Paul Dillinger

Paul Dillinger is so fast-talking, fiercely smart and in command of his subject that it’s hard to keep up. Shocking stats and damning evidence fly by. You can just about hold on to his key arguments though.

Here’s one. ‘The demand for recycled polyester has exceeded the supply of recycled bottles, and brand new bottles are being melted down to make polyester fibres,’ he says. ‘The sustainability industry, when it gets going, with fashion marketing behind it and a willingness to never let the truth get in the way of a good story, will come up with some of the worst ideas imaginable.’ His point is that demand for the more sustainable materials and processes is being manipulated, and generating entirely novel bad outcomes. It’s not just greenwashing, it’s a new supply chain of false promises.

And, Dillinger suggests, sustainability messaging in the fashion industry now has its own seasonal drive. Brands, big and small, feel the pressure to come up with one fresh planet-friendly pitch after another to push sales, circularity being the new recycling and marine plastic the new landfill. And this seasonal demand for fresh temptations for conscious consumers means that genuine but slow-growing innovation – new, more sustainable technologies, treatments, materials and fibres – can wither and die. ‘You have to have new ethics every season, reinvent your narrative around responsible production every season. And that innovation – that little fibre that