Shortcut to Sustainable Fashion: Post-Couture Collective at V&A Friday Late

On Friday evening I went to the V&A for July’s Friday Late event. The theme was Hack. Make. Create and I went to listen to Martijn van Strien from the Post-Couture Collective talk about his vision for the future of sustainable fashion. The talk was held in a corner of the Fashion gallery, where the lighting was a little moody, so please excuse the rather grainy photos, the Post-Couture Collection website has a far better collection of images of their work. I wanted to write up and share what I learned at the talk because I was impressed by this novel approach to sustainable fashion, and how quickly the initial idea is evolving and maturing.

Martijn van Strien trained as a textile designer, learning about how ‘messed up’ the fashion industry is firsthand. After working for a Dutch company that were taking a more ‘traditional’ approach to sustainable fashion (a traceable production line, smaller production runs etc), he was inspired by the Maker Movement to imagine how the fashion industry could create less waste if production was moved from large-scale specialised factories to small-scale, local facilities that can be used to create a variety of products. These facilities would contain laser cutters and 3-D printers, and like the ‘hack-spaces’ that are popping up in various cities, would work on an open-source model.

To eliminate over-production, exploitation and waste in the fashion industry, the Post-Couture Collective’s clothes are designed to only be produced as required. The consumer buys the pattern as a digital file for a small fee (van Strien was enthusiastic about the open-source model but doesn’t believe that everything should be free - “I need to eat!” he explained, and €5 for a dress pattern doesn’t seem extortionate), they can then adapt the pattern to their own measurements using Illustrator or similar software, before buying their fabric and heading to their nearest Maker Space to have their garment laser cut. The garment is then assembled with no need for a sewing machine or other tools, using the ‘connectors’ - a series of barbed tabs and slits along the seams of each garment piece. 

Van Strien was quick to point out that he trained as a textile designer, not a fashion designer, and that his first collection of six pieces used simple, ‘archetypal’ shapes and straight seam lines as his main concern was developing and perfecting the connectors that formed the assembly method of the garment; the crucial aspect of this radical new approach to garment manufacture. The first collection was made from ‘Spacer’ fabric, a knitted, breathable fabric made from post-consumer plastic waste. Although usually a fan of monochrome, van Strien included a pale green in his collection as the fabric’s unusual colour was a result of being made from Sprite bottles! The connectors add a simple but interesting visual element to t-shirts and shift dresses. 

He acknowledged the limitations to this production method: customers needed a good working knowledge of the appropriate software to really be able to customise the design to their exact requirements, as well as access to a laser cutter. He had a bold vision for the future of the Post-Couture Collective: a ‘Maker Shop’ where customers could select their design, have it digitally altered to their exact requirements on-site, choose their fabric and have the garment pieces cut for them using the in-house laser cutters, all within the space of around half an hour. The customer would then take away their garment-assembly kit, which should take a further half an hour to make up. Hopefully, this process would be quick enough to satisfy customers desperate for a fashion fix, but seeing each part of the process, and being responsible for a key element of it, would encourage consumers to value and take care of their garments.

Van Strien also emphasised the limitations of the designs in his first collection and how he was improving his design process. As well as inviting feedback and constructive criticism from customers, he has worked with recent fashion design graduates who have challenged him to develop the technology to produce more complex pattern pieces. For him, the advantage of open source design is that development happens faster as more people experiment with and improve on designs. He is also interested in improving accessibility for people without the requisite software knowledge, and jokingly put out a call for programmers to work alongside him in creating more user-friendly pattern-drafting software! 

As with any technology still in its infancy, basic prototypes often seem a long way off challenging traditional methods of production or consumption. The first collection was interesting, the simple shapes reminiscent of Pierre Cardin’s or Andre Courreges’ 1960s space-race- inspired collections, but the sort of thing a fashion or technology nerd might buy as a novelty, not something that would become a wardrobe staple. What impressed me was the huge leap forward in style and wearability shown in the second collection; these were pieces that were futuristic but in a wearable, sophisticated way, not in a kitschy, sci-fi costume way. Don’t get me wrong, I love a kitschy sci-fi costume, but the only thing that is going to make sustainable fashion innovations take off is if people can imagine wearing them right now, and I can definitely see pieces from the Post-Couture Antwerp Collection finding a home in my wardrobe. I won’t be giving up my sewing machine just yet, but I might just be looking for a hack-space with a laser cutter in my neck of the woods!

