Upcycled Designs Take Center Stage As London Fashion Week Men’s Puts Sustainability In Focus.

In 2019, the BFC continues to focus on their Positive Fashion initiative, a platform designed to promote and celebrate diversity, sustainability and openness; encouraging fashion to be used as a platform to promote a global positive change.

The Fashion Plate — Charles, the Prince of Wales in the company of designer Bethany Williams, Mother of Pearl and Teatum Jones. (Photo by Darren Gerrish, British Fashion Council)

Presentation and catwalk designers Bethany Williams and RÆBURN are showcasing Positive Fashion collections this season. Bethany Williams as with every season has produced an eco-collection from recycled and organic materials, utilizing waste product from Clay’s book manufacturing in Suffolk.

She has taken book waste to San Patrignano in Italy, an education and rehabilitation program for people with drug dependency that teaches traditional Italian craft and a sense of community. Bethany Williams works alongside the community to weave fabrics mixed from book waste, waste from San Patrignano and donated pre-production waste from mills in Italy.

Bethany Williams Fall 2018 collection

Bethany Williams Fall 2018 collection.

RÆBURN will continue his pioneering work of re-using military fabrics and de-commissioned parachutes to create iconic outerwear.

In the Designer Showrooms, Adam Jones will showcase his upcycled fabrications reminiscent of punk, using beer mats, vintage tea towels, blankets and ribbons pieced together and Phoebe English shows her latest collection which is entirely ‘made in England’.

Ahluwalia Studio launched by London-born Priya Ahluwalia a 2018 graduate from the MA Menswear Course at The University of Westminster and the winner of the H&M Design Award 2019 will be doing an installation in the Designer Showrooms highlighting her dual Indian-Nigerian heritage and exploring the life of second hand and dead stock clothing, using textile techniques to give them new life.