Sanjida O'Connell

Ethical fashion label collaborates with Tesco

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:23:26 GMT

Ethical fashion label, From Somewhere, has just launched a diffusion line of clothing with supermarket giant, Tesco.

From Somewhere specialises in creating high end designs from high end scraps – cashmere, tweed, wool and jersey from the factory floors of companies like Jigsaw. Well known fans of the label include Livia Firth and Peaches Geldof – they also gave me one of their gorgeous dresses to wear to the launch of my novel, The Naked Name of Love.

Now Orsola de Castro and Filippo Ricci, the duo behind From Somewhere, are acting as designers and consultants to Tesco to help the supermarket cut down on waste. Orsola has just come back from Sri Lanka where she was analysing the company’s waste: “The issue of stock is much more predominant in a large company. The minimum amount of fabric needed for a run of garment is 30,000 metres so anything less – 15-20,000 say – is often left to rot in warehouses with no guarantee how it will be used. The mills almost always over-produce just in case there’s a re-order. So we want to try and make Tesco responsible for this kind of waste.

A second type of waste is feeder cloth, which is used to experiment with different kinds of print. This is typically around 3,000m long and is thrown away afterwards. Orsola has turned some of her signature styles into garments for Tesco using surplus jersey; later her designs will also include trimmings from the feeder cloth. The first collection has just launched as part of the Florence and Fred range, along with designs by Goodone and Minna, with a collection twice the size scheduled for winter.

“The problem I’m facing is that Tesco want adaptations from our best selling designs,” says Orsola, “but I don’t know what sells in Tesco yet. And for high end garments you cut the pattern in 3D, rather than to look good on a hanger. Our collection has zero hanger appeal, which is why we’re launching online.”

But, as Orsola says, this is just the start. It may not make a huge environmental impact right now, but could well do so in the future: “If Tesco uses this idea and we can go and serve other big companies and make them take responsibility for their own waste, then this method makes environmental and social sense,” says Orsola, adding, “If fast fashion is made with pre-existing material, then the more we consume, the more we clean up.”

From Somewhere to F&F launches in Spring 2010 and will be exclusively available to buy online from www.tesco.com/clothing. The range is available in sizes 8-18 with prices starting from £16.00.

Eco Chic: My ethical report card

Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:38:30 GMT

My year of dressing ethically is up – although I’m not about to head straight to Primark. So how did I do? I think I’d give myself a B – but only due to a great deal of help from people kind enough to take the time to share their expertise, such as Dr Kate Fletcher from the Centre for Sustainable Fashion at London College of Fashion, Lee Holdstock, textile consultant and Clio Turton from the Soil Association, not to mention the many designers I’ve spoken to over the past year. My report sheet will say my aversion to charity shops needs work but given that I will soon a) have a small baby, b) no job and c) no money, I might get over myself.

So, in my journey to discover fashion’s dark secrets, did I stick to my principles? Pretty much. BP – before pregnancy – the things I bought which weren’t ethical were thin tights (Falke and Ashton do thick organic cotton and wool ones and you can find organic bamboo and wool socks) and underwired bras and sports bras, none of which you can buy ethically yet unless you are flat-chested. Although you can get green knickers, apart from Patagonia’s sports briefs, I don’t like the cut, feel or price of any I’ve seen and have stuck with Sloggis (which last for years!). Special occasion lingerie is a different issue and I’d happily wear ones by Get Cutie and Eco Boudoir. Out and out bad practise though was a tunic from H&M for £5 made of viscose. I know. Bad, huh? My excuse was that it was the day before my week-long sewing course and I panicked thinking I’d need a project. The tunic is made of two bits of material and a ribbon so I thought I could re-create it in the class out of soy jersey. In the end it proved most useful during pregnancy.

DP – during pregnancy - I bought a beautiful Komodo top and an Alchemist wool shrug from Equa Clothing, which I know I’ll wear in the future too. The rest of my wardrobe was second-hand Isabella Oliver from ebay. The exceptions were jeans from J Brand, who make fabulous organic jeans just not in maternity sizes, a couple of things from Isabella Oliver that I wasn’t able to find on ebay and a swimming costume. I hasten to add I didn’t buy any of these clothes but coerced other people into getting them for me so I could be well dressed and maintain a clean conscience.

Over the past year I’ve discovered a lot of depressing facts: that the production of our most common fabrics - cotton, polyester and viscose – cause untold environmental damage, threaten human health and result in the over consumption of energy and water. And even more depressing figures: a quarter of all pesticides used globally are sprayed on cotton. A fifth of all our clothes are only worn a handful of times. In the UK we throw away 2.3 million tons of textiles, half of which ends up in landfill.

But I’m optimistic. I think we’ll see a rise in organic and fairtrade fabrics over the next decade. People will become increasingly aware of their shopping habits. Ethical clothes will become more mainstream. A new labelling system will be developed so that we can track our clothes from oil drop or cotton boll right through to the finished garment. Scientists will create new and ever more desirable fabrics and cleaner dyes and a young generation of designers will think more about the ethics of fashion and embrace these novel textiles and technologies. And, in the meantime, I think by now we all know the answers – buy less, take care of your clothes, recycle, make your own, customise, charity shop, buy on ebay, go vintage, swap, swish, spend more on quality garments or head for ethical designers and companies.

As for me, being pregnant is a sartorial nightmare but there’s always a silver lining. It made me think very carefully about exactly what one needs and the minimum one can get away with and helped me design the template wardrobe I wrote about last week. PP – post pregnancy - I’ll edit my wardrobe heavily and will try and stick to the plan I outlined. I aim to buy a new set of long-sleeved tops (I’m desperately waiting for Howies to reissue their merino wool base layers), an LBD from From Somewhere, a pair of tailored trousers by Deborah Lindquist and a jumper from Izzy Lane. Given most of what I wear is black, I’ll invest in a few jewel coloured tops from charities or dress agency, Bristol’s The Rag Trade (soon opening in Brighton too). Once I’ve plugged the gaps in my template wardrobe, I aim to follow Kate Fletcher and only buy two pieces a year. But, most of all, I’m looking forward to having my old clothes back. Absence really does make the heart grow fonder.

Thanks for reading.

Eco Chic: The new template wardrobe

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 09:54:39 GMT

I’m heading towards the end of Eco Chic – My year of dressing ethically. I’ve been thinking what I can take away – and hopefully you too – from my sojourn into the highs and lows of ethical fashion. There are a few givens – we need clothes and most of us want them. Clothes serve functions – they cover our modesty and keep us warm, cool or generally protected from the elements – but they also signal who we are, our personal sense of style, our creativity, bolster our sense of self worth and perhaps indicate our place or role in society. And many of us simply love fashion.

So I’ve created a capsule wardrobe, a template as it were, of more than we need but perhaps less than we want. The idea is that you would tailor this to your life style – perhaps you’re a dress person and hate trousers; maybe you’re a stock broker or a gardener or teach rock climbing for a living, in which case you’ll need to twist this to suit you. But the overall plan is that most of the clothes could be worn with each other to give you greater flexibility and means you need to buy less. Any time you shop, think of your own personal template and how what you buy will fit in with everything else.

For instance, the bones of my wardrobe are jeans, black trousers, a black suit and a brown suit. I have tops that look best with the suit and jeans, others that go better with the black trousers and suit. I rarely wear the suits as suits but wear the trousers with other tops or jackets and match the suit jackets with skirts, jeans or dresses. If I buy anything new I try and think how it’ll fit in with the basics I already have. I tend to keep my summer and winter clothes separate but, with some exceptions, you could wear summer skirts and dresses with long-sleeved tops and trousers or thick tights. And then, there’s that old chestnut – accessories like belts, scarves and jewellery can also alter and up-date an outfit too.

The other thing you need for this to work is a sense of style. I think you can work out what yours is or you want it to be if you don’t know. I tried by thinking how I could summarise my style and came up with Victorian rock chick! (Think vintage, nipped in jackets, fitted tops, flared skirts, dark denim, biker boots, heels, a lot of black). My friend Suzanne Scott, pilates guru, says to think of three words to describe yourself. When she did this she realised she was buying clothes that suited two out of three of her words; in other words she was buying clothes she liked but that didn’t suit her image of herself or her lifestyle. Once you’ve figured out your style then (mostly) stick to it and all your wardrobe should work together!

So here it is:

2 pairs of jeans

1 pair tailored trousers

1 pair shorts or Capri pants

1 pair linen trousers

1 pair casual trousers

2 winter skirts

2 summer skirts

2 winter jackets

2 summer jackets

LBD

Dress for formal occasions

Dress for work

Summer frock

5 T-shirts

4 vests

5 assorted tops

1 crisp white shirt

1 statement shirt

1 chunky knit

1 boyfriend cardigan

1 thin, fine cardigan

2 fine knits in silk or merino wool

2 thicker knits in merino wool or heavy duty cotton

Underwear

Spring and summer coats

Sports gear

Outdoor gear, including a raincoat.