This summer's must-have accessory? Kindness.

The last twelve months have been pretty grim if, like me, you're emotionally invested in creating a fairer, more equal society. In 2016 the EU referendum was fought on a platform of fear and lies, and left an angry, confused and divided nation in its wake. The hate stirred up by the tabloid press and fuelled by professional contrarians has resulted in violence and murder, so when another general election was called I felt like I needed to do something, anything, to counter the hysterical and vitriolic coverage of the election campaign in the press. I 'cosplayed' the election again, sharing my outfit posts (complete with calm and rational political commentary!) with friends on social media in an attempt to give people some more positive, cheerful content to enjoy. 

Unsurprisingly, my posts didn't go far beyond my circle of friends and mutual followers (pleas for considered and thoughtful action just don't have the click-bait appeal of hate-speech) and seeing the horrifying abuse that other people who have encouraged a kind and hopeful approach to politics have received, I'm kind of glad they didn't. But they did make me feel better, as they forced me to focus on the positive rather than the negative, so I wanted to take this feeling forward into how I engage with media content in the long term, rather than just in regard to election coverage.

As well as trying to encourage fear and distrust of one another, we're also encouraged to feel bad about ourselves, and publicly shame or ridicule anyone who isn't following an archaic, classist, discriminatory and seemingly endless list of 'rules' designed to police our appearance. I'd love to live in a world where I could breezily tweet "just wear what you want!" as temperatures soar and we peer into our wardrobes trying to figure out if we have anything, anything at all, that is 'suitable' for whatever we might need to do in weather we're just not used to. But we don't live in this kind of utopian future (yet!) and I'd be doing a disservice to a lot of people if I pretended that we are all subject to equal levels of judgement and condemnation. By moaning about my personal pet peeve (the ongoing policing of the upper arms of all women over 30), I'm belittling the constant public scrutiny other people face over every aspect of their appearance; it's false equivalency. "Wear what you want" doesn't require a daily act of courage from me, a rejection of years of social conditioning, the strength to face media-sanctioned cruelty from strangers. So I'm not going to demand bravery from activists who have been doing it for years, or from people whose bodies and clothing choices are none of my business, but I am going to demand an act of kindness from everyone else. 

We've been brainwashed by countless "circle of shame" or "worst dressed" photos to have similarly uncharitable thoughts about the people around us; people who dare to defy clothing conventions; who dare to (in the words of pearl-clutching tabloids) 'flaunt their assets'. Maybe we need to unpack why we leap to conclusions about folk who just want to go about their day feeling fabulous about themselves. Are we jealous of their apparent fearlessness, angry that they've decided that the rules don't apply to them when we've been trying so hard to follow the rules so closely, and are still told that we're found wanting? Whenever we criticise someone else for being "overdressed" or "not making an effort", for revealing or concealing too much of themselves, we're not just policing their bodies but also our own. We're restricting everyone's freedom of self-expression, but most vital of all we're restricting everyone's ability to feel comfortable in their own skin and just move through the world without attracting unwanted commentary. 

The acts of kindness I want to see involve, at the most basic level, doing nothing. If you don't approve of someone's appearance - who cares? Keep it to yourself! There's a wealth of old adages that can apply to this situation, and with good reason; petty meanness has never been a good look on anyone. Compliment pals who are rocking great outfits instead.

Hopefully this will already be second nature to you, and you might feel emboldened to gently challenge body shaming if you hear it from friends or family, and ignore it when you see it presented as a click-bait headline. As Labour's general election campaign showed, it's possible to challenge the status quo in quite a radical way and win people over to your cause if you do it in a thoughtful and positive way. I was so glad to see that there isn't an infinite appetite for cruelty, spite and deliberate misinformation. People have shown that they can be nuanced in their thinking, and that they are open to a kinder, fairer way of being. But rather than expecting other people to create this world for us, we have to push back, even in the smallest ways, against the relentless negativity we have been subjected to for far too long. Being bitchy is so last season, this summer should be all about kindness, and the joy (or, quite honestly, just quiet relief), that can bring into all our lives.

"Dress for the job you want": how Cosplay can improve the way you view your wardrobe and your life!

