Today I spent my morning in the awesome treasure-trove shop
that is Oxfam (you know - the quirky
Goose Gate one in Nottingham). It’s nothing like your typical bog-standard
charity shop, that generally lacks inspiration or imagination - oh no – it’s an
absolute pleasure to wander around its shop floor, never knowing what you might
stumble upon. The building is beautiful, and the interior decor is really
vibrant and inviting and just plain FUN. Items are sorted into different
sections, including high street and retro, with an eye candy rainbow rail of
colour coded items near the entrance. Numerous vintage accessories including
scarves and jewellery; in addition to scrap pieces of fabric and do-it-yourself
projects are scattered around in various wooden trunks and chests, patiently waiting
to be discovered. I just love it
there.
Anyway, back to why
I was there (no, I wasn’t shopping and frittering away my student loan, again) – the first year Fashion Design
kids at Nottingham Trent Uni (where I am currently a final year student) are
embarking on an upcycling project
with Oxfam. Working in teams, they were each handed a mysterious green Oxfam sack
filled with a random lucky-dip of donated clothes, which do not meet the
required shop-floor standards. Their mission, should they choose to accept it
or not, is to rip, shred, tear, dye, print, deconstruct, and upcycle these old
items into brand spanking new, on- trend show stopping garments, which will
then be sold in the Oxfam shop. So clothes that would normally have gone to
waste are being given a new lease of life, a step in the right direction to
save our planet is being taken, the fashion kids get to have a lot of fun with
an interesting project, and Oxfam will get extra money to save lives. It’s a win win win win.
I must say it was very interesting watching the students’
faces as they delved into their green bags, hoping for some fine diamonds,
while mostly finding cheap cloudy fakes. But that is the whole point of the project – it’s not supposed to be easy, and will
most definitely challenge these young designers and their skills, but will also
be extremely rewarding upon seeing their final garments being strutted down the
catwalk. Oh, their faces were a picture...
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| the store-room |
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| The students began to reveal the contents of the ominous green sacks. Some were pleased... |
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| Others, not so much. |
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| various old trims and bits & bobs that the students could help themselves to |
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| The lovely fashion accessories lecturer Lee in the background here |
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| The funniest trousers I've seen in a long while... He seemed impressively enthusiastic though... |
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| Emma (a lovely lecturer @ NTU) with Thomas the Oxfam manager |
I was fortunate enough to speak to the manager of the shop –
Thomas – who was telling me that Oxfam are currently struggling to get enough re-sellable
donations through the door, which I feel could be due to the explosion of eBay
which makes it very convenient to sell your unwanted clothes and pocket some
good money in the process. In addition,
Thomas believes that fabric recycling companies, which pay for un-wanted
clothes by the weight, are also affecting Oxfam. So Guys & Dolls: PLEASE DONATE
SOME OF YOUR UNWANTED CLOTHES TO CHARITY! No, you won’t receive any dollars in
exchange, but what you will get is a
whole lotta good karma; and that’s a promise.
I’ll keep you updated on this project, and will show you the
final upcycled pieces once they’re complete!
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