Hands-on sustainable fashion

by Baran Cicek

Londoners will have the chance to experience environmentally friendly fashion in one of the capital's most fashion orientated areas.

Marks & Spencer and Oxfam have teamed up with the London College of Fashion (LCF) to create the first sustainable fashion laboratory at the Old Truman Brewery in east London.

The sustainable fashion lab was created to give customers of Marks & Spencer and other shoppers an insight in to how eco-friendly fashion works.

It is a brilliant opportunity for the public to explore the future of fashion with work from the UK's leading sustainable fashion designers. Visitors can also bring old items to be remade into eco-friendly clothing.

Kate Bostock, Marks & Spencer's Executive Director of General Merchandise, said: “London has always been home to some of the most dynamic and innovative designers in the world and we’re proud to be working with London College of Fashion, giving both established and budding designers the chance to collaborate on this exciting project for the industry.”

Create your own designs

Customers will also get the chance to make and design their own sustainable fashion items alongside world famous Canadian accessories designer, Michelle Lowe-Holder, and ex Levi's director, Gary Harvey.

Customers will use the latest technology to make new clothes out of old items. Materials that cannot be used will be taken to Oxfam and will either be resold or recycled.

The project has become a reality after efforts by Director of Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion, Dilys Williams, along with LCF graduates who helped create the space for the event.

Curator Dilys Williams said: “The fashion industry knows it has a major challenge on its hands to re-imagine new ways to do business, where viable, feasible and desirable fashion involves a reciprocal process of give and take – where fashion keeps moving in the right direction."

"The lab is a place for experimenting, taking risks, seeing and creating just what the future can hold in our wardrobes,” she added.

Work by LCF graduates and other designers is on display at the laboratory every day from 10am to 5pm from April 26 to May 9.