Sarah Ratty addresses fashion's excess: How cutting 30% can change the industry

Brighton-based sustainable fashion designer Sarah Ratty, whose work has appeared at London Fashion Week and the V&A, explains how businesses can tackle overproduction and turn sustainability commitments into action.

Sarah Ratty FRSA has spent decades challenging how fashion is designed, produced and consumed. As co-founder and former chair of the Ethical Fashion Forum, she helped shape the Global Organic Textile Standard through her work with the Soil Association. Her designs have also appeared in the V&A’s Fashioned from Nature exhibition.

The founder of Conscious Earthwear and Ciel, Sarah has shown collections at London and Paris Fashion Weeks, collaborated with brands including Levi’s, Liberty and Dr Martens, and dressed Cher and Cate Blanchett. Her contribution to sustainable fashion earned her the inaugural Ethical Fashion Award, presented by HRH Princess Anne, while her work has taken her to the United Nations, COP26 and Tate Modern. Sarah Ratty’s speaker profile

In this exclusive interview with the Female Motivational Speakers Agency, Sarah explains what business leaders can learn from craft, why sustainability targets alone cannot change an industry and how surviving a life-changing road accident shaped the message she now shares with audiences.

Question 1. What can business leaders learn from craft and design about turning good intentions into measurable action?

Sarah Ratty FRSA: “Craft teaches us something incredibly important: intention must pass through our hands. In craft-based systems, there is a direct feedback loop between ideas, materials, labour and consequences. You feel when something is wrong, slow down and adjust.

“Organisations often operate far away from the consequences of their decisions. Design thinking, when informed by craft, helps reconnect intention with action by making systems tangible, visible and accountable.

“Craft is a form of systems intelligence. When I worked on a sustainable shoe project with Dr Martens, we realised it was like a recipe. We had to find the different components and put them together.

“We also had to consider logistics. We could source a piece of rubber from one place and another component from somewhere else, but then create a bigger environmental problem.

“One of the biggest problems with SHEIN is that its products are made available to consumers on demand through instant drops. They are transported by air, which creates enormous environmental problems.

“We must consider vertical production and how we can keep everything in one place. Through advancements in technology, including AI and digital printing, we can send a file, have it printed and complete production in situ.

“That is how we must start thinking differently. My work considers all these elements together. I embrace technology and always have. Designers should be at the forefront of the conversation, pushing for positive change.

“Design does not have to be product-based. It can be incorporated into systems thinking. Life is not black and white. The grey area in the middle is where the opportunities and the magic exist.”

Question 2. Sustainability targets have become standard in business. What can fashion and culture teach companies about creating change that goes beyond compliance?

Sarah Ratty FRSA: “Metrics matter, but they do not inspire transformation.

“What story are we telling? What values are we embodying? What future are we rehearsing through our decisions?

“Fashion and culture remind businesses that sustainability is about imagining better ways of living. Fashion is contagious because people see something and think, “That’s new.” But we cannot continue chasing new products without reducing production.

“If we stopped producing the 30% that is currently overproduced, that single action would have a huge knock-on effect throughout the supply chain. We would not have people working in factories in terrible conditions.

“An Oxfam report a few years ago said women working in factories were not allowed to take toilet breaks and were sitting in nappies while making clothes. This is an insane situation that is unique to this period in our civilisation.

“This is a civilisation pivot. It is up to us to design a better system.

“Factories are being squeezed. Companies want higher volumes at lower prices, and the workers pay the price.

“We do not need the 30% that is overproduced. It ends up as textile waste on beaches in Accra or in mountains in Chile. This has happened within the past 20 years. It was never historically part of humanity’s system.

“It is time to address it and change. We must be aware of our design and buying choices. We also need a culture in which people working for large companies can put their hands up and ask, “How can we do this better? How can we work with the factory?”

“The factory may say, “I don’t want to produce this amount, but I need to pay my workers and survive.”

“We need to think through the entire system. How can we make the change better for everybody?

“That ties into the theory of the leisure age and the new renaissance. What if people were allowed to have time? What if they were not enslaved to the system?

“That would create opportunities for creativity, artistic processes, health, wellness and well-being, all designed in tandem. That is the opportunity for the world we are creating in this new age.”

Question 3. When you address business leaders, what change do you want your speeches to inspire?

Sarah Ratty FRSA: “I want to inspire hope for a generation, the future and organisations. I want people to understand that the light bulb moments they experience while I am talking matter and that they can join this journey of transformation.

“One thing many people may not know about me is that I survived a road traffic accident in South Africa in 1999. I broke my back, leg, arm and shoulder. I was at the peak of my career and thought that was it.

“I was pragmatic. I remember saying, “People break their legs skiing all the time. I’ll be all right.” It took me five years to recover. I was disabled, and it gave me a different perspective.

“I remained on the path of transformation and change and asked myself, “What can I do now?”

“That was when I became involved with the Soil Association, the Ethical Fashion Forum and the Pesticide Action Network. I had all this experience and asked how I could transform the industry from within. I could contribute my design knowledge, fashion background and connections to make positive change happen.

“People talk about turning lemons into lemonade. I recently saw someone say, “Don’t just turn them into lemonade. Get the tequila and the salt.” We should have fun with it, too. It is about building resilience and bouncing back.

“I have had an incredible design journey and life. I have been fortunate to meet many amazing people, and I want to help others transform.

“I hope my speeches help people believe that they matter and consider how they can make changes within their organisations. I am one of eight billion people, but if we come together and make positive changes, we can protect this paradise Earth.

“We are fortunate to have mountains, rivers, lakes, streams and beautiful fish in the oceans. But we need to take the right action. We must stop practices that are not working and have the confidence and courage to do so. I hope I inspire leaders to act.”

This exclusive interview with Sarah Ratty FRSA was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.