Are children too young for fashion?

So I was harping on to someone the other day (shock) about ‘ooh back in the day when I was a kid, children were children... it’s so important for children not to grow up too fast; oooh in my day, , ...’ blah blah blah when someone asked me the million pound question: is fashion something that is too grown up for children? An interesting question that has never made it onto my radar. Now albeit a sensitive question with no doubt contrasting views, my answer would be a resounding no and I’ll tell you for why.

Little girls (and of course boys) will always want and need to find inspiration, everything around them they absorb like a sponge and they look for guidance along the way as they develop their characters, so positive inspiration is the order of the day. Fashion in some sense will be a part of our lives as long as we are wearing clothes. It creates identity, reflects our mood and gives us choice.

Enter Figure 1, a little girl I know (and adore) is 6 years old and she gets up in the morning, and picks her own outfit, depending on her mood. She has made an independent choice which makes her feel good and by picking her outfit (selected from a wardrobe of tasteful clothes of course) she is creating her individual identity, which is what fashion is all about. It’s character building. After that, she still goes outside, gets on her bike and gets muddy with her big brothers like kids should, so her fashion choice has not affected her being a child.

The potential problem with fashion reaching young people are the role models. Come on, we all have one, mine at 8 years old was Michael Jackson (try taking my one glove off me and stop me moon walking across the kitchen and wait for the wrath). The press today is dominated by the likes of Rhianna in barely there ripped hotpants grinding in front of 9 year olds gazing back at her lovingly; Lady Gaga, say no more, and Katy Perry who wears 6 inches of makeup, 6 inches of dress and brags about kissing girls and liking it. Right-o. Technology has been a huge contributor to children growing up faster than they ever have before and with one click of their mouse they have access to these ‘fashionable ‘role models.

Kate Middleton is a prime example of role models gone right, all hail Kate. With the mere sight of her, young people (me included) want to ditch the too cool for skool clobber and become young ladies and little girls are following suit. Thanks to Kate, a new generation of little girls should come through with their own sense of style, while emulating her manners, grace and classy catwalk cool. And too right.

Children love to make, create and put their own stamp on things. Whether it’s a custom made birthday card or a painting of a rainbow, creating is learning and when this is put to clothes, unbeknownst to the child, they are creating sustainable fashion. When I was a wee tot I would alter and make my clothes and this is the important point i am getting to. A big part of fashion is creating and designing. I remember begging my mum to let me put an iron-on butterfly onto a jumper and my mum also taught me to knit at a young age. I knitted a scarf that I wore day in day out because I was proud that not only I had made a fashion choice, but also that I had put creativity and effort into making it be.

It is really important we make the move away from ‘fast fashion'. Teaching children, the adults of our future to design, knit and sow is priceless, in the hope that when they get their pocket money they aren’t going straight to Primark to buy their first sequin mini skirt. instead they will know the way forward in sustainable, creative, self respecting fashion. So, are children too young for fashion? my answer is they are already a part of it, its just up to us to make it positive.

To re-wear or not to re-wear?

Last weekend I had a fashion dilemma. We’ve all been there girls, that big looming question that none of us quite know the answer to, and often don’t want to admit we are questioning, can you wear the same dress or outfit more than once to different special occasions? Recycling if you like?

I was in the midst of this catastrophe in the lead up to my friend’s wedding last weekend. I had bought a dusky pink chiffon layered sweetheart shaped strapless maxi dress ( enough description?) to wear from H and M that I just hearted and i felt like a flowy fairy. When I showed it to my boyfriend he said he thought maxi dresses look like duvets and he doesn’t like them. Good start. Then when it came to the day of the wedding, it had been raining and the floor was too soggy to be dragging my fairy dress through. Quelle probleme. Now you might think the real problem here would be that I was more concerned about what I was going to wear than the fact that the poor bride didn’t have the best weather on what’s meant to be the best day of her life, but that’s not what we are talking about here. Back to my outfit. ( was a fab day though).

Short of being late to the wedding ‘sorry I just haaaad to go shopping’ and buying another dress, my only option was recycling the dress I had worn to a wedding a few months previous. I was scared. What if people had browsed through Facebook pictures and seen that dress had been partying before? It screams ‘your wedding isn’t as important as the last one so I didn’t buy a new dress, sorry!’ Doesn’t it?
Now this attitude can get very expensive, especially with the amount of weddings I go to in a year, never mind the waste of a dress that sits dusty in the wardrobe for eternity afterwards. So I dusted down my old dress, altered some accessories and off I went on my merry way. No one was any the wiser.

