The clothing industry is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, and seeing that carbon is seriously out of fashion, designers, producers and consumers alike are being called to make a collective change.
We caught up with two designers excelling in their fields of sustainable, circular and inclusive men’s fashion, travelling to their studios in the fully electric Kia EV6. Considering the car's up to 328-mile range — making this Korean model a game changer in the eco-friendly, electric car scene — it was the ideal form of transport for the day.
We talked to Ed Temperley, co-founder of WAES (which stands for the elements: water, air, earth and sun), a start-up fashion brand that officially launched during the covid pandemic. Fast forward a year or so and it’s now hailed as the world’s first zero-waste, plastic-free, 100% biodegradable trainer brand. WAES also offsets its carbon footprint via habitat restoration by supporting organisations such as Surfers Against Sewage and Sea Trees, which plants a mangrove tree for every shoe purchased.
In line with the same vision, KIA is committed to realising carbon neutrality by 2045, driving forward its pioneering partnership with The Ocean Cleanup to explore innovative ways the automotive industry can help protect the planet.
While the likes of Ed and KIA are keen to bring innovation into our future, Sierra Leone-born and London-raised Foday Dumbuya is on a mission to ensure West African history doesn’t get lost. Offering modern menswear that combines West African style and stories with British heritage, Dumbuya founded his brand from his living room back in 2014, after gaining design experience from Nike and DKNY. He’s now known for his tailoring expertise, creativity and storytelling with his S/S ’22 collection, The Sound of Movement.
We teamed Ed and Foday together to discuss being changemakers in their field, as well as their vision for a better today.
Driving change is brave business
Wanting an alternative to the 24 billion pairs of shoes made from plastic compounds (that end up in landfill) every year, as well as the profit-over-people business model, surfer and Devon-dweller Temperley describes his brand journey as “extremely difficult”. “We [Temperley and his co-founder Damian Quinn] are idealistic dreamers at heart, and you need that mindset to make it through the challenges of creating a whole new product line in an industry addicted to plastic,” he tells us. “The eco choice should be the default for all manufacturers, and I hope to be part of making that choice desirable.”
“It’s a hard space to survive in the creative industry but it’s so important for our culture,” Dumbuya exclaims. “Challenging what has been readily put upon us and reseting that narrative is crucial. In West Africa, people make an effort to dress well because clothes communicate status or a specific time, but African fashion and culture hasn’t been represented the right way in mainstream media. So I thought I’d set something up and tell the untold African stories the right way — with rich heritage and culture.”
To create impact, you need to collaborate
“Some huge footwear companies have contacted us, and they are using us as an example in their meetings,” Temperley shares. “We are a bit like, ‘Hey, you guys can do it too!’ but so often, we find that most brands will baulk at the cost of producing a clean shoe that pays a fair wage to the people making the shoes.”
“For Labrum London’s S/S ’22 collection, I worked with the Madam Wokie Skills Development Initiative in Sierra Leone to create some of the fabric designs, a choice made to support local artisans in Freetown,” Dumbuya adds. “All of the collection designs are made by a trusted team here in London and production is supported in Portugal for our casual wear, which reduces shipping.”
Understanding genuine sustainability is key
“We use the word ‘sustainable’ so much so that we have lost our understanding of its meaning,” Dumbuya sighs. “Greenwashing has a lot of people thinking that they are being sustainable by buying designer or an item from a big high-street brand that’s done one line and labelled it ‘conscious’, but that’s not reality. It’s about buying what you need, taking care of those belongings and not being wasteful.”
Creating a circular economy is the future
“Sneaker production is carbon-intensive, accounting for 1.5 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions, since billions of pairs of shoes go to landfills every month,” Temperley explains. “Shoe production is stuck in a model it can’t break out of, addicted to cheap labour and materials that provide the margin to sponsor huge marketing budgets and sustain massive wastage.”
Dumbuya agrees: “My team and I try not to waste anything and will repurpose items from previous collections. Every step in our process is carefully considered.”
You must live out your business values
“Reducing our consumption of oil is critical to stop us hot-housing our world, so electric cars such as the Kia EV6 not only reduces our global-warming impact but it doesn’t pollute the air. The air quality in London is horrendous and the effects of that on our health is undoubtedly negative,” Temperley tells us.
“I have a young son,” Dumbuya shares. “So for me, electric cars are important because they reduce the volume of pollution in the air around us. I want to make the air cleaner where our children are and switching to electric cars is a good step towards that. It’s also important that we keep evolving as a society and a big part of that is investigating and improving our daily essentials. Making electric cars accessible for more people will help to do that.”
Invest in a greener future by learning more about electric vehicles such as the fully electric Kia EV6
