PHOTO: Paul Grover, Sunday Telegraph.Unbeknown to me at the time, last week saw the the House of Lords discuss the apparent wastefulness of women's approach to fashion, as manifested - as they saw it - in their lust for the latest must-haves and the buy 'em cheap, pile 'em high attitude which, until recently, overran purchasing habits like a plague of rats.
Talk about last season. The tide has turned, my Lords, and if people aren't always picking up the most ethical label possible - yet - it does feel to me that, where they can afford to, people thinking more about the provenance of their purchases and the need for them before slapping down the credit card.
While I can see where the initial spark of appeal can lie in the rooting out of a bargain, it is a flame that flickers and dies almost instantly. For me, the burning question is always - how can it be possible to buy a pair of jeans for £3 - surely that cannot be sustainable? No way does that get to the shop counter without exploitation at some point along the way - so no way does it make it into by shopping bag. Maybe it is the control freak in me, but I find it hard to part with the cold hard reddies without a fair idea where my money is going. For this reason, I have found myself truffling through second hand shops more and more, and - since I now finally have 'A Room of One's Own' - making more of my own clothes.
It transpires that I am not alone in this shift away fom straight up clothes buying and a return back to the 'make do and mend' mentality of granny's time - on Thursday I had a call from someone who recalled that I'd sewn up by own dress for a mutual friend's wedding, asking if I'd be interviewed by fashion writer Clare Coulson for a Sunday Telegraph news review feature on the very subject of making and customising clothes.
The article makes interesting reading, highlighting the very real shift towards handcrafts, sewing clothes from scratch and customising old garments - sales of sewing machines at John Lewis are reportedly up an amazing 46% on this time last year, with sales of buttons and haberdashery also significantly improving - it seems that the handcraft trend is not just for the catwalk.
Making your own clothes, or even dabbling in a little bit of cut and customising can give second-hand or old favourites a completely new appeal. It is an opportunity to engage with a straightforward and satisfying process, with a start, middle and definitive end - so rare in the hectic schedule of most of our modern lives (mine included!). Most importantly, it means that rather than letting shops dictate the trends that you should be wearing, and how you'll wear them, you choose exactly how you choose to present yourself to the world.
So, I am now officially famous -well at least for the next week while the article remains online! - and will keep you updated on my seamstress exploits!
PS. The dresses in the photos were both made using Vogue patterns bought at under-the-radar, independent south London haberdashery mecca Wimbledon Sewing Machine Company at 292/312 Balham High Road (near Tooting Bec LUL) - Tel: 0208 767 4724. Stocks everything that you need for every type of craft - sewing machines, fabric, card making, embroidery, knitting - you name it. Fantastic.
The fabric for the maxidress (a Liberty print lawn cotton) was from the fabulous, family-run Borovick Fabrics on Berwick Street, Soho (I love these guys) and, at £10 p/m, half the price of buying it up the road at the department store itself. The fabric for the shorter, 50s-style number was scooped up at Sovereign Textiles at 113 Mitcham Road (near Tooting Broadway LUL), which specialises in Dutch wax print cottons for West Africa, for a bargainous £10 for six metres.
PPS. The blackwood bangles were sourced by a family friend directly from the producer at a Mozambique local market.
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