Ethical & sustainable fashion @ #LFW

| By @thegrayhaus |

As we get more and more ‘woke’ and educate each other about the ethics involved in our food, we also have the same discussions in the fashion world. No one i know would feel good about wearing something made from a sweatshop somewhere in India or China, or something made out of fur or an endangered animal species, or material that’s just non-environmental friendly.

We simply went around the showrooms and asked each and one of them about their ethical and sustainable practises.

We got a mixed response. Some were downright thrown off by this simple question, which was shocking for anyone in 2019. You’d think they would be fully expecting this question everywhere they go by now.

LIDO, were by far the best.

Nadia, of Lido had this to say:

” to me being contemporary nowadays is creating a product with a focus towards its sustainability. I think that we don’t need anything anymore, there are tons of clothes out there, fashion is one of the most polluting industries and it’s only part of our work, in putting more out there, to take care of how it is made, where it’s coming from, and to keep the impact of what we do on the environment to a minimum. I like to use either sustainable, recycled or upcycled fabrics with the goal of making something extremely good in quality that lasts. This starts from the sourcing of the yarn up to the dyes used to colour the fabric, up to the packaging, which is probably one of the worst and most overlooked parts of a product”

If were to grade all the designers there for this article, LIDO would get five stars. They had A LOT of good things to say about how they go about things.

Moving on…

Katya makes very colourful items, and she is hard to miss, or forget. She said most of stuff was made from material sourced from donated lace and donated stock fabric. She also makes all the stuff herself in house in London, so no outsourcing of labour required. She also explained that she uses viscose yarn, which does not hurt the environment as much as wool or silk. She further explained the yarn came goats that graze on bits of grass that takes quicker to grow? It’s a a whole thing we didn’t know about.

Further along…

We spoke to A-LAB MILANO whose style merges the past and the future. They proudly stated that all their material were eco friendly [they even came with a ‘econyl’ stamp on them] as they were made from regenerated Nylon. All print are designed by hand, and they use Japanese Cotton.

Gayon Lee also makes everything herself. Always a definitive way to know if there are any sweatshops involved. Not that outsourcing labour is necessary a bad thing. Brings jobs and funds livehoods for millions everyday. Everything is made in London, and while she uses mixed fabrics, she mostly uses cotton.

The Bridge Co were representing two designers: Wen Pan & Cafuné. They only used old materials for their cotton based designs and are based in London, where both designers do the work themselves.

Vinti Andrews also use vintage based materials for their very colourful items. They were some furry items we were assured were 100% faux fur. They outsource some materials abroad, but are based in London.

Errortique also design and make everything in London. Everything is locally sourced and they use organic silk from a UK company that produces everything ethically.

We did not interview everyone, but the majority of them. Above are most of those who had answers for us, and expressed a desire to be more ethical and more sustainable. Some were not very forthcoming, or got defensive about their practises. This magazine isn’t the fashion police, and the desire wasn’t to name and shame anyone, rather, to just find out what steps were being taken, if any. Some were downright forthright, and admitted to not being proactive with any ethical or sustainable practises. One blamed their extensive use of so many colours on how that made it difficult to use sustainable products? One refused eye contact and became defensive and was not interested at all. They’ll remain nameless.

However, most expressed a desire to do more and were aware of the ‘revolution’ involved in being a more ethical and sustainable fashion world, and THAT was comforting.