In the lead-up to London Fashion Week, global fashion retail giant Indetex said it would stop doing business with two subcontractors whose Bangladeshi factory killing seven garment workers. The appetite for cheap, disposable fashion is so ingrained in our culture of consumption, that companies like Indetex will only continue meet the volume this market demand by finding suppliers that drive down costs – even at the expense of human life. Rather than wait for Indetex imbed a pro-active corporate social responsibility programme, it is quicker and better to circumvent a murky supply chain altogether by reframing our love for fashion in two ways: first, decide that it is better to buy from independent designers rather than a multinational corporation and second, look for labels that are manufactured locally.

My new discovery at this season’s London Fashion Scout is the emerging designer Christopher Waller. This small, independent label are committed to manufacturing all their pieces in London using UK and European sourced fabrics. “I’d say the biggest challenge for us is sourcing fabrics that we can order in small quantities,” says Mark Dodds, Director. “European mills are often very flexible howevert the quality and innovation of fabric in Europe is still yet to be surpassed in my opinion”
The Autumn/Winter 2013 collection is made up of immaculately tailored jackets and colour block dresses which have echoes of London’s mod past. The jackets are structured and attention to panelling in the trousers with a butter soft leather trim pocket detail will, I suspect become in time the label’s signature piece. The masculinity of the jackets are countered by sensuous textures, soft leather and suede with a no-nonesense, weighty blend of natural fibres: mohair, cashmere and angora. The butter-soft leather detail is all sourced from the UK.

Christopher Waller A/W 13

Christopher Waller A/W 13

Christopher Waller A/W 13

Christopher Waller A/W 13

Meanwhile, at London Fashion Week, West London label Beautiful Soul has perfected its brand’s offering. The label benefits from the solid business head on Creative Director Nicola Woods “our objective is to translate the brand’s positive use of British and sustainable fabrics, UK production, British craftsmanship and intelligent, innovative design.”

I’ve been following Beautiful Soul for three seasons now, and the brand has moved on from one-off deconstructed vintage kimonos to more scalable designs. The Autumn/Winter 2013 has perfected Beautiful Soul’s trademark feminine, floaty, silhouettes echo the 1970s Ossie Clarke tradition in the King’s Road. This season the British lace trenchcoat makes an appearance as does the maxi dress with a daring thigh-high slit. The label’s floral patterns which hark to the perfect English garden at the height of summer beauty boldy go against the idea that florals aren’t for the colder seasons. I like that statement a lot.

Beautiful Soul A/W/13

Beautiful Soul A/W/13

Beautiful Soul A/W/13

Beautiful Soul A/W/13

Both Christopher Waller and Beautiful Soul are the antithesis of the cheap fashion that rag trade kingpins Indetex push on the high street. This is high fashion, and as such, comes at a cost. You won’t find a maxi dress or a tailored jacket for £9.99, quite the contrary, but what you will come away with is a heritage piece that is very much of the now – 21st century design that pays homage to the iconography of London fashion in the last century.

One of the habits I’m getting into this year is to “make do and mend”. That means picking up some basic sewing skills so that I can expand the lifespan of my favourite garments, particularly ones from a naughty high street clothing chain. I won’t mention the clothing brand here, but I will say that the brand gave in to pressure by Greenpeace and have now committed to going toxic-free in their supply chain by 2020. You can read about it on the Greenpeace website.

First of all, I’d like to make it clear that it’s really hard to buy petite trousers that fit correctly. So when I try on a pair that fit – and this is a rare occastion, I tend to buy them. The trousers I mended are exactly the kind of garment that represent most things I hate about fast fashion:

1. The trousers are made in Morocco. Not ideal in terms of slave labour. I have no idea if the garment workers are paid a living wage and there is no way to know if they are the fruit of child labour.

2. The trousers are a cotton and polyester mix. The cotton is not organic, so a lot of water has gone into making these trousers and I have not idea if the farmers were given a fair price for the raw material. I don’t know where they have been dyed and the polyester will take several lifetimes to decompose.

The only plus is that even though they’re a bit trendy, they have a classic tuxedo trouser shape and while the embossed animal print is a bit out there for me, I think they are ‘left-field’ trousers that can last me a while and perhaps even pass down to my daughter. If she won’t be caught dead in them, with my newly acquired sewing skills, I can turn them into something else, giving them a new lease of life.

Bearing in mind all the minuses which seriously outweigh the positive, it’s really important to keep these trousers in my wardrobe for more than the one season they were designed for. These trousers are only entering their second winter, so when the faux pockets tore, I knew I had to stitch them up and not just fob them off to a charity shop.

I was never much of a sewer, the only  stitches I know are the ‘running stitch’ and the ‘blanket stitch’. For this make do and mend project, I had to learn the ‘whip stitch’. Now, if you’re like me and you didn’t pay attention in Home Economics or you just took it for granted that someone else (usually Mum) would mend it for you, then this came as a revelation and all I can say is thank goodness for the interwebs. This site is great for a quick tutorial on what type of stitches you need to mend a garment, because they differ in terms what kind of tear, hole or hem it needs fixing.

First, I turned the trousers inside out and cut away the excess, frayed material.

Then, I went to a YouTube video on the Crafting A Green World website that showed me how to sew the whip stitch.

So they’re all sewn up and ready for next week’s FruGal Challenge!