Sponsored by:
This magazine was published by R.A.D on behalf of the British Fashion Council for Estethica sponsored by
Editor-in-chief Jessica Brinton Creative director Margot Bowman Fashion director Avigail Claire Assistant editor Nathalie Olah Casting Simon Lewis & James Coyne
Sub-editor Alison Thomson
COVEr DRESS by Victim
Fashion assistant India Truselle
Contributors Diana Verde Nieto Diane Pernet
8 this is what the future looks like 9-10 world are you ready for me,again? vv brown, naomi shimada & pearl lowe on upcycling thier lives 11 the thing-o-matic has arrived 12 -13 we make better clothes than the french 14-15 brand ambition: nike, puma & adidas three sportswear brands, one big plan 16 what the guy from howies did next
Gizzi Erskine
17-22 fashion: into the blue
Lucia Davies
23 d.i.y. the art of turning a factory into a jungle
Marawa The Amazing Naomi Shimada Pearl Lowe Sam Hofman The Sustainable Angle Tom Beard The W Project VV Brown
24-25 “does fashion have a soul?” jessica brinton speaks to diane pernet 26 wasted youth at central saint martins 27 designer directory 28 gizzi erskine’s fashion packed lunch 30 map of The estethica exhibition
MONSOON.CO.UK For more information on Estethica visit: www.londonfashionweek.co.uk/estethica www.thisisrad.co.uk
www.twitter.com/radishlondon
Join the conversation at www.twitter.com/londonfashionwk
Beauty editor Laurie Simmons
6-7 That’s weird / that’s nice
WELCOME TO ESTETHICA AUTUMN/WINTER 2012. Since its launch at London Fashion Week in 2006, Estethica has showcased the best of sustainable fashion and helped to nurture the eco designers of the future. Monsoon is delighted to have seen so many Estethica success stories, not least Christopher Raeburn (now a New Gen designer) and From Somewhere’s ground-breaking collaboration with Speedo. All this has been made possible by the vision and commitment of the Estethica curators who have worked tirelessly to create such an exciting fashion destination. Embarking on the tenth season of Estethica sponsorship, Monsoon is proud to present its fourth LOVE collection; a range of beautifully designed clothes inspired by the traditional arts and crafts of Jaipur in India, the home of block printing. Key pieces included vivid embroidery, intricate paisley prints and hand crafted quilting. The LOVE collection is complemented by the Monsoon Boutique which offers exquisite fair trade and upcycled gifts and homewares (www.monsoon.co.uk/boutique). This season we have included some stunning jewellery pieces from MADE and panamas from one of the original Estethica designers, Pachacuti. All profits from these collections are donated to the Monsoon Accessorize Trust. Founded in 1994, the Trust helps to improve the lives of over 10,000 women and children in Asia every year. Estethica mirrors our heritage and reflects the values and ethics the Monsoon brand was built on, sourcing hand-crafted product from Indian villages from the 1970s. It is a delight to see this eco ethos reflected in such exciting new design talent. Enjoy the show!
Peter Simon FOUNDER
This intricate, gossamer-light silk python print is inspired by lace work from remote villages of India, finished with a hand beaded neckline
Life is okay, fashion should be amazing. It’s an escape you don’t need your passport for, the ticket to somewhere better. This is a magazine about why fashion is going to save the world. The Estethica Review February, 2012
love the future
THE HOT 20: The sustainable fashion brands whose names you need to know (in no particular order)
the future british issue
that’s weird / that’s nice
BUY YOUR CLOTHES HERE At the Estethica stand at London Fashion Weekend, Somerset House, 23-26 February 2012. londonfashionweekend.co.uk Folksy.com The British equivalent of the US craft site, Etsy, with designs from all over the country.
