SUSTAINABILITY
WHAT SUSTAINABILITY MEANS TO US.
Sustainability has become central to our mission at FS. We advocate change in the fashion industry and aim to amplify the voices making sustainability accessible, to create a platform in our community to learn with one another, and to take direct action both in St Andrews and beyond.
Throughout our history, we have strived to stay on top of the current of the fashion industry, to reflect not the trends but the movements driving fashion forward. As the climate crisis continues to threaten our lives, and indeed more acutely the lives of those in the global south, certain brands, organizations, and people have recognized the need for dramatic upheavals in fashion production and consumption. From the treatment of garment workers to the textiles making garments themselves to the lengthening of our clothes lifespans, every actor along the lines of production and consumption play a part in improving or maintaining the norms. We hope to invest in a more sustainable world through the domain of our everyday wear and personal expression, and to celebrate the passion, creativity, and resilience within.
OUR GOALS FOR FS2025
EDUCATION
Education is the most vital aspect of our F4TE initiatives. We seek continuous learning with our community and guests about all aspects of sustainability in fashion through partnerships, lectures, panels, and in-person sustainability workshops.
TRANSPARENCY
Transparency means public disclosure of credible, comprehensive and comparable data in order to enable accountability so that action can be taken to better improve our sustainable standings. Bringing awareness to the practices of our designers, sponsors, and our own organisation, we seek to give our audience a comprehensive understanding of the impact made by all those involved in FS.
EQUALITY
FS is an equal opportunity organisation with a culture of high performance and continuous improvement. We work to bring attention to the inequalities within the fashion industry and to challenge them by actively encouraging all those interested in joining our organisation to further cultivate their passions. We also seek to promote businesses and brands run and founded by people of colour.
INCLUSION
We recognise that in order to grow most sustainably, it must come from group and community efforts, and thus believe inclusivity is at the heart of sustainability. F4TE by FS strives to create an environment where everyone feels comfortable to participate and learn, and where ideas and opinions may be shared.
IMPACT
The fashion industry is an enormous site for greenwashing, the centering of sustainability narratives as a marketing tool without following through on commitments or acknowledging major sustainability issues elsewhere in the organisation. F4TE by FS strives to create an impact which we may be able to both see and trace. This is both to ensure transparency, and to create a trajectory toward making tangible change.
St Andrews Charity Fashion Show is a registered charity in Scotland (No. SC050426) which seeks to advance the arts and environmental protection by holding events, workshops and panels to promote awareness, knowledge and involvement in these areas; and host fashion, music and other events to raise funds for distribution to charities and other community organisations to be used exclusively for any of the charitable purposes provided for in section 7 of the Charities and Trustee Investment (Scotland) Act 2005.
