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.
