I have just watched Fabulous Fashionistas on Channel 4 - and been inspired! These amazingly stylish older women give me hope that I too don't have to wear beige or disappear into the woodwork! I particularly like Sue with her amazing coats, and 83-year-old supermodel Daphne, but they all have something incredible - not least of all their fitness and suppleness, which are way above my levels of either! But I like the idea that "I think the fashion industry isn't quite ready for us just yet".

It's about creating our own style and not worrying about trend! How liberating!

Fabulous Fashionistas

Really looking forward to the advertised Channel 4 programme next week - 6 women with an average age of 80 showing how to look good and stylish! The short video clip shows them as being pretty sassy as well as wearing some amazing clothes.

Offset Warehouse Garden Party

The Offset Warehouse Garden Party yesterday was a lovely affair in a beautiful garden in Hatch End - beds edged with natural logs, a pond with dark pink waterlilies and another with beady-eyed frogs watching the goings-on!

The place was bustling with people buying fabrics and patterns, eating very scrummy cakes, relaxing in the beautiful sunshine and enjoying fabric-related conversations. It was also possible to watch a spinner and an embellisher in action and pick up tips. It was altogether a lovely way to spend my birthday afternoon.








I didn't succumb to any more fabric but did buy a top from Riyka's first collection utilising reclaimed fabrics and leather with added embroidery and bead embellishment. It might need taking in for me, but I think I am going to wait till the cooler weather and try it over a polo-neck and leggings first.







It was great to chat with people studying fashion or who are already working in the industry and Rebecca (of Riyka) gave a very informative talk about the way her design process works alongside the reclaimed fabric she has available to create each season's lookbook. One person mentioned only having found Offset for sustainable fabrics in the UK so I was able to tell her about Fair Trade Fabric, which has a large range of cotton in different colours, stripes and checks. I have since remembered Greenfibres (mostly natural shades in a range of organic fibres inlcuding silk, hemp and linen as well as cotton) and Well Cultivated (who offer Oeko-Tex certified bamboo fabrics).

Autumn Collection from Nomads

I visited the Nomads stand when I went to Pure London last year and was really impressed with their interesting prints and embellishments (as well as their 'clothing without compromise' principles). I particularly liked their coats, but can't justify when I have a similar coat already! However there is a patchwork pinafore dress I have my eye on (though I can't decide if I prefer the purple or the green!), from this collection - and I have a couple of their drapey cardigans that have been a good buy as an extra layer in cooler weather.








Do go online and take a look: either view the whole collection on their own site, or some items at Pinterest and also peruse their ethical policies.

Cake and Fabric

What could be a better combination? And happening on my birthday too!

Ethical fabric sellers, Offset Warehouse, are holding a garden party on 31st August in Hatch End, with designer fabrics from as low as £2. Go to www.offsetwarehouse.com and look under Resources - Events.
 

Dress Agencies

I was recently tempted into 'dress agency' Shimto in St Albans - I had avoided it previously thinking it would be designer prices, as the sign outside states that they sell your designer garments for you. However I was greatly surprised, and will visit again! Buying second-hand has to be better for the environment than the millions of tonnes of clothing that go into landfill each year, and I suspect a lot of designer stuff only gets worn a few times!                        










I picked up a lovely Skunkfunk dress for only £27.  The stripes are so flattering as they take the eye across the body and miss out the lumpy bits! It's shown here with my 'happy beads' brought from Cape Town by friends, that happen to pick out the colours in the (now) retro print.





I love the little details like the badge on the bottom and the leather label in the back neck.

And I was even more delighted when looking up Skunkfunk on the internet to discover that they are a very environmentally-friendly company with GOTS certification and a commitment to improving the social conditions in the factories which produce their collections. That's great when Topshop, Gap and Walmart are still failing to sign the Bangladesh Safety Accord following the Rana Plaza factory collapse in April in which over 1000 people died, and others including Matalan and Benetton are refusing to pay compensation to victims despite their garments being manufactured in the factory.

They are based in Spain, so I am looking forward to Skunkfunk opening a wider online store so we can actually buy their clothes in this country!

Choolips Dress

I have had lots of positive comments when wearing my Choolips dress recently - and it's been warm enough to get some of my dresses out of the cupboard this year! It's a nice flattering shape as it skims across the tummy.

It was made in Ghana - you pay upfront so the dyers, printers and sewers can afford to make the dress, and then have the excitement of awaiting its arrival. I didn't get as many posts about its progress as I had been led to believe so did wonder if I had been taken for a ride, but the company is now confirmed as bona fide - and I saw an example of their latest collection at the Ethical Fashion Forum last month: beautiful space-dyed fabric in colours of indigo and deep red. The prices are now a bit higher - mine was a special offer as they were starting out - but worth it for a special event.

Have a look at www.choolips.com

Fashion Loving Older Woman - Socially & Environmentally Responsible

Are you a FLOWSER like me? That is a Fashion Loving, Older Woman who is Socially and Environmentally Responsible? And how difficult that can be!

The Deputy Editor writes in July's Vogue of reaching her 40th birthday and concerns about her wardrobe. While I admire her decision to continue wearing the mini-skirts she loves, the article did raise my hackles! Partly because she can afford to spend more on one item (such as a Miu Miu skirt at £420) than I can probably spend in a whole year, but also because she's only forty for goodness sake - what does she think it is like at 50?!

There appears to be a gap in the market - I and friends of my age don't like the increasingly frumpy offers from M&S or BHS, but while we adore some of Topshop's clothes don't want to feel we might be accused of looking like the clichéd 'mutton dressed as lamb'. And actually the hemlines are a bit short for us! Plus how do you cope with a body shape that seems to differ from day to day, let alone month to month - and certainly isn't a 'standard size' anything?

By our age we are also aware of the wider implications of the clothes we wear - a media industry that encourages even young children to look like sex symbols, feeds teenage neurosis with the associated risks of anorexia and bulimia and the whole fashion world that creates fast, cheap fashion resulting in horrendous industrial accidents such as Rana Plaza. Not to mention what we are doing to the planet using up oil resources to make textiles and dumping tons of clothes into landfill or onto developing countries, thereby wrecking their own textile industries, in the supposed name of 'aid'.

Having been studying for the last two years for a Foundation Degree in Fashion and Textile Design - which has been a wonderful creative experience, and my classmates have been super at welcoming this 'older woman' as part of the class - I had wondered about writing a blog for people like me. Well, Emily Sheffield, your article in Vogue has pushed me into actually doing it!