Take It Up Wear It Out: Rebellion on the High Street! Protesting fast fashion with XR Sutton

Discussing ethical and sustainable fashion with likeminded or open minded friends on social media is great, and I’m thrilled that there’s such a creative and ever-growing community of people who care about clothes, the people who make them and their impact on the environment.

But sometimes I worry that I’m preaching to the choir, that my blog posts aren’t reaching the people who I think need to read them: the people who are trapped in a cycle of buying unsatisfactory clothes and then discarding them on the off-chance that if they do this enough it will make them happy.

So I was excited when my local Extinction Rebellion group planned an action to protest the destructive nature of fast fashion, which would take place on Sutton High Street. Not only was it a cause I care deeply about, I also felt well-versed enough in fast fashion facts to be able to contribute to the leaflets the group was preparing and even to speak on local radio about the protest. I was also curious (and a little apprehensive) about what the reaction from shoppers might be. Being confronted by the negative aspects of something you enjoy doing can bring on feelings of defensiveness, and it’s often unpleasant and uncomfortable to sit with this reality, and consider how you have contributed to the problem and what aspects of your behaviour need to change.

XR Sutton set up a table in the middle of the pedestrianised High Street outside the shopping centre on Saturday morning, and a group of protesters formed a human washing line, decorated with facts about the fast fashion industry. Other protesters surreptitiously added labels to fast fashion garments in stores, acted as human mannequins in shop windows and staged a die-in. The rest of us handed out leaflets and chatted with shoppers, and I thought it might be interesting to share some of the interactions I had during the three hours I was there.

“I’ve worked in a local charity shop for seven years. We try not to waste any donations - the rag man comes and takes any clothes we can’t sell in the shop. Another girl does the pricing - she knows all about labels. I ask her why those flip flops are £15, and she says “oh, they’re by this designer, and they are over £100 new.” I can’t believe people pay all that money for something then give it away.”

Mum: “we’re just off to a charity shop now to find a costume for my daughter, she wants to be Queen Victoria for a costume day at school.”

Me: “that sounds like fun!”

Mum: “I don’t know where to start!”

Me: “look for a big skirt, something with lace…”

Daughter (very excited): “we’re going to pad my bum with a cushion!”

Mum: *sigh*

“I don’t want a leaflet, weirdo”

Older man: “what kind of person lies in the middle of the road on a Saturday afternoon?”

Younger man with family: “well, I wouldn’t, but I’m glad some people are, it needs to be done”

Father: “so it’s bad to buy new things?”

Me: “every garment that’s produced has a big environmental impact. If you buy secondhand or keep your clothes for longer you’re reducing that impact and helping to save the planet.”

Father (to daughter): “are you listening? Not too many new things.”

“In my young day (which was a long time ago), no one would dream of throwing clothes away. I didn’t know about the pollution though, that makes me worry. When I was a child, no one had asthma or allergies. Now they all do, because of the pollution. Something’s got to change.”

“WHY AREN’T YOU WEARING HESSIAN SACKS LIKE IN THE OLDEN DAYS?! THAT WOMAN OVER THERE IS WEARING A NICE DRESS! YOU’RE ALL HYPOCRITES!!

“It’s so nice that you’ve got drawing here for the kids to do. We took them to Marble Arch during the April protests and they loved it. We didn’t know there was a local group, we’d be really interested in joining”.

“I don’t want to disrupt the die-in but can you make sure they stay hydrated?”

And probably my most frequent interaction:

Shopper: “so what’s this all about then?”

Me: “we’re trying to raise awareness about the problems with fast fashion; we’re encouraging people to think about whether they really need something new, or whether they could buy secondhand or vintage, or swap clothes with friends.”

Shopper: “I love going to charity shops! I got this *proudly displays item of clothing* from a charity shop, it was a bargain!”

Overall, despite some people flinching away from the Extinction Rebellion leaflets as though they were radioactive, the reactions were more positive than negative. Some people just wanted to ignore us, and the woman who yelled at me left me speechless because her reaction was the exact opposite to what I had been expecting. The complaint I’m used to hearing in discussions about changing our shopping habits is “why can’t I have nice things?” as though sustainable fashion is the very opposite of a nice thing. My fellow fashion activists and all the amazing sustainable brands I know of are all doing their utmost to show that this is not the case, and that sustainable fashion is just what all fashion ought to be - creative, beautiful and kind to people and the planet. To someone who knows quite a bit about fashion history, the “hessian sacks” comment was almost comically ignorant - in the past, clothes were some of the most expensive and treasured possessions a person could own, and were well cared for. Even the “sackcloth” dresses of the Depression era were made from tightly-woven cotton flour sacks (which the flour companies would often print with novelty patterns as they knew the sacks would be re-used for clothing). But there’s no chance of telling someone some interesting facts when all they want to do is have a shout.

The protest, and the reaction to Extinction Rebellion as a whole, has given me a new facet of activism to think about. Some people who are desperate not to see a change in the status quo will think that you’ve been “caught out” when they point out the fact that you still live within modern society. This is also very much at odds with the online community activism I’ve been taking part in, where the focus is on doing something rather than nothing, and making the small changes that will quickly add up. For the record, I don’t think I’m a hypocrite for wanting to change the world I live in. If I ran away to live in the woods (tempting though it might feel at times), nothing would change; industries would carry on polluting and destroying the planet, and eventually that destruction would come to the woods too.

I had an interesting conversation with a friend later on that day about the five stages of grief, and how these could relate to people’s reactions to being confronted with the realities of climate change. While XR Sutton as a whole works on getting our local council to declare a climate emergency, and encouraging them to create meaningful change through the implementation of their environmental policies, I’m also going to be working on my personal strategy as a sustainable fashion activist. How do I respond to people’s anger, fear, disbelief and cynicism in a way that’s creative, positive and kind, and doesn’t leave me at risk of burn-out?