If you’re shopping on the high-street I’d suggest that the most ethical companies are American Apparel, Gap, M&S, Howies, Sea Salt, Monsoon and Jackpot.

My one-stop ethical shop for practically everything is Ascension, which also has two stores, in London and Dorset, and lovely jewellery too. Internet site, Fashion conscience, and shop, Equa Clothing are also good.

Jeans – we have a love/hate relationship with jeans. Finding the perfect jeans that lengthen your legs, raise your butt and lift your spirits, but can take a life time. In my case, it literally has and I would hate to admit how many pairs I own. Everyone’s shape is different but the two best ones for me have turned out to be a boyfriend cut by Kuyichi and a cigarette leg by J Brand, who do an organic range. If you’re bigger than a size 8 I’d also recommend Gap and Levis organics.

Sportswear - see my previous column

Underwear – Enamore, Eco Boudoir, Gap and M&S

Knits – Izzy Lane, I Love Lowie, John Smedley, Keep and Share

Tailored clothes – Izzy Lane and Anatomy

Designer dresses – Anatomy, From Somewhere, Karen Cole

Basics – Howies, American Apparel, M&S, Gap, Ascension – try their own brand; they also stock Fin, who do gorgeous tops.

I’d also recommend buying designer clothes. They might not have been made with the most ethical fabrics or using the best practises but the quality and cut ought to be good and therefore they should last for years, which is much better for the environment than buying cheaper clothes that will fall apart. You are also more likely to find timeless pieces – and be less tempted to buy fast fashion when you’re spending that amount of money. And once you’ve found your perfect designer item, have a look and see if you can get it on ebay first.

Let me know what you think!

Eco Chic: Rise of eco bling

Mon, 01 Feb 2010 10:19:43 GMT

In America, it's bling bling. But out here it's bling bang

Danny Archer (Leo DiCaprio) in Blood Diamond

It’s coming up to Valentines day and I, for one, have already been dropping jewellery hints (although I think I’m more likely to be given another mushroom-growing kit). Most ethical fashionistas regard jewellery as a way to change your outfit without having to buy new clothes. That may not be you and you might prefer to wear the same pieces all the time but still, there’s no denying that jewellery has a fascination whether you’re a Masaai warrior or a Mancunian.

However, some would argue that mined jewellery – gold, silver, stones – can never be ethical simply because it’s dug from the ground. Even if you’re not that hardcore there are a wealth of problems associated with jewellery from ecological damage to child labour and human rights abuses. According to Oxfam’s latest report, Dirty Metals: Mining, communities and the environment, mining uses 10% of the world’s energy as well as producing arsenic emissions and giving rise to cyanide and mercury poisoning.

Recently there has been a greater focus on gold and diamonds. As journalist, Maddy Bowen in the movie Blood Diamond says, “The people back home wouldn't buy a ring if they knew it cost someone else their hand.” Well, lets hope not, given that the sale of blood-spattered diamonds still continues today in spite of the largely toothless Kimberly Process, set in place in 2000 to regulate the trade in diamonds in conflict zones. The situation is beginning to change though: US giant, Walmart, aims to track its jewellery so that by this year at least 10% will come from mines run in a socially responsible manner.

For more thoroughly ethical bling, try Ascension and People Tree. Two fantastic designers are Made, who uses independent artisans and Fifi Bijoux, whose gold and silver come from small co-operatives in South America. You could also try buying vintage, going to charity shops or supporting local artists by taking a look at the jewellery for sale at Etsy.

Pictures courtesy of Ascension

Eco Chic: Can fur be green?

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 09:58:38 GMT

Japanese designer, Chie Imai, produced a collection in 2008 called Eco Harmony. The clothes were made from recycled polyester - trimmed with mink. Imai says that fur can be worn for generations, it’s organic, it causes no pollution and it “returns to the earth”. In other words, it’s reuseable, recyclable and sustainable: all eco-industry by-words. So can fur ever be green?

Another company to jump on the green fur bandwagon is Eco-Luxury, an Oregon-based company selling, ‘The world’s most eco-friendly fur’ with the slogan, ‘All the luxury, none of the guilt’. The fur comes from New Zealand possums who chomp their way through 20,000 tons of vegetation, enough to fill a container ship, every year, and are threatening indigenous plants and animals, including the endangered kiwi and giant land snails. “Fur is sustainable, recyclable, biodegradable,” says Chrys Hutchings, founder of the company, who goes on to argue that possum fur is a special case: “These animals would be killed anyhow and the way that the government does it is inhumane.”

I would have to say that I don’t believe fur can ever be green. I realise the possum pests are a slightly different issue, but worldwide 50 million animals are killed annually for their fur, 85% of which are kept in farms. Although the fur industry says that farms are inspected and monitored, Viva! says that animals are kept in cruel conditions. Arctic foxes, for instance, are housed in cages little bigger than the animals themselves when in the wild they would naturally roam across 15,000 acres of tundra. Animals are usually killed by being electrocuted with a probe in the mouth and genitals. However, undercover footage taken in Chinese fur farms, which now supply 95% of the world’s fur, shows racoons having their heads slammed against the ground before being bludgeoned and then skinned alive.

Although pro-fur campaigners point out that faux fur is made from fast dwindling petrochemicals, Justin Kerswell from Viva! says, “A cocktail of chemicals are used to treat fur and the animals have to be fed and transported to be slaughtered. There is a simply massive energy consumption and other waste associated with the industry. In the USA alone, fur farms generate tens of thousands of tons of waste every year, including slurry, bedding and animal corpses. Farmed-fur requires about 20 times the energy needed to produce faux fur.”

But what about vintage fur? Here I see no reason not to wear fur. The animal has already been killed and unless worn, the fur will end up in landfill. I personally wouldn’t do it because I couldn’t bear the thought of people thinking that I support the fur trade or the resulting discussions one might have with strangers (I once wore a leather jacket from a charity shop to a conference on the rights of great apes only to have a skinhead spit in my face). So what do you do? Wear a badge saying, ‘Yes, it’s real, but it’s okay, it’s old’? – which would rather spoil your look. But if you’re the kind of person who enjoys chatting to random strangers (or wiping off paint), then go for it.

Eco Chic: Getting a kick out of wearing coffee

Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:36:30 GMT

LFM and I have a favourite top each. Mine is a V-neck from Paul Smith; his is a running top from M&S. They’re both black, fitted, super-soft, hard-wearing, long-lasting, washable at low temperatures, quick drying – and made from Modal.

Modal and Tencel are the environmentally-friendly face of viscose. They’re produced by Lenzing Fibres. Like traditional viscose, they’re made from wood but, in this case, from Austrian beech woods that are sustainably managed. The company has developed an eco-clean way of turning the cellulose into fibre using magnesium bisulfite, ozone and hydrogen peroxide. It’s a closed loop system so by-products are not released into the environment and, in fact, half of the raw waste is extracted and sold commercially. The rest is used to create energy: Lenzing’s processing plants in Austria and Indonesia (but not the UK and China) are run on electricity, steam and hot water they’ve generated themselves. As a result, the total fibre production produces 1.3 million tons of CO2 less than the equivalent volume of polyester. The equivalent volume of cotton would produce an extra 300,000 tons of CO2, require another 340,000 ha of land and an additional 2.2 billion cubic meters of water than Modal and Tencel do.

The good news is that these fabrics have gone mainstream – they’re mixed into garments sold in high street stores such as Next, M&S, Topshop and Zara UK. It’s just a shame that you can’t request or easily search for clothes exclusively made from them.

There are also a number of other new, green fabrics coming into the market, like one recently created from coffee. Ironically, Jason Chen, the general manager of the Taiwanese Singtex Industrial Company, had a brainwave as he was sipping coffee in, where else – Starbucks. Most coffee grounds end up in landfill but Singtex is now collecting waste grounds from the Java giant to turn into sportswear. The fabric, spun from the coffee grounds, is soft, light, flexible and breathable and can also be used to produce an outer shell that’s water resistant. Apparently it only takes the grounds from one cup of coffee to make enough material for a couple of T-shirts.

Another innovative fabric that is currently being trialled is spun from nettles. The common stinging nettle was used to produce textiles for thousands of years until people switched to cotton in the fifteenth century. Stinging nettles can be grown sustainably, organically and with little water – in fact, as most gardeners know, they hardly need any encouragement.