One of the biggest issues when it comes to making the most of your wardrobe is wearing what is considered 'appropriate' for the occasion. This is a notion I have problems with, particularly as 'appropriate' seems to mean different things for different bodies, with some given the benefit of the doubt, while for others almost every possible outfit is liable to come in for criticism.  Having a strict workplace dress code can mean you have to buy clothes that aren't really to your taste, resulting in unwanted purchases languishing in your wardrobe, alongside the clothes you really want to wear but don't get the opportunity to. I'm lucky that my workplace has a relaxed attitude and no specific dress code rules; I've established a personal style that is both comfortable and presentable and, most importantly, is 'me'. 

So, what if you don't feel like you can be 'you' at work? I doubt you'd ever assume cosplay was the answer. But a couple of silly things I saw got me thinking, and perhaps it's not the daftest idea in the world after all. 

I first saw this cartoon by extra fabulous comics on Tumblr and loved everything about it; from the woman dressed identically to her (male) boss, to the fact that everyone else in the office seemed to be cosplaying. And of course, there's this someecards meme: "My Boss told me: Dress for the job you WANT, not the job you HAVE; now I'm in a disciplinary meeting in my Wonder Woman costume" so I'm clearly not the first person to entertain the idea of cosplaying at work. For those who haven't heard the term, 'cosplay' is a hobby that involves dressing up as your favourite tv, film or book characters (in made, found or bought costumes), and perhaps taking on a bit of that character's personality too. Some people spend a fortune making painstakingly accurate costumes, others simply re-purpose things from their wardrobes. 

For example, I love mid-20th century fashion, but I find some modern interpretations that focus purely on full-on pin-up glamour too much of A Look for work, so I've often based outfits around styles worn by Peggy Carter in Marvel's Agent Carter, or Peggy Olsen in Mad Men; both characters wear outfits featuring bold prints or colourblocking, which adds a modern twist to vintage styling, and I like the cut and structure of outfits that let both characters take up space when they are at work, rather than being made to look small compared to the men around them. I also love characters whose wardrobe has a real sense of drama; while the McQueen-inspired dresses worn by Effie Trinkett in the Hunger Games definitely aren't suitable for work, her more subdued outfits from the later films are a great style reference for a stylish spin on utilitarian workwear.

You don't just have to copy period or fantasy dramas either, there is some amazing contemporary costuming on TV at the moment. My dream work wardrobe is currently being worn by Lucy Liu as Joan Watson in Elementary (although I'd struggle to do anything, let alone some serious sleuthing, in her towering high heels), while Gillian Anderson and Caroline Dhavernas in Hannibal (a show so immaculately styled it makes cannibalism look disturbingly like it could be an Instagram-worthy lifestyle choice) both wear a series of outfits that walk a fine line between carefully studied elegance and pure melodrama. 

Trying out an outfit based on a costume design can be a great way of trying out different ways to wear our existing clothes, rather than feeling compelled to buy new clothes to keep up with trends, and it can also work as a little psychological boost. 

In difficult or trying times, I seek solace in a well-loved novel, or find comfort in the virtual blanket-nest of a favourite film or TV series. Immersing ourselves in fictional worlds isn't a pointless form of escapism, they can help us learn more about ourselves, give us hope and, most importantly, teach us empathy for people whose lives and experiences differ from our own. I wrote this article about how Star Trek's utopian vision of the future made it my go-to, feel-good show in the wake of the Brexit vote, but dystopias have their appeal too: relief that things aren't that bad, or an opportunity to reflect on how we can avoid ending up in the same situation (hint: right now, the answer is voting! We don't need to arm ourselves to the teeth or head to higher ground just yet). 

A friend from my beginners pointe ballet class suggested that we should all dress as Wonder Woman for a class, using whatever suitable clothes we had to hand. I can't speak for everyone, but I definitely felt an improvement in my posture from dressing as someone so confident and self-assured, and doing something fun that distracted me from being self-critical of my painfully slow progress on pointe probably made me dance better that day.

So if dressing like your favourite fictional character could make you feel more confident, more capable or just help you to enjoy your day, embrace the things you love and the creativity they inspire in you and go for it!