Enter Kate Middleton. All hail Kate with her recycling techniques and being proud to wear the same dress one, two, three times! Kate does exactly this, changes her hair and a few key accessories and gives the dress an new lease of life (see her official engagement picture). As with my past blogs, the sweat and toil that goes into making clothes, even designer clothes shows that we shouldn’t waste clothes, and (i’ll speak for myself) my wallet does not like this buying a new dress for every event although there is a perfectly good one at home.

Being the first person in the public eye to say ‘hey its ok to wear this again’ I take my hat off to her (and then I’ll wear it again) because she knows full well the amount of inspired eyes are looking on her and want to emulate her lifestyle and this is in by no way an accident or coincidence.

So thank you Kate for giving us a valid reason for recycling our beloved dresses, and changing the future of our wardrobes. Hip hip hurrah.

Selfridges Project Ocean: Fish just got Fashionable.

Hello me heartys, I want to tell you a little story about the sea, gather round and make yourselves comfortable. Once upon a time there were lots of fishys in the sea, some big, some small, most eating each other, granted, but other than that all were having a whale of time. (Don’t worry about it). They knew where they stood, went about their day and had huuuge families to have their Sunday lunch with. Then one day in the 1950’s, these huge nets started trawling through their world as industrial fishing was introduced and they never stopped. More fish were being caught in a shorter time than they could reproduce. You do the maths.

60 years on and Greenpeace tells us that over 70 percent of the world's fisheries are either 'fully exploited', 'over exploited' or significantly depleted’. In laments terms, that ain’t good people, I’m sure Captain Birdseye would have something to say about that. 90 percent of the main predatory big fish have left our seas and are in tins in our cupboards like Tuna and Cod, so other fish have been renamed to make them sound more appealing (the Patagonian Toothfish was reinvented as Chilean Seabass). Naughty naughty waggy finger.

Another factor about the whole thing I’m just not loving is bycatch. Made to sound oh so polite, it’s basically the killing of seals, birds, dolphins and other marine life that is inadvertently killed in the colossal nets. One more thing while I’m mid rant, methods of fishing are permanently destroying whole habitats. Ever seen those mildly entertaining and majorly chauvinistic programs about deep sea fishermen? well those bottom trawlers they throw out there are doing the damage.

Ok rant over. Now one of my favourite stores for their fresh attitude (and of course amazing clobber) is Selfridges and for the last 6 weeks they have been leading the way in thinking about the way we fish and eat with Selfridges, Project Ocean. In Conjunction with about 20 environmental organizations (WWF, London zoological society and more) and Supported by celebrities from Elle Macpherson to Lily cole to Prince Charles, the opening ceremony started a very exciting six weeks with a bang.

From there, The store has held talks, art installations, fashion shows and NME and KOKO held free gigs there every Friday night, in their tres trendy Ultralounge.
Of course amidst all the fun and frivolities a very serious point is being raised, and aimed at the younger generations, we need to change the way we fish and eat. If we don’t, come the next generation there will be no fish at all. On the sefridges Project Ocean website (below)there is a quide to the fish we should and shouldn’t be eating, you can download an app so you can see it on the go (flounder, pollack, sole = good, marlin, rayes and bluefin tuna = bad), recipes with alternative fish and most excitingly to me (shock), there is a range created by designer katherineHamnett, here is a little sample. I’ve already ordered mine!

www.selfridges.com/en/StaticPage/ProjectOcean

shopper £18

t shirt £40

bracelet £5


today is the last day but you can still donate and here is where to do it: Text either ocean 3, ocean 5, or ocean 10 ( depending on how much you want to donate) to 70050. £92,000 has been so far, it’s a race against time to do something to save the £200 billion dollar a year industry and to save the marine ecosystem. It’s not some poncy designer dream, it’s a reality.

VOTE WITH YOUR FORK. DOWNLOAD THE APP. PROTECT THE OCEAN.

Have you Cottoned on yet?