Camira Fabrics, based in Yorkshire, has been working for the past four years with Defra on a fabric made from nettles and has now produced a range called Stingplus. It’s a tough textile primarily made for bus and car seats. Nettle can be turned into finer fabrics too, with a texture like linen. It has the ability to wick moisture away from the body as well as keeping the wearer cool and trapping warm air, plus being naturally anti-bacterial and mould resistant. Brennels, a Dutch fashion designer, has brought out a range of smart-casual clothes made from the fabric.

A little wackier and not as easy to get hold of is SeaCell, made from seaweed, Pina, from pineapple leaves, Lenpur, a cashmere soft silky fabric produced from white fir wood, soy jersey from India, which has a fabulous drape and mutabar bark from Uganda can be made into a leather or canvas lookalike.

But buying your own eco-friendly fabric and running up a gorgeous green garment is a little harder. It’s one of the main complaints that ethical designers have – it’s difficult to buy small quantities of good quality eco fabrics. You could try buying vintage fabric or go to Soil Association approved Green Fibres, which sells organic cotton, silk and hemp, Brighton’s Hemp Shop. Oeco textiles and cotton, hemp, soy and bamboo from Eco earth fabrics. But, if you’re anything like me, these fabrics are not going to make your heart sing, your creative juices flow or make you want to whip our a sewing machine faster than you can say, ‘Thread’. Let’s hope seaweed and coffee go mainstream.

Eco Chic: Should we all be wearing polyester?

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:49:55 GMT

Right now, I’m dreaming of being wrapped up in cosy woollen knits – but for most of the year where would we all be without cotton? Cultivated since 3,000BC, it’s the main staple of wardrobe essentials – T-shirts and jeans – it’s soft, durable and a global best-seller. However, its production can be extremely polluting and use vast amounts of water as I’ve written about before (Are T-shirts costing the earth?). Since that column, the Environmental Justice Foundation has produced a new, sobering report on a widely-based insecticide, endosulfan, which has been linked to the deaths and deformities of many families who grow cotton.

The most common alternatives to cotton are polyester and viscose but they’re not without their problems either. Polyester is an oil derivative, which means that by its very nature, it’s not going to be sustainable. Polyester is made of two polymers, MEG and PTA, using a process that requires a lot of energy and can result in the discharge of greenhouse gases (nitrous oxide) and heavy metals. However, it can be processed in a closed loop system where emissions are kept low. In addition, dyeing takes less water and energy than natural fibres do and once you get your polyester garment home, it continues to use less energy as you can wash the fabric on a lower temperature and it dries quicker than cotton does.

Viscose is made from the cellulose in trees – so normally comes from an unsustainable source of wood. The conversion of wood to a silk-like fabric also requires a lot of energy and huge amounts of water, according to Lee Holdstock, the Soil Association’s textile consultant. The cellulose is treated with nasties like caustic soda and carbon sulphide. Spinning the resulting fibres can involve chemicals such as sulphuric acid and zinc sulphate compounds. Which ought to be removed from the water before it’s discharged back into our rivers. The worst culprits are rayons, produced using a copper ammonium compound that is also a toxic fungicide.

A number of clothes are being marketed as ethical because they’re made from ‘bamboo viscose’. Bamboo is fast-growing and can be a sustainable source of cellulose but unfortunately most producers using the same-solvent processing practises as traditional viscose to turn that bamboo into fibre.

Oh, how very cheery. I’m partly looking into this now to stop myself high-tailing to the sales and buying a cheap jumper. Next week some happier news – a range of alternative fabrics to look forward to when we run out of oil and water becomes too scarce to slosh about on clothes.

Eco Chic: A new year's resolution - ethical trainers

Mon, 04 Jan 2010 09:54:27 GMT

By now most of us will have consumed our body weight in Christmas cake, chocolate and canapés. Eating carrots in this cold weather is hardly an option: exercise the one solution that could whittle away those Christmas kilos.

If finding ethical sportswear is a trial, finding environmentally-friendly trainers is an even bigger post-hangover headache. A trainer’s midsole, made from ethylene vinyl acetate, can last for a thousand years in landfill. Ethical Consumer’s latest report (Running away from responsibility? 2007) highlights the problems: labourers work long hours for little pay whilst companies pay millions to celebrities to endorse their products. Labour behind the Label argue that David Beckham’s ‘salary’ from Nike could pay 100,000 Indonesian workers a living wage.

A living wage is defined as one for a full-time working week without overtime, which allows that worker and her family to meet their needs for food, clean water, shelter, clothes, education, health care and transport. Whilst companies like Nike, Reebok and Puma are entering into dialogue with campaigners like Fair Labor Association and showing a greater corporate transparency, none (according to this last report) are paying a living wage. The few companies that do stipulate maximum working time set it as 48 hours per week with 12 hours (possibly compulsory) overtime.

The most ethical trainer companies assessed by Ethical Consumer are Brooks, owned by Russell Corporation, followed by Gola and ASICS. Since the report was published Brooks have added a lot more information about their company policy to their website. They do not employ child labour or forced labour and do set a maximum working time, albeit at 48 hours plus 12 hours overtime. There is no commitment to a living wage but the company states that it:

requires that employees be fairly compensated by providing wages, including overtime pay, and benefits that meet or exceed all applicable laws and regulations.

The company adds:

All Brooks products are designed and engineered in the U.S. and manufactured in Southern China. China has ratified four of the fundamental ILO conventions on discrimination (C.100 , C.111) and child labor (C.138, C.182). Since China has not ratified all of ILO’s principals, we require our factories to sign a “Working Conditions Policy and Commitments” document in which they agree to be in compliance with the local labor laws (including age requirements, fair wages); not employ child/forced/slave labor; and provide adequate food, housing, and medical coverage to all employees.

So not a cast iron guarantee but definitely moving in the right direction. The company is also taking green strides: all packaging is from 100% recycled paperboard printed with soy-based inks. Those 1,000 year soles have been replaced with BioMoGo: they include a natural additive that encourages anaerobic microbes to break down the soles in 20 years. They’re made using a Compression Molded Preform (CMP) manufacturing process instead of being punched out of a large sheet. CMP thus reduces waste by 50%. Oh, and the laces are made out of recycled material too.

I’ve been trying out a pair of GTS 10s, which received a ‘Best Update’ award in the Winter 2010 Shoe Guide in Runner’s World’s December 2009 issue. The low-down for running geeks is here:

http://talk.brooksrunning.com/2009/10/15/brooks-adrenaline%E2%84%A2-gts-10-inside-scoop-for-shoe-geeks/

So far I’ve found them exceptionally comfortable and with a good fit, particularly as I have a slight tendency to pronation, although as I’m now only able to run two miles at a time, I can’t give them the hammering I’d really like to. But surely a crisp winter run has got to be better way to herald the new year than with a glass of carrot juice and a wheatgrass chaser.

Picture courtesy of Brooks

Eco Chic: To dye for?

Mon, 21 Dec 2009 09:55:19 GMT

I’m not big on oatmeal, unless it’s cooked with soya milk for breakfast, but this is the natural constituency of organic cotton. Like most people, I prefer my clothes with a little colour. Unfortunately, the dye industry is another of fashion’s dirty little secrets. Vast amounts of water are used in the process (around 40-50l per kilo of fabric) and much is contaminated with dye and is not recycled. Dr Juncheng Hu from the South-Central University for Nationalities in Wuhan says that in China alone 1.6 billion tons of dye-laden wastewater is pumped into the river systems every year. According to Dr Harold Freeman, CIBA professor of dyestuff chemistry at North Carolina State University, the problem may be as simple as the fact that drinking water is now coloured and the dye is not readily removed. Many dyes also contain toxic chemicals and heavy metals, for example, the popular Procion Turquoise MX-G contains 1 to 5% copper.

One solution is to use natural dyes, made from plants, such as madder and woad. Dr G Badri Narayanan from Purdue University calculated that if India only used natural dyes the amount of pollution released into the water would be halved. In UK the newly founded Cotton Roots uses natural dyes. The company make T-shirts and hoodies and specialise in customising organic and fairtrade clothes for the corporate sector. MD Susan Waters had the idea for the company as she was sipping a cup of tea in the Victoria and Albert Museum after viewing a clothing collection that was hundreds of years old yet still colourful. She thought that perhaps we should be copying our ancestors and using plants, minerals, salt and sunlight to dye clothes today too. The possibilities, she says, are endless from real tea-shirts to coffee-dyed aprons for baristas.

This is all very admirable, particularly in the commercial world, but many natural dyes are not without their problems either. First, it depends on the mordant used to fix the dye to the cloth – most are very toxic, such as chromium, and large quantities have to be added, typically in a weight equal to or double the weight of the fabric. Alum is one of the better mordants as it’s less toxic (this is what Cotton Roots uses). Secondly, natural dyes typically don’t bond with synthetic textiles like polyester or viscose.