"Nice things for everyone!" - the positive message of Fashion Revolution Week

Most of us are familiar with the ways fast fashion can make us feel bad about ourselves, from unforgiving changing room lighting and mirrors, to confusing sizing or unflattering trends. Fashion Revolution Week sought to expose other unattractive aspects of this global and complex industry, and some of their statistics were pretty alarming. For example, did you know that the clothes thrown away over the course of one year in the UK would fill Wembley Stadium? Faced with sobering facts and figures, it's easy to become despondent, assuming that as individual consumers we have no power; and defensive, when our own choices are often limited by cost, size or availability. However, Fashion Revolution Week sought to convey a positive message of consumer-led change for good, promoting transparency within the industry and encouraging us to value and care for our clothes. 

I went to a couple of talks during Fashion Revolution Week and participated in several online discussions. The focus was really positive and everyone seemed engaged and well informed, but I realised there was an element of 'preaching to the choir' when I took part in a chat set up by an organisation that didn't have sustainability as its focus, and realised I'd been in a bit of an echo chamber. My (hastily tweeted) statement: “I'm not buying new clothes, I'm buying second-hand and will thoughtfully replace when clothes wear out", was questioned, with other participants making the argument that the fashion industry provides employment and that a boycott could hurt workers (I'm not criticising the question, it's a valid point and one I had thought about a lot). I was struggling with Twitter as a medium for nuanced discussion of a complicated subject during this chat; If I had more than 140 characters to express myself, I might have been able to emphasise that I meant impulse purchases rather than clothes in general, or that I already had a vast wardrobe that really didn't need that one extra blouse or dress. I wasn't suggesting a boycott, merely a reduction in overconsumption. 

Until a global basic income becomes a reality (I see nothing wrong with the occasional utopian fantasy) jobs are vital for people the world over to meet their basic needs in a capitalist system, but these jobs should not come at the expense of health or dignity. The Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh in 2013 caused over 1000 completely preventable deaths, not to mention countless injuries and traumas. Factory workers in Cambodia are killed by their government for trying to form trades unions. Fast fashion has resulted in a race to the bottom when it comes to wages and workers rights, and people (overwhelmingly women) in poor countries are paying the price. The environmental consequences of overproduction and overconsumption of fast fashion cannot be overstated either; when so many clothes are destined for landfill after only being worn once or twice, how can we claim that a job making these clothes is meaningful when we disrespect both the workers themselves and the work they produce? 

I was concerned that trying to express this in only 140 characters made me sound negative, judgemental and antagonistic, and I genuinely don't want to be any of these things. I understand that low wages are an issue here in the UK, not just in the global south; not everyone can afford the premium prices of slow fashion brands. At the Fashion Debates panel discussion I went to on Thursday, Tansy Hoskins spoke on the importance of not disengaging from the industry, but imagining a brighter future for everyone involved. If workers were paid fairly for producing quality garments, rather than racing to produce huge quantities of cheap clothing, we could work on the issues of overproduction and overconsumption  at the same time. Labour behind the Label's research suggests that for many workers, the national minimum wage as set by their government does not equal a living wage in the cities where jobs are available (this should ring bells for anyone living and working in London), but because living costs are still not comparable with those in the west, a decent standard of living would not contribute to a significant rise in the cost of clothing if a living wage was paid. It’s worth bearing in mind that, according to the Forbes Rich List, four of the one hundred richest people in the world own high street fashion brands; their combined wealth is estimated at £133bn. Something is incredibly wrong here, and we can all work together to make it right. 

If I've learned anything from Fashion Revolution week, it's that the organisers, as well as sustainable fashion brands and bloggers, really love fashion and want it to be a force for good. Designers and makers are striving to create clothes that will feel and look amazing as well as trying to reduce fashion's impact on people and the environment. We don't want to live in the woods and wear burlap sacks; burlap would be so itchy, and we'd have to ask #whomademysack and probably wouldn't be happy with the answer to that question either.

At the Fashion Debates panel, Ayesha Mustafa spoke eloquently and passionately about the importance of valuing artisan skills in the same way we value academic education, as changing our mindsets about the value we place on certain types of work can have positive effects on families and whole communities, not just on the workers themselves.

Fashion Revolution Week's motto was "Be Curious. Find Out. Do Something", and I think this is a great starting point. All of us, or at least the majority of us, can afford a few minutes to ask questions of the brands we rely on for our basic wardrobe staples. Fast fashion brands aren't going to radically change unless we demand it, and at the moment sustainable fashion brands only account for a tiny fraction of the market share. We need to re-engage with the idea of solidarity, and recognise that we are not so very different from the people we expect to work for a pittance to make cheap goods for us. They probably long for holiday days too, and a chance to spend quality time with their families. Tansy Hoskins finished off the Fashion Debates panel with a radical but feel-good statement that seems like a great way to sum up my reflections on Fashion Revolution Week: Proper distribution of wealth would mean nice things for everyone!