Want be nice to your skin? Hell yeah! Want to be nice to the planet? Why not! Then it seems this slowly growing trend of organic cotton is the one and I want to ‘sow the seed’ for a new way of thinking about fashion (like what I did there). Now when you stuff cereal in the morning at a million miles per hour before dashing out of the door late for work (no? just me?) you will be vaguely aware of where your food has come from and whether it is organic or not, whether it has been genetically enhanced or sprayed with pesticides.

Organic food is increasingly becoming the choice du jour because we are made aware of the negative effects in the way non organic food is produced, and we have to come to the conclusion that sometimes, it’s worth that extra few pence to look after our tummies.

BUT. A big butt (exc-huuuse me?).... Are you aware that the fourth most damaging crop in the world due to toxic chemicals is Cotton? And that its the most sprayed on crop in the world, even though it takes up the least space (3 percent)? No I wasn’t either. I also wasn’t aware that conventional cotton uses about 25% of the world's insecticides. Well I never. The bit that bothered me the most when doing me bit of research was that Cotton made with pesticides contains Carcinogens and chemicals which can cause skin irritation like neurodermatitis, eczema and at worst in very rare cases, cancer. WWHHAT?!

If organic cotton is grown, it is much safer to our skin, but it’s also giving the environment a big cuddle because it encourages healthy soil (farming with pesticides is slowly killing the soil and there will one day be nothing to farm on, gulp) and keeps the ecosystem at its best.

Fairtrade Cotton is something else to look out for, it supports the cotton industry in all the 22 countries that grow organic cotton and supports the farmers and workers who work hard to create the world's most common clothing material. Check out the book 50 Reasons To Buy Fairtrade by Miles Litvinoff.

There are many stores starting to ahem, cotton on, and sell organic cotton, and they are proving that fashion is still a key element to the clothes and it doesn’t come at a huge cost. The Green Room, a part of ASOS, offers eco friendly fashion at seemingly no extra cost than the other trends and with just as much ‘pazazz’ (always wanted to squeeze that word in somewhere). One of the brands is People Tree, with designs by our very own style princess, Emma Watson. Have a looksy

cheked shirt £42 People Tree, checked maxi skirt £55 People Tree, skirt £30 ASOS Africa

http://www.asos.com/Women/The-Green-Room/Cat/pgecategory.aspx?cid=10062&r=2

As ever, H&M have come up trumps this summer and have released their Conscious collection. All white, floaty scrumptious pieces in answer to this season’s white trend and perfect for those lazy hazy summer days. Panic crept in when I went in to check it out and nearly all the stock had sold out in one day, which is amazing because people are ‘cottoning on’, but there was none left for Elspeth! Fear not though my friends because they are receiving deliveries all the time so get down there and get yours. Here are some looks, fawn away.

Dress £19.99, top £14.99 both H&M

http://www.hm.com/gb/conscious-collection

So in conclusion, (I sound like a school teacher – don’t worry I won’t give you homework!) you aren’t a hippy tree hugger if you wear organic, you don’t have to spend more or look dowdy if you wear organic, and you can look after yourself and the planet. Job done.

Charity store Style: The way forward.

Vintage. Retro. Antiquated. Fashion this century has slowed down from jumping forward and searching high and low for new trends as quick as you can say ‘fashion victim’ (we’d be in space suits next if that was the case!) and has instead been looking over its slender shoulder into different eras of style for inspiration. Every decade has had a look in, from twenties flapper dresses and drop waists, right the way through to seventies hippy florals (back in again) and eighties neons. In these styles there is something to quench every fashionista’s thirst for something different, something to encapsulate their own sense of style and personality, and what better way to do that than to dive into a smelly (I can smell it now just writing it!), dusty, exciting vintage store.

On this side of the pond, London is the centre of the universe for finding those perfect vintage items. Many a Sunday has been spent milling around the Upmarket on Brick Lane, and soaking up the atmosphere (and again – smell!) in stores like beyond Retro, Rokit and me old favourite Absolute Vintage (off Brick Lane), not only to pick up cool pieces to ensure my style isn’t generic, but also to gain inspiration on what to add to my collection and to spice up modern trends and new clothes.

The great thing about vintage shopping is that it is recycling. To me it’s a more glamorous way of chucking your old baked bean tins and empty chocolate fingers boxes (yes I mean you) in the recycling bin. It’s keeping the chain going so nothing is wasted and it’s giving a new home to something that was lovingly made all that time ago.

