In the run up to the screening of Amy Powney's film ‘Fashion Reimagined’ with Clothes Swap Shop hosted by LOANHOOD we are highlighting some of the most innovative emerging designers with sustainability at the forefront of their practice.

Sophie Gumienna

Sophie Gumienna, currently a final year Knitwear student at the London College of Fashion. Their work has recently been focused on the lifecycle of knit, exploring two aspects. One, the concept of knit going back into the environment and decomposing and becoming part of the lifecycle once again, making it more aligned with a zero-impact outlook. The second aspect involves growing crystals on to the knit fossilising it, making it in theory last forever. Through this Sophie is creating a new idea of wealth and value of the knit as time goes on.

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Beth Williams

Beth Williams is a disabled designer who’s work centres around accessibility and the relationship between human and environmental sustainability. They’re currently completing an MA at the royal college of art.

This growable look was born from a lot of personal frustration. Existing as a disabled person within creative industries can be so difficult. Accessibility and sustainability issues are often seen as distinct but to Beth they are one and the same. As a form of protest Beth created a series of yarns and textiles designed for their afterlife. They’re compostable and growable, they give back to the earth. They completely bypass being worn by humans. Plants are the muse

Garments designed entirely for its afterlife.

Garments designed to be discarded.

Garment designed to pose the question: is the most accessible piece of clothing the one that is entirely inaccessible to all?

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Isabelle Taylor

Isabelle is a waste fish skin enthusiast, she loves to sculpt the tanned skins into surrealist garments. Sculpting fish skins allows you to work in ways you just can’t with fabric, for example the balloon top was draped upside down, so when the skins dried, the balloons look like they are floating upwards from the body. Isabelle mainly works with salmon skins as they are taken off for smoked salmon, leaving it as a by-product not used in the food industry. "I love to add Swarovski crystals to the looks to bring out the glimmer of light in the skins, like the fish would have naturally in the sea, catching the light" Isabelle comments. She has also experimented with inserting moving light-up displays under the fish skin garments, to marry the worlds of nature and technology. Having started this project for her final year project at university, Isabelle is currently creating a second fish skin collection. Having refined her processes and techniques, the next collection promises to showcase what's possible with this currently overlooked and discarded material.

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