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sustainable luxury fashion

Gillian Smellie

I love clothes, I genuinely love getting dressed in the morning and choosing what to wear.  But I also hate what fashion has done and continues to do to our planet.  We can do better.  

Join the conversation.  Let us learn from each other and together take steps to make change happen.

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Meet The Maker Lowick Artisan Fair Northumberland TD15 2UE

Sunday 26 May 10-4

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Blog

What do we wear?  Why do we wear it?  Could we choose better?

A brown merino wool jacket with three different visible mends and a needle threaded with blue thread. One mend is pink and blue woven darning. One is bright orange darning and one is blue darning

Is #MendItMay ready to break out?

May 1, 2024 No Comments

You reach over to the other side of your desk and hear that unmistakable sound of a seam ripping and you know that everybody now knows that you have a pair of funky pink and purple spotted knickers.  But equally annoying, your otherwise perfectly good trousers are now unwearable.  What do you do? According to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency (2021) 57% of people would do nothing.  A more recent report by WRAP

Read More »

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves

April 18, 2024 No Comments

My reading went through a Russian period when I was about 16.  Pre-revolutionary authors, dissidents (I read all of Solzhenitsyn), and biographies, several of Stalin.  His quote, you cannot make a revolution with silk gloves references Lenin’s earlier  quote that you cannot make a revolution with white gloves.  In other words you  have to get your hands dirty.  Whilst that may be true for political upheavals and both Lenin and Stalin had rather filthy hands,

Read More »
Second hand Fair Isle Jumper

This old thing? Is second hand the new top drawer?

April 4, 2024 No Comments

We Brits are not great about singing our own praises.  Even when wearing our only top designer pure silk and cashmere hand embroidered jacket,  a compliment is likely to generate the response “What this old thing, I’ve had it for years”  as we shove the astronomical receipt deeper into our pocket.  We don’t do showing off.  But have we now come into our own?  Is “this old thing” the new designer cashmere? It’s no secret

Read More »
Was the Oscars red carpet recycled

Did they just bin 50,000 square feet of red carpet after the Oscars?

March 15, 2024 No Comments

So the Oscars are over for this year and everyone can go home and prop their newly acquired statue in the downstairs loo, the bedside table or wherever the gold chap looks best.  The barriers are taken down, the streets re-opened and  the carpet rolled up. Oh the carpet.  During a conversation with somebody about lack of sustainability on the red carpet they mentioned that they had heard that at the end of the event

Read More »
Second hand mens jumper

Should we all buy second hand?

February 13, 2024 1 Comment

This second hand mens jumper arrived in the post today for my husband.  Its arrival did cause a little angst between us.  Although I do have to agree it is a gorgeous jumper did he need it and was it a better buy than a new jumper? Our first instinct is to say “Of course it is! Aren’t we all being encouraged to buy second hand?”  Spend more than a few minutes online or watching

Read More »
A woman in bright red trousers is holding a microphone and talking to a room full of people. Behind her is a stunning huge leaded windor and the walls are all beautifully lined with wood.

Shall we talk?

January 18, 2024 No Comments

Did you get many Christmas cards this year?   Every year I see more and more people announce on social media that they won’t be sending  cards but will be donating to charity instead.  I have no issue with the former, but personally I think that if you are going to donate to charity just do so, you don’t need to virtue signal to everyone in your social media following.  But I digress.   I

Read More »
A simple guide to greenwashing

Is it Green or has it been washed?

January 2, 2024 No Comments

Greenwashing – the act of spending more time telling people how environmentally friendly you are than actually changing your business methods to become more environmentally friendly. I think we all can pull half a dozen obvious examples of greenwashing out of the hat.   McDonalds introducing paper only straws – that turned out to be non-recyclable.   Or Innocent Drinks (owned by Coca Cola – one of the largest plastic polluters in the world) producing

Read More »

Do you have a death plan for your clothes?