Dr Hu and his colleagues have developed a way of cheaply removing dye from water. Plates coated with a material made from nickel oxide suck the dye molecules out of wastewater allowing it to be recycled. The system is not being used but does offer hope. Dr Freeman also claims that dyes are gradually becoming less toxic and more efficient so a smaller amount of water needs to be used in the dye baths. In Europe the label Oeko-Tex Standard 100 ensures that clothes have not been dyed with ‘chemicals harmful to health’.

So, if you’ve read this far, you’ll note the distinctly un-Christmassy tone of my last column of 2009. No, you don’t need a new outfit for Christmas parties, in a vibrant colour or otherwise, you’ve got plenty in your wardrobe. And yes, I am having an attack of sour grapes: at five months pregnant I don’t fit into any of my party frocks.

Eco Chic: Is swishing the new shopping?

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 09:32:33 GMT

Readers of online green glamour magazine, Daisy Green, will already be familiar with the concept of swishing, but for the rest of us it sounds a little outré: the sartorial equivalent of chucking your keys on a party table. But swishing, apparently, is set to be the new ethical equivalent of shopping.

My next-door-neighbour (NdN) and I went to a swish in Bath organised by Posh Swaps. The idea behind swishing is to donate your clothes, update your wardrobe and have a fun night out. We were instructed to bring three items of ‘posh clothing’ and in return we could take home three items formerly belonging to someone else. When we arrived the clothes were laid out on tables, a bit like a rather random jumble sale, and we had half an hour to look at them before the ‘swap’ officially started.

About forty women crowded round the tables and NdN and I wondered whether our elbows were going to be sharp enough. I was disappointed – both with the quality and variety of clothes. When the count-down ceased NdN and I each grabbled one thing. Mine was a little black tunic dress. I also had my eye on a floral cardigan in a small size but saw it being scooped up by a lady with a large armload of clothes. “I just love the colours,” she trilled loudly, “I’ve no idea if any of them will fit!” As she was, let’s say, medium sized, I assumed she was getting the cardigan for someone else but thought I’d ask. Very politely I asked if it would be possible to try the cardigan after her if she decided she didn’t want it. She agreed and when she returned from the changing rooms, I approached her. “You’re definitely not having it,” she said, and proceeded to physically push me out of the way in her eagerness to get more clothes.

“Definitely a case of the ugly sisters,” giggled NdN, who’d been watching.

There was almost nothing left, so doing the fashion maths, I’m guessing people took more than they brought. It was all over in thirty sad minutes. I felt swizzed, not swished: I’d spent £16 on a ticket and travel, swapped a designer blouse, a linen jacket and a nice top for a handful of crisps, half a glass of OJ, a bag full of business cards and one squashed Quality Street and a Primark tunic. My suggestion would be to go to a recommended swish, such as Daisy Green’s Big Swish. But hey, apparently the latest craze is going to be vintage jumble sales held in bars with DJs - and rock, booze and frocks always was a potent fashion cocktail.

Eco Chic: Does my bump look ethical in this?

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 10:06:31 GMT

I promise the rest of Eco Chic will not be maternity related – but as well as wanting to look as reasonably elegant as someone who will shortly be rather rotund, I also don’t want to have stretch marks and I do want to make sure I’m using organic or at least, natural, products since 60-70% of what you put on your skin works its way through the outer layer.

What stops pregnant women getting stretch marks are their genes - how elastic their skin is naturally - plus how quickly the weight piles on. But you can help by using moisturiser. I’ve been using organic, fairtrade shea butter, which is mixed with a little olive oil. It’s solid stuff though and needs softening in hot water. I asked Emma Newman for advice. She trained as a biochemist and now works at Nude Skincare , an ethical company set up by Bono’s wife, Ali Hewson, which have developed a range of skin care products made from natural ingredients. Emma says that shea and cocoa butter are good but that oils are also essential as they contain a high proportion of omega-3.

I’m going to use Neal’s Yard massage oil, which contains neroli essential oil in a blend of soya, almond and wheat germ oil. At some point I’ll switch to their mother’s balm, which can also be used to massage the perineum to prevent tearing. It contains coconut, almond and apricot kernel oil plus bees wax – and nothing else. Lots of essential oils are contra-indicated in pregnancy so I have made my own exfoliant with almond oil, honey, brown sugar and neroli. But my most exciting find is a new company that’s just been launched.

It’s called Buds Cherished Organics (available at www.nakednutrition.com). It’s been developed by a team of parents who wanted an alternative to the synthetic-chemical laden baby-care products commonly available. I can’t yet vouch for their Precious newborn head to toe cleanser, Precious newborn cream or Frost defence – a balm designed to lock out damaging winter winds – but no doubt I’ll be trying them out on the baby come May. In the meantime, I’m using their Beautiful blooming stretch mark cream. It contains tamanol oil and vitamin C to enhance collagen production, Chlorella vulgaris extract to promote elastin production, Inca inchi, an extract from a Peruvian plant designed to help the skin maintain a protective lipid barrier and moisturising jojoba and sesame oil and shea butter. It certainly feels a delight to smooth on and I hope it works!

Pictures courtesy of Buds Cherished Organics

Eco Chic: All ethically made over

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:03:13 GMT

Zoe Robinson is a rare creature: a stylist who specialises in ethical style consultations and make-overs. A professional actress who trained in fashion and textile, Zoe sees the business she’s created (Think-Style) as a way of combining her two loves: “I have a passion for ethical fashion and wanted to combine my love of fashion by helping educate clients about eco-friendly outfits – but I never push too hard. For instance, vintage clothes are unique – no one else will have the same outfit – and that’s often what people focus on.” Zoe also works as a consultant for Eco Concierge and writes for green magazines and websites.

We meet in a chic café in Islington. In person she is warm, friendly, supportive and most decidedly not the type to tell you to shift a few pounds or how dreadful your clothes look. In fact, she’s a perfect example of an eco-fashionista, wearing well cut jeans, high heeled boots, and her grandmother’s top. Normally, for an image consultancy, we would have stood in front of a mirror and she would have measured me up with bits of bamboo to determine exactly what kind of figure I have and therefore what shape of clothes would suit me. She also looks at the kind of colours that work best with your complexion, discusses make-up, hair style and offers wardrobe revamps, where your clothes are profoundly knocked into shape, mended, chucked or organised. And finally she also offers personal shopping, including vintage. Thanks to Zoe I make two discoveries: that Islington’s Camden Passage is an absolute vintage mecca and there is an actual shop – Equa-clothing – where you can buy ethical fashion without the traumas of shopping over the internet.

Instead we drink tea and I eat a fat slice of cake. I’ve just discovered that I’m pregnant and so the normal style rules no longer apply. Obviously I’m delighted but in a complete spin – I feel as if I’ve only just got a handle on how to look good wearing ethical clothes and now, not only will I have to find a completly new wardrobe, I’m going to have to do it on a strict budget. I imagine that stylish, ethical maternity clothes are in short supply. Zoe is calming and soothing. We discuss the minimum amount of clothes I can get away with and what kind of style I’m after. She offers helpful tips, like talking me through what I’ve got that I’ll still be able to wear later, and suggests I wear accessories round my throat, instead of necklaces and scarves that dangle down, to drawn attention away from boobs and bump.

We visit Equa-Clothing, which has a wonderful selection of clothes and very helpful staff. Zoe is the perfect person to shop with and picks out a top I’d never have looked at. It’s an indigo blue fitted smock made by Komodo – it should see me through the lumpy bit at the start of pregnancy as well as accommodate my bump and I can imagine wearing it when I’m back to my normal size too.

Back home I do some panic googling and find out that you can buy bundles of maternity clothes locally via websites like Gumtree, ebay sells millions, my local National Childbirth Trust organises sales of maternity wear and baby clothes and there’s a dress agency for maternity clothes that sells over the internet or allows you to make appointments (it’s in Berkshire: www.maternityexchange.co.uk). There are also several sites selling very basic clothes made out of bamboo, which, whilst having some eco credentials, are produced using the same toxic chemicals as viscose.

A few days later Zoe emails me a very comprehensive and thoroughly researched list, which even includes specific garments that would suit me and where I could actually buy some of them in Bristol if I don’t want to do all my shopping over the internet. I’ll attach her suggestions for those who are interested. But even if you are already stylish and not pregnant, I’d suggest that time with Zoe is worth every penny.

