Fashion designer Amy Powney is on a mission to create No Frills, a sustainable fashion collection for womenswear brand Mother of Pearl. Fashion Re-imagined is the journey of discovery Amy undertakes as she tries to source sustainable wool (Uruguay) and cotton (Turkey) supply chains. The facts she presents are startling:
- Only 2% of the people who make our clothes earn a living wage.
- If the fashion industry were a country, it would rank third for carbon emissions after China and the United States.
- 35% of microplastics in the ocean comes from synthetic clothing shedding in washing machines.
- 5 million children pick our cotton.
- It takes 1500 litres of water to make one pair of denim jeans – which is the equivalent of what one if us would drink in two years.
Powney is at the vanguard of new wave of ethical designers. Her No Frills show was the only sustainable one presented at London Fashion Week in 2018. On her quest, Powney meets the likes of pioneering designer Katharine Hamnett and Perdo Otegui, a sheep farmer in Montevideo, who embraces the merits of organic and traceable using minimum water and chemicals. In the cut-throat world of fashion which is driven by margins and trends and window dressing, re-imagining it is a daunting task but one which ultimately will have to occur. This enlightening documentary illustrates the challenges.
Words: Michael McDermott
Director: Becky Hutner
Talent: Amy Powney, Chloe Marks, Perdo Otegui
Release Date: March 3