December 6, 2023 No Comments

I am deadly (no pun intended) serious. When you bought your last item of clothing did you think about what would happen to it when you no longer wanted or needed it? If you did then I salute you because you are in such a minute minority I doubt it is even measurable. Most of us do think about what we buy. We probably buy a lot of second hand clothes, we may even have

Read More »
A brown merino wool jacket with three different visible mends and a needle threaded with blue thread. One mend is pink and blue woven darning. One is bright orange darning and one is blue darning

Is #MendItMay ready to break out?

May 1, 2024 No Comments

You reach over to the other side of your desk and hear that unmistakable sound of a seam ripping and you know that everybody now knows that you have a pair of funky pink and purple spotted knickers.  But equally annoying, your otherwise perfectly good trousers are now unwearable.  What do you do? According to a report by the Environmental Protection Agency (2021) 57% of people would do nothing.  A more recent report by WRAP

Read More »

You cannot make a revolution with silk gloves

April 18, 2024 No Comments

My reading went through a Russian period when I was about 16.  Pre-revolutionary authors, dissidents (I read all of Solzhenitsyn), and biographies, several of Stalin.  His quote, you cannot make a revolution with silk gloves references Lenin’s earlier  quote that you cannot make a revolution with white gloves.  In other words you  have to get your hands dirty.  Whilst that may be true for political upheavals and both Lenin and Stalin had rather filthy hands,

Read More »
Second hand Fair Isle Jumper

This old thing? Is second hand the new top drawer?

April 4, 2024 No Comments

We Brits are not great about singing our own praises.  Even when wearing our only top designer pure silk and cashmere hand embroidered jacket,  a compliment is likely to generate the response “What this old thing, I’ve had it for years”  as we shove the astronomical receipt deeper into our pocket.  We don’t do showing off.  But have we now come into our own?  Is “this old thing” the new designer cashmere? It’s no secret

Read More »
Was the Oscars red carpet recycled

Did they just bin 50,000 square feet of red carpet after the Oscars?

March 15, 2024 No Comments

So the Oscars are over for this year and everyone can go home and prop their newly acquired statue in the downstairs loo, the bedside table or wherever the gold chap looks best.  The barriers are taken down, the streets re-opened and  the carpet rolled up. Oh the carpet.  During a conversation with somebody about lack of sustainability on the red carpet they mentioned that they had heard that at the end of the event

Read More »
Second hand mens jumper

Should we all buy second hand?

February 13, 2024 1 Comment

This second hand mens jumper arrived in the post today for my husband.  Its arrival did cause a little angst between us.  Although I do have to agree it is a gorgeous jumper did he need it and was it a better buy than a new jumper? Our first instinct is to say “Of course it is! Aren’t we all being encouraged to buy second hand?”  Spend more than a few minutes online or watching

Read More »
A woman in bright red trousers is holding a microphone and talking to a room full of people. Behind her is a stunning huge leaded windor and the walls are all beautifully lined with wood.

Shall we talk?

January 18, 2024 No Comments

Did you get many Christmas cards this year?   Every year I see more and more people announce on social media that they won’t be sending  cards but will be donating to charity instead.  I have no issue with the former, but personally I think that if you are going to donate to charity just do so, you don’t need to virtue signal to everyone in your social media following.  But I digress.   I

Read More »
A simple guide to greenwashing

Is it Green or has it been washed?

January 2, 2024 No Comments

Greenwashing – the act of spending more time telling people how environmentally friendly you are than actually changing your business methods to become more environmentally friendly. I think we all can pull half a dozen obvious examples of greenwashing out of the hat.   McDonalds introducing paper only straws – that turned out to be non-recyclable.   Or Innocent Drinks (owned by Coca Cola – one of the largest plastic polluters in the world) producing

Read More »

Do you have a death plan for your clothes?

December 6, 2023 No Comments

I am deadly (no pun intended) serious. When you bought your last item of clothing did you think about what would happen to it when you no longer wanted or needed it? If you did then I salute you because you are in such a minute minority I doubt it is even measurable. Most of us do think about what we buy. We probably buy a lot of second hand clothes, we may even have

Read More »
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