Zoe is offering a 20% discount on her services, including gift vouchers, between now and Christmas. Contact her via Think Style and quote Eco Chic

www.think-style.co.uk

info@think-style.co.uk

Picture is of Zoe Robinson

Eco maternity tops, trousers and belts

BuyOrganics

www.buyorganics.co.uk

Natural Collection
http://www.naturalcollection.com/

Budget Bumps

www.budget-bumps.co.uk specialises in 'good as new' items, so far more eco friendly than buying new when you’ll only be wearing them for a few month.

Eco maternity dresses

Boob

Boob is a Swedish brand that uses organic cotton and Lyocell as well as fleece from recycled plastic bottles.

http://www.boobdesign.com/boob_eng.html

Frugi

www.welovefrugi.com

Glow
www.glowmaternityandbaby.co.uk

Does my tum look big in this?

www.doesmytumlookbiginthis.com is a maternity dress hire site, though not cheap.

Eco Chic: On the Ascension

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:49:08 GMT

Ascension have just opened a new store in chic St Christopher’s Place in London. Ascension, formerly Adili, is the foremost ethical fashion website; now it’s possible to buy in the real world in a chi chi shop between Carluccio’s and Auberge, bookended by Whistles and Jigsaw.

Adili was founded by entrepreneurs Quentin Griffiths, part of Asos.com, and Adam Smith, who is now the CEO, in order to try and slow down fast fashion by stocking treasured pieces made with both consideration and care. The name change came about when Adili acquired Ascension, their best-selling brand, which had gone into liquidation in 2008. Adam felt that Ascension’s name was better for the company as a whole because it sounded less ‘ethical’ and ‘ethnic’.

Indeed, should anyone accidentally wander into the white and blond wood space, nothing would immediately scream out ‘ethical’. The current range has both men’s and women’s clothes, handbags, a smattering of accessories and silk knickers plus cosy knits by The North Circular, founded by supermodel Lily Cole and designer Izzy Lane. The own-brand Ascension range is the most affordable, with well cut long-sleeved tops, T-shirts and trousers. There are elegant Karen Cole dresses, including a Marni-esque one in navy merino with the soft feel of vintage crepe; Liberty-style prints by Annie Greenabelle in shirts and cutsie dresses, Bibico, a new range prompted by Defra’s Shared Talent India, an initiative to inspire designers to use sustainable Indian textiles and talent, funky Komodo hemp skirts, gently draping jersey by Stewart and Brown and luxury new addition, Fin. Most of the colours in the collection are muted, apart from the odd flash of red, teal or fuschia, and, of course, Ascension’s signature outfits in vibrant Indian summer coloured florals.

Internet clothes shopping can be hit and miss and I object to having to pay postage and postal returns: you can shell out a tenner simply for trying something on. So it is wonderful that, along with Equa-clothing we finally have a bit of choice when shopping for sustainable fashion on the high street. If you can’t get to London, Ascension has also opened a small shop in Dorchester. But if you do visit the one in St Christopher’s Place, just remember to save a few pounds for coffee and cake at Carluccio’s.

Pictures courtesy of Ascension

Eco Chic: In a spin over washing sports kit

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:23:41 GMT

LFM says that since he’s moved in with me, his sports tops have started to smell. As do mine. Oh no! Is it me? Was it all the laundry trials I ran? I phone up Kerry McCarthy, the gear editor at Runner’s World, and explain my dilemma. He asks how old my running tops are and how often I wear them. I do a quick calculation. They’re about a year old and they’ve each had a minimum of 50 wears and 50 washes. “Well, what do you expect?” he says, a slight note of exasperation creeping into his voice, “A year is good going.” If I wasn’t trying to sound professional, I’d be hyperventilating right now as I think of how much it’ll cost to replace five running tops.

I report back to LFM who snorts. He means that he’s got T-shirts that are years and years old with slogans so obscure only the Great Britain masters ultimate team (this is a polite way of saying ‘older man’s frisbee’) understand them. They say things like, Chervon Action Flash, Nice Bristols, Plastic Factory. Actually, the youngest member of the team was born after LFM started playing frisbee so maybe they’re truly niche. Kerry recommends Penguin Sport-wash, which you have to buy over the internet and is expensive (£16.62 for 590ml). It works out at 92p per wash.

Right now we are segregating our laundry into:

Whites with eco balls, essential lavender oil, no fabric conditioner
LFM’s whites with normal laundry liquid, an eco fabric conditioner (which LFM objects to on the grounds of the extra chemical load) and no bloody flowery stuff
Darks with eco balls if I get there first
Really muddy, sweaty darks with laundry liquid
Handwash that I chuck in on the cold cycle with Daylesford Organics.

And now Kerry is suggesting a further separation of sports gear to be cleaned with the very expensive Penguin Sport-Wash. No wonder the Victorians had servants and laundry rooms and they didn’t even have Lycra.

Apparently exercise outfits smell because detergents leave behind residues in the form of scent, brightener and fabric softener, which trap water. Bacteria grow in both the residue and the water, and make your clothes stink. Nice. Additionally, fabrics wick, breathe better, and dry faster when free of chemical residue. (Although this does not explain why eco balls, which are residue free, fail to remove sweat). Penguin Sport-Wash, it says on the website, is a ‘residue-free, non-allergenic formula designed to keep high-tech fabric at peak performance and odor-free by washing away residues left by regular detergents, removing dirt, neutralizing bacteria, and restoring breathability, moisture-wicking, and factory applied waterproofing.’ (Kerry says otherwise you have to dry your waterproofs with a hair dryer to restore the waterproofing). It is also biodegradable and removes blood and grass stains, which is also quite useful in our line of exercise. There is no indication what’s in it and the press office fails to respond to my queries. I buy a bottle from Amazon. Still no hint of what might be in it. But, hell, it’s got to be cheaper than five new running tops.

Sadly, it does not work. AlmaWin suggests using their concentrated laundry liquid, which, when you’re not washing your clothes, can be used to clean your car. It’s not great either. Better is Jun Wong of Yew Clothing’s suggestion of NikWax’s Base Wash, specifically designed for technical apparel.

Eco Chic: Proper job - ethical sportswear

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:51:42 GMT

Finally we have some decent ethical sportswear! Yew Clothing has recently launched in the UK, selling base layers, T-shirts and fleece jackets for active wear. They’re made out of recycled polyester, with casual wear T-shirts in organic cotton. The company was founded by Jun Wong and Kresse Wesling this summer. Both Jun and Kresse have been into sport since they were kids, Jun used to do athletics, karate and rugby and now participates in triathlons, as well as running, climbing and snowboarding.

He says, “I had the original idea for the business two and a half years ago. I wanted to do something involving sportswear and I wanted it to be sustainable.” It took a long time – almost a year and a half - to source fabric, find a socially responsible factory and design the garments. “The biggest challenge was finding the fabric,” says Jun, “and without that it you really can’t design a line properly.” The fabric is made in Taiwan from recycled consumer plastic, which means an energy saving of 52 percent compared to other garments. It’s also light weight, wicking and dries quickly.

The everywear top (a T-shirt designed for active sports) and the warming jacket (a thin but very warm fleece), which I tried, were both cut brilliantly and wicked sweat away exceptionally well. The company is transparent about their policies, pointing out that the thread is not recycled, the reflective Yew print is made from water-based latex ink and the labels are made from standard polyester and cotton but that they’re working on alternatives. Both Jun and Kresse have spent time at the factory in Turkey, which they say has high quality conditions for staff. You can see photos of it and find out where it is from their website.

When I mention the difficulties I’ve had trying to track down ethical sportswear in this country, Jun agrees: “We have a huge amount of respect for Patagonia, who led the way and we’re trying to emulate them, but we feel that we could do something more geared towards the UK market – and there’s definitely a need for more choice.” Right now Yew Clothing has a limited choice but they’re currently working on strappy tops for yoga and running vests and hope to have developed leggings and three-quarter Capri pants by winter 2010.

If you want to purchase anything from Yew Clothing, Jun is offering a 10% discount using the code SPECIAL10.

www.yewclothing.com

Pictures courtesy of Yew Clothing

Eco Chic: The Anatomy of Fashion

Mon, 26 Oct 2009 09:29:02 GMT

Claire Macauley epitomises all that’s wrong with ethical fashion. She works incredibly hard and has designed an elegant, timeless collection made in the UK in socially responsible factories from organic fabric and wool and yet she’s struggling. “I have to lower prices,” she says. Manufacturing here in the UK is not proving viable for her brand, Anatomy: once Britain specialised in making clothes and weaving cloth yet now skills and machinery have been lost. “It can cost £85 to have a jacket sewn in a traditional British factory,” says Claire, “and when you add on the cost of materials, shipping and marketing, I’m losing money.” Claire is thinking of switching to a Lithuanian factory which does have responsible working practises but could reduce her costs as it operates on a large scale.