VIVANTHROPY Dame Vivienne Westwood has always given big — big hats, big dresses, big shoes — and now we have her biggest statement of all: £1m to the climate campaign Cool Earth, which aims to save 2.5 million acres of rainforest. It’s good to see her put her money where her rabble-rousing, rouge-stained mouth is; her style, as ever, faultless. nofunbeingextinct.org
TREAT IN A POT In honour of Earth Day on April 22, Kiehl’s is launching a limited-edition Oil Free Gel Cream Pot designed by TER’s Margot Bowman. 100% of net proceeds will benefit Trees for Cities, a charity based on a simple, life-affirming idea: to put a tree in a street. treesforcities.org
69b An new sustainable fashion boutique where we actually want to buy our clothes. sixtynineb.com
What will they be wearing in 2020 ? Pictures buy Dave Benet at the opening of 20 years of Dazed & Confused at Somerset House, Simone Rocha by Lucy Carr-Ellison Vivienne Westwood portrait by Christian Shambenait / Marawa The Amazing by Jo Duck
Dr Noki The North Circular Aiste Nesterovaite Christopher Raeburn Honesty by Bruno Pieters Sophia Kokosalaki for Asos Sonya Kashmiri Ada Zanditon From Somewhere Henrietta Ludgate Junky Styling Laurence Airline Reclaim to Wear Joanna Cave Pachacuti Makepiece Goodone Victim Charini suno
we asked london’s best dressed what they will be wearing in 2020? Henry Holland “A constantly evolving piece of mechanical clothing that matches my outfit to my mood. Like a mood ring on crack.” Jaime Winstone “Spray metallic pam hogg” Susie Bubble “New fabrics and LEDs, more subtle, though. Or a revival of the Middle Ages with women wearing cones on their heads?” Fred Butler: “Tactile and comfortable. It won’t be about the bag, but the emotional connection to it.”
CARYN FRANKLIN SAYS What will the UK fashion industry look like in 2020? “ Engaged in more emotionally considerate design by taking realistically -proportioned women’s bodies into account when they design and make imagery. We’re hopeful!” Caryn is co-founder of All Walks Beyond the Catwalk . allwalks.org
Dom Jones “Klaxons T-shirts” Amy Molineux “Absorbant silicone knickers like the stuff you get in computer boxes.” Simone Rocha “Plastic bags, because it’ll be raining.”
GIRL OF THE SEASON: MARAWA THE AMAZING The cabaret artist and hula-hooping powerhouse shows us that it’s not only what you wear but what you do with it that counts. “Comfort is key. No point wearing it if you can’t throw an impromptu cartwheel!” marawatheamazing.com
street style bloggers watch out ! You’re no one without a flock of sheep on your arm this season – but has anyone asked the sheep what they think ( the North Circular Wensleydales are famously mouthy) ? Anna Felton of Welsh knitwear company Monkstone Knitwear has 80. “I don’t know what they’d make of Somerset House but I’m sure they’d love to leave Wales.” thenorthcircular.com monkstoneknitwear.co.uk
Local Hero Glamorous fashion designer Julien Macdonald is feeling another wave of Brit love following his turn on Britain’s Next Top Model. This May he launches a bespoke Made in Britain atelier to showcase the talents of local designers working with locally sourced materials. We hope close friend Naomi Campbell is modelling .
when wearing red . . . Tulip by Chantecaille, made with natural beeswax — it’s the best orange-red out there, especially on British ladeez when worn with a Pachacuti hat.
BLUE IS THE NEW GREEN Clean and efficient blue – somewhere near the blue of London’s Boris bikes – is emerging as the new colour of the global sustainability revolution happening under our feet. Once you start to see it, you’ll see it everywhere. See p17 for more ! text nathalie olah
photography by sam hofman
Naomi shimada & vv brown photographed by sarah brimley, pearl lowe photographed by kai feng
World, Are You Ready For Me, Again ?
this is what the future looks like And he’s stylish The world is changing so fast, it’s hard to keep up. In fashion, as
For chitin, which can also be found in dragonflies, grasshoppers
demand for cotton grows and availability of water supply and
and beetles, it’s still early days. Hundreds of thousands of tonnes
land decreases, it’s time to look for something else to make
of the stuff could be made available for use every year, but so far,
clothes with. The fellow in this picture is a crab. Chitin
the textile industry only asks for a few thousand.
(pronounced “kite-in”), aka his shell, is a natural polymer that can be turned into a fabric, one of a new generation originating from
But the story does not end there. There are so many other
very exotic sources.
environmentally-friendly materials that are further along the development cycle. Already in production for relatively small
“We were designing some mobile phone covers and it turned out
minimum orders — so young designers can afford to design with
they were made of salmon skin. We had no idea!” says Savile Raw
them — are ramie, cupro, kapok, flax, organic fibres, recycled
designer Avigail Claire, adding that the fish fabric “looked better
denim and recycled polyester. Together, these fabrics will never
than snakeskin.” Salmon, milk, coffee beans, castor oil, nettles and
run out. They are part of global fashion’s future, a mini-industrial
spider are all finding their way into the supply chain too. You might
revolution.
