WILL there come a time when consumers think about the origins of their clothes with as much attention as they do with food produce?
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Rowena Foong hopes so.
"With food there is a connection and awareness," she says of the increasing trend of the consumer to know every detail of what is on their plate.
Ms Foong and her siblings Angela and Juliana have run their sustainable fashion boutique High Tea With Mrs Woo for close to two decades and are passionate about "slow fashion" and educating the community.
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On Saturday, April 27, Foong will lead the Slow Wearing Well City Walking Trail around Newcastle, with manufacturing and "maker" businesses Rundle Tailors, Pappa Sven and The Lair just a few on the itinerary. The event ends at The Station, where MakeSpace will launch its new collaborative art space.
"We don't expect people to come shopping, it's a community space, you are connecting with business owners and building awareness of your town being built by small business people who are passionate about what they do," she says.
The walking trail is timed to Fashion Revolution Week, a global initiative that began in reaction to the Bangladeshi garment factory blaze in 2013 that killed 1134 people.
The fashion movement, and trail exercise, encourages people to ask the question, "who made my clothes", and to think about the effects of fast or bulk fashion and the effects of excess consumerism.
"The change is real and it's big, a huge shift is happening globally," Rowena says of the fashion campaign and also general activism led by the likes of youth including Swedish schoolgirl climate activist Greta Thunberg.
She says the walking trail is full of surprises from niche businesses in our midst.
"This is just Newcastle - across the Hunter there are so many makers doing amazing things," she says.