How To Be A Conscious Consumer Without Opening Your Wallet

This week (24th-30th April) is Fashion Revolution Week , marking four years since the collapse of the Rana Plaza factory building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in which 1129 workers lost their lives. When talking about conscious consumerism, there's often an emphasis on changing our buying habits, so I wanted to show that we can take meaningful action without spending any money. Here are my tips for taking a thoughtful approach towards your existing wardrobe and the fashion industry that supplies its contents.  

• Love your clothes!: Don't just see the contents of your wardrobe as irritating pieces of fabric you have to wear in an arbitrary order to avoid getting arrested on your way to work, try to see them as the contents of a fantastic dressing up box that will help you to be whoever you need to be today, or at the very least will help you to feel comfortable in your skin.  Your clothes can be armour, a comfort blanket, a disguise, an advert. Seeing my clothes as possibility rather than dreary, disposable items encourages me to look after them: wash them carefully, mend them where possible, wage war on moths that might try to eat them and look forward to wearing them again. 

My wardrobe is an adventure, and I love it! 

• If your clothes aren't 'you' any more, swap them! : With the best will in the world, we all have clothes that don't really fit with our current style, and might work much better in a friend's wardrobe rather than our own. At my recent clothes swap, two friends had put aside several items for one another and ended up having a swap-within-a-swap, both going away with some fabulous new outfits. I often swap clothes with my sister (I say 'swap', usually I take her unwanted clothes away and hoard them, I tend to get very attached to my clothes!) and we borrow clothes and accessories from one another too. As long as you trust one another and are careful with your clothes, this can be a great way to avoid spending money for certain occasions, or to get to wear something a bit different. I sometimes 'forget' to bring an extra jumper when I go to stay with my parents so I can borrow one of my mum's collection of amazing hand-spun, hand-knitted jumpers, made by my great aunt. I have to give it back at the end of the weekend though, the jumpers are amazing for country walking in the winter, but too warm to wear in a centrally heated house! 

Swap buddies! Your friend's unwanted clothes could be your new favourite outfit

• Ask 'Who Made My Clothes?':  Most of us own high street clothes, made in factories overseas. I have plenty myself, and although I may make different purchasing decisions now, I’m not going to get rid of perfectly good clothes, that just generates more waste! Big brands aren't going to change the manufacture and pricing strategies that have made their CEOs so incredibly wealthy unless consumers put pressure on them, so during Fashion Revolution Week  this week we can all ask Who Made My Clothes? Either write to your go-to high street brands asking for more transparency in their supply chain and a better wage for workers, or take a selfie in your favourite piece of clothing with the label showing, then contact the brand on Twitter with the hashtag #whomademyclothes to show your support for the garment workers who made the clothes we so often take for granted. 

On Monday morning I asked H&M Who Made My Clothes on Twitter

• Reuse and re-wear with pride: Incredibly, to me, there is still a stigma attached to wearing clothes over and over again. It's ridiculous, since we all do it with our workwear, and the comfortable clothes we wear around the house and to see friends at the weekend. Occasion wear is expensive, and shaming people (usually those who wear dresses, as suits seem to pass under the multiple-wear radar without comment) who wear the same outfit to different events is thoughtless and unkind at best, and at worst classist and deliberately exclusionary; dismissing people based on a dress code is the worst kind of old-fashioned, petty snobbery. We can all help by pushing back against this outdated attitude wherever we see it, and admiring outfits we've seen before. It's easy to change the appearance of an item of clothing by changing your hairstyle or accessories, but you don't even need to go that far if it's something you felt fabulous in the first time around. Your value as a guest should not lie in your disposable income, true friends will have invited you for your conversation, personality and because you're a pal, not a fancy prop!

Taking part in the Six Items Challenge meant I couldn't be fussy about wearing the same thing to several different events! 