We know how to upcycle our clothes or possessions, but these ladies upcycled themselves. By Lucia Davies word is that Upcycling yourself — not JUST YOUR clothing, or a milk carton — is the WAY TO GET THE BEST OUT OF 2012. This means widening your horizons, and
embracing
be wearing one of them now and not even know it. The timing of
It’s
about
this couldn’t be better in the past 18 months, the global price of
Text by jessica brinton
even if that means going against the flow AND COPPING SOME FLACK ALONG THE WAY. IT’S
cotton has doubled. Polyester prices are also rising because they
For more information on these strange new sustainable
are linked to the price of oil.
fabrics, go to www.thesustainableangle.org 8
yourself
having
the
for
who
courage
you
are
to
be
UNDERNEATH a
better
THE
NOISE
version
AND of
BLUSTER. yourself,
TURNING YOUR LIGHT FROM LOW TO FULL WATTAGE, AND THESE THREE WOMEN HAVE DONE IT .
9
“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” Coco Chanel
Naomi Shimada, 24, plus-size model
Pearl Lowe, 41, author, fashion and interior designer
VV Brown, 28, pop star co-founder of VV Vintage
Look at this picture (left). You’d never think that two years ago, this ravishing Tokyo-born, London-based beauty was in a deep depression because of her struggle to keep her weight down to a UK size 6. “As I was getting older, my body was changing and there was nothing I could do to keep the weight off,” she says. “I became this girl who talked about dieting all the time and pushed food around my plate. I realised that my rent depended on how thin I was and I was so disappointed in myself.”
Most of us know Pearl Lowe’s story. She was a musician and party girl in London. She had a lot of fun with Kate Moss. She was there, where it was at, when it was at it.
“I used to get excited by red-carpet events and the idea of being in the public eye,” says VV Brown. “But recently, I’ve begun to feel like there’s more to life.”
Then, seven years ago, she, her husband Danny, and their two sons got out of town. She became a fashion and interior designer, and mother of one more daughter, in Somerset. And what most of us don’t realise — although to the enlightend this will come as no surprise — was how much happier she is now, how much more “her” she is now. “I was born in London,” she says. “I couldn’t imagine leaving. But I had this potential. Only, with the life I was leading, I never got around to fulfilling it.”
In January, she and Lola Peach cofounded a sustainable online fashion store called VV Vintage. “It started when I was on tour and writing my second album [due out this summer],” says VV. “I had a lot of spare time so I’d go thrift shopping, and eventually I had enough for a store. Around the same time, I’d started reading up about the fashion industry. I’d worked with Oxfam a lot, who taught me about supply chains and Fair Trade and the terrible conditions so many workers have to put up with. Buying vintage, you aren’t buying into the mistreatment of people and that’s why VV Vintage was born.” These past few weeks, if you’d been looking for VV, you would have found her in her living room doing spreadsheets, stock takes and forecasting. “My priorities have shifted — I see the world in such a different way now.” She worries about what people will make of a pop star entering fashion industry, although it won’t be the first time one has. “ So it’s a risk but a risk taker has the most adventurous journey.”
She decided to make the move from highfashion modelling into so — called “plussize” (NB: Naomi is a size 12; the average British woman is a size 14.) It was 2010, around the same time that designer Mark Fast was receiving a storm of press for using size 12 and 14 models for his AW10 catwalk show. “The minute I made the decision, I was happy again,” she says. “I went to meet a plus-size model agent and she signed me on the spot. Now when I look at my old model comp card, I see it’s all a lie: there was an inch off this, two inches off that, and I was a nervous wreck. Nobody should ever feel like that. Now I’m so much more comfortable in my skin — I’m the best version of myself I’ve been. It’s a weight off my life.” naomishimada.blogspot.com
“I would design our albums covers, come up with concepts for the videos, interior design friends’ houses, but I never turned it into anything solid,” she says. “When I got sober and moved out here, I did. I dyed old lace curtains this amazing fuchsia and got a feature in an interiors magazine. I drew up patterns for dresses that were stocked at Liberty. Then Peacocks called. Now I’m doing an interiors book. This is her motto: “‘It’s a lot worse not trying than going for it, failing and getting there in the end,’ which is kind of my story,” she says. pearllowe.co.uk
what’s this? the thing-O-Matic has arrived and it could change shopping forever right there and then.“There’s some pretty amazing thinking being refined into some great techno kit,” says Dilys Williams, the director of the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion. “As humans, we like novelty and this is a novel tool, but it will also shift the relationship between where stuff comes from, what we can do with it, where it goes and what it means. It’s a big development.” The printer you see here uses biodegradable polylactic acid, recyclable HDP and other co-polymers to turn ideas into objects. But this is still in its fledgling phase. It is not hard to see how, for fashion, it could represent a bold weapon against the wastefulness and throwaway mentality of mass consumerism.
