FS, What Comes Next? Talking Charity and Sustainability with the Committee
Words by Mia Foale, Editor in Chief. Images courtesy of FS.
Interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Founded in 1992, FS began as a small collective of students looking to give back to their community. Thirty years on, FS has cemented itself as a powerhouse of the St Andrews social calendar, shot numerous fashion talents into the spotlight, and has raised over half a million pounds for various charities. Recent years have also seen the student-run fashion show present a second event, Starfields, a September music festival, alongside F4TE (Fashion for Earth) week, dedicated to sustainability and education and led in collaboration by industry heavyweights and St Andrews students. FS’ mission, “to highlight the role all students play in determining the future of fashion and to engage students in deserving philanthropic causes”, is accomplished. So, what’s next? Haute sat down with Sophie Cassou, Armand Capart, and Ilaria Bevan, all members of this year’s FS Committee, to discuss their charitable and sustainable initiatives and what we can expect this year.
Could you each tell me a little bit about yourselves, your positions within FS and what those positions entail?
SC: My name is Sophie Cassou, and I’m in my fourth year studying International Relations and Sustainable Development from East Hampton, New York. I am the head of Sustainability Press for FS.
My role in FS is new this year, but it mainly focuses on developing the educational and relational component of our sustainability narrative, which most importantly includes finding ways to engage our community successfully to care about sustainability in fashion and beyond. It’s constantly developing as we learn more about how to get people interested in our operations.
AC: My name is Armand Capart, I am a fourth-year student in Management & Sustainable Development from Monaco. I am head of Sustainability for FS. My role is quite varied, I focus mainly on events and external projects; events include organizing sustainability focus events like fundraising events for projects or upcycle events. They also include trying to make our larger events more sustainable and assess their environmental impacts. I also work on our environmental impacts by offsetting our current impact, and impacts of previous events as well. The ideology is to be able to run events with as few negative emissions as possible. I also attempt to assist any other part of the committee with any sustainability recommendations I can offer.
IB: My name is Ilaria Bevan, and I am a 4th year student studying Art History; my position on FS is the Head of Charity. The most important part of my role is deciding which charity, or this year charities, will be our partner for that year. Therefore, I choose what our ideal type of charity is - their location, their goals, their area of focus - and run applications for these charities to be our charitable partner. After I, alongside my subcommittee and the directors, have all agreed on a charity, it is my job to maintain relations with them through regular updates about how FS is going year-round. I am also in charge of making sure all committee members, models and our St Andrews audience are familiar with our charities through in-person talks with them, regular social media posts and events.
Ilaria, can you tell me more about the charities is FS is working with this year? Why are these charities important to FS and its mission?
IB: As a result of the lasting and continual effects of COVID-19, we have decided this year to focus on two issues that are more important than ever before: domestic abuse and mental health. And so, for the first time in FS history, we have decided to not only continue supporting our charitable partner from FS2021, FearFree, but also introduce a second charitable partner, The Joshua Nolan Foundation.
FearFree is the only person-centred service in Scotland for LGBTQ+, non-binary, male, and individuals from Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) groups who are victims of domestic abuse. FearFree was created because domestic abuse can happen to anyone. Although men’s violence against women is statistically more prevalent, domestic abuse exists in every kind of relationship. FearFree is a gender-informed service, recognising that the needs of men, and the needs of LGBTQ+ people can be different from those of cis-gender women in heterosexual relationships. Through the personalised, intensive and targeted support provided, they aim to help people in these abusive relationships escape, and rehabilitation in a safer environment.
The Joshua Nolan Foundation (JNF) provides much needed funding for people of all ages and backgrounds who are struggling with mental health issues. Based in Edinburgh & the Lothians, JNF provides access to expert counselling and therapy to those who are at risk of or have been impacted by suicide. Its founder, Laura Nolan, set up the charity in 2014 after losing her son Josh to suicide. When seeking help, Laura found that little to no support was available to her and, as a result, wanted to find a way to support others who have lost someone to suicide and provide a safe place to those struggling with suicidal thoughts.
What fantastic charities for FS to support this year. What are the ways FS are engaging with these partnerships?
IB: Charity is, and always has been at the heart of FS.
As a result, FS has several charitable strategies. One of the most important, of course, is to raise money for our charitable partners so that they can continue doing the wonderful work they do to support victims of domestic abuse and those struggling with mental health. We always want to make an impact with our donation and hope that our monetary support can help the charities achieve their goals. The main events we do this through is the Freshers Week favourite, Starfields, and the highly anticipated annual FS Charity Fashion Show.
Another important way we support our charities is through education and the spreading of awareness. It is so important to share the messages of our charitable partners through regular social media posts and posts on the FS blog. Through these we hope to share important details about our charitable partners - what their mission is, and how we support them - with our audience. For example, we have done many informative posts including, “what your ticket gives” to show ticket-buyers what their purchase will go towards. It is also important that all our posts and branding features the logos of the charities to constantly remind our audience who and what they are supporting.
We are also trying to implement smaller events into the FS calendar to help boost awareness and increase our charitable donation. We have run raffles comprising clothes donated by the models and committee members with 100% of the profits going towards our charities. We also have a few other exciting projects that we are in the process of completing now!
This all sounds so exciting! Sophie, Armand, Can you tell me about FS’ sustainability strategy for this year? How has it differed from previous years?
