We are at a precipice moment for the planet, living through precarious times, so what is it like running a small business right now, let alone a sustainable fashion brand? I first met Sophie Dunster over five years ago. I interviewed her just three months into...
“I didn’t really decide myself. People saw me in the street picking up umbrellas and said it was like Mary Poppins. I had the idea of Marypup because it’s funny,” says designer and eco-activist Melanie Iudica, as she recalls how the name of her upcycled rainwear brand...
It’s complicated - I do not have the answers, but my hope in writing my column as we close secondhand September is at least to explore some solutions and lay out some of the current debates about sustainability, particularly in fashion. Responsibility It can be...
Save the dates 16 - 19 June 2021 because the original architectural salvage fair has found its new home, with the best bits of the virtual and real world to toast Salvo’s 30th Pearl Anniversary. Seven years ago I hadn’t even stepped foot inside a salvage yard, so my...
I am not sure where “bins” the abbreviation for glasses comes from, but considering my need for increasingly telescopic lenses it seems appropriate to refer to them as my binoculars. I enjoy the time when it comes to choose new glasses, well new old glasses as I...
How will fashion become fashionable again after lockdown? We are waiting to see if the expected shift to more conscious shopping will be accelerated following the reflection time that beings, brands and businesses have had to take in the bigger picture. Categories...
This is Fashion Revolution Week, where we ask #whomademyclothes to coincide with and commemorate the Rana Plaza factory, which collapsed seven years ago today. This is the day Fashion Revolution was born. A month in lockdown has likely resulted in more time for...
Upcycled kitten heels by Ancuta Sarca at London Fashion Week “Wake me up when September ends” are words I've heard from editors doing the four fashion capitals in less than four weeks. Our eyes are closed to the emergency according to Extinction Rebellion, the...
This edit sums up my mood for the month ahead. It's that time of year when your pinkie ring should give you super powers and you can cloak your face and your body in pillows [when not showing off that you're capable of dancing in white whilst eating cranberry...
Is it me or are haircare ads stuck in the 1950s? Can the contents of one plastic bottle really deliver on all of those promises? And are we even looking for those things at the end of a good shampooing? Hair diaries of women with great locks usually involve a lotta...
Paolo Carzana, the boy behind this quote and the collection below titled The Boy You Stole was one emerging talent presented in the season that put sustainability top of mind at LFW. The British Fashion Council’s announcement that London Fashion Week would be...
I didn’t see myself squeezing into another capsule challenge so soon - having spent 6 of the coldest weeks in just 6 items of clothes for Labour Behind the Label at the start of the year - but this was too good to resist… 10 items, 10 days, easy right? Ah, but this...
If you’re looking for proof that magic exists then Kimaya's ethical elegance will suit you. After more than a decade working on fashion planet aka Paris, Anne-Sophie Planet swapped city life for southern India to realise her dreams as a designer. Following her...
I packed learnings of balance in my suitcase back from Berlin (alongside this Resolution organic cotton tee by Cruba). I should have known it would be a knowledge excursion when I spotted my school history teacher on our flight over. Ms Hodson taught me everything I...
Nobody wants to feel like a tourist. Who us? No no, we’re trailblazers - so you can imagine our surprise when we discovered our destination of choice is Lonely Planet’s No.1 city to visit in 2018. If like me you have to work through some guilt before enjoying your...
Having recently calculated that the renovation of my flat is 4x more sustainable than one planet living, I could be feeling smug, but with two flights in the pipeline next month I am less carbon footprint proud. Let me explain… One Planet Living is a framework...
Encaustic tiles The Vintage Floor Tile Company Artelli Canasto bag from Rev En Vert Organic cotton shirt & organic denim skirt both War & Drobe [If you're in London get yourself down to War & Drobe at 31 Lamb's Conduit Street from 14th - 27th May...
I know Sex in the City has been relegated to box-set territory but sometimes I refer to my flat as sustainability in the city, because like Carrie Bradshaw, I keep sweaters where my stove would have been. Reflecting on the moment I decided to turn my kitchen into my...
My husband and I suffered a bout of food poisoning this week, but off he went to his conference in Brussels and off I went to join him for the weekend. Since completing the Six Items Challenge for Labour Behind the Label I have been conscious to wear more of my...
It seems appropriate to end my Six Items Challenge for Labour Behind the Label in the little white dress I started in. I wore my white Reformation dress to celebrate our two year wedding anniversary and it got me thinking... I have too many clothes and although I am...
Abacá / Montezuma's also see Tidy Street general store to easily shop Abacá in the UK
Having spent a few days working away in Brighton - the town where I grew up - talk turned to where I might ultimately set-up home if my husband and I decide we have out-grown our little garden flat barely made for two. Back home in London, I dropped-off my luggage to...
