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?

Style Post: Peopletree & Komodo

This was taken before the rains came.... Seriously weather- what are you playing at?! But when it was warm enough to go outside in a skirt, sans tights and thermals, I wore this to dinner and drinks with my lovely housemates. My new Komodo jacket has proved its worth by being just as fabulous teamed up with a skirt as it is with jeans due to its perfect cropped length. I've gone with my Peopletree jersey skirt which is an absolute staple in my wardrobe- so easy to wear and the stretchy waistband is a winner when your scoffing down copious amounts of chinese food with friends! Bag and shoes both picked up from Brighton charity shops for under £3 each and the crop top too which was once a full length tank top which I chopped up to fit in with this summers stomach bearing trend.... Brave indeed!

All in all a thoroughly ethical outfit combining charity shop and Fair Trade fashion followed by a fabulous evening with friends : )

Sustainable Living: Re-upholstering Furniture

Taking the old and making it new again is an essential part of living sustainably. Upon graduating university, my mum wanted to give me something for my future that I would be able to keep forever so of course, she went antique hunting. She finally settled upon an antique chaise longue that was in some desperate need of a bit of T.L.C. Buying antiques that are looking a bit beat up and worse for wear is a great way to nab a bargain but you will need someone skilled to help you to get them back into shape. This is where my incredible Grandpa comes in!

If you can see on the picture, the cover on the chaise is in really bad condition... It's ripped in several places and incredibly worn. All of the material had to be removed and replaced. Once the material had been taken off, it became clear that work needed doing to the innards too. The springs and stuffing also needed replacing. Thankfully, my wonderful Grandpa is a pro and undertook the challenge without hesitation. Next, I was given the task of choosing a new material for the re-upholstering. 

It was a tough task. I wanted to pick something classic that wouldn't age but also I didn't want it to look too old fashioned. I needed a fairly pale colour to enhance the dark wood of the chez and a pattern to add some interest. It also had to be thick and strong enough to withstand the tight stretching that the upholstering involved and also strong enough to last through the years. I eventually settled on a duck egg blue material with a rose bush pattern in a raised gold (looks more silver in the pictures). This pattern had so much more depth and interest than the others and I think it's a perfect mix of classic and modern styles.

As you can see, my Grandpa has done an absolutely fantastic job of re-upholstering the chaise longue  You can see how he has put braiding all along the edges and done shallow buttoning along the arms and back. He also made a beautiful roll cushion to go with it- just stunning! With a bit of skill and a lot of love, you can turn some beaten up, worse for wear furniture into a stunning one-off piece that will last you a life time and be the center piece of any room. Thank you so much to my wonderful Grandpa for putting so much time and effort into creating this masterpiece for me. I love it! : )

Good Morning!

Just thought I'd post something to get you through the day and put a smile on your face. It definitely put one on mine : ) FYI please note, it's the unedited version so there may be a naughty word in there somewhere... 

But look how GOOD you can look in Thrift Shop clothes?!! 

H&M Conscious Collection: Is it really ethical?

I remember when I first heard about H&M's Conscious Collection a couple of years back when it was just a fledgling line testing the waters. I specifically remember trying to decide whether or not I approved. It just reminded me of seeing the Fair Trade label starting to appear on Cadbury and Nestle chocolate bars- it just didn't feel right. Then I saw the Fair Trade label appearing on white tank tops in Tesco and that felt even less right. I suppose it's a trust issue- I just couldn't seem to equate a multinational corporation with the local values that ethical and Fair Trade fashion represent.

Before Christmas we saw whole hosts of activists 'fainting' outside H&M stores in a campaign to draw attention to the poor working conditions of labourers used in H&M's supply chain.

 "Last year, over 2400 workers passed out in Cambodian factories due to malnutrition as a direct consequence of low salaries. But H&M, one of Cambodia's main buyers, continues to refuse to pay a living wage to its workers,” 

says Jeroen Merk of the International Clean Clothes Campaign. H&M claim that as they do not own the workshops that create their clothes (they only place orders with them) they have no responsibility for them. If we look at H&M's website and sustainability report, they claim to be not only environmentally but socially ethical.

According to 'Labour Behind the Label', H&M "Accepts the principle of a living wage, but applies legal minimum/industry benchmark". They grade H&M level 1 on a scale of 0-5 measuring how well a company is doing in the task of aliviating poverty wages in its supply chain. To see Labour Behind the Labels's company profile for H&M and more detail on why they were awarded their grade, click here. The grading was given after a survey completed in the summer of 2011; so have H&M improved since then? A documentary was released in Sweden  explaining how H&M is not tackling social ethics in their supply chain in October 2012. To view the documentary, click here.