Forget chintzy beadwork and colourful customising — if you want to make yourself a treat, what you need is a 3-D home printer. The Brooklyn-based inventors Makerbot Industries are redefining the term “homemade” with the arrival of the Thing-O-Matic. The opportunity to make clothes and accessories has never been so vast; and the implications for fashion are boundless. If you could print out whatever you wanted, the entire global manufacturing system would change. Think about the way that most of us forge our wardrobes from the offerings of a small number of large retailers, and how not finding the exact piece we want often means buying five similar things we want less. That’s how each person in the UK sends an average of 30kg of clothing and textiles to landfill each year.
The price starts at $1,099 and the company aims to launch a bigger product by 2013. In terms of changing our shopping habits, this thing could be as big as the internet.
Now imagine scanning the web and finding what you want. Click-to-buy and the Thing-O-Matic prints out your purchase
text by nathalie olah
www.makerbot.com
vvvintage.com
11
We make better clothes than the french ... Not that we don’t love croissants but have you checked out these fine wares ?
photography by sam hofman styling india trusselle
90% of UK-consumed clothes are imported.
Bag by Mulberry (made in Somerset) Shoes by Loake (made in Northamptonshire) Jacket by Christopher Raeburn (made in Hackney, London) Earrings and necklace by Joanna Cave (okay we admit it, made in Greece but worn in Bloomsbury)
12
Rose gold earrings by Joanna Cave Hat by Piers Atkinson (made in Hackney, London) Knickers by Damaris (made in London) Trousers ( just seen) by Leutton Postle (made in Hackney, London) Necklace by Merle O’Grady (made in Birmingham) Headband and scarf by The North Circular (made by a granny somewhere in the UK) Rings by Kitty Josephs (made at Zandra Rhodes studio, Bermondsey, London)
13
In 2010, a record 20 billion shoes were produced.
brand ambition Fashion is global and in a few months it’s the Olympics. Can Nike, Puma or Adidas save the world? Diana Verde Nieto says they can. This year’s London Olympics are supposed to be the greenest ever. It’s a noble idea: we can build the Olympic park with renewable materials, and set up nesting boxes for rare species. But where does the real money get spent? Branding and sponsorship. The big three — Nike, Adidas (which owns Reebok) and Puma — are probably the most significant sports brands in the world, with revenues of £12.06 billion, £9.95 billion and £2.25 billion respectively. They may not turn over the most money or even have the most consumers of all
the global corporations, but it’s what they sell that’s important. They sell cool. If these companies can prove they take sustainability seriously, it reaches from the skate parks and the sushi bars, the football fields and the fashion houses, the basketball courts and the bass bins. Plus, it means we can all freak over pinksoled Nike Lunaracers without feeling guilty about sweatshops or chemicals in the rivers, and we can burn off calories, happy in the knowledge that we’re not contributing to global warming. Since the 1970s, Nike has been attacked for using sweatshops labour, but by the early 2000s, it had turned company policy around and has led the field in fair working practices and sustainability.
14
They may all be competing with each other to sponsor Usain Bolt, but last November, all three — along with H&M and other global brands — signed up to a joint roadmap to eliminate all toxic waste from their entire production process by 2020 impressive. We need to be sure they see this as a marathon, not a sprint. Diana Verde Nieto is the founder of Positive Luxury, an on-line commerce lifestyle magazine, which awards the Blue Butterfly Trust Mark, an internationally recognised standard for honesty and sustainability. positiveluxury.com
What are they doing?
Nike is not only addressing and
Puma introduced a code of conduct
Adidas launched its green company
minimising its impact throughout the supply chain; it is also looking at factory compliance and labour standards, whilst all the while growing the bottom line. In fact, the company is going well beyond compliance. These days, it is about collaboration, open-source sustainability and innovation. It is one of the main partners in The Green Xchange, a webbased marketplace that fosters crossindustry collaboration and share of intellectual property in order to create a new market of sustainability business models. Nike has appeared on the list of the world’s top 100 most sustainable companies — and while working hard at improving its image, it is also following through on the ground.
focusing on working, social and environmental conditions in its factories as far back as 1993 . In 2010, it launched a sustainable packaging initiative that reduced carbon emissions by 10,000 tonnes per year. Also last year it introduced the first pair of shoes made largely from organic cotton, while the 2012 collection added recycled polyester. Last year, Puma’s parent company, PPR, started publishing an annual environmental profit and loss account for Puma which it will roll out across the whole group (including Gucci, Stella McCartney, Yves Saint Laurent, Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen) by 2015. It’s an impressive programme. By Puma’s estimate, the brand is £120m in the red, but at least it’s owning up and looking to change.
