Fashion: Your complete guide to sustainable style
Want to make your wardrobe a more planet-friendly place? Give existing garments new life by getting them repaired, revamped or altered. And if you’re shopping for something new, buy recycled, preloved or vintage. Alice Ryan opens her little green book. . .
Brooks Designer Clothes Agency
This Saffron Walden shop is an absolute treasure trove of labels, from high-end High Street all the way up to Chanel, Westwood, Louis Vuitton. With stock curated by owner Nicola Brooks, whose eye has been honed by years in the fashion business, I’m a regular customer and have never failed to find an absolute gem on the rails - my latest being a like-new Rixo pussycat blouse in pure leopard-print silk at less than half the original price. I’ve sold umpteen garments, shoes and bags there too - Nicola sells on commission, giving sellers 40% of sale price on clothes and 50% on bags. Talking of bags: Brooks is famous for them, particularly preloved designer.
D’oro
What Naz Jackson doesn’t know about fashion, past, present and future, isn’t worth knowing - and her preloved and vintage boutique in Newmarket is testament to that. One-of-a-kind Noughties McQueen jackets hang alongside 1970s M&S dresses; 1950s Chanel flap bags sit beside 2020s Cambridge Satchels. Everything, whatever its age and label, has one thing in common: it’s got serious style. I’ve bought some beauties in there over the years - notably a 1990s Louis Vuitton black epi leather shoulder bag; some spectacular 1960s chandelier earrings in the shape of blue glass grapes; and a puff-sleeve pinstripe blazer. Also selling her wares at the famed Frock Me Vintage fairs in Chelsea, I’ve sold plenty of pieces through Naz too - again, she sells on 50% commission.
Forget Me Not Makes
Children’s author Josie Dom’s side hustle sees her make everything from aprons to bags and baskets from old and unwanted skirts, tees and even karate belts. She discovered a talent for both designing and sewing after combining a charity shop velvet skirt with a pair of her own worn-out jeans to make a shoulder bag. Her most popular designs are slouchy hobos and grab-handled bucket bags. Prices vary, depending on the piece.
Gorgeous Alpacas
Alpaca yarn is one of the most sustainable textiles available: it can be processed at lower temperature levels and without chemicals;
it lasts longer and, being naturally stain-resistant, needs to be washed less often; plus the alpacas themselves don’t uproot grass when they graze. After keeping alpacas for two years, Emma and Henry Adeane found themselves snowed under with sheared fleece, decided to turn it into yarn. . . and so Gorgeous Alpacas, the Cambridgeshire knit kit brand was born. The new Restful Range is filled with swift, stress-free projects, all of which result in cute and cosy winter-friendly items, including cowls, shawls, scarves, socks and mittens. Prices start at £16.
Gokotta Handcraft
Denim is among the most environmentally costly fabrics: production of a single pair of jeans requires a reported 7,600 litres of water alone. Having trained in repair work with Levi’s, tailor Nate Revell mends all kinds of clothes but specialises in extending the life of denim garments. His Gokotta Handcraft studio, housed in Cambridge’s Dogfish store, offers both invisible and visible repairs - the latter deploying a Japanese technique, Shashiko, which uses deliberately eye-catching contrast-colour stitching to artful effect. Prices vary per project.
Knitting Needle Lane
Cambridge’s much-loved yarn store has launched its own clothing line: starting this winter, it will release a seasonal capsule collection, all designed and machine-knitted at Knitting Needle Lane HQ. “We’ll be launching key pieces each season that have been machine knitted right here at KNL,” says founder Camilla Carter, who also runs Cambridge Yarn Festival, a calendar of virtual and in-person knit and crochet events throughout the year. “We are on a mission this winter to buy nothing ‘new’,” she adds, “so we will be hitting our yarn stash to launch a range of unique one-off pieces to keep you warm!”
