I love recreating cast-offs into something fresh, as I did by turning this beautiful but unworn long silk skirt from an op shop into a comfy and cool shift dress.

For everyone, clothing is essential. As well-known Australian designer and champion of natural fibres Liz Davenport said in Management Today September 2013, ‘you can get to an event without a car and without breakfast … but not without clothes’.

Clothing choices impact on our well-being, self-esteem and self-image, but there is a bigger picture to consider as we become mindful about where clothes come from and their true cost.

In Sustainable Fashion and Textiles, Kate Fletcher has written a definitive text on this subject in which she says the reuse of textile products ‘as is’ brings significant environmental savings. The energy used to collect, sort and resell second-hand garments is between 10 and 20 times less than that needed to make a new item. Continue reading →