Early this year we were contacted to partner with sustainable designer, Phoebe English on her latest collection and we couldn't pass down the opportunity down.
A Bit About The Designer
Phoebe English is an award-winning sustainable circular fashion studio based in London. The Phoebe English studio was founded back in 2011, where planet friendly designs are brought to life.
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London is where she gained a BA Honours and Masters in Fashion Design with Knitwear. Focusing on constructed textiles and texture.
Her and her teams collections have been featured in London Fashion Week since 2011 when the studio was born. Receiving a number of awards for their work on sustainability including The Marie Claire Sustainability Award for Best Sustainable Designer Brand (2022), The Fashion Awards Leader of Change for Environment Honouree at The Fashion Awards (2001) and more.
Slow and circular fashion are at the forefront of the fashion house with climate change being a topic to tackle.
What is Slow Fashion?
Simply, slow fashion is the opposite of fast fashion. It's an awareness and approach to fashion that makes you consider your clothing purchases, opening your mind to the quality of your garment, caring for your loved clothes and who made your fave pieces.
We love showing all aspects of our business to our customers and are proud that we're:
- A real living wage employer
- Manufacturing clothing in South Yorkshire, UK
- Saving over 20,000 kgs of second hand clothing from landfill every week
What is Circular Fashion?
Circular fashion aims to break the linear line of fast fashion through the recycling of clothing and textiles before they reach landfill. This can be done by re-wearing, repurposing, and reworking unwanted items. By doing this, the amount of new clothing hitting the high street will reduce as well as how many clothes that end up being unnecessarily thrown away. According to Fashion Revolution, extending the life of a piece of clothing by 9 months would reduce its carbon, water and waste footprint by around 20-30%. They also say that around 95% of our clothing can be recycled or up-cycled - so we all have a responsibility to do our bit for the sake of the planet!
Glass Onion and The Phoebe English Studio
Our founder, John Hickling, first met Phoebe English at the Houses of Parliament back in 2019 for a roundtable discussion surrounding the disappointing response the government provided to their Fixing Fashion report. Quickly connecting through their common interest in the environmental impact the fashion industry has on the planet and how we can change it.
Jump forward to less than a year ago when Phoebe's team reached out about collaborating with them on their latest collection.
How Were We Involved?
Our skilled factory team at our South Yorkshire HQ were tasked with the exciting project of bringing some pieces of Phoebe English's MEMORY SHAPES collection to life. They worked hard to carefully construct panels of new fabric made from accumulated silk off-cuts that the studio had been saving to make this series. It took almost a year to build up enough small pieces of silk to make this series and from designing this range, Phoebe and her team have helped to give this waste material a new life, saving it from landfill.
The first step to the production was paneling the silk off-cuts, which see's its challenges due to the nature of the silkiness of the fabric, but our talented factory team exceeded expectations on the sample panelling, the Phoebe English team were happy to start full construction of the pieces.
Below are the items we helped to construct for the collection:
CRINKLE DRESS
One of the first pieces we had the pleasure of being involved in making was the CRINKLE DRESS. A midi fitting slip dress with elegant panelling and subtle patch-working throughout. Styled with their heart harness.
The Phoebe English Studio made this item available to buy through their socials, our talented team then manufactured the dresses at our HQ on a made to order basis.
CRINKLE SHIRT
A shirt version of the iconic CRINKLE DRESS. Featuring long sleeves and a finish above the hips, we love how elegant this piece has been styled.
BOXY CALICO JACKET
Expect patch pockets, cropped silhouette and a mini collar, we love how simple this piece is and styled beautifully with the matching calico culottes.
CALICO CULOTTES
A cropped leg see's these wonderful cropped trousers, with a pleat down the side seam to keep an oversized silhouette.
LONG SLEEVED ORGANZA CRINKLE SHIRT
Featuring a 3D heart pocket, ruched cuffs and neckline and a thick hem line. Made using the wonderful silk off-cuts saved from the studios team. This piece then was dyed black to keep the collection consistent.
About the Collection: MEMORY SHAPES
MEMORY SHAPES is seen to symbolise Phoebes English's wonderful life changes since the pandemic and becoming a mum. Showing the power she gets from being a mother and the parental love. This is seen throughout with heart-shaped accessories, fabric and their form.
Our Trip to London Fashion Week Spring Summer 2023
Due to our involvement with the Phoebe English Studio, Claire, Ellen and Alice, our talented team from our HQ were invited to attend the presentation in London. They loved their time and enjoyed seeing pieces we were so heavily involved in making be at the presentation.
