Dream.

It seems extraordinary to me that even just 3 years ago I would tell fashion students and young graduates that it was imperative for them to understand and practice sustainable innovation in their collections, that the industry was looking to recruit people who could fuel a shift towards it.

Now, when I am faced with this new lot - this week I am teaching in Milan and next week I will be mentoring the ITS finalists before we select our winners - hand on heart I cannot say the same thing.

In fact, dare I say it, I think if they are too outspoken about ethics they may even affect their chances at employment in most of the great fashion houses.

Truth: nobody gives a shit anymore and I have said this hundreds of times over the past couple of years. Impunity is contagious. As we watch old men unleash their aggression, when those running the world be it politics or business can harm like it’s their right, why would the others waiting in the power line do any different? The Billionarses, the wannabes, the industry captains and the sycophantic entourage of that teeny weeny percent of the population that is destroying life with their habits and attitudes.

Nobody seems to have the spine to go against the current.

So workers rights are out, exploitation of people and resources is back in, and the only innovation the industry wants to see is one that will allow them to carry on with their increasingly absurd shenanigans.

But then thats normal, fashion is a mirror, and nonsensical, harmful stupidity is getting a little worse with every season. Contagious like the flu in an overcrowded space.

Howeverrrrrrrr - because perhaps I have reconnected with the silver lining in the cloud - this means that sustainability is subversive again, like it was in 1997 when it was almost a blasphemy, like back in the days when we had to invent all the words because they didn’t exist, when we seeded it and it felt like we were dangerous.

Ok, we erred. It never went mainstream. We were naive to think it would. We lost time.

But I am now hoping for another character, another type of designer, another kind of team: one that will be a time bomb from within.

Old men become older. Their bad deeds will be remembered.

The commodification of fashion will backfire; its shallow boundaries, made of the same fairytale materials as glass slippers and magic spells will evaporate, showing us the stark reality of their supply chains.

The rules of business will change and capitalism - overwhelmed by its own cruelty - will quieten. People are waking up to the smell of collective persuasion.