HERE: An Alternative Route was a sweeping exhibition from the Phoebe English studio hosted at the British Library in London to co-ordinate with London Fashion Week. It looked to share the studio’s most recent research into less extractive fashion practices, including investigations into plant dyes, regenerative agriculture, carbon sequestration, transforming and reusing textile “waste”, and building new regional fibre networks.

It was a tiny exhibit within the open floor plan of the Library, though this was a benefit as anyone could access and themselves investigate. No matter where you chose to begin with this curation of table installations, you could piece together the research for yourself and at the end see the full holistic picture. Singularly, however, each element stood its own, so any designer or citizen visiting the exhibition could understand design principles that in practice could work towards positive systemic change.

I’ll take you through each presentation table, which seems the most straightforward way to introduce each element of this approach to positive fashion design and production.

Zero waste pattern cutting.

A huge source of wastage in fashion production is the offcuts from a length of fabric that a garment’s pieces are cut from. You end up with random shapes that are difficult to piece together. Though we have the ability to mechanically recycle these scraps, through paid-for services like First Mile offer, it doesn’t make sense to create these offcuts in the first place - imagine all large-scale factories doing this, let alone design studios.

The Phoebe English team had saved all offcuts from previous seasons, and graded each piece by weight, weave and colour. Women from marginalised community groups and ex-offenders, under the training programme Making For Change, then laid and sewed up the offcuts into a patchwork fabric the exact size of the chosen pattern pieces. By using an underlocker, which will finish the edges on the “wrong” side, while topstitching the “right” side, there is also minimal wastage here (ordinarily an overlocker would trim fabric seams). And then, by producing clothing from pattern pieces of easy rectangular shapes, you’re again not creating offcuts. Self-fulfilling really, that you want to use up a stash before purchasing (or finding) anything new.

What is also important to note here, is that the information panel described the garment pattern as a “less waste pattern cutting technique” rather than zero waste; nothing can be zero waste, regardless of what materials you save, as you will always be using energy.

Innovative patchworking.

Patchworking offcuts can be a time-consuming task, so the Phobe English studio worked with London micro factory, Pattern Project, to utilise their expertise and laser-cutting machines to develop a time-saving yet interesting way to cut pieces from strangely-shaped scraps and end-of-rolls. Again it is minimal waste as they design garments based on a rectangular lay plan once the pieces have been assembled into a fabric form. It takes quite an imagination to picture the finished item!

Watch a two-minute video of the shell shapes being cut with lasers here.

Bioregional fibre production.

The Business of Fashion, Textiles and Technology (BFTT) have been supporting the research and development of organisations, mills, labs and makers who are establishing regenerative, positive approaches to [primarily] soft textile sectors. With the input from South East England Fibershed, and the BFTT project Remodelling Fashion, the design studio have been investigating what regenerative design looks like in practice, and how these design processes could actively engage in restoring biodiversity, soil health and carbon sequestration - especially when based in an urban environment.

The above yellow knitted jumper was created in respect of full traceability; working with farmers to bring a local and slowly-made garment that offers a connection between land, artisans and wearer.

The organic and biodynamically-farmed British wool comes from the heritage sheep breed Romney Marsh, located in East Sussex at Plaw Hatch Farm.
Unfortunately, here in the UK, we no longer have the masses of textile production facilities that once existed, and so the fleece was sent to Cornwall in South West England where Natural Fibre Company processed and spun the wool fibre into yarn following organically accepted processes.
This knitted worsted yarn was then given back to the South East, where Deborah Barker, founder of the South East England Fibreshed affiliate and own natural dye company Field & Folk, dyed it using UK-grown plants; weld from her own studio (yellow colour) and Japanese indigo from Bailiwick Blue in Guernsey (blue colour).
Following the yarn dyeing, Richard Szuman used a domestic knitting machine to knit the yarn into jumper shape, while Barbara Osborn knitted a hat.

Bioregional leather production.

Sara Grady and Alice Robinson are creating a supply of traceable, regenerative UK leather. I’ve noted “regenerative” a few times (it’s an incredibly important approach to our food and farming systems): unlike organic farming that focusses on non-synthetic inputs, regenerative farming is an holistic approach that focusses on positive inputs - so not what isn’t done, but what is. It wants to increase biodiversity, improve the water table, increase and retain soil health and support carbon sequestration.

So while Grady and Robinson’s research (and British legislation) shows farmers as already conducting generally less harmful farming practices, there is no oversight of this to ensure traceability. With our current leather supply and value chain, the materials are transported globally for processing and sale, and so any one item made from the hide (or other byproducts, like collagen for instance) lacks transparency. This is a massive issue for all industries, because we just don’t know what’s going on. What are we wearing or eating? Therefore, Grady and Robinson are obtaining hides from farms that are certified by Pasture For Life, which means they demonstrate the highest levels of animal welfare and ecological agriculture, plus the grazing practices that improve soil health (and subsequent climate improvements).

The leather however is visibly different to the usual aesthetic standards of the leathergoods industry, with marks and surface variability (just imagine all the scars a human has, and remember leather is an animal’s skin). Leather like this would normally be discarded, so instead of disregarding the “imperfections”, the studio want to change perceptions. The reclaimed hides are then vegetable tanned.

