Fashion revolution and older women



***UPDATE***
I came across this article by Haley Morgan in Highsnobiety which really echoes my sentiments. Do look it up!


April is over (and with it my birthday), so I am looking forward to late spring and summer, though right now the  'darling buds of Maie' are definitely being shaken by 'rough windes' - literally and metaphorically.
 Two recent events have prompted me to write this post. The first one is the Fashion Revolution week-long commemoration of the Rana Plaza disastrous fire on 24th April 2013 which caused the death of many garment workers, mostly women.  It ran from 28th to 30th April, so not quite a week, more of a weekend really, during which  people were encouraged to think about the clothes they wear and who makes them and how everyone can do their bit to keep exploitation down. Instagram posts were definitely encouraged, with the tag #whomademyclothes and I added my offering to the list.
The second event is not exactly an event, but yet another article proclaiming that fashion is waking up to older women. I have been seeing such articles appearing fairly regularly for the past ten years or so, surely by now fashion should have awakened. Don't get me wrong, I do not deplore the article(s) in question, I just deplore that fashion is still playing sleeping beauty. I cannot help feeling somewhat dismayed that every time an older woman is shown in an ad or campaign or a runway show there should be this 'look here' cry as to say, we are doing our bit, things are changing etc etc.
The moment this stops being a novelty, it will also stop being tokenistic, which is what I think it ultimately is, at the moment.


 The article in question appeared in The Guardian on April 23rd. It lists the latest bloggers and 'influencers' over the age of sixty, with a picture of Lyn Slater, a New Yorker who is a professor during the day, but has now become a fashion icon and the face of Mango.
I notice a tendency, in this celebration of older women,  to typify them  as zany and usually  wearing oversized glasses. I must say, it does make me feel slightly uncomfortable. It is as if , as you grow older, you just have to embrace eccentricity. Some of us do not wish to.
 The Fashion Revolution initiative on the other hand is really important. There is also a tendency to bandy around  'sustainability'  and 'ecofashion', as if they were just  fashionable labels, but I believe Fashion Revolution is very genuine in its mission and scope and invite you to check out their website and their impassioned plea on why we need a fashion revolution.
Designer Anna Skodbo, who has launched the label Phannatiq, which I have modelled for and which has been featured among others in Vogue,   sent some comments on eco-fashion and I copy them below with her permission.
"Nothing can be 100% eco, to say it is is misleading" says Anna. "Just by having a business you’re not being eco friendly, not to mention the carbon footprint of everything, so I don’t like to shout about it. Especially as it’s become so misused. It is a word used to blanket such a vast spectrum within which nothing can be perfect and that is why I have a problem with the term, BUT ...
98% of our fabrics are either GOTS certified organic or ökotex certified. The fabrics are mostly sourced from India, China and Turkey".
I recently got one of her dresses, which I absolutely love - the Zoe dress. Anna Skodbo describes it as follows:
"The fabric of the dress  you have is GOTS certified organic denim and is made by Ganesh in India and you can read more about him here .The trimming inside the dress is ökotex certified 100% bamboo which has been printed by Uros in Slovenia using the silk screen technique 
The dress was made by Yuksel and Ali in Seven Sisters, London".


It's a dress I am happy to wear and will definitely wear more than thirty times, the ground rule for when you buy clothes - how many times will I wear it is the question you should ask yourself when you are about to purchase something new for your wardrobe.
A fashion revolution begins by taking such a small step as this and by finding ways of styling and re-styling the items in our wardrobes so that they will always appear fresh.

All photos for Phannatiq collection AW17

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