As for fabrics, she’s currently sourcing organic cotton, hemp and bamboo from America and using end of the line wool from a Scottish mill, but is finding that too few people produce organic fabric and those that do are unwilling to sell in small quantities. She’s considering continuing to use natural fibres but ones that aren’t certified organic as a way to cut costs. Then, of course, there’s the dye process. Claire has been hand dyeing the silk herself. She says, “I do everything, create the patterns, cut them out, make samples, do the ordering, track everything that is sold.” She adds, “Cost is a problem. Ethical clothes are side-lined and we should be part of fashion, we should be the icing on the cake. But the prices put people off.”

Claire had a varied career, starting out in a band, knocking around with legends like Joe Strummer. She worked for a costumier, formed her own company and styled for commercials before finding it all too stressful and heading to Devon where she launched her Anatomy label. Anatomy is all about tailoring, from the classic Tuxedo jacket, which looks perfect with skinny jeans or Claire’s signature cigarette pants, to the Edwardian jacket made out of bamboo denim with scarlet buttons, to my favourite, the Victorian-esque fencing jacket, which has been reinvented for spring 2010 in charmeuse (a mix of silk and hemp) with a wild fuschia lining. For next season there are playful striped blazers, pencil skirts and some clean cut tunics made of hemp linen with vintage trim. Her clothes would work both in the office or for going out with friends. “I want to be able to make a living out of this – I’ve got to make it work,” she says.

Pictures courtesy of Anatomy

Eco Chic: Turning trash into treasure

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 08:06:20 GMT

In September the largest haul of Anglo-Saxon gold ever discovered in this country was dug up in Staffordshire. I suspect that future generations will not unearth anything quite so exciting; rather they will be deciphering our lifestyle from the motley collection of yoghurt pots and plastic packaging we routinely send to moulder in landfill.

Last month TerraCyle stepped in to try and alleviate some of this mess. The US company turns hard to recycle waste into stylish goods: in the UK they’ve just launched a new collection of totes, shoppers and planters made out of Kenco and Tassimo coffee packaging. The idea is that we will collect and send in the packaging and be paid a handsome 2p per packet; Kraft, the company behind Kenco, will donate 2p to a UK charity and TerraCycle will transmogrify them into something useful.

In the states the company has collected 200 million pieces of packaging over the past three years and donated $250,000 to schools and other non-profit organisations. They don’t just stick to coffee but collect non-recyclable food wrappers, from crisp bags to cookie covers, which end up as rather cool backpacks, pencil cases and homework folders. Over a third of all US schools are involved in collecting this waste; TerraCycle pays all shipping costs and the packaging is converted in “environmentally responsible facilities” in Mexico and El Salvador. It doesn’t make sense for our waste to be shipped over there but the company is still looking for a factory in mainland Europe.

It’s a genius idea, a fantastic way for schools to generate income (though I’m not suggesting kids collect coffee packaging) and the CEO, college drop-out Tom Szaky, who is only 27, has just been named number one American CEO under the age of thirty by Inc. magazine. Somehow, in between all the charitable donations, the company has wracked up sales of $8 million last year. I’d describe TerraCycle’s products as geek chic – I’d like to see every school kid using them; I can imagine myself popping down to my local organic supermarket, ratcheting up street cred with my new coffee shopper - but I can’t quite see myself drinking cocktails in a bar sporting one on my arm. Still, VP Albe Zakes tells me they’ve been featured in Vogue and Glamour so perhaps I’m just not hip enough.

Eco Chic: How to be green at a white wedding

Wed, 07 Oct 2009 18:01:28 GMT

My brother got married this weekend. It was a fairytale wedding: the bride looked radiantly beautiful, my brother, handsome and happy. But more importantly, what did I wear? Here I am in my ethical outfit – jewellery handed down from my mother; dress designed and made by my friend Lora, which I paid for with home-grown vegetables; jacket by Vivienne Westwood, bought on e-bay; shoes, also Vivienne Westwood, made by a traditional East End cobbler, new a good few years ago and still in pretty good nick, hand bag sewn by a local seamstress from a second-hand sari. I would have liked to wear a fascinator (fantastic word isn’t it, I’ve just discovered that’s what those twiddly bits you put in your hair at weddings are called) but can’t imagine those feathers were gathered from the hedgerows without pain to any wild fowl.

As for the wedding present – a set of cushion covers sewn by me. If I was gifted they might have been a breeze but instead they required much time and a deal of cussing.

Charity shops, vintage, e-bay, dress agencies, making your own or borrowing a friend’s frock seems like a good way forward for those special occasions – but if you haven’t the time or inclination then I’ve got a few other suggestions. This year I’ve attended a number of weddings and have worn dresses from Enamore, From Somewhere and Karen Cole, teamed up with vintage shrugs or jackets or, in one case, a hand-me-down cardi.

I’d also try internet-shopping sites Ascension or Fashion Conscience; House of Tammam say they do mother-of-the-bride type outfits, not to mention the bride herself, in luxurious cream silk hand-embroidered dresses; Anatomy are bringing out a range of simple shift dresses in hemp linen with vintage fabric detailing paired with silk tailored jackets for spring 2010; Izzy Lane is fantastic for classic separates that would see you through many other formal occasions; Get Cutie do feminine frocks in riotous prints and Lowie’s cool cream knitted tea dress edged in navy only requires a cocktail and a sea breeze to turn you into Daisy out of The Great Gatsby. But if you’re really strapped for cash, take a look at The Uniform Project: even though Sheena Mathieken is wearing the same dress every day of the year, she still manages to look chic at a wedding.

Pictures copyright Sanjida O'Connell

Eco Chic: The Body Shop launches new organic range of skincare

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:29:44 GMT

When I worked at the BBC I had to sign a form declaring any interests. This meant, was I having a relationship, no matter how tenuous or fleeting, with anyone else in the corporation. The reason was because our boss was “involved” with one of his own researchers. In the days before transparency became a media buzz word, the irony was that our boss had to explain why we now had this new and pretty personal paperwork.

So, to declare an interest here, I used to be a very big fan of The Body Shop. I use their Coca Body Butter because it’s the only thing moisturising enough for my skin; the men’s deodorant because it works and I don’t like girly smells; I keep a tube of Hemp Hand protector in my handbag and a stick of lip balm on my desk. It is affordable, accessible, the products are not tested on animals and the chain pioneered what they call Community Trade – a fair wage, plus a bit – to farmers and workers in developing countries. They also used to collect empty bottles for recycling.

Now The Body Shop is about to launch an organic skin care range called Nutriganics. In a focus group The Body Shop asked a group of women what they thought about organic skin care products. Unfortunately, they said they smelt earthy, were a bit hippyish and wouldn’t work.

Nutriganics is certified organic, does not smell earthy nor look a bit hippyish. It has a pleasantly nutty, fresh smell. It contains at least 34% certified organic ingredients and community traded babussu oil from a wild grown Brazilian nut hand-picked by a women’s co-operative. Three hundred women said the creams are not sticky and are well absorbed; the night cream has been clinically proven to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. “We’re incredibly excited. It’s the first new skin care brand we’ve launched since 2005,” says Marishka Morolia, senior category and innovations manager for skin care, who, incidentally, has flawless skin.

I’m excited too – about a proper range of certified organic skin care that is affordable – and also at the opportunity to ask all those questions that have been niggling away and have meant The Body Shop is no longer the all time favourite beauty destination it once was for me. Before founder Anita Roddick died, The Body Shop was sold to L’Oreal. The chain’s ethical rating, as scored by Ethical Consumer, plummeted, the main reason being that L’Oreal still tests some of its ingredients on animals.

Marishka argues that L’Oreal has given The Body Shop more resources than the company would ever have had access to: there is a lab entirely dedicated to research into natural products, and some of the ethical products developed are infiltrating the rest of the corporation. L’Oreal’s buying power is huge, meaning deals can be pushed through that were out of The Body Shop’s league before.

I ask why The Body Shop uses Community Trade instead of Fairtrade. I’m always a little sceptical when companies make up their own rules instead of adhering to widely recognised standards. Their press officer points out that Fairtrade has only become applicable to beauty products this year, yet Community Trade was pioneered by The Body Shop twenty years ago.

Then I ask why everything has so many chemicals in – even though the company gives the appearance of being committed to ethical beauty – most products are packed full of parabens, laureth sulphates and the like – which well may be harmful to us and the environment. No one gives me a straight answer on this one, but having at least one certified organic skin care series of products shows that it can be done.

