Let’s Fix Fashion is an education-focused campaign empowering young people to tackle the impacts of fast fashion. Through workshops, webinars, clothes swaps, and a final student catwalk, the programme raises awareness of fashion waste while promoting sustainable choices and circular economy principles. Through interactive webinars, presentations from Irish sustainable businesses, and their own research, students learn about the global environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry. The Let's Fix Fashion campaign inspires the next generation of changemakers to rethink how we make, wear, and dispose of clothes.
No, this programme is open to anyone who is interested in finding out about the negative impacts of the fashion industry on our planet, and what we can do to slow down fashion: create less waste, use more sustainable materials, improve working conditions etc. We welcome those who are passionate about creating change!
The campaign focuses on the below topic areas with interactive webinars, resources and activities to accompany each online event
• Impacts of Fast Fashion
• Culture and Identity
• Upcycling and Repairs
• Circular Fashion
• Clothes Sharing and Reuse
The Green-Schools Let’s Fix Fashion Project is open to students in schools that are actively working onany Green-Schools theme in the participating Local Authority Areas (listed below). The project is currently accepting applications for this school year and we would love to hear from you!
The campaign also expanded its international reach, welcoming five schools from Kenya, two schools from South Africa, and one school from Dubai, creating valuable opportunities for cross-cultural learning and collaboration.
Participating local authorities:
Open to schools in Cork City, Limerick, Fingal, Kilkenny Wicklow, Wexford, Tipperary, DCC, Cork County, Kerry, Meath
Let’s Fix Fashion was designed not only to inspire creativity, but to ensure every student understands the why behind sustainable fashion. Our low-threshold, inclusive model makes this a climate campaign for all students, not just the creative or the confident. Students walk away with practical knowledge, not just a project submission.
Each year the campaign is launched with a documentary screening within the school and live panel discussion during Climate Action week in October. Students will then focus on one aspect of the problem, inspired by the documentary and create a communications project around their message to raise awareness within their school. Students are encouraged to submit an entry on fast fashion to the Young Reporters for the Environment. Below you will find resources to support this stage of the campaign. You can also view previous entries here. Through our twinning programme students will have the opportunity to connect with others across the globe.
Some of our past screenings include: A True Cost, A Textile Mountain and Fashion Reimagined and Inside the Shein Machine, and ‘Losing the Thread”
Explore the relationship between clothing, self-expression, heritage, and sustainability in our November webinar!
Students will discover how fashion is much more than following trends—it is a reflection of culture, traditions, history, and personal identity. The webinar will also encourage students to evaluate how fabrics, manufacturing methods, and consumer choices have changed over time, and to consider the environmental and social impacts of these changes. Students will:
Thisengaging topic encourages students to think critically about what they wear, where their clothes come from, and how fashion can celebrate identity while supporting a more sustainable future. Get inspired by the circular dress collective here
The third webinar will focus on Upcycling, where students are briefed and trained in a selection of skills that will help them to upcycle one item of clothing into multiple items. See below for our past Upcycling webinars.
You can also check out tips and tricks from our ambassador Sarah Burns from initial sketches and planning through measuring, cutting, and sewing here.
The fourth webinar explores circular textiles, giving you and your students the opportunity to meet and engage with Irish businesses that are transforming the way textiles are designed, used, and reused. Students from Kenya, and UAE also share circular innovations in their localities. Students will learn how circular textile practices—such as repairing, reusing, recycling, and redesigning clothing and fabrics—help reduce waste and keep valuable materials in use for longer. In previous years, we have been delighted to collaborate with inspiring designers such as Sampla, Mamukko, Jessica Brennan, Fera designs, the Upcycle movement who have shared their innovative approaches to creating a more sustainable textile industry.
The fourth and final webinar focuses on the importance of sharing and pro-longing the life of our clothes! “One mans trash is another mans treasure!”
The catwalk event in Brú Ború is the culmination of the hard work of the schools throughout the school year, selected schools prepare looks from second-hand shops, culture and identity as well as upcycled looks to wear on the runway. Schools are selected based on completion of various tasks throughout the year from documentary screenings, communication take overs, upcycling projects, circular economy design thinking and organising a swap shop in the school.
Students are challenged to put together a look for less than 30 euro from a charity shop or create a new look or accessory by upcycling old or used materials and were presented with a certificate onstage. The event also includes a swap shop, activity stations, and a mend and repair station educating students on the importance of reusing and reworking materials, as well as the skills needed to give clothes a second life.
Click on the image to download.
The ‘Welcome to your Let’s Fix Fashion Journey’ resource will give your students an insight into the environmental and social problems associated with Fast Fashion.
In the ‘Fast Fashion and the Global Goals: Stitching Sustainability into Our Future’ resource, you can learn about how ‘Fast fashion’ is a significant global challenge, negatively affecting multiple Global Goals such as poverty, health, gender equality, clean water, decent work, and climate action.
‘Global Threads: The Journey of Fast Fashion’ is a comprehensive resource exploring the journey of our clothing, from sourcing raw materials to their final destination. The interactive maps include videos and articles showing the processing of raw materials, production lines and landfill sites across the world.
This resource explores all our options for keeping our clothes in circulation for longer. By shopping second hand you’re giving clothes a longer life, slowing down fast fashion, and helping to protect our planet.
This resource explores how what we wear affects marine life, aquatic ecosystems, and coastal communities. Students will investigate the link between fast fashion and marine litter – from plastic microfibres in the sea to clothing dumped in the Global South.
This resource takes a look at the circular economy and fast fashion. We also highlight some wonderful sustainable Irish businesses.
A circular economy aims to maintain the value of products, materials and resources for as long as possible by returning them into the product cycle at the end of their use, while minimising the generation of waste. It designs out waste restoring and regenerating nature extending the lifespan of textiles. The circular economy tackles climate change and biodiversity loss together while addressing social needs.
We encourage all schools involved in the programme to run their own clothes sharing, or swap shop, event.
Schools that actively participate in the project throughout the year will be entered into a draw to take part in a live end of year catwalk event where students will be given vouchers to purchase and put together outfits from second hand clothing stores. Participating schools will be awarded a certificate of completion.
Did you know that #LetsFixFashion has its own Instagram?
Follow us for events, announcements, knowledge shares and more! @gs_letsfixfashion
And don’t forget to check out our #LetFixFashion Youtube playlist for past workshops and other resources.
