Who said fashion doesn’t matter?
Like most other global industries, fashion has its dark side. Exploitation of garment workers, lack of diversity, and environmental damage remain issues that the industry must do more to address and resolve. But this vast creative industry has the potential to initiate significant change.
Despite its faults, one of the things fashion can do is spread an idea around very powerfully, coherently, and with the all-important 'cool' factor. One example of this is Professor Helen Storey MBE and chemistry Professor Tony Ryan's project Catalytic Clothing, which explored how textiles can be used as a catalytic surface to purify air. They designed and created the catalytic dress 'Herself', which is impregnated with a photocatalyst that uses light to break down air-borne pollution into harmless chemicals.
'Herself' toured the world raising the profile of the Catalytic Clothing project and introducing city dwellers worldwide to the notion that clothing and textiles can play a vital role in improving the urban environment, as well as the health of those who live in it.
