FR EC Fashion and Environment

The students are divided into two groups and participate in two 2-hour workshops.

1st workshop : the students are welcomed by a member of a recycling association in Dunkirk called ‘Système D’, who involves them in one of their projects consisting of recycling tarpaulins. After explaining how the sewing machines work and how to use the materials and tools provided to them, the students create purses from advertising tarpaulins.

Second workshop : the students are supervised by cultural mediators. First, they discuss the fashion industry, which is one of the industries with the greatest impact on climate change and reinforces socio-economic inequalities around the world. From the screening of television reports, they think about so-called fast or disposable fashion, commonly known as ‘fast fashion’ (the intensive and massive renewal of collections), mass production and overconsumption, which are at the root of the socio-environmental disaster in the textile industry. 

Next, divided into three groups, they are asked to recreate the production cycle of a pair of jeans or trainers by putting cards in order (materials, types of activities, places). This encourages them to think about the production of raw materials (synthetic, plant-based, animal-based), the manufacture or processing of raw materials (20% of global water pollution is caused by the use of chemicals during the various stages of production), transport (greenhouse gas emissions linked to the transport of clothing by plane are around 14 times higher than those of an item transported mainly by sea), the maintenance of textile products (micro plastic particles, washing clothes accounts for 12% of water consumption in France) and finally clothing waste (which concerns consumers but also businesses). Finally, each group has to make the jeans or trainers they would most like to buy : they create a poster representing them and explaining their choices.

Each student made their own purse, and as a group, they created posters that they presented to the whole class. 

These posters will be displayed on 29 May 2025 at the Dunkirk ‘Giga Puces’ which is a large flea market dedicated exclusively to second-hand goods, in the ‘green village’, a space which is dedicated to eco-friendly practices with the introduction of DIY workshops (‘(do it yourself’), a repair café, upcycling and raising awareness about reuse and where alternatives for better consumption are highlighted.