Why Fashion Matters

Who said fashion doesn’t matter?

Like most other global industries, fashion has its dark side. Exploitation of garment workers, lack of diversity, and environmental damage remain issues that the industry must do more to address and resolve. But this vast creative industry has the potential to initiate significant change.

Despite its faults, one of the things fashion can do is spread an idea around very powerfully, coherently, and with the all-important 'cool' factor. One example of this is Professor Helen Storey MBE and chemistry Professor Tony Ryan's project Catalytic Clothing, which explored how textiles can be used as a catalytic surface to purify air. They designed and created the catalytic dress 'Herself', which is impregnated with a photocatalyst that uses light to break down air-borne pollution into harmless chemicals.

'Herself' toured the world raising the profile of the Catalytic Clothing project and introducing city dwellers worldwide to the notion that clothing and textiles can play a vital role in improving the urban environment, as well as the health of those who live in it.

This project is an illustration of how fashion is collaborating with science, engineering and technology to create a new future: one where it has a positive influence on the environment, society and our health.

Clothes are vital to our most basic needs of warmth and protection, but we are beginning to see fashion's role in our health and wellbeing extend beyond this. We have already seen a bra developed with the ability to detect tumors before breast exams and mammograms, and smart socks that use temperature sensors to track diabetic health.

As electronic textiles are developed with the ability to collect and transmit data, and store and conduct energy, we can develop clothes that will help us manage the significant changes in our demographics. A baby born in the UK today is likely to live until they are 103, so we need to balance this with real quality of life. The integration of technology into the fabric of our lives will help us if clothes are easier to put on, if they can monitor our body temperature, help administer drugs or connect us more easily to our friends and family.

It's not only the wearing of clothes that can build relationships, but also the making. A great example of this is artist Whitney McVeigh’s project '1000 Coats', which will see 100 women from different backgrounds each sewing 10 coats. As part of the project there are workshops teaching women to sew, providing them with new skills whilst also encouraging them to work together as part of a community and form new partnerships.

Fashion has the ability to change and shape lives through its personal connection to us all. We all have to wear clothes and every piece of clothing we buy represents a personal choice – it is this intrinsically human relationship between us and our fashion that makes it political. Whether you are wearing a knitted pink pussy hat on a march, wearing an item of dress that expresses your beliefs, or using your business to improve working conditions, fashion can play a significant role in articulating your beliefs.

What we choose to wear reflects how we view the world and how we want the world to view us. The Stone Age man with the latest shell beads, the post-war woman in Dior's New Look, the latest fashion blog recording street style as it happens – they are all tied to our very human need to express individuality.

Fashion has been and always will be a constant part of our existence. Many people see fashion as ephemeral and frivolous but I see it as a creative, enterprising, multifaceted industry that is vital to our economic and personal well-being. Fashion really does matter.