Holland Street and The British Fashion Council Guidelines on Fashion Sustainability and the Environment

With sustainability and transparency in our business values, we felt it was important to remind ourselves of the British Fashion Council guidelines on how to remain authentic and true to these titles. There are some of their thoughts that we have edited to relate to Holland Street London.

“Buy less, choose well.”
– Vivienne Westwood, Fashion Designer

SUSTAINABILITY – Ethics – Focuses on social, environmental and business governance to drive a more sustainable fashion future.

EQUALITY & DIVERSITY – People – Represents the people, from the product makers to the staff, students and models who pioneer our brands.

CRAFTSMANSHIP & COMMUNITY - Community – Supports the community of talent, skills and craftsmanship that make up our unique industry.

Decent Working Conditions

Formal and informal workers in your operations and in those of your suppliers have a right to work with dignity and enjoy a good livelihood. Ensuring this includes, but is not limited to, providing good working conditions as outlined in the ETI Base Code on wages, working hours, health and safety, and social protection.

Support Traditional Skills

Heritage and handwork skills sustain local livelihoods and can have fewer negative social and environmental impacts as mass produced goods. Informal workers, often women with families to support, also benefit from a revival of traditional crafts and skills, as many are homeworkers.

Consider sourcing from artisans – many of whom now trade direct online – for components of products or for finishing. Doing so can help skills such as handspinning, handweaving and finishing to thrive.

British Made

Many of our designers manufacture in the UK. There are brilliant, highly skilled units, many of which are based in and around London. It is essential that we continue to work closely with manufacturers and help promote their services as they are a key part of the talent eco-system in the UK.

Recycling & Waste

Recycling treats used or waste products so they can be reused not discarded. For textiles, this can result in a drop in quality or requires items to be reprocessed into something new (eg turning old clothes into new fibre).Upcycling reuses the material or product without degrading the quality and composition of the material for its next use (eg turning bicycle tyres into jewellery).

Unlike a linear economy (make, use, dispose), a circular approach means products are designed with their eventual reuse in mind.

Comments

We are keen to hear your thoughts, if you know of any talented British seamstresses or craftspeople we would love to hear from them.

We use a minimal waste production method so have very little scraps of material left over however if would like to have a sample we can find a small piece of remnant to send you.

We are considering experimenting with more environmentally friendly materials such as organic cotton or viscose, would this make a difference to how you shop with us?