INTERVIEW #134 EMMA HÅKANSSON

Name: Emma Håkansson

Based in: Australia

Instagram: @hakamme

Occupation: Founder of Collective Fashion Justice and author of the book “How Veganism Can Save Us”.

Hi Emma, Welcome to A Sustainable Closet, can you tell us more about yourself?

I’m the founding director of Collective Fashion Justice, a charity working to create what I call a total ethics fashion system: one which prioritises the life and wellbeing of people, our fellow animals and the planet before profit. I’m also a writer, and came into the fashion industry as a model, before realising just how much harm was behind the clothes I was being paid to help sell. 

We would like to start with you personally, so what’s your relationship with clothes, when did you get interested?

I’ve always loved fashion, and I chose to start work as a model because of my interest in the industry — I felt it could eventually be a stepping stone to more creative work within the world of fashion, and it was fun to be a part of creating beautiful imagery of beautiful clothing. I still feel this admiration and appreciation of fashion, I just now recognise that clothes need to be made well – in line with total ethical values – for them to really be beautiful.

How would you describe your style and the clothes you choose to wear?

Over the last couple of years, I think my style has developed a more masculine edge, which I enjoy, and I like balancing more conventionally masculine and feminine elements when I get dressed. In saying this, I feel differently on different days, and so I dress differently too — some days makeup, skirts and softer elements, other days harder elements, straight lines, etc. I’m always drawn to black clothing where I think it becomes more about shape and texture than anything else, but I also love classic staples — the perfect pair of vintage denim jeans, the perfectly cut, custom tee, that sort of thing. If I buy new clothes now (which is not very often), they have to be from total ethics brands, otherwise, it’s vintage. 

You are also the founder of Collective Fashion Justice, can you please tell us more about it, why did you start it, what's the purpose and who is your audience?

My goal is to move the fashion industry towards total ethics, and to do this I believe we must have more than one audience, so we work with and engage with three: citizen-consumers, the fashion industry itself, and the government. Each of these groups must work together for us to create effective change. I started Collective Fashion Justice because I felt as though there was a lack of total collectivity in the existing approaches I saw to improve fashion. A focus on fair labour that ignored the plight of animals, or works for animals in a fashion which ignored the planet, or for the planet which ignored people. These issues are all interconnected, rooted in the same destruction and oppression — so we have to address fashion’s harms and solutions to them holistically. 

Can you please tell us something when it comes to the ethical standards of animal products or some of the environmental issues that people are most surprised to hear about?

Many fashion brands intentionally work to disconnect their products and how we view them from the reality of how they are made – it’s much harder to sell bags if people really recognise the leather as the skin of an animal who has been slaughtered and skinned for profit, for example. 

I think many people would be surprised by how certifications which promise to ensure ‘responsible’, ‘humane’ and ‘cruelty-free’ fashion derived from animals, really treat those animals. For example, the Responsible Down Standard promises to be free from cruel live plucking, but even if it does so, the alternative to live plucking is to slaughter ducks and then pluck them. These ducks are only some weeks old much of the time and live in factory farms where they are denied their most basic and natural instincts and behaviours. Similarly, the Responsible Wool Standard permits producers to continue with the industry standard practice of slaughtering sheep that are no longer profitable, and even permits farmers to cut the tails of lambs off without pain relief in some instances. 

On the environmental side of things, animal-derived materials continue to be extremely harmful. Materials derived from the bodies of ruminant animals like cows, sheep and goats (leather, wool, cashmere) have extremely high climate impacts because these animals produce large amounts of methane — a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon in the short term. Animal-derived materials are also highly land inefficient, meaning that growing a cotton or hemp sweater rather than alpaca or sheep wool, for example, could save large amounts of land from being cleared and stripped of precious biodiversity. 

Learn more here!

You are also the author of the book "How Veganism Can Save Us". Tell us more about the book and where can we get it.

How Veganism Can Save Us is all about the fact that if we want to end the climate crisis and our interwoven ethical crises of social injustice — against us, people and our fellow animals — veganism and the refusal to contribute to speciesism is a critical element that we can’t go without. 

The exploitation, commodification and killing of other animals are responsible for an unimaginable amount of suffering, and it also perpetuates other harms — for example, slaughterhouse workers are often exploited and underpaid in their jobs which are more likely to cause serious mental health crises due to their traumatic nature. The harm animals face is tied to the harm of these workers, and in turn, this harm spreads further outwards still, as communities around slaughterhouses are more likely to face violent crimes. 

We are never going to be able to dismantle violence and oppression if we do not dismantle it in totality — and that means for all species. This is true in fashion too – how can we effectively work for a fashion industry which respects the autonomy of people who make our clothes, if they make clothes from the skins of animals who have been denied their autonomy, their right to life?  The book is available in physical stores across Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and America, and in Europe and other parts of the world, it can be bought online. I also sell drops of limited edition signed copies here, too. 

What else is your scope of work and what advice would you give to anyone who would like to contribute to the change which you seek?

Through Collective Fashion Justice, I and the team write reports, lobby for political change, produce public outreach campaigns, are involved in film production — such as Rebecca Cappelli’s film SLAY — and lots more. Outside of the fashion space, I also work with the Australian Childhood Foundation, in efforts to prevent child sexual abuse, which I survived as a child. While some of my work may not seem immediately connected, again, it’s all about the same core issue: the denial of autonomy, and the need to dismantle oppression and harm. I think all of my work feeds into each part, in this way. 

Can you mention any brands that you think have the complete picture of vegan, ethical and sustainable fashion?

There are a lot of brands I love, but I have to keep this close to my chest for a little while, as this year Collective Fashion Justice is launching a certification for brands which adhere to the base values of a total ethics fashion system putting people, other animals and the planet first. This is a very exciting step forward, so I encourage people to stay up to date with its launch! 

What is your best advice towards the readers to enjoy fashion and clothing without doing harm?

Always ask questions before you buy into fashion — use your head and heart, not only your eyes. Consider if you would still be happy to buy something if you saw how it was made, who and what that harmed. Ask if people were paid living wages, if animals died or were commodified if the planet was treated with respect. Use our CFJ resources to become informed, it’s one of the most empowering things you can do. And of course, love and care for what you have, play with styling your wardrobe differently, and buy pre-loved!