And for the sake of continuing to declare an interest, I also like Green People’s Vita Min Fix, Essential Care’s Avocado Replenishing Cream, Neal’s Yard Frankincense Nourishing Cream and plain old almond oil with a few drops of rose and sandalwood in it. But sadly I don’t expect that anything you buy without a prescription, wipe on your face, that’s kind to you skin and good to the environment is going to magically make your wrinkles disappear.

Eco Chic: John-Paul makes his own pants

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 09:42:08 GMT

I first heard of John-Paul Flintoff when I read his wife Harriet Green’s hilarious article about living with the king of make do and mend. As she put it, it’s wonderful to live with a man who doesn’t call in an electrician when a plug needs a new fuse but less funny when he stops you buying a pair of J Brand jeans and offers to sew them for you himself.

My next encounter with J-P was when I read a blog of his in The Ecologist in which his daughter makes shoes out of cabbage leaves and he explores a bikini woven from nettles. As I’d just written a blog for The Guardian about spinning fibre from nettles too, I couldn’t help but be intrigued by his new book: Through the Eye of a Needle: The true story of a man who went searching for meaning and ended up making his Y-fronts.

J-P’s journey begins with him standing in a cubicle in New York in his underpants while a laser scans him, taking 200,000 measurements for a bespoke suit and ends up with him crocheting his own underpants. In his book, Harriet frequently tells him he’s not allowed out in his homemade clothes but ends with her, “grinding my jaws as I type this, it seems his time has come.”

I have to warn you now, Through the Eye of a Needle is utterly bonkers. It is by no means an exploration of the fashion industry by the unfashionable á la Fred Pearce and his Confessions of an Eco Sinner. For J-P starts with his bespoke suit on the very trip to research sweatshops in New York without asking who sewed his suit, then returns to England and hires a lady in India to do his chores for him whilst paying her a pittance. Before he gets on with making his own pants, plus wearing a hat he’s woven out of a plastic bag, he explores various religions. So basically this book is a ramshackle collection of ideas the author had for newspaper features (he writes for The Sunday Times), strung like so many paper mâche beads on the string of his own life. But it is

a) funny

b) heartwarming. I do like the idea of men sewing. Most men I know would do a much better job than me if they could stop making a fuss about having a Y chromosome

c) there is a serious message. J-P says, “There’s nothing we can do except as individuals. So my project to make an entire outfit myself is good for me and it’s good for the world. It’s good for you.”

d) you have to love a man who asks his local seamstress to cut a paper pattern of his favourite shirt and when she asks if he’s ever made anything like this before, replies, “I made a jacket for my daughter’s teddy bear.”

“So it didn’t need fitting?”

“Well, it had to fit the bear.”

No wonder Vivienne Westwood said, “I don’t really understand what you’re doing but I wish you every success.”

Photo of John-Paul and his daughter Nancy, crocheting on a street corner, by Harriet Green

Eco Chic: London Fashion Week – the ethical bit

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:01:01 GMT

I could tell I was getting nearer to London Fashion Week’s new location at Somerset House as the heels clicking past became more insane – vertiginous, scarlet, leopard-print – and the men no longer seemed to be wearing the male uniform of untucked shirt and jeans. This is the seventh season for Estethica – the ethical bit of London Fashion Week.

It’s a fantastic start but still very small compared with the behemouth that is LFW. There were some exciting newcomers this season (spring/summer 2010): Ajna, soft knitwear made in Peru from alpaca and organic cotton, designed by Beryl Man, who used to work for Donna Karan; Lowie, who had the cutest thin knits in candy pink and green and retro navy and blue, and Lehee, with soft, draped tailored cuts. Christopher Raeburn, who makes parkas, jackets and dresses out of ex-military parachutes had an ethereally beautiful yet totally tough-looking collection.

Ethical fashion is beginning to escape from its niche: Beyond Skin are launching a capsule collection of ballet pumps in the new Anthropologie store opening in October on Regent’s St and Ciel is about to start a range within Monsoon. The Environmental Justice Foundation has a range of organic cotton T-shirts with new designs by Luella, Katharine Hamnett, Richard Nicoll and Giles Deacon. Shared Talent was shown on the Monsoon stand – a project funded by Defra and with the support of the Indian Government, showcasing UK and Indian designers, with all the garments made from sustainable Indian textiles. There are also rumours that Orsola de Castro, founder of From Somewhere and co-curator of Estethica will be making a huge splash with a large retailer later this year too. Watch this space!

Photo courtesy of Ciel

Eco Chic: The best ethical sportswear

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:08:54 GMT

I walk, bike, box, dance, run, rock climb, and do pilates. The kind of clothes I need are probably pretty similar to the outfits the majority of us might require for most sports that don’t involve being voluntarily immersed in water. Here’s my suggestions for the best ethical brands that I’ve tried (starting with light weight activities and getting harder):

Gossypium

The company declined to get back to me but they were rated highest in the Ethical Consumer’s 2008 report on sportswear. Their cotton comes from small Indian, organic farms certified by SKAL, a European organic inspection agency and FLO, the worldwide Fairtrade Standard Setting and Certification Organisation, and they are committed to paying a fair wage and ensuring their factory workers have decent conditions.

I have a pair of their yoga pants, which are hard wearing and flattering and have lasted well over a decade. I wear them for light runs and pilates. However, if you’re going to do anything that’ll raise your pulse rate, don’t bother with the T-shirts. Cotton is not a great performance fabric as it chafes when wet and won’t last. Keep the Tees for normal wear.

www.gossypium.co.uk

Earth Couture

A new company that’s just launching a gorgeous range of leisure wear. Founded by Meleni Bharwani, the collection is made from certified organic cotton using natural West African indigo dyes; socially responsible practises are adhered to in the factories in Turkey and Portugal. For every item sold a mosquito coil is donated to a family in Nigeria to help combat malaria. Earth Couture sent me a track suit to try out – it’s a lovely cut and fit, very flattering and perfect for pilates or yoga. Or lounging. Kate Moss said she would never leave the house in a tracksuit but I would be happy going to the shops in these. Come to think of it, as a writer, I’ll probably be wearing them permanently.

www.earth-couture.com

Howies

I love Howies. I wear their cords, merino wool base layers and waterproof jacket when I’m presenting TV programmes on British wildlife. They use organic cotton, organic denim and merino wool from New Zealand, which is breathable, insulating and has some anti-microbial properties, and the clothes themselves are made to a very high standard and are extremely durable. Having said that, Howies is about light outdoor activity and being part of the Howies ethos (man, they canoe to work! they skateboard! they bake bread!). Their ethical rating dropped after Howies was sold to Timberland – a pretty good company compared to other high street corporations but not squeaky clean either. The gear is not designed for hardcore walking or running.

www.howies.co.uk

Mountain Equipment Coop

I’ve had two pairs of their tracksuit bottoms in the last 12 years; I’ve worn them every single week, sometimes several times a week, and when I did British Military Fitness three times a week for a year, they came in for some serious muddy abuse. Long lasting, tough, relatively warm and baggy enough to fit thermals underneath. I use MEC Polartec base layers and gloves for running in cold weather; LFM wears their waterproofs. MEC is a co-op that promotes worker’s rights and uses recycled polyester fabrics. The downside is that the company is based in Canada.

www.mec.ca

Nike

This is not a supremely ethical company (see last week’s post). However, according to Ethical Consumer, it is one of the better high street sports retailers, scoring only half an ethical point behind Howies. As I mentioned before, they use some recycled cotton and polyester and are making an effort to ensure that their manufacturing is more transparent and socially responsible. Their kit is brilliant. It’s cut well, breathable and keeps you warm, dry and lasts: I run in Nike leggings, shorts, long sleeved tops, T-shirts, waterproof jacket, sweat band and gloves (generally not all at once though it has been known) and use their cycling mitts. I usually have to change the leggings every four years, the T-shirts more often. And unlike most ethical companies, you don’t have to go to London or shop over the internet.

www.Nike.com

Patagonia

Patagonia is the oldest and most committed environmentally-friendly organisation selling outdoor gear and comes highly recommended by the Soil Association. Patagonia kindly sent me a base layer to try out, which was cut well, a cute dusk-rose colour and is perfect for running in late summer or early autumn. It’s made of Capiline, 54% recycled polyester (from bottles of pop) and can be recycled through their Common Threads Programme. It is odour resistant (apparently) and keeps you cool, dry or acts as an insulating layer. I also have a recycled Patagonia fleece and hat (the Alpine beanie). When I need to replace my more hardcore walking gear, this is the company I’ll turn to. However, they don’t seem to have women’s performance T-shirts and vests for running and they only have limited stock in a few shops so generally you have to buy over the internet.

www.Patagonia.com

Other performance-wear fabrics to look out for that aren’t widely available yet are Ingeo, made from corn, and Modal, derived from eucalyptus using non-polluting chemicals. Not a huge amount of choice but enough to keep you from naked cycling. Oh, and to whoever stole my Howies waterproof and Patagonia gilet when I was filming, just because they’re ethical, it’s still wrong.