• Spread the word, gently: If you're on a low income, you're following the 'new' rules of conscious consumerism without a second thought, and always have been. Planning purchases, shopping around, carefully considering what you spend your money on and wearing your clothes until they wear out is second nature, not a revelation. Those of us who currently have enough disposable income to splash out on the odd impulse purchase can probably remember a time in the not-too-distant past when we didn't. Conscious consumerism is about making choices, and sometimes, due to any number of factors in our lives, our choices are more limited. Talking to friends and colleagues since I started this blog, I've realised that most of us are making more eco-friendly and sustainable clothing decisions without really realising it. By exchanging or offering tips and advice about repairing, reusing or recycling our clothes we can reach out to people in a non-judgemental way. I'd far rather use my energy to convey my enthusiasm for the money-saving and creative aspects of sustainable fashion, than waste time condemning other people's purchasing decisions. Fashion is a complex and messy intersection of many issues and I am aware that I have the luxury of making choices that someone else may not be able to make. 

I firmly believe that everyone can be a conscious consumer even when we might feel we have a bare minimum of purchasing power. Putting pressure on brands can have a really positive effect. More brands have released details of their supply chains to the Fashion Transparency Index, thanks to the actions that Fashion Revolution has encouraged consumers to take over the last four years. There is always more we can do to help minimise the toll fast fashion takes on the environment and the people who make our clothes, and some of them really are as simple as signing a petition or sharing a photo.

Alternative Outfit Inspiration Part 1: The Personal (Style) Is Political

I've just come to the end of my  Six Items Challenge raising money for Labour Behind the Label, and over the Easter weekend I've gone from only being allowed six different items of clothing (five dresses, one cardigan) to having the entire contents of my wardrobe available to me again. The possibilities are endless! Except.... sometimes they feel like they aren't, and it would be all too easy fall back into wearing the same comfortable, familiar combinations of clothing, and the things I told myself I absolutely would make an effort to wear continue to languish at the back of the wardrobe. 

There are plenty of ways to get the most out of your wardrobe: regular tidying and sorting so you remember what's in there, swapping unwanted items with friends or taking them to a charity shop, trying to stop the endless cycle of buying new things that look a lot like a lot of the old things. One of the things I've always found brings out my most creative and thoughtful side is some sort of clothing challenge, whether it's to raise money for charity (like the Six Items Challenge) or just for my own amusement, to make me think about the contents of my wardrobe and how I can put them together in new and exciting ways. 

The 'Suffragette' themed outfit from 2015 I shared on Instagram as part of the Eco Fashion Challenge

I am currently participating in the #ecofashionchallenge on  Instagram , and Facebook started reminding me of a challenge I set myself in 2015; to wear outfits inspired by aspects of the British political system in the run up to the General Election. I joked that I was "cosplaying the election", but apart from putting together a 'femme' version of the eerily similar outfit all the party leaders wore to look 'casual', I didn't dress as any specific person. Instead my outfits (accompanied by a little bit of fairly impartial commentary when I put up photos on Facebook) were inspired by campaign talking points (the NHS, the Welfare State, the EU) and the idiosyncrasies of our political system, right down to the physical structure of Parliament itself (did you know they have falcons to keep the pigeons off the roof?). Some of the outfits worked better than others, some were a bit too silly ('Mer-people of the Firth of Clyde Against Trident' sadly didn't make it out of the house), but I wore and enjoyed some clothes that hadn't seen the light of day in a while, and having to write the captions helped me to consolidate my thoughts about certain political issues. 

Too much activism? Or too much glittery tail? 

At this point in the original draft of this post, I headed away from politics and started writing about the style inspiration I take from my favourite fictional heroes. But the day before I was planning to post this, a General Election was suddenly called, and a re-write was needed. I'll be singing the praises of 'closet cosplay' in part 2 of this series of posts, because right now I need to talk about rights, and how ours are more closely linked to those of the garment workers I have been raising money for over the last six weeks than perhaps we would like to think.

In the past I have tried to keep my posts and social media activity politically neutral, for fear of offending anyone who held different opinions, but the time for that is long gone. Our complacency over the rights and privileges we have (the right to vote, free healthcare, employment rights, paid holidays and sick pay for employees, beautiful countryside to enjoy on our days off) has led us to devalue them and take them for granted, assuming they will always be  here. The rights we enjoy now were hard-fought, hard-won and the things we value will only continue to exist if we fight for them. Politics affects everything in my life, worrying about it having an effect on my wellbeing is not overreacting. We have a Prime Minister, intent on increasing her majority in parliament, who doesn't care about employment rights, access to healthcare or the environment.

