Fast Fashion – Part 1

Between February and July 2021, we worked with 6 students from Mercia School in Sheffield on ‘Fast Fashion’. Together we explored the social and environmental impact of the fashion industry over the last 250 years, using Stott Park Bobbin Mill in the Lake District as inspiration.

 

STOTT PARK BOBBIN MILL View of a selection of bobbins and other turned wood products

“Fast fashion is a design, manufacturing, and marketing method focused on rapidly producing high volumes of clothing…These cheaply made, trendy pieces have resulted in an industry-wide movement towards overwhelming amounts of consumption. Unfortunately, this results in harmful impacts on the environment, garment workers, and, ultimately, consumers’ wallets.”

– Audrey Stanton, The Good Trade

Whether or not we spend a lot of time thinking about fashion, our clothing choices can tell us a lot about heritage, culture and society.

We started off this project by learning about the industrialisation of the fashion industry over 250 years ago. Sites like Stott Park Bobbin Mill were part of this change, helping to supply the millions of Bobbins that were used by the Lancashire textile industry from 1835 onwards. Tracing the development of the fashion industry right up to the 2020s, we explored its social and environmental impact – especially in relation to the modern trend towards Fast Fashion.

“40 years ago, people used to have only a few good items of clothing, to be worn from year to year. Nowadays, people constantly move between new clothes and new trends.”

Connor, Mercia Student

After discovering more about these issues and reflecting on our own fashion choices, we started to think about how we could share this story at Stott Park Bobbin Mill. We learned about project planning and considered what youth engagement meant to us, before coming up ideas for how to help local young people to explore the history of the Bobbin Mill in new and interesting ways. After a ‘How to Pitch’ workshop on we presented our ideas to a panel of English Heritage experts on the 27th May.

We received some really positive feedback and were given the chance to travel to Stott Park on the 2nd July to try out some of our ideas for real! These ideas were developed further and were delivered to a local youth group in the Autumn.

Find out more about Fast Fashion Part 2 here!

“I think shops are doing what is right for their business, by producing new clothes every week, but they need to acknowledge the environmental impacts of this. This is where they need to weigh up the economical/environmental effects.”

Bella, Mercia Student

 

 

“It is exciting to be part of a new opportunity and see how I can help others to participate.” – Diniyah, Mercia Student