But... quelle probleme Rodney, the price of vintage shopping is now sky high because these stores have cottoned on to the popularity of vintage shopping (cheeky things) and also these are one off pieces, once they are off the shelf, that’s it. Goodbye perfect vintage boots/ bag/ dress. The market has been saturated and today, to go into a vintage store in London and come out with just what you were looking for is a bit like trying to find a buy a kitten at the zoo.

So, as you know by now I do love a solution, can’t get enough of ‘em! Ebay. I know it’s not a huge phenomenon and I’ve not been locked in a dark room for the last ten years, but in terms of vintage items, there is a hub of activity on the site, in all sizes and at a fraction of the price so check it out. www.ebay.co.uk, I've spotted these on their today, all for less than £20 each.

Another well kept secret is charity shops. This is THE best way to shop. You can walk away with your ethical head held high and your shopping bag bulging for a mere couple of quid because the money goes straight to the charity, and no one has bumped up the prices astronomically for the fashion conscious market. Some affluent parts of London have bigger price tags, but the further you go outside of London is where you will find your gems. Par example. Last week I was in Tunbridge wells. Lovely place. The phrase one man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure came into play in Oxfam, I was like a kid in a sweet shop and left with a parka coat, two pairs of loafers ( you will pay £50 for one pair on Topshop), two scarves, a bag and a top for wait for it... £14!! I kid you not. All to charity, all recycled, and encapsulating my sense of style.

Here is a definitive list of the top thrift stores in London from Time Out magazine that can tease your palette, and don’t forget to check out your local charity shops.

http://www.timeout.com/london/shopping/features/4475/London-s_top_20_thrift_stores.html

Biker is Back. And so am I.

Hello my lovelies, and how art thou? ‘Where have you been?’ I hear you cry.... (in my imagination). Well apart from being a busy bee, I also have a spangly new website for my blog, www.wildaboutfashion.com, and regular blogs will be coming your way, so spread the lurve...

Right, to business. I am slightly over excited at the fact that Biker is Back. With a vengeance. Always a staple part of my wardrobe, the biker jacket/ skirt/trousers can toughen up any outfit, transforming something too girly or square into something of the rock chick. The aviator took the place of the biker jacket for Autumn, and while it kept it’s seat warm, it has now made way again for biker, just as our spring outfits are preparing for their first outings. Pioneering its re -entrance is Burberry, introducing everything from biker trench coats with injections of colour (Emma Watson is a fan), and all over studded jackets. The looks designed by Christopher Bailey take their inspiration from the original designs by Thomas Burberry from Basingstoke in the early 1900’s and the collection is called Heritage Biker.

Now biker is certainly nothing we haven’t seen before, Danny zuko and the Fonz have been there done that, got the... hair do, but it is shimmying on and has developed into skirts, shorts, trousers and panelling within other materials. Burberry and other brands such as Balmain are combining this well established look and are tapping into another key trend of this season, colour blocking. Biker + colour = hot hot hot. See Alexandra Burke and the models on the runway rocking the look.

I think you know what’s coming now! (Oh, here she goes...)There are lots of non leather alternatives out there that allow you to be kind to Daisy but be biker chic, and you can also save your pennies for all those festivals you will be booking up soon! A light alternative to leather that I like for summer is cotton , see this cotton biker from Topshop at a very modest £42 and this denim and cotton biker from River Island, at £33. Also good old PU that is made to a high standard nowadays is this little sleeveless colour block number from New Look is only £45.

A curious material that is making its shift from practical into fashion is Neoprene. As far as my beady little eye can see, this is a fantastic, new-age leather alternative with more biker attitude than a pink diamond encrusted Harley. First invented in the 1930’s it was used for wetsuits, wellies (Hunter use it) motorcycle wear, and now Ipod cases. It has a leather look, is durable, it pulls you in tight (no more spanx) and has an urban edge. Rebecca Ferguson wore a Neoprene dress on the X factor last series by designer Lisa Marie Fernandez, who specialised on swimwear and has moved into clothing and it got rave reviews. Topshop has also cottoned on and have made a Neoprene biker chick dress in their Unique range to boot. (dress £102, skirt £75, Topshop Unique dress £45)

So girls, guys, pooches (yes my hairdresser’s dog is rocking biker too) do with it what you will, but Biker is back (well it wasn’t gone for thaaat long), and if you’re looking forward to teaming the look with other hot spring trends, I have seen the odd daff popping up so soon enough my friends, soon enough.

