Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Phoebe English\u2019s studio in a former school in south London is a bright space with three sewing machines under large windows, sills lined with vibrant plants. On a garment rail at one end of the studio hangs a delicate white top, constructed from cut-out hearts made of waste silk, part of a custom bridal suit for a client\u2019s wedding this summer. At the opposite end of the room, four mannequins wear pieces from English\u2019s archive recently acquired by a major American museum. All are made from discarded fabric; one square-shaped, layered silk dress is overdyed in a shade of chartreuse, a colour obtained from the yellow-flowered ragwort, an unwelcome weed on farm land, pulled from a farm in Warwickshire.\u201cWe\u2019re really interested in colour right now,\u201d says the 39-year-old designer, sitting at a stool at the studio\u2019s large cutting table. \u201cNot just the particular hue, but the components that have gone into making the colour. Obviously, we\u2019re in an urban environment,\u201d she says, pointing to the car park outside the window, \u201cso we find the most effective way that we can be in contact with nature and with people working in ways to increase biodiversity, water health, carbon sequestration, is by linking with dye plants and botanical dyes.\u201dOccasionally, though, nature finds its way to them. The studio manager Clara Jedrecy recently brought in a buddleia brush blown down from a railway arch during a storm. They threw it in a dye bath, stems and all. \u201cIt made a lovely dark green colour,\u201d says English.Creating her collections from surplus materials and natural dyes are just two of the ways in which English, the quiet warrior of British fashion, is seeking to detoxify the fashion industry, or at least her small part of it. This month, as part of the Victoria and Albert Dundee museum\u2019s new exhibition, Garden Futures: Designing with Nature, English has collaborated with Zena Holloway, an ocean photographer turned bio-designer, on an ethereal stitch-free dress, grown from wheatgrass roots. Holloway, who was moved to work in natural textile development after seeing the increasing amounts of plastic waste on the seabed, grows the roots onto templates carved from beeswax, creating a flexible yet durable textile she has named Rootfull. Last year, Rootfull invited English to design a dress for the exhibition.I began to see the enormity of damage that the fashion industry does on a planetary scale\u201cIt\u2019s constructed from this bouncy root-grown lace which Phoebe has cleverly framed and attached with a ripped cotton strip bodice,\u201d says Holloway. It relies solely on the binding together of the roots and a series of knots and ties for construction. \u201cWe tried various experiments to get to a stage where Phoebe thought it was suitable for the body. The finished dress is a beautifully light structure with apertures, very wearable and there\u2019s a tie waist to adjust for different sizes.\u201dFor her part, English sees the Rootfull dress as both a valuable piece of research and development into alternative textiles \u2014 the material is grown from seed over 12 days, using only light and water and is biodegradable \u2014 and an important information carrier. \u201cIt encourages dialogue and, most importantly, action around alternative ways to work in design,\u201d she says. \u201cThrough the dress you receive information about Zena\u2019s scientific exploration and it prompts questions: What are my clothes made of? And is there a different way?\u201dEnglish did not set out to be a sustainable fashion designer. She launched her eponymous label in 2011, straight after a BA and MA in Fashion Design and Knitwear at Central Saint Martins, where she was tutored by the late, renowned professor Louise Wilson. Immediately lauded for her mastery of textile craft and a winning design aesthetic that plays with the decorative and utilitarian, she has shown continuously at London Fashion Week, won the\u00a0Leaders of Change Award at the British Fashion awards in 2021 and has had work acquired by institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.The studio had been in business for almost seven years when, in 2018, English had a climate realisation, triggered by the combination of America\u2019s withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, activism by Extinction Rebellion and Stacey Dooley\u2019s BBC documentary, Fashion\u2019s Dirty Secrets. \u201cIt sounds stupid because it\u2019s more generally known about now, but I began to see the enormity of damage that the fashion industry does on a planetary scale,\u201d she says. Rather than giving into feelings of doom and leaving the industry, she decided instead to take action. \u201cHistory shows that art and design reflect the reality of the period it is created in,\u201d she says, \u201cso I decided to respond to the times we are living in.