By Sam Sorabjee
Brooke Roberts-Islam is the founder of Techstyler, an independent publishing platform that gives fresh perspectives on the fashion industry. She is also a senior contributor to various fashion publications including Forbes and HuffPost, focusing on sustainability within the industry.
Brooke was one of five panellists at the Fashion Reborn: Reuse and Rethink event at London Metropolitan University, part of the twice-annual Journalism Newsweek.
Having previously worked for the NHS in medical imaging, Brooke also worked as a knitwear designer and textile innovator, and for Forbes magazine as a sustainability materials technology writer.
In 2015, Brooke launched the publishing site Techstyler. She explains on her LinkedIn profile that the aim is to, “fill the gap in coverage of innovations at the intersection of fashion, science and technology, with an increasing focus on sustainability.
“I apply my knowledge of core scientific principles along with my first-hand experience of fashion design, textile manufacturing, product development and garment production to drill down into the mechanics and true potential of fashion innovations and sustainability initiatives, in an industry context.”
She believes that fashion isn’t becoming more sustainable, but the use of next-gen materials may be the answer to fix it. Marketers make it seem like it is a trend when it’s not.
“Science is the way we look and understand the work, without science there cannot be any sustainability. It helps us to know how to fix problems.”
In a column for Forbes magazine, she wrote, “The materials science landscape has been emerging rapidly of late, with notable IPOs and brands investing in textile start-ups, thereby getting in at the ground floor in the race to secure supply.”
While discussing the concept of power play among factories to make sure they produce as cheaply as possible, Brooke described the exploitation within the clothing industry as “a perfect storm being created.” She is adamant that the solution lies within changing the model of how the industry functions.
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