initiative, to become a zero-emissions company, in 2008. The fact that it is the main sponsor for Team GB has shaken things up, and made it put more effective checks and innovative checks in place with impressive targets for 2015. The arrival of Stella McCartney — with her famous green credentials — as creative director of Team GB for the Olympics merchandising is good news. The volunteers’ uniforms all have sustainable content: the polo shirt and jacket shell are made of 100% recycled polyester, while the outer and inner lining and trousers consists of partly recycled polyester. The company also states that they have been produced in ways that reduce greenhouse-gas emissions, minimise waste and other local environmental impacts, and with responsible sourcing throughout the supply chain.
nikeinc.com/pages/responsibility
vision.puma.com
www.adidas-group.com/en/sustainability
15
DRESS by victim
Oh my god, you’re going to make trousers again!” photo by nick hand
A touching story about jeans coming home to Cardigan
Cardigan, in Wales, was once the home of Britain’s most productive jeans factory. For 30 years, the factory sewed 35,000 pairs of ladies’ jeans a week for M&S. Then one Thursday in 2002, Dewhirst, the owners, announced that it was moving its operations to Morocco, due to “continued consumer pressure on prices”. Three hundred and twenty-five jobs were lost. Jump 10 years into the future. David Hieatt, the founder of the local clothing brand Howies — who had sold the company to Timberland in 2006, and left in 2009 — decided to set up a denim label called Hiut. “Sometimes you have some luck,” he says. “It’s a town full of people who know how to make jeans. Go and have a beer somewhere and the barman knows how to make jeans. Have a driving lesson and your teacher knows about jeans. It’s a town of 400 jeansmiths.” He told the local newspaper about his plan: “And of course, being here, it went on the front page.” The emails started to arrive. One was from Elin Evans, a former supervisor at the old factory. She had worked for Dewhirst for 26 years, including seven in Morocco. “I was working for Gina shoes in London,” she says. “We came home for the
weekend and saw the story in the paper. I applied there and then. I couldn’t believe I could come home and be back in our town, making jeans.” Another was from Jean Day, who’d started at Dewhirst when she was 17 and worked on the same line as Elin. After Dewhirst, she’d sewn horse rugs, “but my heart was always in jeans. When the opportunity came, I put my hand up quick!” Elin, Jean and Amanda Freeman, the third member of the new team, share fond memories of the old factory. “It was a community,” says Jean. “We all got married and had children there. We had half-days on a Friday and years ago, when we’d get paid on a Friday, we’d take our money and go down to the Ship, which isn’t the Ship any more, it’s the 25 Mile. In Cardigan, you used to know everyone.” “It was terrible the day we found out [about the closure],” says Elin. “There’d been rumours, because other factories had closed, and then it was us. Whole families were made redundant. It was like the end of the world had come.” That was then. “UK manufacturing goes away, but it seldom comes back. If we’re great at what we do and bring new ideas to it, maybe we can get the jobs back,” says
David. For now, each lady will be making the whole jean, not just part of it. “At the old place you’d have the fly operator, the band fold operator, people doing hemming, loops, tacking, lap seaming ...” says Elin. “The lap seamer, that one’s highly skilled because it’s the inside leg, done by a lapseam machine.” And they’ll be men’s jeans this time, not women’s. “I used to work on the same line as Elin when she was a supervisor,” says Jean, “so I know how she works, how she likes things done. We pay the same attention to detail because we really do care. I was nervous at first but it’s like riding a bike — you never forget. It’s really nice to have another go.” In the new factory, the ladies have their coffee and lunch at the same time as they did in the old days. “It’s a routine,” says Elin. “You know what you’re doing.” “My children are as excited as I am,” says Jean. “They were saying, ‘Oh, my God! You’re going to make trousers again!’” “Sometimes you have to wonder if this is really happening,” says Elin. “We could get everything back. The wheels have gone full circle.” Text by jessica brinton hiut.co.uk
Into the Blue photography tom beard styling avigail claire
previous page ; dress by victim this page; Bra by Charini Skirt by Michelle Lowe-Holder Choker by Joanna Cave
CHOKER - JOANNA CAVE BRA - CHARIN SKIRT - MICHELLE LOWE HOLDER
Dress by Henrietta Ludgate Shirt over dress by Dr Noki Belt by Michelle Lowe-Holder Boots by Christopher de la Pena
Jacket by Junky Styling Jeans by Monsoon Rings by Michelle Lowe-Holder Boots by Christopher de la Pena
Half the products bought in the UK are clothes
photos by Kristin Vicari www.KristinVicari.com
d.i.y.
