Redress: The Get Redressed Challenge 2014

The new year is a time for making positive changes in ones life; for fresh starts and new challenges. This year, why don't you join Redress in their Get Redressed Challenge 2014 and make your wardrobe more ethical by looking at your personal fashion style? Allow me to explain...

This week I stumbled across an incredible ethical fashion initiative on twitter. Redress is an NGO with a mission to promote environmental sustainability in the fashion industry by reducing textile waste, pollution, water and energy consumption. They are involved in many aspects of the fashion industry including design, certification, campaigns and industry engagement.

I came across their 2013 consumer campaign The 365 Challenge 2013 in which founder Christina Dean wore only dumped or discarded 2nd hand clothes every day for a year to promote the durability of clothing in their 'Redress it, don't bin it' concept. Take a look at her inspirational daily outfits, which were created by 12 fashion stylists and have monthly themes, on their instagram page.

You can find out more about The 365 Challenge 2013 in the booklet below, including great tips for styling and caring for your clothes. Trust me- it's well worth a look:

For 2014, Redress have a new campaign which allows you to get involved. The Get Redressed Challenge 2014 invites you to join them on a styling journey throughout the year. Each month there will be a new challenge sheet released explaining the months sustainable fashion theme. Everyone is encouraged to get involved with the challenge and share their ethical fashion outfits on instagram. Check out this months challenge below!

Redress is a great initiative and is a really fun and positive way of getting involved in ethical fashion. Here at One Green Dress we will be joining the challenge so keep an eye on the blog for our monthly contributions. Will you be getting involved?

Blog Action Day: Rana Plaza

The Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh opened up the worlds eyes to a problem that has been ignored for too long. The garment industry has been employing labourers around the world without being fully aware of how human rights are being enforced or simply disregarded. This is mainly due to fashion brands out-sourcing labour and refusing to own the factories that produce their garments. In the past, this has relinquished them from any responsibility for factory safety upkeep and working conditions but now people are starting to question this chain of accountability. 

The fashion industry's supply chain is notoriously long and complicated; spanning many countries and cultures, travelling thousands of miles, passing through countless pairs of hands. This is where the problem of accountability and responsibility arises. Who do we look to, to enforce human rights throughout the supply chain? 

Fashion brands? Consumers? Governments?

Well I think that we all need to chip in. When a person's human rights are denied, we have a collective responsibility to speak up. Governments around the world should all be moving towards introducing not only minimum wages but living wages. There are some fashion brands that are already providing this for their employees around the world and I hope to see others follow in this vain. As consumers, what can we do? Well, we can demand more. We can call out the retailers that are disregarding human rights, we can promote the ones that are enforcing them and we can cast our vote with our money by letting our purchasing power do the talking.

After the Rana Plaza disaster, the 'Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh' was drafted by Uni Global Union, IndustriALL and NGWF. It was put forward to all the fashion companies producing garments in the city. Under the accord, garment workers can refuse to work in unsafe conditions and must continue to be paid under these circumstances until the issues are resolved. The fashion brands were not eager to sign, with some major hesitations from; Matalan, Edinburgh Woolen Mill, J D Sports and River Island. We are still waiting for Peacocks and Sports Direct to sign.

The fashion companies complicit in the Rana Plaza disaster were invited to Geneva to discuss setting up a fund for the victims. Of the 29 companies involved, only 9 turned up and only Primark contributed to the fund. It's time for us to call upon these fashion brands to become accountable to their workers. You can call on Peacocks and Sports Direct to sign the Accord via the See Through Fashion campaign here. You can also chose to cast your consumer vote wisely by shopping for clothes using ethical fashion brands that enforce living wages and by buying second hand from charity and vintage shops.

Learn more about human rights and ethical fashion by following the debate today on twitter

#humanrights | #BAD2013 | #ethicalfashion | @blogactionday12 | @MsWandas | @onegreendress

Picture from: Business of Fashion

Green Carpet Challenge and Net-a-Porter Capsule Collection

Today a very exciting ethical fashion collaboration launches online. The fabulous ethical fashion front-runner, Livia Firth, has teamed up with Net-a-Porter to launch an exclusive capsule collection of ethical fashion garments designed by five of the most talented British designers to date. Designing two pieces each for the collection are Victoria Beckham, Christopher Kane, Roland Mouret, Erdem and Christopher Bailey.

Each piece in the collection is created to the standards set by the GCC ethical criteria and 20% of the proceeds will be donated to (RED) which supports the elimination of mother-to-child transmission of HIV.

Once again Livia Firth is breaking down barriers in the fashion industry. Livia has managed to succeed in the near impossible task of bringing together five top British designers and creating a collection of beautiful fashion pieces that are ethical and sustainable. The pieces in the collection are all stunning but my favourites are worn in the pictures below. The pieces are all ultra-glamorous and designed to be worn on the red carpet which results in hefty price tags; but it's Livia's mission to prove to the world that ethical fashion can most definitely be high fashion- and boy has she succeeded...

