Farm to Face

The food you eat and bring to your face has been grown somewhere. On a farm most probably. But under what conditions?

Maybe on a small hobby farm, or maybe on a large plantation. Maybe its been laced in chemicals and supplements, or maybe it hasn’t. Maybe the stock has been feed, nurtured and fairly cared for, or maybe, on the other hand, it has been cruelly treated and harmed before it made its way to your plate and to your belly.

Two girls – best described as vivacious, young and scandalous at heart, and beyond dedicated to their vision – are setting forth to bring this conversation to light.

They are not on a mission to preach what is right or wrong. But they do want people to have the entitled choice to know where their produce comes from before putting it in their bodies - if they want to.

I met with Melodie Tyrer, one half of Farm to Face, at her apartment over looking London Fields in Hackney in London’s east for a Saturday morning brunch of poached eggs, roasted cherry tomatoes, blanched spinach and sautéed mushrooms. As Melodie stirred, seasoned and routinely tossed the ingredients with an obvious confidence and care for her creation, she traced the story of the project’s beginning and fast evolving big future.

Melodie Tyrer

Melodie begins…

“It all started when I met Georgia at a mutual friend’s dinner party in London last year,” she says. “We got talking and laughing and exchanged numbers at the end of the night, but I wasn’t sure when or if we would see each other again because she was living in Edinburgh at the time studying civil engineering” (Watch this video and meet the girls).

Wear it #insideout (Featured on Alternative London)

I am stoked to be writing for Alternative London; a tour group in London's East with a social conscious, unearthing London's cultural, creative and community gold, and the gold I speak of today is big. It's revolutionary. It's Fashion Revolution Day in fact. 

Today we remember the innocent victims of the Rana Plaza collapse in Bangladesh last year, which highlighted the critical need for landmark change within the fashion trade.

We're talking fashion and creating a global movement to turn the industry upside down and inside out. To expose its falls, broken kinks and defunct systems that is more concerned about the dollar amount than the wellbeing of its workers and the state of the environment.

But most all, we're talking about sustainability. A lifestyle and way of thinking that honours social and environmental values first and foremost. I talk with fashion boutique 69b from Hackney in East London on what is means to be ethical and sustainable in an industry which thrives on competitiveness, greed and power plays.

Read on for the story here …

Who made your clothes?

A simple question but one that customers, retailers, and even the brands themselves have difficulty answering.

This very enquiry reveals a lot. It bares the story of a fashion supply chain that is broken because there is a lack of awareness of whom is the face picking the cotton, preparing the leather, dying the fabric, collecting the seeds.

It exposes an industry that is premised on serving the customer with cheap and evolving choice at the expense of the health, wellbeing and quality of life of its workers. A trade where we are more concerned about the dollar amount and the value for money than the human narrative behind the article.

This is at the heart of what 69b stands for; a local women’s fashion boutique on Broadway Markets in Hackney, East London, which prides itself on delivering directional, ethical and sustainable fashion.

Started by Merryn Leslie - stylist and fashion editor for big names such as Vogue, Missoni, US Harpers Bazaar, Michelle Lowe Holder and Sandy Dalal - she wanted to do something much bigger in the fashion industry. She wanted to make a difference so decided to launch 69b, which exclusively stocks designers engaging in sustainability.