said. Somebody did and they were. That is what it’s like living in a totalitarian state. It’s not very nice.
Katharine Hamnett in Up Our Game
You’ve been influenced by the Buddhist principle of “right livelihood” – how has this affected the way you think about fashion and how does this influence how you run your business?
It has profoundly affected how I work, since I first heard about Buddhism in the late ‘70s from my sister Charlotte as part of the eightfold path, Buddhist advice on how to live your life properly – even how to achieve happiness. Right livelihood means making a living doing no harm. I want to take it further. I am refusing to make any product that is not for the good of all living things.
Do you think the climate crisis is finally being taken seriously now by designers and the fashion business?
Obviously they would be mad not to, but how much is genuine concern and genuine constructive action, and how much is greenwashing and hot air. There is not enough real action at the top end with the giant companies. The only thing that will make them address it is legislation. We have tried everything else.
Could you share with us some of the latest measures you have taken for your own company?
I cancelled going to an event in Japan to speak about sustainability because I couldn’t justify my 1½-ton carbon footprint from flying there when I could say everything they needed to hear virtually. I would have been a contributor with my carbon emission to global warming and climate change that I was supposed to be going there to talk about we are trying to fix.
Katharine Hamnett in SS19 with borders
Do you think being sustainable in business is enough?
Everything we do has to be sustainable in our daily lives as well.
What do think the fashion industry should be doing to replenish and regenerate the environment? Are they doing enough?
The fashion industry is blaring on about sustainability but doing way too little. One of the biggest changes for good they could possibly make would be to go 100 per cent into organic cotton.
Conventional cotton agriculture uses 25 per cent of world pesticides, and 91 per cent more water than organic.
Chemical pesticides and herbicides used in conventional cotton agriculture are designed to kill. They cause long term contamination of the local water supply with pesticides which are a nerve agents, and herbicides that kill nearly all plants and fungi, eventually running off into the rivers and seas. They are persistent in soil and water so they carry on killing to the point that they can actually disrupt the decomposition process.
They cause microbiological death of all insects, including beneficial insects, pollinators, as well as other animals such as earthworms, so they kill the soil and contribute to desertification.
There have been thousands of accidental poisonings from pesticides and herbicides among farmers, their families and livestock, and the high cost of inputs contributes to farmers giving up farming and migrating to the cities and further north. There have been thousands of farmer suicides.
If farmers farm organically, they have lower costs, higher profits, and they have their health. They can afford to feed and shelter their families, educate their children and afford healthcare. They have biodiversity and food security and as part of organic farming practice they rotate the cotton with other crops. It is better for them and infinitely better for the planet.
Katharine Hamnett in World Wide Nuclear Ban t-shirt
What measures do you think should be taken to address the climate breakdown in terms of fashion and more widely?
Examine raw materials and processes with a microscope to discover any negative impacts and avoid or even ban conventional cotton – this comes up again and again as one of the top bad guys. Chemical fertilisers used on conventional cotton, given the scale of conventional cotton agriculture, give off significant quantities of nitrous oxide, a molecule with 300 times more Global Warming Potential (GWP) than CO2 which will significantly contribute to global warming.
The clothing fashion and textile industry as well as all the other raw materials (including leather, polyester, nylon, viscose, chlorine bleach, heavy metals in dyeing and processing, metal extraction, etc) should take a long cold hard look at the associated carbon footprint. It’s colossal.
We should work virtually as much as possible now it is so much easier with great video conferencing apps. This would cut huge carbon emissions.
As much as possible our meetings should be e-meetings, our conferences e-conferences and maybe our fashion shows and trade fairs could be done as much as possible on the internet, ticket sold live streaming etc. Our transport CO2 emissions must be cataclysmic, shipping components and goods all around the world during production and delivery.
We should be all avidly watching the incredible new developments in hydrogen that flag it as a replacement for all fossil fuels for all transport by air, sea, and land as well as for electricity generation and heating. It’s the climate game-changer.
The fashion industry should lobby for an EU (or ideally EU/JP law now that there is the new EU/JP free trade agreement) that only allows goods into this economic block (hopefully that the UK will still be part of) that are made to the same standards outside as are mandatory inside. The teeth of this agreement are the fact that the EU is the largest richest trading block in the world and all outsourced countries need to sell there, so they have to comply or lose the market.
This means human rights, health and safety, a realistic minimum living wage, and environmental laws in line with REACH and the Zero Hazardous Chemical Discharge.
This will have the effect of levelling the playing field between domestically produced and outsourced goods as it costs more to pay people properly, use more expensive chemicals, and install water treatment.
It will cut global industrial pollution from the clothing and textile industry as everything worldwide will have to be made in compliance with REACH minimum.
It will create better-paid jobs in the clothing sector in outsourcing countries, and stimulate and create well paid employment within our economic blocks. It’s more sustainable to make goods near where they are consumed.
Katharine Hamnett in Please Stop Killing Whales t-shirt
What do you see for the future of the industry? Is there one?
It definitely needs to re-invent itself along the lines of “right livelihood”. Nearly every material and process, apart from organics, is toxic to humans, animals, and for the environment. Right now, it’s an actual threat to the survival of life on earth.
What do you think about the Extinction Rebellion movement? Are you inspired by it? Have you participated in any actions?
I love Extinction Rebellion for their courage and amazing commitment and organisational abilities – getting 27 countries riled up about extinction is amazing. But we need proper science-based solutions now because we have run out of time. I wish they were blasting those out right now instead of talking about talking about them later.
How did your collaboration with Dr Noki for London Fashion Week come about? Are you planning more?
I love Dr Noki, we are friends, so it just came up organically. I’d love it if he did more – get people to send him their old Katharine Hamnett to remake.
What do you personally do to live a low consumption life?
Try to live with very little, buy less, get rid of stuff, sign up for renewable energy, eat and feed my family and friends organically. I have a little organic farm which I am converting into a research station. I don’t go to conferences where I could do as good a job appearing virtually. Buy organic cotton – but I need a private jet for my dog.
Katharine Hamnett in World Wide Nuclear Ban Now t-shirt
What advice do you have for others who want to be more ecologically aware?
Do your homework. Educate yourself. Find out about “Flight Shame”. Use search engines on every query and question you have regarding the sustainability of a material or product or the meaning of a certification ffs! If I knew what I know now I would never have gone into fashion.
Are you hopeful for the future?
If we made cross-party commitments as countries on 12, 20, even 50-year plans for combatting climate change and saving life on earth, to be implemented regardless of which political party was in power. If we introduced my new EU law outlined above. If everybody started using only organic cotton and pre-booked and pre-financed it with the farmers.
If we quickly moved from using fossil fuels to hydrogen and hydrogen/electric hybrids produced with renewable energy for all our transport we have a chance of cooling the planet. (When you burn hydrogen all you get is water vapour, zero CO2. How do we cool the planet? Increase cloud cover. How do we increase cloud cover? Put more water vapour into the atmosphere?)
If we introduced a global designers’ trade union where we all refuse to work with toxic materials and processes. If we get together and act fast and supported Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal as a global initiative. If we stop waffling on about change and really come up with some positive action, then as Greta Thunberg says, “We can talk about hope.”
by Caroline Simpson