The map shows the location of the leather acquisition and processing steps;

Hide sourced from Pasture For Life certified abattoir
Tannery using vegetable tanning agents and processes
Natural dyer, Clara Jedrecy (using iron filings and organic apple cider vinegar)
Finishers (using Ecocert/Cosmos certified natural lunaria oil)
Leather maker (into the bag), Stephanie Freude

Watch a 22 second video here of the leather dyeing process.

Utilising offcuts - silk.

As with the cotton offcuts above, these silks were sorted and graded by type before being sewn together by the London College of Fashion’s Making For Change programme. They were obtained from bridalwear brand Indie Bride London, so partnering with local businesses to utilise and reduce waste. Often the infrastructure does exist, and could be accessible, but it requires scale, therefore by collectively working to reduce and reuse, a local recycling system can be implemented.

The studio then used a natural pleating technique, where the patchwork silk fabric was twisted and steamed. Making do with what you have, yet exploring new (and old) techniques can elevate the discard into something high fashion. Also shown here is organic cotton thread, an important inclusion because all too often natural garments (like jeans) are sewn with polyester or nylon thread, so devoiding the garment of disassembly or full recycling.

Utilising offcuts - lace.

The studio worked with other bridal designers to collect lace scraps, including Gemma Leakey, Sassi Holford and again, Indie Bride. Wonderfully, these garments are created using three layers of “new” lace fabric, whereby the top layer is created using small triangle-shaped offcuts, and the middle and skin layer are created using larger rectangle-shaped offcuts. It gives the illusion of a delicate fabric, and yet is actually more durable - and essentially, more wearable too because it isn’t so sheer.

Watch a two-minute video of Pattern Project co-founder Shruti explaining the laser cutting process here.

Over-dyeing.

A quick way to freshen up any garment or fabric is to overdye it. Provided there are no bleach stains on the material, and you are using a dye specific for the fibre composition, then you can create something entirely new. Sometimes, a natural fibre garment will be sewn with polyester thread, and so the dye may not take completely, so this “flaw” needs to be considered in your design. If however, you are making a fresh fabric like the Phoebe English studio did, you can stitch with thread of the same fibre classification e.g. cotton on silk.

The studio had taken digitally printed colour trial fabrics from Think Positive Prints, a leader in sustainable digital printing, and stitched them together to create a new larger piece of fabric. It was one of my favourite elements of the exhibition actually, as it neatly showed a solution to a less-considered waste of the textile industry, and one that is tricky to use due to intellectual property. By over-dyeing, you can retain some of the original textile’s story, while imbuing it with a fresh and usable appearance.

A stickler for the fashion industry, is how to find a natural source black dye with the same depth as a synthetic. I myself wear very little else than black garments, and only console this choice through how limiting I am with washing. But it doesn’t negate the original production, with its ridiculously damaging (and uncontrolled) effects on environment and people that this causes. The black dye here was created using:

Logwood sourced from the heartwood of this tree found in sustainably-managed forests, in Central South America and the Caribbean.
Gall nuts foraged locally plus alum (salts) are used as a mordant to fix the dye. Gall nut is naturally high in tannin, and alum is one of the less toxic natural mordants (it is good to re-use the mordant baths as much as possible before discarding, though wouldn’t be terribly bad pouring onto soil).
The garment was then dipped in an iron water solution to modify and deepen the tone.

I appreciated the showing of the dye tests, to help viewers understand the colour differences according to fibre type.

Natural dyeing.

Dyeing textiles using plant-based and mineral dyestuffs is a true experiment. You can be scientific, which is necessary for a larger operation and consistency across collections, or you can just have a go - which is usually my route into this craft. It was very pleasing to see the resources that the Phoebe English studio used, and the considerations that went into the whole ecological chain. Often, we take without establishing consequences, and so the effects are invisible until later on when it’s too late. Unfortunately everything we produce will be extractive to a certain extent and garner some waste, but we can produce in a manner that conserves, regenerates or provides a positive impact whether present or future.

For this element, the studio showed the dyestuffs used to dye deadstock hemp and silk fabrics. The synthetic dyes we see without knowing, and wear on our skins, are chemically synthesised - hence “synthetic” - and are not necessarily biodegradable i.e. they stay as the compounds they are. While there are concerns with toxicity of natural dyes, for instance if you use heavy metals as a modifier, they at least can break down in a natural environment. Another issue, though uncommon, is the growing of dyestuffs on land that could be used for food; really, all dye plants can be interplanted with food crops, or they are themselves food anyway. The design studio chose dyestuffs that are seen as invasive weeds - buddleia and mugwort - and harvested them when the threat to pollinators was reduced i.e. after flowering. By using their iron modifier, they could darken and deepen the shade to suit their design aesthetic.

I was suitably inspired, that when our hedge needed trimming of the overhanging buddleia, I saved the seedheads, dried them, and they are now awaiting some dye experimentation.

Whether you are inspired to take on one of these elements, or implement all of them into your design practice, there are varying degrees to fit your:

locality and access to materials
design aesthetic
space and network of collaborators
and even customer

They do require effort of imagination, and patience of trial and error, but understanding the possible elements available to reduce virgin material use, or consequentially, reducing materials while providing a positive impact elsewhere, means you’ll be a designer with longevity. We can’t keep producing from virgin materials. A bioregional, holistic, ultimately regenerative production model, complete with collective action, is where we need to head - or rather, where we needed to be 30 years ago.

Phoebe English.