I just read this article on Urban Times online magazine about a woman that decided to stop buying new clothes and make do with what she already had. Even when things seemed to have lost all use, she would find a way of giving them a new lease of life by mending them. It is an incredibly inspirational article, and the fact is that lots of us probably do have old items of clothing that just need a little mending and then they'd be as good as new, but we just never get round to it.
I am definitely now going to have a look through my wardrobe and see what I can fix or customize, rather than buying new items.

http://www.theurbn.com/2012/08/one-wardrobe-for-life/

SPEEDO + FROM SOMEWHERE

Speedo have once again collaborated with ethical fashion brand From Somewhere to create an incredibly, visually striking ball gown out of the surplus of Speedo's Fast Skin Super Elite Swimsuit. Orsola de Castro, of From Somwhere said of the one-off upcycled "Unity" dress “I think our dress speaks about water, and water is life. It’s about the environment, and preserving water which should be a priority for all humankind.”
Sean Hastings, vice president of product and marketing at Speedo International said,  “We’re delighted to again team up with From Somewhere in the development of this latest truly unique piece of ‘upcycled’ fashion, which uses the different colours of our sponsored international swim teams to reflect the vibrancy and excitement of swimming.”
I think this dress is absolutely stunning and shows what you can create out of upcycling surplus fabrics. 

HEADSCARVES

For the past couple of months I have been working on a small project to promote ethical fashion.
As a part of this project I have created five different headscarves 100% ethically, using water-based non-toxic printing inks, and organic cotton. Below is the photoshoot I did with the finished headscarves.

M&S + OXFAM SHWOP

In a bid to highlight the amount of textile product that goes to landfill every year and to encourage a more sustainable way of shopping, Oxfam and M&S have teamed up to create the new initiative that is 'shwopping'.
The idea of shwopping is to encourage people to give unwanted items of clothing from their wardrobes when they buy a new item, with the hopes that a 'buy one, give one' culture will develop within the UK. All Marks and Spencer stores will now accept second hand pieces of clothing from any brand which will then be resold through Oxfam, with the money going towards helping people that are living in poverty.
I think this shwopping idea is such an important development for the UK high street, the only way for larger audiences to begin to understand the changes that need to happen and for them to actually start doing something about it, is for big high street brands like M&S to set up initiatives like this. Hopefully this idea will encourage more and more of the big high street names to get involved and start making a change to the throwaway culture that we live in. It would be amazing if eventually shwopping was something that you could do in all UK high street stores, not just M&S.

2012 ELECTIONS

Green party have managed to get ahead of the Lib Dems in the London Mayoral Elections, taking third place behind Conservative and Labour. A breakthrough for Britain, as Jenny Jones said, it has happened in many other countries but this is a first for Britain, and it is good to see the Green Party get enough votes in London to take third place. Hopefully this shows that more people are beginning to realise that a difference does need to be made with regards to the environment.

EBAY

I've become slightly addicted to eBay recently, there are so many bargains to be had! It is a lot easier if you know exactly what you want, but there have been many occasions where I have spent hours scrolling through pages and pages of bags and shoes with no real idea of what I'm looking for...just a bargain and bidding war.
Here are some of the second hand bargains I've recently bought.

OFFSET WAREHOUSE

Offset Warehouse is a great enterprise that was created to make it easier for people to make interiors and clothing ethically. They provide on an online platform with everything you could need to create clothing and interiors ethically such as, an ethical fabric shop and haberdashery, a directory of services and businesses that work ethically and have ethical accreditations, and a resources area with any information you need. On top of this they also provide lectures and seminars, workshops and consulting services 'to make being ethical easy.'

www.offsetwarehouse.com

SIX ITEM CHALLENGE

The charity Labour Behind the Label, started a great campaigning idea called the six item challenge. They challenged people to choose six items of clothing to wear for the duration of lent, those six items did not include things like underwear, pyjamas and footwear, just the main items of clothing. The challenge was a response to fast fashion, to raise awareness to the rate at which we consume products and the effect this has on garment workers across the globe.

