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Timothy Parent

Timothy Parent

Timothy Parent is a contributor to the Post. He began his career at Harvard University with a charity fashion show featuring designers such as Issey Miyake and Manish Arora, and moved to China after graduation to conduct his own research. He has closely followed and contributed to the development of the fashion industry in China for the past decade; from studying street style with 100,000 original photographs to the rise of China’s dynamic designer scene, Timothy has established himself as a subject-matter expert in the Chinese fashion industry with a wide range of experiences. He is currently the China Editor for WeAr Magazine.

Yarn made from trees and recycled cotton waste, a silk equivalent bio-engineered from yeast, a shoes that detect pressure – technology is helping make fashion more sustainable and multi-functional.

China’s cosplay market is uniquely open to interpretation due to its isolation behind the Great Firewall. The practice itself has a profound effect on ‘cosers’ as they combine their own sense of self with the personalities of fictional characters.

Few global brands other than Tommy Hilfiger cater to special-needs customers. Radically inclusive label Zurita showed the way by getting Chinese women with intellectual and developmental disabilities to model its new collection.

While the Japanese organising guru’s message is good – that we should only surround ourselves with things that make us happy – it has caused purges of wardrobes and piles of unwanted waste.

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Alternative fashion weeks that aren’t Paris, London, New York or Milan continue to sprout around the world and can be successful if they find a unique purpose, such as providing a platform for young designers.

The price of fast fashion items, poorly made and sold as disposable, does not factor in the human and environmental costs of their production; a ‘circular fashion’ economy can be built if consumers and industry ensure clothing is repurposed.

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