\u201dWe are living in a time where there are communities physically drowning in our waste clothesWhile at one point the studio was designing four collections a year for both men and women, scurrying to meet wholesale buyers\u2019 demands, today it sells direct to consumers and presents one gender-fluid collection each year created with a circular design approach. This considers the full life cycle of a product and its effect on the environment and natural resources, from the design stage through its fibre and component content, production, packaging and a garment\u2019s biodegradable potential. \u201cWe are very lo-fi,\u201d says English, who works with two part-time employees (the studio recently switched to a four-day week) with two to three more freelance staff taken on when required. \u201cBut I\u2019ve always been an advocate of the idea that just because something is small, it doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not relevant or important. I think that\u2019s a response to being part of an industry that has so much excitement around bigger is better \u2014 big shows, big collections. For me that\u2019s never been a priority.\u201dCollections are made entirely from pre-consumer waste textiles from the studio\u2019s \u201calternative fabric sourcing network\u201d, which includes UK-based bridal businesses. \u201cWe are living in a time where there are communities physically drowning in our waste clothes,\u201d English says. According to the Textiles Market Situation Report 2024 by WRAP, an environmental action NGO, about 421,600 tonnes of used textiles were exported from the UK in 2022. \u201cHow do designers respond to that? We see our collections as an opportunity to use waste and reissue waste back into circulation.\u201dOver the years, English has come up with a responsive design process for the varieties of unwanted textiles they receive \u2014 anything from 500 metres of silk to tiny offcuts. \u201cWith large quantities of fabric, we can approach something with a more voluminous silhouette or implement design features like pleats,\u201d says English. \u201cSmaller pieces we can use to build onto surfaces in our patchworking category. We\u2019ve done so many different versions of that.\u201d The heart and shield-shaped cut-outs of the most recent collection are an example.It\u2019s trying to make a garment with the potential to be decomposable and compostable, returning to the earth in the safest wayThe studio\u2019s \u201cmono fibre\u201d approach \u2014 using a single fibre content rather than any blends, which can be difficult or impossible to recycle, and zero components made from plastics and petrochemicals, such as zips or fastenings \u2014 considers the end life of the product. \u201cIt\u2019s trying to make a garment with the potential to be decomposable and compostable, returning to the earth in the safest way,\u201d she says.While reluctant to reveal company financials, over 14 years the studio has built up a loyal customer base that together with consultancy work, educational projects and design collaborations with brands and partners such as Rootfull, keep the business viable. The bridal category is expanding as alternative wedding attire gains appeal and more people reject the idea of synthetics for their special day. \u201cWe attract people who want something that is made with intention and can have an extended life,\u201d English says. \u201cWe have a list of natural dyers we can connect customers to if they want to change their garment\u2019s colour.\u201dEven in the face of extreme politics, climate denial and sustainability fatigue, English remains optimistic. \u201cIf there are no alternative frameworks for people to reference then there really is no other option,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019re never going to move away from a structure that doesn\u2019t fit into the realities of our planetary boundaries. For us, it\u2019s really not about the activity that we complete in the studio alone. It\u2019s about passing information along and seeing how the next generation might reinterpret that.\u201dEnglish is one of a small cohort of eco-minded British fashion designers trying to tackle industry issues with similar techniques, including Bethany Williams, Amy Powney of AKYN, Paolo Carzana, and Chopova Lowena\u2019s Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena. But generally, English says, designers need to be working harder. \u201cWe are trained problem solvers. We can use those skills to think beyond silhouette, colour, fit and pattern.\u201d In her own quiet way, English demonstrates how.Follow us on Instagram and sign up for Fashion Matters, your weekly newsletter about the fashion industry<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Phoebe English\u2019s studio in a former school in south London is a bright space with three sewing machines under large windows, sills lined with vibrant plants. On a garment rail at one end of the studio hangs a delicate white top, constructed from cut-out<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":301891,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-301890","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301890"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":301892,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301890\/revisions\/301892"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/301891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globetimeline.com\/ar\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}