For someone who is passionately concerned about reducing my impact on the world by making choices that might not be the easiest but will benefit the world in the long run, politicians playing selfish, costly games for short-term gains is  horrifying to me. I truly believe we can find a balance where we can all learn to tread lightly on the face of the earth while dismantling the damaging dichotomy of "strivers vs skivers" that keep us divided and fighting amongst ourselves.

So I'll carry on fighting for eco-friendly, sustainable fashion. I'll fight alongside anyone who shares my values. But I might also be adding some new political-themed outfits to my Instagram feed, and this time, I'll say what I really think.

Spring Cleaning My Wardrobe: a thoughtful approach to repurposing, recycling and re-evaluating (and maybe downsizing a little bit)

My partner and I moved into our flat seven years ago; it's not a large place and we've both accumulated a lot of stuff, so over the last few weeks we've been having a bit of a clear out.  Since I've been taking part in Labour Behind the Label's Six Items Challenge at the same time, it seemed like a good opportunity to look over my wardrobe and think realistically about the things I never wear, and the best way to give them a new lease of life.

I've seen a lot of articles recently about the benefits of minimalism, and I can see how cathartic it would be to rid yourself of everything that doesn't make you feel like your best self in one fell swoop. But I think that approach addresses a symptom rather than a cause, and that getting rid of surplus possessions slowly and thoughtfully helps us to address some of the (possibly uncomfortable) reasons why we owned so much in the first place.

A barrage of adverts inform us every day that the acquisition of stuff (or rather, this stuff in particular) will make us attractive, successful, happy. If you're able to recognise that and change your mindset that's fantastic, but it's an ongoing task when ads are specifically targeted for you online. We also live in uncertain times, so our tendency is to hang on to things, 'just in case'. I have good sewing skills and can alter or mend my clothes, but I do need tools and haberdashery to to this, so living a truly minimalist lifestyle is never going to be an option for me. I don't think this is a bad thing; recognising that we can't just get rid of things when they are no longer pristine and learning to fix things reminds us that it's not just the item itself that has value; the raw materials it is made out of are not in infinite supply and we do not have an endless, bottomless landfill in which we can discard anything that isn't 'on trend'.

The idea that we could throw out all our clutter and replace it with a few sleek items that will revolutionise the way we live is appealing, but what happens when those items fall out of fashion in a few years? Do we just repeat the process over again? And what about all the things we reject?

I love shopping in charity shops; I'm grateful to everyone in my local area who has given away barely worn, good quality dresses! Charity shops do a great job, but they need to be able to function as businesses to make money for the charities they are part of, and can't just be a place for us to dump all our unwanted, threadbare or broken clothes without a second thought. If you wouldn't wear it yourself in that condition, the charity shop probably isn't the place for it.

I have an ongoing repairs/alterations pile, and I have recently discovered the joys of 'visible mending' from Tom of Holland. This creative approach to fixing clothes means that your mends don't have to be perfect, they can be part of the ongoing 'story' of your clothes. Agy  creates beautiful embroidered patches to embellish her clothes as she mends them, illustrating that mending can be an enjoyable and practical way to practice crafting skills rather than a chore.

Claire Louise Hardie, aka The Thrifty Stitcher, runs sewing classes online and in person at her studio, including alterations, and you can also find free 'how to' video tutorials on her website. All her handy hints are beginner friendly and will help you carry out professional standard alterations!

If your clothes really are at the end of their lives, your local council should have textile recycling facilities. Alternatively, you can carry on recycling them yourself; I use clean but threadbare socks, or t shirts and leggings cut into squares, to clean shoes and boots!

I am running a Clothes Swap and Alterations SOS on Saturday, to give friends a chance to find new homes for clothes that aren't right for them anymore, or to ask questions and get some help with sewing projects that could transform unwanted clothes into something they'd look forward to wearing again. Living with a big bag of 'unwanted' clothes in my hallway for a month has made me reflect on my buying habits, and has made me more determined to stick to my 'thoughtfully replacing' policy and avoid impulse buying on the high street. Funnily enough, nothing has made it out of the bag and back into my wardrobe, although I can't promise not to re-home a few pre-loved items on Saturday!