My Six Items Challenge made packing simple for a last minute work trip to Madrid. I got out the Gabriele Vintage green dress - a symbol of fresh starts and progress, as we think of the green light as go. This Maison Bengal bag I got from Tidy Street general store in...
Today’s eco-warrior is less hemp, more hot. I don’t mean to do a disservice to the durable natural fibre, but hemp clothing is still building a new rep amongst fashion seekers that have discovered sexy and sustainable can coexist - as they do in the #ecohot label...
The respectfully renovated Portland Stone building on Poultry Street, The Ned was the perfect setting to speak about how my reclaimed renovation resulted in me wearing the same six items of clothes for six weeks. There's been a bit of friendly competition in our...
I definitely didn't expect snow when I picked mainly dresses for the six items to see me through six weeks. ©Photograph courtesy of PHIPPS - a newly launched menswear brand founded on the principles of respect and curiosity for the natural world. They're exploring...
Two weeks into six weeks wearing the same six items of clothes, I am tongue twisting and definitely compensating with shoes. On a side note, these 1940s pigeon holes make perfect shoe storage (complete with drawn-on letters, this piece was reclaimed from the post...
On arrival in Brighton yesterday I was confronted by my ten year old self. Two girls dressed almost identically were leaving the train station - one had a mini pink backpack (like the one I had from Tammy Girl) and both were wearing skater sneakers. They linked arms...
I saw the Queen yesterday (the day I wore jeans). More on that later as I didn’t have the energy to write last night. This morning my friend made me chuckle with a link to an Inc. article - Why Successful People Wear the Same Thing Every Day You see by wearing the...
Wore my M-24 backpack made of used truck tarpaulin to the Designer Showrooms today. Fashion week has a growing number of sustainable brands and stands - one being The Sustainable Angle, a not for profit organisation dedicated to projects that promote sustainable...
I met a fashion journalist from Spain the other day and we joked that even if it means crossing the road, stopping to soak up every moment of sunshine is essential to make it through the grey months in London. Fashion week might be all about autumn winter collections,...
My days are all messed up. It's the second day of fashion week, but it is in fact the weekend, so Saturday feels like Tuesday, but it's also masquerading as Thursday - on this, the forth day of my challenge. Despite setting my alarm for 7am on a Saturday, I knew...
Six weeks wearing only six items of clothing - one of which is this white Reformation dress. I'm glad to say it survived day one of the challenge and Valentine's Day date night. Big napkins are a must for me now. Support and share my page here 📣 ©Photograph...
©IWM (D 14826) Lent hasn't fallen on Valentine's Day since 1945. Today shiny heart shaped gifts and ash crosses collide, as I start my Six Items Challenge. I pledged to only wear six items of clothing for the next six weeks in support of Labour Behind the Label, a...
British bee supporting cause aside, it’s just a brilliant statement sweatshirt. Gung Ho donates £5 to a charity that works with endangered bees with every purchase of this piece. The Gung Ho philosophy is undeniably designed to get people talking with its forward...
Sometimes less is more. This is the approach of designer Laura Ironside, who set-up her label with the aim of creating seasonless garments, thoughtfully, through sensitive and sustainable manufacturing. For some, sustainable fashion is a contradiction in terms, and...
Ilia mascara in Nightfall from Content Georgia midi dress Mara Hoffman Miami Circle earrings Lee Renée shopper Vivienne Westwood
Part free spirit, part dedicated fan of fashion, 10 years in the industry has ingrained particular months (before fashion weeks) when I feel the clothes in my wardrobe aren’t cutting it. Coupled with 10 consecutive grey London days and counting, I know I am not alone...
Weekday / Retrouvius
Part-time harpist, educator, occasional snowboarder, and driving force behind phannatiq, Anna Skodbo takes a “clothes for people” attitude to designing. Attracting people from the likes of musicians Kate Nash, Harper and the pavement population with her city...
Aside from the fact I love a bit of Radio 4's Dessert Island Discs (where presenter Kirsty Young asks famous guests to pick eight records to take if they were to be stranded on a dessert island), Stella McCartney's Dessert Island Discs seemed a good excuse to define...
Pachacuti / Retrouvius
I’ve got my eyes on a pair of made in England clogs stocked at Mahala, an independent homewares and accessories shop selling handmade bags and handcrafted pieces by designer/maker Emily Griffin. Emily’s East London shop is based in an old fishmonger, where a material...
One year ago I left my corporate fashion job to follow a more conscious life. My job gave me pleasure and pain, and enabled me to buy my first home in west London. Like a secret diary, I started to blog about my journey into a more sustainable existence (shoe...