Photos courtesy of Earth Couture

Striving to be the best July/August 08 www.ethicalconsumer.org

Eco Chic: Can sportswear be ethical?

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 15:46:13 GMT

It’s all very well wearing the latest little dress from People Tree, organic T-shirts and shopping for vintage, but what happens when we get to the gym? Or go for a walk requiring something warm and usually waterproof? Generally exercise and outdoor gear is not known for its ethical credentials (I’m going to look at trainers another day). Whilst some clothing companies can boast a smidgeon of organic cotton, this is generally not what you want to wear for exercising. “You’re at an obvious disadvantage if you wear cotton,” says Kerry McCarthy, the gear editor at Runner’s World, “It’s not breathable, it retains moisture, it gets heavy and then hangs off your body. And the chafing causes runner’s nipple.” (Bleeding nipples for those who don’t run or wear sports bras).

The mainstream alternative is to wear performance fabrics that do a proper job – they don’t chafe, they wick moisture away, cool you down or keep you warm – but generally they’re made of polyester, which is a resource-hungry petrol-derived material. Kerry suggests bamboo as being the next big thing. Northface, who make outdoor clothing, declined to respond to my queries but they have launched a new line of performance wear fabric made using fast-growing bamboo that’s burnt, spun into polyester-like material and is UV-resistant, wicking, insulating and odour-beating. Sounds like a solution but unfortunately, according to the Soil Association, the process of turning bamboo into material relies on the same nasty chemicals that are used to produce viscose.

As for exercise gear’s ethical credentials… last year Ethical Consumer carried out a comprehensive report on sportswear and it’s enough to make you hang up your trainers for good. It is a litany of woe: Chinese workers paid less than half the minimum wage, forced over-time, forced labour, child labour, wages withheld, the use of PVC (which has been criticised for its environmental impact in production, use and disposal and because it contains toxic chemicals). Down, for instance, used in Berghaus sleeping bags and jackets, is plucked from live geese from the time they’re six weeks old to four years. Workers at Kappa factories, for example, had never heard of a worker’s code of conduct; workers for Timberland were coached to provide false answers to factory inspectors and had a month’s wage’s docked if they resigned; a secret pipe laid in China discharged 20,000 tonnes of waste water per day into the river system from an Adidas factory; workers for Fila complained about being made to work 24 hours straight at times of peak production. I could go on but my eyes are starting to bleed.

One bit of good news is that Nike has committed to blending organic cotton into its mainstream products – by 2010 the company claims its entire range of cotton clothes will contain 5% organic cotton, and has begun to incorporate recycled polyester into the rest. After being severely criticised a number of years ago, the company has fostered greater levels of transparency: you can download a list of their factories from their website, for instance, and they have developed a matrix system for evaluating the environmental impact of their products. Next week I’ll look at the best ethical exercise gear going.

Photo copyright Sanjida O'Connell

Striving to be the best July/August 08 www.ethicalconsumer.org

Oxfam International: Offside! Labour rights and sportswear production in Asia 24 May 2006 www.oxfam.org.uk

Eco Chic: My first attempt at sewing (properly)

Mon, 31 Aug 2009 08:05:54 GMT

A survey of leading politicians and environmental campaigners by Ethical Consumer Magazine has thrown up that throwaway fashion is one of the least ethical practices in our society and should be banned. So sewing your own is the way forward! I can now sew, after a fashion, since I’ve just done a course. I’ve got some material. I’ve even got a sewing machine. It’s my mother’s forty-year-old Singer that cost her a week and a half’s salary. It wasn’t working but finally I found a man who did not say, “Look love, just buy a new one,” but actually fixed it.

This is the beast I was scared of as a teenager, mainly because I didn’t know how to use it and was too impatient to listen. This was the monster I ran my first clothes up on at school – drawing round my legs in my jeans and zipping up an inner seam to create skin-tights before skinnies came into fashion, knocking up an ankle-length green skirt with a zip from hem to thigh covered with a cloud of black lace. I’m less scared now that I’ve gone to sewing school and the nice older gent showed me how to thread the beast. And the forty-year old instructions are still there!

So the first thing I want to make is a top for my niece. Only I don’t know how big she’ll be on her birthday. I ask a child in my street and she lends me a Barbie vest that’s a bit small for her. I lay the vest on a piece of newspaper and cut round it. Big mistake: it’s the sports section. Then I sew lace across the top of each bit of pale pink jersey and lace in a loop round the arms to make straps, sew up the seams, hem the bottom and sew a line of daisy buttons down the front. It’s a breeze! It’s cute enough to put on a cup cake.

Then, for some unfathomable reason I think I’ll make myself a matching one. In black. Obviously. Not pastel pink. I use a fifteen year-old T-shirt my Mum gave me and cut off the sleeves and the neck. It says Jaspar Conran on the front in gold but I figure the lace will cover it up. This is not such a breeze. Still, after much swearing and unpicking I get there. But when I try it on it bows out both front and back like a kind of seventeenth-century corset, with none of the push-up and squeeze-together. “Darts,” says LFM authoritatively. He’s covered them in a course on carbon composites in the aeronautical industry. I tell you, it’s very f***g fiddly sewing darts into lace. I hope to God they don’t make planes like this. It still looks dreadful so I put it in recycling, which arguably is where the T-shirt should have gone to begin with.

And now I’m left with the thought – what if my niece’s top looks like that on her too? My options are a) kidnap a small child and force her to try the vest on, which could result in i) despair and more darts, ii) the arrival of social services; or I can b) wait until her birthday and risk huge disappointment followed by minor temper tantrum (mine, not hers).

Photo of vest by Sanjida O'Connell

Eco Chic: Are dress agencies guilt-free shopping?

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 07:59:59 GMT

There is something alluring about it: it has boho chic, a touch of glamour, a glimmer of retro and almost zero guilt. Rag Trade is Bristol’s only dress agency, selling second-hand clothes on behalf of customers. Somewhere between vintage store, charity shop and ebay, dress agencies are a way of being an ethical shopper but one that takes the leg work out of bidding, selling, sifting through rails of rubbish and appeals to the average woman who doesn’t want to wear another era’s clothes.

“The worst thing I’ve been given was Primark – dirty Primark too,” says Cree Jones, owner of Rag Trade. What Cree specialises in are mid to high end high street and designer. The practicalities are that the profits are split 50:50 with the customer. Each garment spends four weeks at the agreed price, is then reduced by a third for two weeks, before retailing for £5-10 and finally ends up in a charity shop if still unsold. “People bring in their clothes to make money,” says Cree bluntly, “the market on ebay has changed and it’s hard to sell, particularly designer clothes, because there are a lot of fakes. People also often say, ‘I would take this to charity but it’s too nice.’” Customers can, of course, receive cash but 600 have chosen to set up an account and use their earnings to buy something new. “They don’t feel as if they’re spending and also it’s a bargain so people don’t feel as guilty,” says Cree, adding, “It’s about making decent clothes more affordable and accessible.”

Naturally anyone can shop in a dress agency even if you don’t want to part with your own clothes. There are some gorgeous garments at Rag Trade: a brand new Blank-UK dip dye tunic with gems like river-washed pebbles caught in a mesh net, a champagne-coloured Prada top made out of a silk parachute with on-trend corset detailing, a Missoni floor-length knit in trade-mark caramel and aquamarine zigzags, a Noa Noa vintage jacket with leaf-green woollen cuffs softly poking out of the sleeves. “Just because it’s second-hand doesn’t mean it’s not fashionable,” says Cree, who likes to look for colours and styles that are in season now. To illustrate her point she shows me a pair of leopard print court shoes and some classic Bally boots.

It’s been brave of Cree and her boyfriend, Stephen Jones, to have opened a shop in the middle of the recession but she says she’s doing really well, so much so that she’s starting a franchise in Brighton in October. “People are spending less money on clothes,” she admits, “but there’s a difference between spending three grand on a dress in Harvey Nics and buying one from me that originally cost a grand.” Cree, who worked in TV before packing it in to go back-packing whilst she thought about what she wanted to do, believes there is an environmental message behind dress agencies. “Women wear less than ten per cent of their wardrobe 80 per cent of the time. This way we prevent clothes from going to landfill and people see it as a way of refreshing their wardrobe.” Given that she offers a bespoke service, contacting customers if what you are looking for comes in, I might just give her my list.

Photo courtesy of Rag Trade