Small Changes in Big Business

Can fashion ever be ethical?

And more to the point; can fast fashion ever be ethical?

This point is discussed and debated in the world of ethical fashion on a regular basis. When I first came across the ethical fashion industry I think I was maybe a little too idealistic about the ethical labeling organisations and maybe a little too critical of the fast fashion industry. Either that or just maybe the fast fashion industry is improving. 

I think it's probably a bit of both but either way, I feel like I need to state the case for the fashion industry that in the past I may have judged rather harshly.

The high street has come a long way since I first became acquainted with corporate social responsibility and ethical trade. In the beginning I cast my judgment upon the high street indiscriminately, failing to take notice of those brands that were seeking to change. To be fair, the brands that choose to seek more ethical ways of trading are not always the ones who shout about it. If we take a look at brands like ASOS and New Look, you might not immediately think of them as very 'green' companies but both are going above and beyond the average for where they sit within the industry.

Big high street fashion retailers are obviously going to face challenges when trying to improve working conditions in supply chains that are hugely expansive, impossibly global and intrinsically complicated. But the positive aspect of their daunting size is the incredible impact that they are capable of creating. Just one small policy change can impact hundreds of thousands of workers lives. I don't think that we should be so quick to cast aside the huge changes big retailers can and do make to workers lives just because we judge that these changes are relatively small. In big business, a small change can have a huge impact.

So I'm not saying that we have it right yet. I think that the high street has a long way to go but I do believe that there are some incredibly passionate people out there, behind the scenes, that are battling to make sure that the small changes have a bigger impact in an industry that is notoriously complicated and constantly challenging.

One Green Dress is (finally) on Instagram

So after much debate, I have finally decided to get on instagram. When I started this blog, I wanted to step away from the traditional fashion blogs which focus on outfit posts and in some cases present a fairly shallow view of fashion. I wanted to get under the skin of fashion and look into it on a deeper level- be critical and exploratory. 

In a bid to avoid a casual representation of fashion and not to allow the debates within the industry to be sidelined, I had decided to limit the amount of outfit photos I posted. However, this meant that although the 'ethical' side of my blog was covered, I somewhat found myself lacking in the 'fashion' department. 

In order for ethical fashion to thrive, if it wants to break out of the niche, hit the mainstream and become not just 'ethical' fashion but 'fashion'; then it needs to be just that. Ethical fashion cannot rely on the fact that it is produced in a humanely and environmentally sound manner to sell. It needs to be desired for its aesthetic. For its beauty. 

And so, I have set up my very own instagram account to hopefully show you that ethical fashion can be just that- fashionable. There will be the odd outfit post on the blog but I will mainly be keeping them on instagram so if you would like to see how I wear ethical fashion then give me a follow : )

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: Outfit Post

It's Blog Action Day 2013 and this year we, as a collective, are focusing on human rights. As an ethical fashion blogger I've looked at the Rana Plaza factory collapse in my previous post and now I'm doing an outfit post to show you how you can use fashion to promote the proper enforcement of human rights.

In this picture, I'm wearing a top and a pair of boots both bought from Oxfam. Buying from Oxfam not only promotes the reduction of consumption and waste in the fashion industry but also gives to an incredibly good cause. Oxfam is committed to reducing poverty around the globe and promoting human rights. This top is actually originally from Edun- an ethical fashion brand which uses Fair Trade in its supply chain and promotes use of the African fashion industry. Fair Trade strictly promotes human rights in its labour policies. 

The skirt is from People Tree- pioneer of ethical and Fair Trade fashion and the first fashion brand to be accredited by the WFTO. People Tree is committed to providing long term jobs to those who need them most and creating beautiful items of clothing in the most human and environmentally friendly way possible.

By choosing to shop from ethical, Fair Trade, second hand and charity fashion brands; we can make a positive difference to peoples lives around the world and throughout the supply chain. Our purchasing power should not be over looked. As consumers we hold immense power over fashion brands; their supply meets our demand- if we demand better, they will have to provide.

Join the debate on twitter : )

@onegreendress  |  @MrsWandas  |  @BlogActionDay12  |  #BAD2013  |  #HumanRights

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 : )

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

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! : )

Oxfam Blog Post: July

What does fashion mean to you? It's a big question and the topic of discussion in my most recent blog post for the wonderful Oxfam. Check it out here : )

Fashion ComPassion Guest Blogger of the Month

This month I was invited to be Fashion ComPassion's guest blogger of the month which I am very excited about! I was asked to answer some questions for them about my blog and about the ethical fashion industry- I hope you enjoy reading the answers. Fashion ComPassion is an online retailer of ethical fashion promoting some beautiful fashion brands in a mid-price range. You can see my top three favourite picks from their site on the blog post here. 

Do check out the blog post and their site- it's well worth a look!

Reading into Ethical Fashion

Want to find out more about ethical fashion? Enjoy a good book? Then look no further! I have written a blog post for the Oxfam Fashion Blog about my favourite ethical fashion reads. Click here to check them out : )

A Few Articles That Have Caught My Eye

I've stumbled upon a few articles and blog posts recently (some not quite so recently) that have related to some of my previous posts here on One Green Dress and I thought that I would pass them your way to peruse at your leisure. Do take a look- they are all well worth reading:

'The Sustainable Fashion Paradox' by threadGently

This very well written piece talks a little more about the high street ethical lines, for example H&M's Conscious Collection, (see my article on the collection here) and discusses whether sustainability and fast fashion are compatible or mutually exclusive. It's an age old question that is found at the crux of the ethical fashion industry: Sustainability VS Consumerism.

'Luxury Leather and the Amazon' by Lucy Siegle

This article written for The Observer discusses Gucci's New Jackie O Bag that is sourced from deforestation free-zones. The bag is in collaboration with Livia Firth and Lucy Siegle's Green Carpet Challenge project where designer brands dress celebrities ethically at Red Carpet events to raise awareness for ethical fashion. The article explains a bit more about the difficulties of ethics in the leather industry but I am yet to find out whether the Gucci bag tackles the problem of leather tanning in an ethical manner- TBC...

'Why I Prefer Real Leather' by The Conscience Collective

Another article on ethical leather which gives a reasoned and down to earth opinion on the leather debate. It's a subject which I find really interesting mainly because people always focus on Fur as opposed to leather (you can see my blog post on the subject here). Hopefully articles like this one and the new Gucci handbag will get people talking about it more.

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