Seek Sleek Sustainable style with H&M!

Not seeing enough green in your life? Green with envy? You don’t have to be with H&M’s latest sustainable fashion line for Spring/ Summer 2011, called Sustainable Style. Using all organic and recycled materials and ensuring factory workers are treated correctly and given a good wage, the looks are inspired by the latest trends and have a nice price tag that won’t make your wallet hate you more than it already does (I know that feeling, my wallet is giving me the silent treatment right now...). Uh oh, here we go; my cogs are at it again! I feel this is the start of a widespread fashion epidemic. There are small ethical fashion brands, but this at H&M is going global. Bring it on! I speak for myself in saying that I follow fashion (pay day, get me to Topshop, sharpish), I can be fickle with my wardrobe, favourites one week can end up at the charity shop the next , and I want it cheap and affordable. And I am pretty sure in saying a lot of you lovely people out there are the same. In our hectic lives we don’t always have time to look at the label and see what our clothes are made of or how and where they were made, but I think if we did look, really did look, we would be shocked.

Now as I write these blog entries, I’m not preaching to you about how you should be and live your lives and I’m not telling you how amazing I am, and green, and animal friendly and anti leather, blah blah blah, I am simply pandering to my curiosities, forming opinions and learning all of this as I go and want to share this process with you. Although you can think I’m amazing if you want, I won’t mind that bit....

Let’s have a little dig and a delve, shall we? Now as we choose to ignore, or don’t know about (why would a nice sparkly high street store show us anything beyond the toothy smiles of the tanned, skinny models in the window display in their latest range), most of the clothes we wear have been made at the expense of not only unsustainable material, but also at the expense of another human being, more often than we would like to think, a child. I have been brought up, thanks to my parents being able to enjoy nice things in life, never going without, and always, even since childhood I have always loved clothes, the way they make me feel and the fact that I can use them to create my identity. The predicament is the children who made my clothes barely had clothes of their own. 

In undercover investigations by the Observer Newspaper in 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 reporters discovered an underworld of child slaves working as embroiders for major high street chains in a lawless state called Haryana in New Delhi, amongst many other places around the world. As before, I’m not going to insult your intelligence by going into too much detail about their treatment, but in New Delhi, children as young as 5 were sold by their families to make money for them. These children, were then not paid although they were told they would be, were seen to have fresh wounds on their bodies and could not contact their families. In other places investigated, conditions were marginally more bearable in that they got paid but not enough by the ETI and Indian law. Among the many brands who have their clothes made in sweatshops like this around the world are Abercrombie and Fitch, Select, Gap (shame about that one because I thought they were all organic and world-loving and stuff), American Apparel, Next, Marks and Spencer (they closed all their UK factories recently) and maybe most surprisingly, Burberry, the amount of money they charge for products that have been created in these conditions? Naught naughty waggy finger.

What one solution would for me be is to change the way I shop. If I can’t always buy ethical and sustainable clothing because it isn’t readily available everywhere yet (operative word), then instead of my weekly shops to cheap stores like Primark etc and coming out like a crazy bag lady taking up three seats on the tube (sorry old person, no spare seats, too much shopping) with as much stuff as I can cram in just because I can and it wasn’t too painful at the cash desk, I buy fewer, better quality items that are going to last. The ‘oh my God that’s so cheap I must have it’ view has to go, because that’s when the clothes that have been sweated over (literally) to make, go to waste after just a few wears. If we all think like this, the huge, cheap bulk demand would be gone and child labour sweatshops would have no use, or at least the workers will receive the money and treatment they deserve so they become functioning factories. Another way I just lurve to shop is on Ebay. Buy your second hand or ‘vintage’ items, and give them a loving new home.

Or of course, you could go to H&M and other ethical brands and shop the latest trends guilt free! Their organic and recyclable materials are also giving the earth a big cuddle. Hopefully more brands will be following suit. Or dress. 

H&M organic cotton dress £14.99, organic cotton jacket,

H&M organic cotton t shirt £2.99

H&M organic cotton dress £14.99

check out what H&M are doing to make fashion happy and nice.

http://www.hm.com/gb/corporateresponsibility__responsibility.nhtml