Linda Couch
A professional costume designer and maker, Cambridge’s Linda Couch not only offers a clothing alterations and repairs service, she also teaches dressmaking courses and sewing workshops to share her skills. “I offer basic things like shortening, replacing zips etc, but can also restyle items to fit the wearer better and have a more unique look,” she says. “As well as teaching dressmaking for all levels, I run workshops showing people how to alter their own clothes so they will have the skills to revamp their own wardrobe.” Linda will be running more workshops at Coleridge Community College this year - email her for details
linda.couch05@gmail.com
Make Cambridge
We all know that the greenest garments to wear are the ones already hanging in our wardrobe. To help you get the most out of your existing closet, Kath Goodwin of Make Cambridge will reorganise and restyle it for the coming season and, a talented seamstress as well as stylist, she can alter and upcycle pieces for you too, creating whole new looks and silhouettes. After a decades-long career in fashion, which saw her design for High Street giants and work London Fashion Week, Kath is passionate about slow fashion: “Seeing rivers run red [with dyes] from factories in India was a real wake-up call to me. I had to stop being involved in the mass-production of clothes.” Kath regularly styles Velvet cover shoots and ran upcycling sewing workshops for Grand Arcade’s Go Circular event series; her wardrobe service is new, launching this February.
info@makecambridge.co.uk
Mill House Millinery
Milliner Susan Widlake upcycles as a matter of course in her Wimbish studio: even if she’s making a hat from scratch, the likelihood is she’s incorporating scrapstore fabrics, vintage finds or rescued ribbons - the trims on her Art Deco-themed range are made from overstocked Jo Malone London ribbon. She also breathes new life into old hats by reshaping or retrimming them to update the style or match with a client’s outfit. And nothing goes to waste: straw offcuts become vegan feather headbands and old hat trims are turned into fascinators. The pink headpiece featured in this month’s cover shoot - see it in the shots on pages 42 and 43 - is her handiwork.
Nearly New Cashmere
Averting 16,000 garments from landfill last year alone, Nearly New Cashmere rescues, reconditions and rehomes post-consumer cashmere. The brainchild of slow-fashion way-maker Alison Orr, who founded the brand in 2015, one of the best things about this online shop is the sheer range of items for men, women and even children on offer: whatever your age, gender, dress size or personal style, you’ll find something to suit here. (Plus, brilliantly, each item is modelled by a real person with a real body in the right size, giving you a great idea of cut and fit.) I love a polo neck and have a timeless navy number from Nearly New Cashmere; a Fairisle tank is next on my list. Prices start at less than £45 for 100% cashmere - a bonafide bargain.
Saywood Studio
A womenswear label known for shirting, London’s Saywood Studio works with deadstock fabrics sourced from an eco-friendly mill in Portugal. That’s not the best bit, though: designer Harriet Saywood-Bellisario - who graduated from the London College of Fashion before working at Paul Smith, Richard Nicoll and Label/Mix - turns any scraps left over from creating her clothing into homewares (notably patchwork and frill-trimmed cushions) and hair accessories (including knot and twist-topped hairbands). I have a patchwork denim scrunchie which is in almost daily wear: as well as looking cute, it’s really comfy to wear as it holds hair snug without snagging. Prices start at £19.
The Seam
Offering repair and alteration services nationwide by post, The Seam is a game-changer. Need a sleeve shortening? A hem dropping? A tear repaired? A lining replaced? Simply fill in a wee online form and The Seam team will match your job with one of 700 makers across the country, all of whom work at their home sewing machines. You then post off your garment (recorded delivery) and, hey presto, it gets sent back, job done. I’ve had an emerald green Damsel in a Dress cocoon coat for more than a decade and worn it so much, the lining fell into shreds; I sent it away to a seamstress in London, another Alice, who relined it, matching the dove grey fabric beautifully, and giving it a whole new lease of life. Prices start at just a few pounds; coat relining varies from £50-£70.
Trash Chic
Selling both online and at pop-ups - one of which is already scheduled for March 25 at Grantchester Village Hall - Trash Chic is the result of Haslingfield designer Jane Horwood’s lifelong love of “upcycling, repurposing and breathing new life into old things”, plus helping people find pieces which express their individual style. As well as sourcing and selling clothes of all vintages and vibes - from period pieces through to contemporary preloved, classic to kitsch - Jane also turns silk scarves and tea towels into unique cushions.
Turtle Doves
Buying up unwanted woollens from charity shops and waste-textile merchants, who also source from charity shops, Turtle Doves turns them into everything from beanie hats to baby bootees. As well as supporting good causes and being brilliantly green, each reimagined item is a thing of beauty: super-soft, super-comfy and lovely looking, too. I’ve got two pairs of the fingerless gloves, sewn from the sleeves of old cashmere jumpers, which I wear to stop my hands from freezing while home-working and, if you’re on my Christmas or birthday gift list, chances are you’ve got a pair too. Or a patchwork cashmere snood - gorgeous. Happily, as well as buying direct, you can find Turtle Doves products at Cuckoo, the indie boutique at Burwash Manor in Barton. The fingerless gloves are £35 per pair.
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Alice Ryan