It’s no secret that fashion exploits our insecurities and desires, using them as chains to tie us down to the industry’s non-stop cycle of consumption and production. As consumers, however, we have a certain power. By shopping less, we can reclaim a sense of autonomy in fashion while challenging the industry’s very structure.
“We know fashion is bad for the planet, so why are we still shopping?” This is the question that former Highsnobiety Fashion Editor Alec Leach poses in his debut book The World Is On Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes. In the book, Leach brings the power into the hands of the consumer, providing a kind of roadmap to improving our relationship with fashion and why such a relationship can revolutionise the fashion system.
SLEEK: Let’s start at the beginning. You’ve been working as a fashion editor for almost the entirety of your career, reporting on the latest collections and trends. When did you decide that this wasn’t for you anymore? What triggered your move into the sustainable fashion space?
Alec Leach: It was towards the end of 2018 and I had become so exhausted by the relentlessness of fashion, its constant newness. Once you start building up knowledge about what the over-production of clothing is doing to the planet, as I was doing, it’s very hard to ignore. That’s what prompted me to get into sustainability. Around the time that I made that move, sustainability was not as commonplace as it is now. It felt like it was an area in the industry that I could make a positive impact in, reaching out to people who potentially hadn’t considered conscious consumption before.
S: At what point did you know that you wanted to write “The World Is On Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes”?
AL: The book was born from a desire to escape the algorithm. I had been running @future__dust, which is a kind of megaphone for sustainability, on Instagram for a year or two and I began to question what this platform could be beyond the digital, beyond the space of Instagram. Instagram goes hand in hand with consumerism, trend cycles, capitalism and I just wanted to challenge that by doing something outside of an algorithm, something tangible and real. This physicality seemed most appropriate in the form of a printed publication.
S: Throughout the book, you contribute personal anecdotes about your own fashion experiences and shopping habits. Why was it important for you to write from this first-hand perspective?
AL: As a fashion editor, you’re exposed to a lot of cool, interesting things that can refine and elevate your taste. At the same time, you’re really a kind of guinea pig for consumerism. I came out of that role realising that I haven’t been good at shopping, and I don’t own anything that I feel especially attached to. It was important for me to write from this point of view, because when you see fashion online there’s a real tendency to forget about what it’s like in the real world. I think it was a useful way to bring the message home, to highlight that fashion has a damaging reality.
SLEEK: In the book, you say that “fashion is an optimistic undertaking, it gives us a chance to envision new futures for ourselves, places where our current fears and burdens melt away.” Beyond selling us clothes, the fashion industry is selling us an alternate reality, a hope, a dream. While this can be beautiful, there’s a lack of honesty and transparency. What are your thoughts on truth and transparency in fashion? How can it be more transparent?
AL: Fashion will only be more transparent when it’s forced to. A lack of transparency gives big companies and employers the ability to suppress people, and there’s a lot of suppression in fashion in every sector; production, marketing, consumption. So much of fashion relies on there being a lack of transparency and so it’s not going to be easily given up. A point I make in the book is the idea of something luxury being “Made In Italy”, when really the fabric has come from Africa, then it was sewed in Romania, and finally shipped to Italy to have the maker’s mark added. There’s a lot of trickery in fashion to make it seem more glamorous than it really is.
The World Is On Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes. Image Courtesy of Alec Leach.
S: Fashion is also about belonging, a theme that you bring up in the book. Fashion toys with our desire to belong, to be a part of something. And yet no matter how many designer, culturally significant pieces you own, the likelihood is, you’ll still feel like you don’t belong. How can we counter this as consumers?
AL: Fashion exploits low self-esteem. Equally, there’s also a weakness in people where they think if they own a particular piece, they’re going to be happier or finally belong. There’s a real empowerment in being able to say no. Removing yourself from the trend frenzy can be an opportunity to cultivate more self-esteem and individuality. It’s interesting, I think most often the people we consider to be iconic tend to be the people who resist trends the most. By resisting trends, shopping becomes much more intentional and personal, rather than a performance that the rest of society expects from you.
S: A question that you ask in the book is “Am I ready to start a relationship with this piece?” What does a healthy relationship with clothing look like?
AL: It’s about wearing the life out of pieces, until they fall apart, simply because you love them so much. It’s about asking yourself questions, being in touch with your own needs and wants in fashion.
S: You also reference Marie Kondo’s mantra: ‘Does it spark joy?’. When was the last time you asked yourself this question?
AL: The last time was probably when I bought myself a Diesel denim jacket. It was exactly the kind of denim jacket I had been searching for forever, and now I never need to worry about a denim jacket again.
S: What are your thoughts on legislation in relation to sustainability? Do you think that if we were to introduce laws, systemic change could occur?
AL: Again, it comes back to pressure. The only way the industry will become sustainable is if it’s forced to be. The only way we can see these changes is with democracy, with holding people accountable and behaving more like citizens rather than consumers. We have to work together to make the change we want to see in the world. One of the reasons that shopping less can be such a powerful thing is that you suddenly start to ask yourself who you are beyond clothing and how you can be part of something meaningful.
Alec Leach’s debut book The World Is On Fire But We’re Still Buying Shoes is available here.