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FASHION ROUNDTABLE AND MEG PIRIE JAN 21, 2025

Guess the month. During this month, fast-fashion giant Shein refused in Parliament to disclose facts about cotton in their supply chain, all the while fires in Kantamanto market destroyed 8,000 livelihoods. In the first ten days of this month, the world’s richest 1% have already used up their share of the 2025 carbon budget, something which would take someone from the poorest 50% three years to actualise. Concurrently, wildfires spread in California, to such a devastating extend, that more than 150,000 people have been displaced.

The month is January.

It is perhaps no wonder then, that my climate anxiety has been at its worst this month. A consternation of the polar opposites described – where large corporations and the wealthy continue on as normal, while others feel devastation first hand. This has created a deeply rooted need to retreat into nature more and more. The mountain I live on in Wales, is already sprouting snowdrops and amongst everything that is happening in the world, this provides hope that despite everything, nature continues.

Fletcher’s Almanac

Conceivably, it was at just the right time that I sat down to read Fletcher’s Almanac, by Professor Kate Fletcher, which went some way to soothe my anxiety and reminded me that amongst the cataclysmic it is still possible to reimagine other ways of being and doing. This is perhaps what Fletcher is best at. As someone who has been at the forefront of systems change and fashion as localism, with fourteen books under her belt, Fletcher has once again delivered on something that feels pivotal.

Typically an annual publication, an almanac contains key dates, along with data such as weather forecasts and tide tables, organised in a calendar format. Taking this one step further, Fletcher’s Almanac acts as a device to view the interdependency between fashion and nature, whereby nature is seen as the starting point and not just a resource for fashion to exploit.

In short vignettes and full of hopeful predictions, the book takes the reader through the passing of time, focusing on nature and fashion through the seasons. The seasons being important in the slow-fashion space and something I have long talked about in the use of fibres such as wool. When working within planetary boundaries, there is a prerequisite to lean into the seasons, acting therefore as a precursor for work to transpire at a far slower pace. Slowing down too offers a chance to be more thoughtful with what we notice, whether that is a tree unfurling its leaves, to a hole to be darned in a favourite jumper, as Fletcher explains.

Q: Congratulations on what feels like a pivotal book for 2025! Where did the idea originate to create an Almanac for nature encounters and fashion systems through the year?Thank you! I have been writing short diary entries of nature experiences and the role of clothes in them for years. The idea for the Almanac came from a conversation I had with a friend of mine, Rachael… and the rest is, as they say, geography!

Q. Can you delve further into the interdependency between fashion, nature and place for those who are yet to read the book?
Natural systems are the starting point and ending point for fashion – it is out of earth-hewn materials that clothes are made, and earth is ultimately where they go to die. The physical interdependencies of fashion systems and natural systems are therefore self-evident – and these are being tested, extracted, exploited, diminished and more, with the sorts of effects that you mention in your introduction and which many would rather not think about. This reveals another interdependency (or maybe the lack of it!) which is our ways of thinking that shape how we see nature. 

If, like me, you were born and raised in the Global North, then this is likely to involve seeing nature as ‘resources’, for use by and for humans with few limits, in an evident expression of a hierarchy where humans, and fashion, are at the top of the pile and nature is at the bottom. This fuels a process of nature separation, which environmental philosophers have long identified as at the root of the problem of unsustainability. So in this book, the aim is to build connections, new language and fluency of nature, practical experience of limits to fashion activities, understanding of what we can do as dressed bodies to unveil more interdependencies, probably in ways not imagined before – and for these to change us on a fundamental level. The goal is to see ourselves as part of, not apart from, the earth.

Q. This book felt incredibly raw, giving the reader an insight into the unique way in which you view fashion and nature. Was the writing process for this particular piece of work any different to your usual method?
Ah, well I have been writing about nature and clothing for more than a decade now, drawing on my own experiences, not because I am interesting (I am not), but because these experiences are often common experiences that resonate in others’ lives – and therefore become a way to enable action. Raw writing, full of vulnerability, possibility, experiments, hopefulness always cuts through. They say, don’t they, that in order to hear the signal, you have to cut out the noise. That’s what I try to do in this book.

Q. In a seemingly apocalyptic time when people may be feeling helpless, the line in your book, “[…] care is never finished. It is a politically charged process that calls for bodily involvement and hands-on action,” particularly spoke to me. Are you able to expand on the idea that caring for clothes, ultimately cares for the planet?
All of us care for something, someone or other. Maybe it’s a pet, a partner, a child, a parent. We know what caring is and we know what it feels like, and when we have too little of it. These same processes are what sustainability transformation calls for, including in fashion, a process of ongoing tending, attentiveness, giving. This is the work of repairing our world. Calling it care rather than sustainability action helps us to see what each of us can do. Clothing care is a wonderful place to start.

Q. The Almanac is peppered with predictions and call-to-actions. For one action you ask people to practice making the comparison between fashion shows and collections as imitations of breeding displays and nesting activities – suggesting the need to look for underlying motivations i.e. who ultimately benefits or is harmed by the process. Were these call-to-actions consciously set out to explore in the book or did they come from the process of connecting with the thematics that come from being absorbed in the seasons?
A bit of both! Almanac’s often contain a horoscope, so I wanted to channel the future-shaping potential of a book to set some things in train. They can be used as intentions, as part of manifesting, or to make us do, be, know differently in clothes in the world.

A beautifully illustrated pocket-sized book to take with you on your forays into nature. This will be a limited edition, with the second volume of Fletcher’s Almanac coming next year. Reflective, pivotal and pioneering – for all bookshelves (or oversized pockets) this 2025!

More about Professor Kate Fletcher  here Published by Quickthorn

Illustrated by Danai Tsouloufa Designed by Fraser Muggeridge studio

Interview by Meg Pirie