Sustainability is still relatively new in FS; this is only our second year of the subcommittee so the expectations and responsibilities are constantly in flux. Last year we launched our F4TE Week, which stands for Fashion 4 The Earth, and sustainability narrative for FS as ingrained in our committee. We stayed mostly on the side of education, focusing on virtual panels and lectures when we couldn’t do anything in-person and the industry was at a relatively quiet moment. This year the fashion industry has kicked off again with the transition back to in-person, and alongside zoom fatigue, we’ve tried to adapt and move away from panels. We’re learning how to build long-term strategies and developing them for next year's heads to hopefully sustain for the next 30 years. To reflect this transition we’ve rebranded as F4TE by FS, which exemplifies the continuity of efforts we strive to embody. Central to this is our F4TE Forest Initiative, which is a long-term project toward carbon negativity. We aim to offset our carbon emissions by raising funds for a Mossy Earth project, a reforestation company, to then plant native trees in Scotland.
Brilliant, thank you! What are FS doing to implement these strategies?
SC: We have an entire subsection of the fashion team dedicated to sustainable fashion so that they can better communicate with the entire fashion team and stick to sustainable commitments on designers. Our sponsorship team brings in sustainable sponsors as well. We try to advise events subcommittee on sustainable options, however because we are in a rural environment and students, the availability of vendors and options are quite limited with our budget, which is something we are very transparent about and trying to shift in the coming years and developing steps toward getting there. Because sustainability is so new to FS, we’re still establishing strategies to mould the entire committee to shift our production long-term. This is the work me and Armand are focused on so that the next generation of sustainability in FS has a blueprint with which to build off.
What do these strategies mean for students at St Andrews?
SC: For students this means there will be more opportunities to learn and engage with sustainability that are not only panels. I’m hopeful that like our upcycling workshop this past November, we’ll be able to partner with more student societies and organizations to get as many people involved as possible and collectively work together. This is definitely a huge long-term goal of FS sustainability. We understand that the model of sustainability in every industry and institution requires cooperation and many perspectives meeting together, and hope to embody that in the future of our operations.
AC: We also believe that if these student-run events create an awareness of what needs to change and how it should change through our own changes in operation, not only are students better informed and connected to one another over a shared concern, it shows us that professional companies are then also capable, that they should be held to this standard, and that us as young people entering the workforce are equipped with knowledge to push change forward
IB: I think the fashion industry is a very complicated world. In many areas the fashion industry is very charitable. Unfortunately these two entities are not always commonly associated. Over the last two years the fashion industry has become much more charity conscious, with many brands and designers making masks, repurposing factories and donating sale proceeds to charities. Furthermore, some of the top brands in the world have led charity auctions to raise money, and also provided enormous monetary donations to these charitable organisations. The efforts have been particularly admirable during that great period of uncertainty and I think that these efforts are here to stay.
Fashion philanthropy has also extended into the world of the visual through the release of various collections that actively show support for charitable causes, such as creating t-shirts showing support of the NHS.
FS supports this in all we do. Through our events, and educational network we are a part of this global movement. It is always important to remember that to support charitable efforts effectively, one does not need to do one enormous act of kindness. But rather it is about constant and continual efforts to educate and support in whatever way you can. That is why year after year FS strives to make our charitable efforts more effective and wide-ranging so as to honour our charitable partners and their initiatives in the best way possible.
How can the fashion industry support charitable and sustainable efforts effectively? How does FS support this, and what can we do as fashion conscious students in St Andrews with an interest in promoting a better future?
SC, AC: Sustainability is so diverse that there won’t ever be one answer to supporting it in fashion. I think the biggest thing right now is the paradigm of fast fashion that is so parasitic. Awareness and education are important steps to create a blueprint for action, but they are ultimately not enough. And I think people do generally know the harmful impact of fast fashion, so the step then becomes shifting paradigm thinking of consumption which must be in tandem with stricter policies for ethics of production, so we don’t fall into the individualization of responsibility where everything falls on the individual. I think the next steps are to become aware of what governments and governing bodies can do and how we can become active in making this happen. The other side of this is the market, which will shift according to demand, so there is an element of change through purchasing (or not purchasing) power. But we can’t do this individually because it will never have enough sway, so this also requires collectivity and networks to create something tangible as well. I’d say going off this discussion and active listening are powerful tools to developing effective strategies, so it requires many different voices coming together.
What is the future of fashion in St Andrews?
IB: Inclusive.
As many of the student-run charitable fashion shows grow, which includes FS, I think that more people will be able to join in and be a part of this thriving and vibrant community. With so many different groups and shows to be a part of - whether that is just attending events, being a model, or being on a committee - there is something for everyone.
This very much extends to the charity sector as well. FS supporting two charities this year I believe demonstrates that the opportunities for charitable inclusivity are endless. After all, they are the main focus of all the fashion shows in town. I think the past two years have taught us to be kinder, more supportive and more thoughtful of one another, both in town and in the causes we choose to support.
Fashion is an area where everyone can be involved and I look forward to seeing how it progresses in the future.
SC, AC: I think the pandemic really shifted how people see these fashion shows in St Andrews, and students don’t want to pay as much and as often and are less attracted to the exclusivity of events or don’t actually know about them. So something has to change with the nature of the shows generally, but I also think fashion in St Andrews is going to continue down a sustainability path, straddling the many forms this comes in. Whether that be price, inclusivity, locality, second-hand, sustainable fabrics, education, I think we’ll see increasing investment in these areas as they rise in popularity across the student body and our age group more broadly. Something I hope for as an offshoot of wanting something different for fashion is that the nature of events planning will become more creative, putting on events that are different from what we’ve seen or are used to.
This is really promising, I’m very excited for you! Thanks everyone, good luck with FS this year.
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