I have spent the past five years focusing on sustainability and its importance to our future, mainly within design, specifically within fashion. Particularly I am passionate about achieving this without compromising on style or substance.
I have been involved in the conception and planning of two sustainable fashion brands and have gained a broad range of skills and experience in this field.
Establishing a new company from scratch I have learnt the importance of being highly organised and at the same time flexible and ready to adapt to any given situation. It has also taught me how to prioritise tasks and how to balance them with the utmost efficiency in order to achieve what needs to be done. As a small business owner I never shy away from a challenge and have been responsible for maintaining and setting up the finances, marketing, visual merchandising and also being the front of house for the store.
In building the social enterprise 'everything in colour' I was keen to keep costs to a minimum and accomplish the maximum possible through suitable collaborations and intelligent links. I formed strong relationships with many companies, suppliers and charities in order to source donated end of line materials and ensure that every garment was produced socially and sustainably. I set up a direct relationship working with a rehabilitation program within a UK Prison and found this to be a fantastically worthwhile and valuable experience.
It is a challenging way to design, working only with surplus and never knowing what will come in day to day. I found this incredibly rewarding and am thrilled at how it has improved my skills.
I am a conscientious person who works hard and pays attention to detail. I'm flexible, quick to pick up new skills and eager to learn from others. I thrive on teamwork and love to collaborate, although as a freelancer I have always been happy to work alone as well. I have excellent communication skills and a strong sense of initiative, always able to think on my feet. From my prior roles I have gained strong project management experience and am confident and comfortable with the role.
Projects
- Neat Streets - TrashconvertersThis project was a collaboration with Hubbub, Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and Lucozade Ribena Suntory. 'everything in colour' were hired to design and make costumes for actors to wear in order to realise the initial ideas suggested by the youth group we were working with. Their idea was a human vending machine and upon discussion with them and the collaborators we made the Naked Binmen suits... We all want clean and safe spaces around us. Public polling shows that a staggering 86% of people think littering is a disgusting habit yet only 15% of us would actually confront someone and tell them that. Dealing with litter costs tax payers around £850 million a year and litter levels have not dropped over the last 12 years. The Neat Streets campaign experiments with new ways to cut litter, using the latest behaviour change research and thinking from around the world. From flash-mobs to talking bins and from naked bin men to chewing gum art, we tested many different playful ways to reduce litter on London’s second busiest street. Littering a night is a messy issue, especially fast food packaging and drinks bottles. We worked with creative minds at the Dame Kelly Holmes Trust and Lucozade Ribena Suntory to design a way of tackling this issue. After putting ourselves in the mindset of people on a night out we came up with ... The Naked Binmen Trashconverters. Actors dressed as Naked Binmen headed out to the streets and converted people's trash for gifts, or things they may need on a night out. Gifts included things like chewing gum, water, plasters, flip flops and heat blankets.
- Sustainable Corporate Uniform RepurposingThis project was a collaboration with Hubbub, Ocado and HMP Northumberland. Due to a high staff turnaround many large businesses find themselves with a substantial amount of uniform waste each year. This was true of Ocado so they hired Hubbub to look into the issue. Having worked with Hubbub on numerous projects, everything in colour were chosen to do the designs for garments or items that could be repurposed from these uniforms. We focused on different levels of recycling. There were items that could only be reused as low end products and some that could be simply remade into new items that could be sold and all funds go to Ocado's charitable Foundation as part of a circular system. After many stages of research, development and sampling of these products the production was to be done as part of a rehabilitation program at Northumberland Prison. This was a challenging and ultimately very rewarding project that I thoroughly enjoyed and hope to take further. It was launched at the House of Commons in 2016.
Work history
Consultant
- New Delhi, IndiaFreelance
I was hired as a freelance fashion and embellishment design consultant to work for Nigel Preston and Knight. I completed preparatory work in London and then transferred to New Delhi to work in the studio and complete designs and sampling for the new season.
I led the embellishment team and was in charge of designing, sourcing materials, producing samples and training the team to produce these samples on garments.
In this role I managed a team of 40 people in house and also created links with external producers, such as knitters and machinists with whom I worked to achieve my designs.
Obviously this role had an added challenge of a language barrier which I embraced and found to be an exciting and rewarding experience.
Creative Director
- London, United KingdomFull Time
I established this sustainable social enterprise fashion brand with onsite production and workshops in early 2015. The aim of 'everything in colour' is to create an affordable brand where sustainable contemporary design can be had without compromising on style or substance.
I designed collections of womenswear, menswear and accessories. Each garment was one off, made entirely from end of line fabrics. I established strong links with businesses looking to repurpose end of line materials, suppliers and textiles recycling companies.
These pieces were all made onsite to create a feel of transparency within the brand.
Early on 'eic' was approached by Topshop buyers and procured a 6 month pop up in the boutique section of the Oxford Circus store. Due to this enormous increase in demand I had to figure out how to upscale production whilst maintaining the social approach. This led to a collaboration with a large prison facility as part of a rehabilitation program which was extremely successful and rewarding.
'everything in colour' were hired as freelance consultants for Hubbub Charity, who work with sustainable fashion and food. The brand established a program with Hubbub designing new products from uniform waste for large companies. Launched at the House of Commons in 2016 this is a step towards solving the ever growing issue of textile waste.
'everything in colour' functioned as a shop/studio based in Hackney Wick, and has been awarded Winner of Time Out Love London Award for best shop in the area for both 2016 and 2017.
Having founded a company from scratch I learnt an incredible amount from being involved in every minor detail. I was in charge of the finances and completed all of our accounts. I built and designed the store and studio and all of its visual merchandising. I styled every shoot that was done and chose locations and often acted as photographer too. All of our marketing and social media was done in house so I also was responsible for that along with my colleague. All of the branding and website was again designed by myself and my business partner.
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Skills
- Sustainable Fashion
- Sustainability Strategy
- Sustainable Design
- Sustainable Development
- Fashion
- Textile Designer
- Textile Knowledge
- Project Management
- Analysing Data
- Leading Teams
Education
MA Curating Contemporary Design
- London, United Kingdom
I specialised in this MA on Curating for Fashion.
During this Masters Degree I was selected and funded by the British Council to go to China and work with students at the China Academy of Arts. I ran a project there on the Cultural Regeneration of the Grand Canal of China (that runs from Hangzhou to Beijing). I spent 6 weeks in China working with the Academy and presented our research and proposal to the Municipal Government.
Italian History of Art and Italian Language
- Florence, Italy
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Awards
Time Out Love London Award 2017
Best Shop in the AreaTime Out Love London Award 2016
Best Shop in the Area