JOANNE watkinson
BRING ON A SUSTAINABLE FUTURE
I DON’T know about you, but I’m hoping Mother Nature gives summer one last push before we hurtle into autumn.
Even though I’m a sucker for layering, there is nothing better than squeezing out the last of the summer sun. Like the majority of people, I didn’t get to escape to Europe this year, so my Vitamin D levels are where they should be.
I always get nervous towards the end of August, the close of summer makes me melancholy and the final Bank Holiday of the year is bittersweet. But this year has been like no other. The past six months have been peppered with very different experiences, and although the next six months are still uncertain, we enter into them irreversibly different than we were before. The impact the enforced pause has had on fashion is already being felt through job huge losses. It is the
UK’s 15th largest industry and without sounding like the economic grim reaper, it’s going to get worse before it gets better.
But – and there is a but – if you look closely, among the carnage, the green shoots are already appearing. Small brands which have been beavering away unnoticed all this time, while the big shots stole the show, are now bathing in a little bit of well-deserved attention thanks to their contribution towards sustainability.
The spotlight has shone on some brands who make to order, so have little or no wasted fabric.
Brands like Christy Dawn (christydawn.com), who use only remnant or old fabrics to avoid further pollution from producing new ones, and like
Mad Brown Knitwear (@madbrown knitwear) who specialise in “up-cycling” – the practice of breathing new life into tired old clothes by altering or re-making them. However flattering this type of PR and recognition is, its the amuse-bouche in the grand scheme. Consumers need to shop with these small brands, and recognise what they are doing is special. They aren’t the cheapest, they aren’t the quickest (don’t expect next day or free delivery) but I believe they are the future, and the future looks bright.