the art of turning a textile factory with a sad past into a jungle
Jade Mcsorley at models 1 Makeup by Laurey Simmons using Aromatherapy Associates and SUQQU Wig by Alex Brownsell at Bleach London Styling assistance by India Trussell Photographic assistance by Alexander Sebley Dress by Third Collective, team three of the Reclaim to Wear Central Saint Martins Students’ Presentation Hat by the North Circular
Kristin Vicari is a self-proclaimed “swamp girl”. When she isn’t shooting campaigns for Diesel, House of Hackney and Christopher Kane, or collaborating with hot London designers Hermione de Paula and Teatum Jones, the New Orleans native can be found exorcising the bad spirits of a former sweatshop by turning it into a live-in, um, forest. And the result? “Calm,” says Kristin, for whom tranquility is at the top of the agenda. Two years ago, she moved out of her two-bedroom house and gave all her possessions away to a charity shop. When she moved into the building, which had stood empty for 10 years, she was left with only a couple of boxes. She doesn’t know much about the
building’s past except that the previous owner was accused of creating “harsh working conditions” before he went bust. To overcome these negative vibrations, she has filled it with foliage — she has upwards of 100 potted plants, so it changes with the seasons. “The plants live in different positions depending on the time of year,” she says, “and of course they all flower at different times.” The Farrow & Ball paint on the walls changes colour depending on the temperature so there’s a different tone from one season to the next. It isn’t exactly low-maintenance. Kristin spends an hour and a half a day tending to her horticultural home, as well as training her Samoyed puppy,
Teddy, not to nibble the plants. “I see it as a form of therapy,” she says. “I travel the world with my job, so I wanted to recreate some of the natural beauty I see here in my own home.” The space is rented — who knows what it will become next? With luck, a factory — one with well-paid workers supporting local design talent. “The past shouldn’t be forgotten,” she says. “But it’s important to celebrate the progress.” So here’s what we’ve learned, kids. Banish the spirit of an unhappy past with a good old-fashioned botanical bulldozing and you’re sweet, because leaves are love, plants are peace and flowers are the future. TEXT BY NATHALIE OLAH
“does fashion have a soul?” “yes, i think it does” skyping with diANE, LONDON TO PARIS 30.01.12 / 19:23 PM
Fashioner designer, stylist, blogger, festival impresario, original dresser — Diane Pernet is a woman of many parts. Freshly returned to Paris from the fourth A Shaded View On Film Festival in Barcelona, she talks fame, fads and fashion with Jessica Brinton It must be great getting up every day and putting on the same outfit. People think it looks complicated but it’s so simple. I like that uniform thing. And I can add new things all the time. My friend Calliope is a knitwear designer and I am wearing her sweater with gold threads in it. It’s another addition. Where do you buy your clothes? I like beautiful things made well for me; simple black shirts by David Szeto, who lives in Brussels. He also makes my skirts. he knows how to drape. They’re cut on the bias so they fall perfectly. It’s better when clothes take on the patina of a life. My skirts definitely take that on. If it’s raining, they get longer at the back. At shows, people step on them and they grow. David is also designing me some shirts. We’re working on the pattern together and when it’s ready I’ll order 15, maybe 20. How do you know when it’s ready? It feels like a second skin. Do you believe in fashion magic? I remember years ago there was a Boudicca coat that I still dream of, a coat made of something really precious and beautiful. It had a classic shape, a little bit high-waisted, an inserted belt, high under the breasts, and you put it on and you felt like you were wearing this soft protective armour. Are you a fan of fast fashion? I think there is good and bad. I prefer
quality and I think there’s too much fashion pollution — why keep putting more and more in? But if people who love Lanvin, but can’t afford it, can buy a dress that looks okay for 60 euros, then what’s the big deal? In some ways, cheap clothes are a way of not committing to your own style. How did you work out what your style was? You go through a period where you try lots of different looks. One day, if you’re lucky, you find your own look and stick with it. When I was a designer, I wore big shirts and tight pants. Then it was trousers. Then
“I think there’s too much fashion pollution. Why keep putting more in?” when I came to Paris, I embraced long skirts. For me, if a Rick Owens or Haider Ackermann or Boudicca fit my look, that’s great. But it has to fit my silhouette. How does it feel to have your own look? Comfortable. It’s the anti-Anna dello Russo, because she thinks fashion should be painful. Beyond my hair, I don’t want any great discomfort in my clothes. Fashion people are never shy of showing what they think. Do you care what people say about you? I’m not dressing to call attention to myself, I’m dressing to please myself. Some people are going to hate me and not even know me, and some will love me and not know me. I wear sunglasses so I don’t have to see if they’re staring at me. If they’re talking about me, of course
