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Upcycled tent dress stars in London Fashion Week
Bristol designer Alice Bowen-Churchill has brought sustainability to centre-stage, debuting her latest creation, a dress made from discarded festival tents, on the opening night of London Fashion Week.
Appearing as the first look for Oxfam’s Style for Change show on Thursday, the piece is made entirely from tents left behind at festival sites across the UK last summer.
Modelled by Eunice Olumide MBE, the radical design was created to highlight the need for sustainability in the fashion industry and includes contributions from Glastonbury attendees who were invited to sew messages into the lining.
is needed now More than ever
The dress took almost a month to complete and includes everything from the tents to the hooks, rings and guy ropes, as well as a used anorak.
Bowen-Churchill’s green and blue creation was a showstopper at the Oxfam-Vinted catwalk show which opened this year’s London Fashion Week – photo: Chris Yates/ Oxfam
“Using tent material to create the dress was key to help people think differently about waste, and what it could actually be used for – and see how something that might be rubbish can actually be used for positive change,” said Alice.
“There was a time when second-hand was thought to be of lesser quality, but that’s not the case at all. Oxfam’s show with Vinted last night proved that preloved has cemented its place on the catwalk.
“It’s about encouraging people to be inquisitive and brave and understand that there is another way of buying ‘new’. Whether it’s for your kids’ world book day costumes’ or something to wear at a fashion show, it doesn’t have to be brand new.”
The Oxfam show – which encouraged people to ‘Dress for the world they want, for everyone, everywhere’ – was part of the charity’s Second Hand September campaign, launched in 2019 to promote second-hand shopping as the answer to a more sustainable fashion industry.
Fashion is one of the world’s most polluting industries and contributes overwhelmingly to climate change.
Annual global emissions from textile production exceed the carbon footprint of international flights and shipping combined, before transportation. Cotton, which accounts for 40 per cent of global textile production, relies on more pesticides than any other single major crop, while 60 per cent of textiles are produced from fossil-fuel based synthetic fibres.
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Olumide remarked: “Given the enormous impact of the fashion industry on our planet, we need to work together to style ourselves for change to make the world a better, more sustainable place.
“We have a chance to make a real difference by stepping away from over-consumption and learning to reuse and appreciate the clothes we have that are already in existence. Style for Change will prove that second-hand fashion is the stylish, sustainable, poverty-fighting alternative.”
Bristol local entrepreneur and Dragon’s Den star Deborah Meaden also took to the catwalk for the show.
“We know that the fashion industry is having a huge impact on our planet, which is exactly why we need to be talking about sustainable clothes,” she said.
“Having a fashion show like this proves that second-hand clothing is not only stylish and great value-for-money, but it helps the planet. It was a bit out of my comfort zone to take part in a runway show at London Fashion Week – but it was fantastic and we definitely proved the power of pre-loved clothing tonight.”
Deborah Meaden on the catwalk at the sustainable fashion show – photo: Chris Yates/ Oxfam
You can shop the catwalk collection from Oxfam’s Style for Change show at London Fashion Week on Oxfam’s online wardrobe shop with Vinted at www.vinted.co.uk/member/222110361
Find out more about Oxfam’s Second-hand September campaign at www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/second-hand-september
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