Upcycling at the Oscars

Nearly a year ago we blogged about Livia Firth , also wife of actor Colin (aka Mr Darcy) Firth, who wore an ‘upcycled’ dress at the Oscars. This year, she’s done it again! Her beautiful dress was made using material from eleven damaged dresses from the 1930's era. And keeping in line with her passion for ethical fashion, her jewellery had to be Fairtrade, fair-mined and ecologically certified. It’s all part of The Green Carpet Challenge in which Livia was challenged by her friend to attend red carpet awards events dressed only in sustainable style. Click here to read the full story on why Livia wore an ‘upcycled’ dress to such a prestigious event.

So it looks like ethical fashion is more than just a passing phase for Livia. Some vintage lovers, however, have been critical about the cutting up of eleven dresses and how sustainable this process was. The dresses were found in charity and vintage shops around south east London. Don’t forget that they were damaged. Perhaps the dresses were destined never to be worn again in their original form. Isn’t it then better that these dresses went into making a new and different fashion statement rather than collecting dust on a hanger or, even worse, rotting in a landfill?

Here we have a celebrity who is using her status to raise awareness about the issues tied to fast fashion and to lead by example. What do you think?

Image Credit- Roger Wo on Flickr at Creative Commons

The perfect fit or a load of rubbish?

Let me tell you about a recent shopping experience of mine. Last week I tried on a pair of jeans in my usual size and they were a tad too tight around the waist (after effects of Christmas!) No big deal. I try on the next size up and they are too loose around the thighs. And to top it all off the person in the dressing room next to me has tried on the same pair of jeans and it was as if these were made for this person!

So, aside from the fact that I walk out of the shop a little defeated, the point is that mass produced and one size fits all clothes may produce a lot of waste, not only in the production stages, but also from piles of unsold clothes left behind as they aren’t a perfect fit for most people (like me!)

On the other hand, many of us are tempted by cheap prices and we are buying a 1/3 more clothing than we did 10 years ago! With trends like harem pants and baggy styles with lots of bits of material hanging off, even more material is being destined for a slow death in landfill, not to mention the dyes seeping through and the toxins being released, all damaging the environment.

But there may be hope! Designers are looking at ways to use new technology to design out waste. What does this mean? Basically, designing clothes so less material is wasted and that means less going to landfill. You can explore these new technologies and methods, such as made to measure clothing and making fabrics that are environmentally friendly, and whether they can be used to create style without waste at the ‘Trash Fashion – Designing out Waste’ exhibition at the Science Museum in London.

For more info on other exciting events, internship opportunities and the latest on ethical fashion, visit the news and events section of the Fashioning an Ethical Industry (FEI) website.

Nike: Ticks the right box

Not only has England actually made it to the World Cup this year but a very important issue has become a part of the great sporting event. Nike has produced environmentally friendly uniforms for the upcoming 2010 football world cup.

The kits are going to be made from discarded plastic bottles collected from landfills in Japan and Taiwan.

When I first read on Ecouterre about this, I was a tad confused. “How on earth are they going to pull that off?” Well the plastic bottles get melted down into yarn first and are then spun into fabric.

Each shirt is made from 8 plastic bottles. Apart from just saving on raw materials, Nike managed to reduce 13 million plastic bottles from the landfill which is enough to cover a football pitch 29 times over!

Nike seems to have grown a corporate conscience since the late 1990’s. It feels like just yesterday that a photo of a Pakistani boy stitching Nike footballs started making its rounds...

Image Credit- James Temple on Flickr at Creative Commons 

Plastic bags are the Enemy

At the supermarket do you see people coming in with their own bags and you can’t be bothered to take your own, so you just use new ones each time. Well with every new bag you use you could be putting planet Earth in danger.

WE USE 17 BILLION plastic bags a year, that’s 350 a year for every adult! And the shocking thing is, each bag is used for only 10 minutes before being thrown away. The whole point of a plastic bag it seems is to go straight to landfill. Plastic bags account for 2.8 million tonne of plastic waste produced in the UK every year. Some of this waste ends up in the sea which has resulted in every square mile of ocean containing an average of 46,000 pieces of plastic, endangering sea birds and other species.

The maximum "plastic density" was 200,000 pieces of debris per square kilometre-BBC

Another plastic bag downer is that they are not biodegradable. They stick around on the planet for hundreds of years, contaminating the soil on which we live and the water which we drink.

One way to control the situation is to make a fabric bag this will also help reduce the amounts of clothes ending up in landfill. If you have a spare t-shirt, jumper or curtain you can just cut it up and make a new bag from it. This will reduce how much you contribute to landfills, hitting two climate change issues with one bag for life.

My clothes won’t kill Mother Nature

A thought crossed my mind as I was reading How to make money from recycling and I thought ’Why can’t shopping save me money?.

We always think ‘I can’t wear the same outfit straight after each other and with Facebook pictures being updated daily I can’t wear the same outfit in the same month’. Truth is, how much money is being invested in our image and how much it is also damaging the environment?

Did you know we spend about £23billion on clothing a year. This creates 2 million tonnes of clothes and of that 2 million, 1.5 million of that is destined for landfill. Considering the effects of landfills and how these clothes are made I thought ‘wouldn’t it be a better idea to make your own?’

If you took a t-shirt that you’d publicised over facebook too much and cut it differently to change the fit, dyed it or even embellished it you’d end up with a whole new outfit. Instead of spending £30 on a new t-shirt which you only plan on wearing once, you could design and make a new outfit each time. Altering dresses and jeans are just some ideas on recycling clothes

Such as this link below:



As well saving a few extra pounds you get the feel good factor of helping out Mother Nature.

Methane isn’t just about cows!

Methane is not just a gas produced by cows. Landfills are the second–largest human-related source of methane, accounting for 23 percent of all methane emissions. Methane is 23 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

As it is a gas and travels in the air if there are any local buildings like schools or factories near a landfill then the gas can penetrate the buildings' interiors and expose occupants to significant levels of the gas.

The scariest part about methane is that it replaces the amount of oxygen in the air. It’s this oxygen deprivation that causes difficulties in breathing and walking. It can also result in death.

Lots of waste=big landfills
Big landfills= Lots of methane
Lots of methane= Breathing difficulties

You don’t have to be Superman to save the world!

Image Credit - Sangrea.net