'Ethical fashion is about being creative'

By Jo Wood | Politics + Business

21 July, 2008

My understanding of ethical fashion started in my teens. My mother is a doll maker and so I was always surrounded by fabrics, buttons, Victorian petticoats and old dresses. I'd watch her turn old clothes into beautiful inventive outfits and it became clear to me from a young age that clothes can be used and reused.

I would mix, match and recycle clothes from those early times. In fact the day, or rather the night, I met my husband I was wearing my granny's old dress. Even though I've been lucky enough to have access to some of the world's best designers and their new collections, I find nothing more exciting than finding an old item of clothing and giving it a new lease of life.
 
For a while in the 80s I bought a lot of new clothes. I was living in America and got swept up in the sheer number of shops, designers and the gluttonous consumer attitude that was sweeping the globe. It was during my time in the States that my sister and I found some of Ronnie [Wood]'s old flares and dressed up in 70s style, accessories and all. Laughing, we strode into the room where Ronnie was. He took one look and announced: "Mark my words, that look will be back in fashion one day."

 

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