The documentary includes interview clips with H&M's CEO as well as their Head of Sustainability. These clips make for very interesting viewing as they highlight how uncomfortable these questions on the living wage make the high profile employees. According to the documentary, labour costs account for only 1-3% of a garments price so I struggle to understand why the living wage is not at the forefront of H&M's vision of sustainable fashion. 

Maybe it's that H&M is just focusing on environmental issues? The Ethical Consumer has awarded H&M's Organic collection 7.5/20 and H&M's regular line 6.5/20 using categories of research including Animals, Environment, People, Politics and Sustainability. So when focusing on ethics as a wider issue than just living wages, H&M scores much higher, though clearly still not anywhere near 'ethical' fashion levels. 

This tally's up with my thoughts on H&M's Conscious Collection- the line boasts of its organic cotton, tencel and recycled polyester which really focus's on H&M's commitment to environmentally ethical fashion. The launch of the collection will coincide with H&M's Conscious garment collection initiative which allows customers to bring in bags of unwanted clothing to be swapped for H&M vouchers. These unwanted garments will then be recycled. This initiative brings recycling to the forefront of the consumers mind- it encourages us all to think about recycling and our environmental impact a bit more when we shop.

It's this exposure to ethical awareness which really makes me want to find the good in H&M. Their Conscious Collection may not be 100% socially or environmentally ethical just yet, maybe not even 50%, but at least they are putting something out there. The bulk of fashionistas that walk in and out of H&M probably won't even be aware that there is such a thing as ethical fashion, because lets face it, it is still a niche, growing market. The fact that when they walk in mid-March to see this 'ethical' line has launched, it might make them question the ethical values of the rest of H&M's collection. It might encourage them to start to think about where their clothes come from.

And for those of us who are more aware of the impact of the garment industry, even though we can see that H&M isn't a forerunner in ethical fashion, if we buy their Conscious Collection, high sales and a larger demand might encourage the company to think about expanding the Conscious Collection values to the rest of their lines. Also, previews of this years collection are pretty darn fabulous so right now I think I'm leaning towards the pro-Conscious Collection team...but it's so tricky I'm just not sure. It's not expected to launch until March 25th so we have time to make up our minds. Clearly the H&M debate does not have a definitive answer, and there's so much more information on the subject out there, so I would really love to know what you all think and where you all stand. Comment below to let me know!  : )

Links and articles related to the Conscious Collection:

Lucy Siegle 'Is H&M the new home of ethical fashion?' April 2012

Sarah Karmali 'Vanessa Paradis Named Face Of H&M Conscious Collection' January 2013

Labour Behind the Label- Articles with 'H&M' tag

H&M- About- Sustainabilty

Cold Facts Documentary about H&M

H&M under fire as Swedish television unearths Cambodian production scandal

H&M: Workers left homeless and unpaid after factory closes

H&M Sustainability Report 2011

Veleco Ethical Cyclewear

Happy New Year everyone!

To bring in the new year we have a brand which will no doubt help to inspire those health and fitness New Year resolutions. It's about this point in January that we are still raring to go but give it week or two and you start to hit a wall... That rain doesn't look like it's going to be that refreshing to run in...no...it just looks cold.

But just wait to you see Veleco's fancy new collection of cycle wear! Now you will have to be restrained from leaping onto the nearest bicycle and fulfilling all those promises you made to yourself on December 31st! Veleco has just released the worlds first ethical cycle wear collection. The company uses Fair Trade, recycled and organic materials as well as a whole host of other ethical inputs which you can check out here!

 I was invited to Veleco's launch party in December where I got to see all of their collection first hand along with some delicious wine and nibbles. It was one of those events where you just wanted to talk to everyone there because they all looked so effortlessly cool... The entertainment for the evening was an incredible musician- a percussionist who played a drum kit that was constructed out of a bike! It was called the Puncture Kit and was a delight to watch someone so talented and passionate about music (and cycling!). 

 I was very impressed with the line, especially the soft shell water resistant jacket. I definitely struggle to find ethical clothes that are practicle for outdoors but Veleco have cracked it with that piece. I was assured that the jacket is VERY water resistant and hopefully it will soon be coming in more colours- I'm rooting for green... I would love to see some more water resistant items in their line as I feel that the ethical market is definitely lacking in that area whereas organic and fair trade cotton is readily available for the production of tee-shirts. 

Also, very happy that Veleco are catering for both men and women. I brought the boyfriend along with me and he was very interested in the collection too- more ethical brands for men is always good! All in all, very impressed with the line and also very impressed with the incredibly friendly and passionate team of people behind the brand- thank you for a wonderful evening! More waterproof goodies please Veleco! It's always bucketing it down in Blighty!

What do you think of Veleco's collection? Do you want to see more ethical sportwear? Always want to know you thoughts!