The speaker

Sarah Kent is Chief Sustainability Correspondent at The Business of Fashion (BoF). She is based in London and drives BoF's coverage of critical environmental and labour issues. She created and launched industry benchmark the BoF Sustainability Index. Previously, Sarah covered oil companies and energy markets at The Wall Street Journal. She has a Bachelors in History from the University of Oxford.

The Business of Fashion is a leading global platform, renowned for its comprehensive analysis and coverage of the fashion industry's evolution towards innovation, sustainability, and strategic business practices. It seeks to bridge the gap between the dynamic realms of fashion commerce and critical industry analysis, directing the conversation towards a sustainable future.

Five takeaways from the talk and the discussion 

1. Fashion journalism goes beyond the glitz and the glam. When audiences think about fashion journalism, what comes to mind is images of celebrities in haute couture or trade news on the latest designer collaborations. However, Business of Fashion, the publication Kent works for, has been at the forefront of innovative coverage of the industry. Kent, who worked as an oil reporter for The Wall Street Journal for over a decade, said she was able to transfer those skills of critically examining the oil industry into questioning the fashion industry. 

“There's a huge amount written about fashion in many different places, but a lot of it is really focused on the glitz and the glamour on the consumer side of things, which is great,” said Kent. “But this is a multi trillion dollar industry that spans from raw materials through manufacturing and processing through the way we live, the way we shop, the way we buy. So there's a huge impact on business across the supply chain and people and it deserves to be covered that way.”

2. Fashion journalism does not only intersect with business journalism, but with climate journalism as well. Kent believes that journalists are not looking enough into how climate change is impacting the industry, not only regarding environmental waste but also in areas such as labour rights and business practices. She highlights that the impact of climate change is perhaps not showing in the industry in a way that’s expected which deserves more attention. 

“The climate impact has kind of been going under the radar, but it's here and it's getting worse. I just did a story about the heatwaves in Southeast Asia. And the impact on labour is huge. It's really hot in the factories, you're getting a lot worse heat stress, but also when it gets to sort of 45-50 degrees machines stop working and you can't control the quality of fabric when you're trying to dye, and productivity comes down,” said Kent. “So this is not just a labour issue, this is a real economic issue. And it's just that you're getting the short, sharp shocks at the moment, which allows it to kind of fall under the radar.”

3. The intersection between fashion journalism and climate suffers from lack of engagement. Fashion journalism under a climate lens is underrepresented when it comes to coverage of the industry. Unfortunately, it’s not easy for audiences to engage with these stories. According to our latest research, the proportion that say they always or often actively avoid news about climate change has also remained broadly stable, averaging 22% across the eight countries. 

“You see people wanting to understand more about the way they shop and its impact,” said Kent. “But how do you write these stories for a consumer who doesn't necessarily open up that glossy magazine to (...) read an essay on the scope of carbon emissions? And I think that's a real challenge: to make this engaging and make people want to read about that.” 

4. Journalists have to figure out how to address consumers when covering fashion. For all the stories we hear about fast fashion’s detrimental impact on the environment and its horrid working conditions in the Global South, it is easier to probe the industry rather than fashion consumers on their responsibility towards these issues. Kent said that consumers do not want to feel as if they are doing something wrong. They do not want to be chastised for their purchasing habits. For consumers that do want to consume responsibly, though, fashion journalism is a way to engage in the conversation. 

“When it comes down to it, the consumer does have some responsibility and if you want to think about the way you consume more responsibly, then one relatively easy step is being more conscious in the way you buy fashion and thinking before you buy if it's something you really need,” said Kent. “It's not about what brand you're shopping for, if you're buying it, are you going to wear it? Are you going to wear it for a long time? If the answer is yes, then I think as a consumer, you've sort of been responsible.” 

However, this tension always comes back to the relationship with consumers, who want to purchase clothes, and brands trying to get people to buy as much as possible, as fast as possible, to maximise revenue.

5. Luxury brands should be looked at as closely as fast fashion. Fast fashion companies like Shein or Temu have been villainised in the media for their terrible environmental conditions and the amount of waste they produce, as well as the low quality of their garments. Kent said that this is not due to the advertising weight that high fashion has, but rather due to the way that subsection of the industry works. 

“Beyond advertising spend, the luxury industry has a very sophisticated way of talking about itself and tamping down on what otherwise might be critical voices,” said Kent. “A part of that is that they just don't really engage in criticism of themselves. And they keep this very strong narrative, which is that ‘well, because we are expensive, this could not possibly be our problem. This is about volume. This is about low cost production, in places where we don't produce.’”In fact, as Kent points out, luxury fashion companies are capitalising on the fast fashion model as well, underpaying migrant workers for long hours and terrible working conditions. 

The bottom line

Fashion journalism goes beyond surface-level glitz and glamour, exploring significant industry impacts and dynamics. One of the most overlooked areas of fashion journalism is the intersection of fashion and climate, as there are substantial effects of climate change on production and labour. The industry should receive closer scrutiny, and not just fast fashion brands but luxury businesses whose practices contradict their lofty climate goals.