Top: Christopher Kane, Middle: Victoria Beckham, Bottom: Livia Firth wearing and with Erdem Moralioglu

In the ethical fashion debate it is often discussed about where change should come from. Should it come from the consumers, the fashion houses, the people with the money or politicians? In this venture, Livia Firth demonstrates that it can (must? should?) start from the high fashion designers and from the A-listers on the red carpet. This way, as with the rest of fashion, it can trickle down to the mainstream as consumers and designers are inspired by higher end fashion. The influence that celebrities and high fashion houses have on the world of fashion is immense and what Livia is trying to achieve, if she can pull it off, could have immeasurable impact on the future of ethical fashion. So far, so good! We can't wait to see what Livia has in store for us next : )

Pictures acquired from Vogue, Net-a-Porter and Eco Age

JAMMIN N' TING

This post is entirely un-fashion related but retains all the ethics that I hold true to this blog. Please do have a read: My very good friend and fellow ethical fashion supporter, Sigga Rafns, helps to manage the 'Jammin N' Ting' Annual Music and Arts Festival in Naledi Village, South Africa. The festival provides a platform to promote African music and art whilst proving an opportunity for the local community to develop skills and incomes to improve their standard of living.

"With the amazing location of the village in a valley surrounded by the sandstone mountains and spectacular reputation of Rustlers festivals the first steps have been taken towards creating an event that can focus on African heritage, while giving the people of Naledi the opportunity to use and develop their skills to improve their standards of living."

"Having been involved with the Rustlers music scene since 1993 Manello Funkikora has been developing a vision, for artist in Africa to have a place, a haven, where they can meet on mutual grounds to talk opportunities, connect and enjoy each other’s art and vision while supporting development in the rural villages of South Africa."

The festival has had more and more people interested in it and it now needs your help to take it to the next level. The festival has not been supported by big corporations so that local people can provide food and drinks stalls to earn themselves money as well helping to set up the infrastructure and they want to keep it that way. To go to the next level they need to market the festival to a wider urban audience. At the moment the festival relies on social media sites for publicity. They need a kick start to advertise more widely, to sell more tickets and then be financially self sustainable in the future. The other major cost is transport. The festival wants to sell transport packages to the festival from Johannesburg but they need to pay start up costs to reserve drivers and mini buses.

This is where you come in. To cover these costs, Jammin N' Ting need to raise £1,300. They have joined the  kickstarter website where you can pledge money to help to get them to their target. There are only 3 days left and so far they are up to £763 but they need your help to make it to the target! If you would like to donate to this fantastic project that promotes community development, self sufficiency, the learning of skills and the promotion of African music and art, then please donate here : ) Thank you

Neals Yard Evening with FAIR

Last night a couple of friends and I went along to The FAIR Shop's late night Thursday event down in Brighton town. Now I know I'm biased because I work there, but it really was a lovely evening. We had fair trade vanilla scented candles burning, white wine and nibbles, and of course, we had the lovely Fi Feehan with all of her delicious smelling Neal's Yard remedies. The scent of Rose and Frankincense were drawing me over to her products!

I talked to Fi about my problem skin and scarring and she walked me through the products that she thought would help relaying her personal experience with the organic products to me. She recommended I use the 'Wild Rose Beauty Balm' -an all in one miracle product that I can use as both a cleanser and a moisturiser and as an added bonus on my eczema. She gave me a tester pot that should last a couple of weeks so I can see how the product suits  my skin before I purchase. I used it this morning as a cleanser and it felt so super soft on my skin! My skin didn't feel tight afterwards at all and it smelt divine! I'm not sure if it might be a little too heavy as a moisturiser for me, but I'm going to stick it out and see how I get on with it as a moisturiser as well. 

It's funny, as soon as I walked into The FAIR Shop as a customer instead of an employee, I couldn't stop myself from buying a few items that I have had my eye on for weeks! I tried on mountains of clothes before I finally settled on two People Tree items- a gorgeous blue, loose knit jumper and tight fitting black jersey pencil skirt. I think it's really important to support small local businesses, especially when the staff are so helpful, so I'm very happy to have bought my People Tree items from FAIR and I will be purchasing any  future Neal's Yard products from Fi Feehan. I'm so happy with my purchases! Thank you to both The FAIR Shop and Neal's Yard for such a wonderful evening! I'll let you know how I get on with the 'Wild Rose Beauty Balm' in a few weeks...

P.S. After we left The FAIR Shop, we wandered a couple of doors down to Taylor St. Baristas for a late night snack... We had some delicious bread, oil and dukkah which we shared, along with a savory goats cheese and spinach muffin- so TASTY! And the staff we really friendly; a lovely coffee shop and a fantastic end to our evening.

@TheFAIRShop  @nyrorganicuk  @taylorstbtown  @PeopleTree  #ethicalfashion  #latenightthursdays