Design and Technologies 

Year 10 Textiles

The Fashion and Textiles industry relies on the desire of consumers to buy the latest trends, colours, styles and popular brands. With the boom of online shopping and the pursuit for cheap and available clothing, this has generated a new fashion boom. ‘Fast Fashion’ may be affordable for the individual consumer but can we as a community really afford the destruction it creates on our ecosystems and on our people? 

In Semester 2, the Year 10 Textiles students learn all about the unglamorous and illegal practices some of the leading online fashion companies practice all for the sake of their profits and looking good. From the sweatshops of Britain to the textile factories of India, the ‘Four Corners’ report exposes the high cost of fast fashion and who really pays the price. After students watched this report, they then chose items from their closet to see how sustainable that fashion labels claimed they were. Many clothing manufacturers and fashion designers are establishing positive practices to reduce the impact on our planet. However, many are green washing and make claims that are untrue. Students discovered if their clothing items were genuinely positive or if they fell in the false claims bin. The website, https://goodonyou.eco/ allows you to search your favourite label to see how clean and green they really are. If you are keen to see how green your clothes are then use the search function HERE. 

Since being at home students have been working on their upcycle garments, learning construction techniques, finishing skills, material properties and how to get new life out of an old unwanted textile. Their creativity, resilience and ability to work with their own resources to produce wearable fashion from unwanted clothes that would have ended up in landfill is to be congratulated. 

Caaren Hulme

Learning Leader: 

Design and Technologies