Fashion and CREATEivity

Fashion isn't just about the what you see on the catwalk or find on the high street. In Bristol we are lucky enough to be surrounded by a wealth of independent shops, designers and organisations who are committed to recycling, reusing and restoring garments.

Charity shops and vintage boutiques sit side by side and community based projects are around every corner working to make a better, more sustainable city for us to enjoy. The CREATE Centre is one such venue - an 'environment centre' that runs workshops, hosts exhibitions and conferences and focuses on promoting green living to its visitors.


Starting today and running until the end of March, CREATE are running a programme dedicated to ethical fashion and the future of fashion. Fashion Footprints: Sustainable Approaches aims to unravel the complex world of fashion and its ecological and social impact - from the cotton fields to your favourite pair of jeans.

The exhibition has been created by the Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World and curated by MA students from the London College of Fashion, and is touring the nation to educate consumers and industry insiders alike. As well as an exhibition there will also be a customising events, a Fairtrade fashion show and The Big Swish, a clothes swap organised by Oxfam.

Located near Spike Island, the centre isn't the first place you would think to go for your fashion fix but this exciting programme will make it worth the visit. If you can't get there during on a weekday then be sure to stop by on a Saturday morning before you hit the shops - what you learn might surprise you. I'll be checking this exhibition out and reporting back but if you get the chance to visit this week let me know what you think...

Fashion Footprints: Sustainable Approaches runs until 31st March at the CREATE Centre, for more information including opening times and a full listing of events check out their website.

Dispatches: Fashion's Dirty Secret

I've just come back from a romantic trip to Venice and I was planning on putting up a few outfit posts and general holiday snaps but instead I thought I would write about what I'm currently watching, which is arguably more important than me prancing around in front of the Rialto bridge.

After getting back from the airport minus M, who has gone off on a business trip to Germany, I thought I would catch up on some telly when I came across Dispatches: Fashion's Dirty Secret. The documentary, which aired last week, investigates the working conditions in UK factories that supply the likes of New Look, Topshop and Peacocks (these links will take you to the ethical polices for each brand).

From what I'm seeing the main issues seem to be subcontracting within approved supply chains and while the point of the documentary is to be 'hard hitting', having seen documentaries like this before, I am not as shocked as I should be that this kind of labour is taking place in Britain.

Most savvy shoppers will have seen the likes of BBC Three's Blood, Sweat & T-Shirts and be aware that cut-price fashion can come at a cost. I wrote a post about cheap frills myself earlier this year and have become increasingly aware that in the fashion industry, words like 'ethical' and 'organic' are bounced around with little care.The shock factor with this film is that the long hours, poor working conditions and barely-there wages are happening to workers in Leicester.

Most of the brands approached for a comment either denied all knowledge of the work and/or agreed how it contravened their ethical trading policies. It's hard to love high street when a programme like this shoots down brands such as New Look, which I had always naively assumed was sounds its fashion responsibilities.

Take a look and see for yourself what the real cost of a £25 jumpsuit or Breton t-shirt is and have a read of Ethical Trading Initiative website where there are details on New Look's reaction and response to the film.

Knock-Off Fashion

Today I finally met The Magazine Man. I don't want to get him in trouble, but for those that don't know, Magazine Man loiterers around the Bear Pit at the bottom of Stokes Croft, selling magazines at suspiciously cheap prices to passers by.

Previously only a rumor and subject of speculation, I was skeptical as to whether or not such a man existed. M and some other friends have told me about this vendor, as they are well aware of how magazines, fashion magazines in particular, are like crack to me. At the moment I'm forced to buy various publications on rotation each month, but if I had my way I would hold subscriptions to just about every glossy going.

So, when I heard about this mythical creature selling discounted magazines I was curious to say the least. And sure enough, alongside the likes of More and Reveal, there they were; Marie Claire, Grazia, Look and Elle. But Magazine Man was not the man I had pictured in my fantasies - no top hat, no jolly expression, no shouting 'roll up, roll up!' or handing out balloons to small children. In his place was a scruffy, shifty eyed tramp, who was obviously not selling these magazines because he was morally outraged at their RRP.

My eyes lingered over the titles as he slid up to me to let me know his latest deals. I didn't have any cash on me but decided to walk away anyway, unable to get my head around why I hadn't pounced on those glossy fashion bibles. He wasn't there when I came back after meeting S and when I mentioned my reluctance to purchase, she came out with a surprisingly truthful comment; "We buy knock-off fashion all the time" she said, "buying a cheap fashion magazine is no different from shopping for cheap fashion at Primark".

Like most girls I know my wardrobe is 50% cheap-as-chips fashion, 50% God-bless-the-credit-card fashion

This got me thinking about knock-off fashion and it's place in society. Knowingly buying fake designer goods is different from a splurge in shops like Primark but while not exactly a taboo any more, cheap clothes still come with a hefty price tag. Mass production, dodgy labour and production, excessive spending and increased textile waste are all a result of our desire to have the latest catwalk imitation right now.

In recent years documentaries such as Blood, Sweat and T-Shirts have highlighted how little most British consumers know about where their cheap-as-chips fashion comes from. Thanks to the spotlight on climate change retailers are starting to introduce ethically friendly policies and the recession has almost certainly been a factor in the increase of attendance at sewing workshops and vintage fairs. But there is still an obsession with catwalk copies at knock-off prices and I don't see this changing any time soon.

So how can you look achingly on trend without breaking the bank or contributing to child labour? Simple: do your research, make do and mend instead of throwing away perfectly good clothes, shop at vintage stores/jumble sales/charity shops and have a go at making your own clothes - you might be surprised at how satisfying it is once you get past managing to thread a needle without pricking yourself to death.

For more information about ethical fashion on the high street check out the Ethical Fashion Forum and for details of Primark's ethical trading initiative click here.