What an absolute honour to be featured as one of Knack Weekend’s ‘Changemakers’.

For this article, Jasmien had the pleasure to converse with Ruth Goossens, Editor-in-Chief of Weekend Knack & the driving force of REAntwerp, the amazing studio she started with Tim Van Steenbergen.

During the pandemic, there were calls to produce less, calls for a reset of the fashion industry. Little of that seems to be left now?
“How do you turn that ship around? We don’t think it can be done without strict legislation that streamlines everything. You already have to be a very profitable company to voluntarily decide to produce less today, while your competitors keep going. That’s signing up for bankruptcy in the current circumstances. It will be quite a transition for our economy and for consumers, but it can be done. 

We remember when, between your main course and dessert at the table you could smoke a cigarette. It’s hard to imagine that now. So a major social turnaround is possible but you need ballsy leaders to take the right measures. And preferably at global level, because we find the fact that a brand like Shein could grow so much in recent years hallucinatory. The generation that demands a different kind of world, is also the generation that spends its money there.”

What do you think of the discourse that sustainable fashion is too expensive?
“Quality costs more money, that’s just the way it is. And I’m not talking about ‘sustainability’, but simply not buying junk. Clothes have proportionally not become more expensive than before, but we do spend more money on them. For us, the answer to this question is therefore twofold: first, what is the cost per wear of a piece. The more often you
wear something, the cheaper it becomes per wear. And second, the people who can’t afford it, who only have pennies for one T-shirt from Zara or Primark every season, are not the problem. It’s the people who buy five shopping bags one week and show up the again the next week, who need to change. They are wealthy enough to make different choices, but they simply don’t.”

Where do you hope the industry will be in 10 years’ time?
“I hope that by then there’s no work left for me. (laughs) I would love it if we get rid of ultra fast fashion. I know it’s ambitious to expect that in ten years, but I hope to see at least to see a slowdown. Sometimes they tell me I’m naive, but I’ve learned to see that it’s not an insult. You need some naive optimism to keep believing things can be different. Great strides have already been made in a decade. And there will still come, because I see around me many warriors pulling the cart and fighting for a greener world. That gives me hope.”