I hear them and nobody enjoys that, but you just block it out. I think I’m quite simple. I don’t see what’s so strange. When you start caring what everyone thinks, you lose your own personality. Like an emerging designer. The first collection is brilliant, but then they listen to everybody and it all gets watered down. It makes you look like a powerful woman. Do you think women have an easy or a hard time in fashion? It’s a comfortable place to be. I’ve been in it half my life and I feel quite comfortable. When do you decide that it’s time to say goodbye? You know when the time has come but it’s hard. I’ve had my bathrobe forever. It’s red and I don’t want to let it go. One of my sweaters is really showing its age but I love it. I’m going to keep wearing it. Does fashion have a soul? Yes, I believe it does. Boudicca, David Szeto, Haider, Rick Owens, Bernhard Willhelm, they transmit something into their clothes. I think that’s what designers should do. More broadly, the landscape of fashion is changing. It’s being taken away from the corporations into the hands of creatives. The secret is not to follow anyone, but set your own path. Well you aren’t exactly a trend person. Every time a press person comes and says tell me about the latest trends, I say, ‘Who cares about the latest trends?’ If you’re chasing a trend, then you’re already too late. I think people in mass production maybe need these things, but no one else does. ashadedviewonfashion.com ashadedviewonfashionfilm.com
designer directory
Wasted youth There is too much waste fabric in the world not to make some magic with it. When a bunch of Central Saint Martins fashion students were handed some, that’s what they did.
Ada zanditon www.adazanditon.com
HENRIETTA LUDGATE www.henriettaludgate.com
Sales: sales@adazanditon.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7790 3279 press : Alison Lowe alison@felicities.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 7377 6030
Sales: Henrietta Ludgate henrietta@henriettaludgate.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7985 0986 Press: Hannah Balsdon press@henriettaludgate.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7985 0986
AISTE NESTEROVAITE www.aistenesterovaite.com
JUNKY STYLING www.junkystyling.co.uk
Sales: Aiste Nesterovaite hello@aistenesterovaite.com Tel: +370 (0) 68 6497 43 Press: Aiste Nesterovaite hello@aistenesterovaite.com Tel: +370 (0) 68 6497 43
Sales: shop@junkystyling.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 7247 1883 Press: Krt Williams krt@junkystyling.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 7247 1883
PACHACUTI www.panamas.co.uk
MAKEPIECE www.makepiece.co.uk
Sales: Victoria Shimwell wholesale@panamas.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 13 3534 5851 Press: Carry Somers press@panamas.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 13 3534 5851
Sales/Press: Beate Kubitz beate@makepiece.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 79 7436 9240 THE NORTH CIRCULAR www.thenorthcircular.com
JOANNA CAVE www.joannacave.com
Sales: Niamh Quinn sales@thenorthcircular.com Tel: +44 (0) 77 1830 5465 Press: Yanni Tsirkas info@material-pr.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7383 4970
Sales/Press: Joanna Cave jc@joannacave.com Tel: +30 (0) 69 4419 8801 CHARINI www.charini.com
RECLAIM TO WEAR www.reclaimtowear.com
Sales/Press: Charini Suriyage sales@charini.com Tel: +44 (0) 79 4750 1516
Sales/Press: Reclaim To Wear info@reclaimtowear.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 8960 9995
ADA ZANDITON www.adazanditon.com
photo by Anna Stokland
Even for the fearless second-year fashion students of Central Saint Martins, the thought of only working with dead stock and other odds and ends must be a shock. “We’re baffled by its quality,” says student Matteo Giulio Sarti, taking ownership, for the first time, of a large bag of scraps from course leader, Orsola de Castro, visionary founder of Estethica and From Somewhere, and set the challenge of creating a whole collection out of it for his autumn project. It’s waste, yes, but also, not — the fabric turns out to be far better quality than most fashion students would usually get their hands on. One group designs a line of shirts out of hospital sheeting (“Brilliantly commercial!” says Orsola. “You will never run out of that stuff.”) Stephanie Cristofaro, who is
studying fashion print, invents a sophisticated way of making patchwork and quilt. Elsewhere, machine-yarn fluff is transformed into a fur coat, and another group invents a linear padding technique involving small, rolled strips of jersey (“Beauuutifully executed!” says Orsola). “We’re using leftover yarn, machine-sewed onto a jacket,” says Natalia Eyres, whose previous dabbles with recycling “weren’t very convincing”. The lesson here: nothing is as it seems — it is often so, so much more. “This is one of the most exciting experiences I’ve been involved in,” says the excitable Orsola. “I will be wearing this jacket tonight,” says Natalia. TEXT BY Jessica Bumpus, Vogue.com.