"The drive to increase profits and get products into our high street shops faster and faster to satistfy an insatiable desire for new trends, the drive to sell more, consume more, make more, waste more unfortunately doesn't mean workers are paid more for making our clothes"
thesixitemschallenge.wordpress.com

They also acknowledged the Consumed campaign on the Six Item Challenge blog thesixitemschallenge.wordpress.com/2012/03/06/consumed/

ETHICAL JEANS

One of the things that have been the hardest to find in the ethical fashion world are jeans. I personally love high waisted jeans, which I think is part of the reason why it has been so hard to find sustainable ones. But I have managed to find two brands in particular that produce great jeans.

Monkee Genes do a great range of brightly coloured skinny jeans, as well as other styles including chinos. The great thing about Monkee Genes is that they are made out of ethical fabrics by workers with rights, but they are still very affordable, and they fit great.

Kuyichi is based in The Netherlands and they unfortunately do not have an online store, however they are stocked in a few stores across the UK. They are apparently the first brand to produce organic jeans, they also do other items but there is a focus on denim. Their most recent collection looks to have some really beautiful pieces, unfortunately I haven't managed to find any of them online yet, but if I do I will post them here.

ETHICAL SHOPPING

Strictly shopping ethically is quite hard, I started to buy ethically about two years ago, and now I try to only buy sustainable or second hand clothes. In terms of second hand clothing it isn't too bad, a lot of people now regularly shop in charity and second hand shops, and search for great pieces on ebay, but I also like to buy pieces that have been made sustainably. Initially I found it really hard, trying to find shops or websites that provide decent clothes, but now that I have managed to find a fair few places within all price ranges I think it is only fair that I share my knowledge with anyone else that wants to shop ethically. A great website for a huge variety of products and brands is Fashion Conscience, the online store is a source of style-led eco fashion with brands based in Canada, Denmark, USA and Sweden to name a few. Each of the brands on the website have strong ethics behind them focusing on using sustainable materials in the production and ensuring workers rights around the world.

 http://www.fashion-conscience.com/


 FAIR + TRUE
 

M BY M GO GREEN
 

RELUXE
 

H&M CONSCIOUS COLLECTION

The recent Conscious Collection released by H&M has got some really lovely pieces in it, so it is no wonder that almost all of it has already sold out! I think it is so important that high street stores like H&M put more of a focus on creating conscious clothing, and I think it's great that H&M have produced this collection, it proves that it is possible and design does not have to be compromised in order to create sustainable clothing. Lets hope that other high street stores will take note and follow H&M's lead.

APPEAL FOR CHARITY WAR ON WANT

A moving appeal on Radio 4, made by Vanessa Redgrave, for charity war on want to help the fight against sweatshop exploitation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01cvg45

SHOP DROP FILM

PASTE UPS

Manchester

Sheffield

CONSUMERISM

The era of mass production and overconsumption has taken over a large percentage of the world.

Day after day we are constantly being pushed the message of consumerism.

We are being told to choose the lifestyle of conspicuous consumption and to buy unnecessary products, that we supposedly need in our lives. 

My aim is to make people question their spending habits, and think about whether they actually need all of the luxuries that they indulge in. The aim of this campaign is to question our society and the messages that are put out to us. 

I don't believe that people have as much of a love for clothing, design and style anymore, it seems to be more of a consuming compulsion that takes over, and leads to bursting wardrobes full of low quality products.

PASTE UPS

London - Oxford Street

T-SHIRTS

These are the three different t-shirt designs that were placed in Primark stores on Saturday the 4th of February 2012.

SHOP DROP DAY

The drop took place today, three Primark stores in the UK were hit; Oxford Street in London, Market Street in Manchester and High Street in Sheffield.

5 T-shirts were put in each store, on each t-shirt a hidden label was attached inside the t-shirt, with this blog address and the email address of the Consumed Campaign, so that if anyone bought a t-shirt they would be able to find out about what we did today.

Footage and photographs of the drop will be posted in the next few days.

POSTER GRAPHICS