I’M WRITING THIS EDITOR’S LETTER ON A plane back to London following a whirlwind trip to New York Fashion Week where the front-row chat ran the gamut from the existential to inconsequential. In the span of three shows, I participated in a debate about the fate of democracy in the face of looming elections and giddy group gossip about whether rumours of a Beyoncé and Taylor Swift country-western collaboration were true. But the topic that was most omnipresent was the weather. The New York shows started out with unusually balmy temperatures and, five days later, ended with an extreme blizzard warning. All of this on the heels of the world’s hottest January on record.
And as a result, no one quite knew what to wear. Some editors dressed up in their finest, most enormous statement coats. Others opted for sandals and bare legs. Global warming once seemed a distant prospect; now, it’s impossible to ignore. We live with the emotional, economic and physical consequences of a destabilised biosphere and climate every day. Against this backdrop, it can be hard to make sense of fashion, an industry often viewed as being part of the problem.
So, as the ELLE team and I headed into the new year, we knew we wanted to reassess our practices as an editorial team and use our powerful platform to inspire action that will help create change – whether that is giving space to a range of climate-justice campaigners or encouraging our readers to interrogate their consumption habits. We’ve launched our inaugural Green List (‘Threads of change,’ page 128) to celebrate the collectives, brands and people putting sustainability at the top of fashion’s agenda. And we’ve assembled a wide-ranging network of women in our world to share some of the radical changes they’ve made in their lives to adjust to our new normal – from communal living (‘All together now,’ page 150) to wardrobe sharing (‘Sharing the love,’ page 136) and even birth striking (‘The rise and rise of the birth strike,’ page 146). We’ve also created a comprehensive guide to shopping and caring for second-hand clothing responsibly, a reliable way to promote circularity (‘A fine vintage,’ page 140).
Confession: it’s not lost on me that we editors make headlines out of things like second-hand fashion and mindful rewearing, when in fact it’s simply how most people get dressed: a mix of old and new, worn as much as time, mood and circumstances will allow. But what we hope to do is contribute to a shift in which fashion promotes a culture of buyi
