A Big “Hello” to all you lovely readers.

Welcome to my first post on the Social Student blog!

I hope you enjoy this blog and look forward to my next posting J

I have a thriving passion for all aspects of fashion, whether this be; styling, photography or simply glamming up for an evening out with my ladies.  I am yet to get through an evening without friends asking me advice on what they should wear and how they should wear it. I would like to think that I encourage them to re-style and adapt their existing clothes, in turn enhancing, developing and expressing their own individual and unique style.

I most definitely believe in re-cycling and re-styling clothing, consequently I have recently launched a collection made from unwanted, waste products, inspired by British designer Gary Harvey; who’s innovative use of materials represents today’s youth culture trends. Consequently, my collection consists of wearable garments and one exhibition piece, I incorporated the use of my “old mans” leather jacket, charity bargains and wood shavings. The collection was produced to raise awareness of the current consumer habits.

As illustrated in @ecouterre tweet stating M&S’s belief that “One in Five Brits Admit to Discarding a Garment After One Wear.

I believe sustainable fashion is the future of fashion. The UK alone produces two million tons of clothing waste every year, as a result thousands of litres of water are used to grow chemically enhanced cottons that are continually putting farmers’ lives in danger of the over usage of chemicals such as azo-dyes and formaldehyde. These chemicals have recently been linked to many forms of  cancer. Furthermore, the appalling forced labour and poor working conditions which are enforced in many Third world countries  in order to produce these mass quantities of clothing are equally as despicable.

I believe in order  to become ‘eco chic’ you don’t have to produce your own garments, here’s my top tips:

  • Invest in clothing you know you could wear season after season, even if it is more pounds than you’d like to spend, it with be worth it!
  • Style swap your clothing with your friends, it feels like you have treated yourself without the big spend.
  • Shop sustainably, charity shops, vintage shops and boot fairs always feels like you’ve created an outfit rather than buying a corporate ‘look’
  • Restyle clothing, rip, tear, dye, change accessories, shoes, hair do even a change of nail colour helps 🙂
  • Finally, DO send your unwanted clothes to great organizations such as http://www.fashionfightspoverty.org/ and Don’t worry about being ‘tagged’ in the same outfit twice on Facebook!

I hope this blog inspires you to become eco chic! If you would like more info, tips and advice please get in touch!

@_lucy_symons

Please leave your favourite Eco-fashion tips, news and trend advice below!