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VICTIM FASHION STREET www.victimfashionst.com
Sales: Ada Zanditon sales@adazanditon.com Tel: +44 (0) 20 7790 3279 Press: Alison Lowe alison@felicities.co.uk Tel: +44 (0) 20 7377 6030
Sales/Press: Meihui Liu meihui@mac.com Tel: +44 (0) 79 5174 1089 MONSOON www.monsoon.co.uk
DR NOKI –NHS www.elladrorpr.com Sales/Press: Ashley Smith at Ella Dror Pr ella@elladrorpr.com Tel: +44 (0) 78 9994 4140
Press: Harriet Robinson hrobinson@monsoon.co.uk +44 (0) 20 3372 3106
For more information on Estethica visit: www.britishfashioncouncil.com/estethica Check out the following to learn more: The Source magazine at ethicalfashionforum/source | sustainable-fashion.com | reclaimtowear.com | eco-age.com | wornagain.co.uk | theecologist.org Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox by Sandy Black | fairtrade.org.uk | traid.org.uk And further thanks to: The UK Office of National Statistics, The Geographies of Footwear, LCF Dissertation by Sara Harriet Pleavin
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GIZZI’S FASHION WEEK PACKED LUNCH
Map of Exhibition The Estethica Exhibition is located in the East Wing of Somerset House. Accessible from the main courtyard
Gizzi Erskine shows you how to put together a tasty Tupperware box of the weekend’s leftovers.
henrietta ludgate
r Cecilia Chancello Luxury ive sit at Po Diana Verde Nieto r fo ntre Dilys Williams, Ce n Sustainable Fashio i Ricc o Filipp Jessica Bumpus Kate Fletcher studios kingsland road Louise Worrell the book agency murray arthur at o Orsola de Castr Peter Simon Shailina Parti , Fenton Susan McPhenton Communications d Tamsin Blanchar urce, so e th Tamsin Lejeune & m ru Ethical Fashion Fo r lo Tracey Parks-Tay rs lte Wa e Willi
entrance from the strand
courtyard showspace
THANK YOU
What’s hot on my list for food trends this year? Well, a revolution against food waste is first up. I want to get us all shopping to our means, using the cuts of meat some might not consider, cooking up everything (everything) in the fridge, not just chucking it away because it’s on its sell-by date. It’s not something that everyone will get their heads around overnight, but taking a look at what we might have left over in our fridges is the place to start. Rare roast beef salad with potato, radish and tomato salad Sunday lunch. Who doesn’t have a bit left over and why wouldn’t you take it to fashion week? I say embrace the left-over, show it off like an EVER Bamboo Gucci bag and make all your pals jealous with a healthy and tasty lunch. This one — I always keep some salad in the fridge for such occasions — would be brilliant with left-over salmon, too. Serves 1 Preparation time: 10 minutes 1 spoonful crème fraiche 1 tbsp good horseradish 1 tbsp mayonnaise Sea salt and white pepper 200g left-over salad potatoes like charlottes, cooked whole then cut in half lengthways 1 spring onion, thinly sliced A handful of watercress, trimmed 2 radishes, quartered 4 cherry tomatoes, it looks extra beautiful with a mixture of red and yellow 1 tbsp olive oil A squeeze of lemon juice 2 chives, snipped 3-4 slices of rare roast beef Mix together the crème fraiche, horseradish and mayonnaise with some salt and pepper. Mix in the potatoes, spring onions, watercress, radishes, tomatoes and chives. Thinly slice the beef. Arrange salad in Tupperware box. Drizzle the oil and lemon juice over the top. Lay slices on top. Put in your handbag. Find a secret corner at Somerset House. Eat (realistically, with a coffee after the first show).
Registration / the terrace
Estethica at London Fashion Week: East Wing, Somerset House, South Wing, Strand, London, WC2R 1LA ever gucci top handel bag with bamboo detail evermanifesto.com
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