A Runway For Change: how Birmingham fashion week 2024 showcased sustainability on the catwalk

By Lydia Lawrence • October 2024

Birmingham, well known as ‘the city of a thousand trades’ has often been overshadowed by other fashion industry focused cities in the UK like Leeds and Manchester. Still, with it’s long history of fashion culture and heritage, and as well being the home of a large manufacture of tailored garments and jewellery making, Birmingham has soon risen to the spotlight and created a space that paves the way for fashion industry workers, as they change the way that sustainable fashion is seen within British culture.

As she started an entire community of fashion entrepreneurs the inspiring Nat Sakinah, president of the Birmingham fashion council are one of those people who focuses on shining the light of the role of sustainability within the production of runway shows. Recycled and deadstock materials were all used in the Birmingham fashion week show alongside techniques used by local up and coming designers.

Even within luxury high fashion design sustainable practices were at the forefront of many designs. Riche sacks, an English luxury fashion house, used the simple yet effective techniques of cutting unique cuts and using fabrication to highlight the intricate designs as well as the rich versatility of luxury menswear.

Shone Designs, a statement knitwear brand that uses unconventional knitting techniques shows a unique and innovative idea of the future of sustainability within fashion with bold and oversized outfits. HulaHan, a sustainable brand that uses upcycled army surplus textiles to create beautiful ready to wear women’s garments, is transforming old waste into something useful and durable.

These designers are all ultimately showcasing how adaptable and practical sustainable fashion can truly be. Through creative, innovative, and experimental practices, local designers are changing the way that the local public see sustainability within the community.

Nat beautifully described her work within the fashion council; “We are proud to celebrate sustainability and ethical fashion with local Birmingham based creatives. We are Birmingham fashion council, and you are Birmingham fashion council… we are a community, and we want to work with you all.”

On the night of the fashion show, while the models rushed to get ready, makeup artists worked for perfection whilst audiences began to be ushered down to their seats. One Birmingham city University fashion student designer, Zoe Bennett, nervously awaited behind the curtain, she wondered how she went so quickly to making her designs, to the runway becoming her own reality.

Her piece dazzled the runway as she used deadstock materials from Burberry, recycled jeans materials, and upcycled fabrics to create an ensemble with zero waste. Her main technique consisted of subtraction cutting, which explains cutting out a certain shape within the fabric and sewing it all back together, which she did so creatively, into a flower shape. Eventually she crafted a beautiful dress that became the focal point of the show.

Zoe presented an overall symbolism to honour practical yet fashionable sustainability. She is a notable example of what the future of sustainability within fashion looks like; with careful craftsmanship, creative ideas, low cost and risk design processes. The demand for a focus on sustainability and the use of higher quality materials for her became a massive success.

Zoe believes the role of sustainability is incredibly important in today’s society, as she describes; “I realized throughout this entire process that its actually so easy to practice sustainability, it’s so practical and you can still create beautiful but also very wearable garments. All outfits created in the show were completely versatile, made from sustainable fabrics and could be sold from the runway as ready — to — wear outfits.”

Sustainable reconstruction can be defined as practical, innovative, and personal to each designer and brand. As it strips away the common practices that fast fashion and mainstream business models teach, it opens many creative doors for sustainable processes and new ways of designing fashion from simple theoretical ideas to a whole runway show. All whilst using higher quality materials. Have mainstream designers had a good and ethical example to follow? Well, it’s clear they have now.