United Kingdom

An accessory can make or break an outfit. Too many and you feel like a walking Christmas tree, none and you can feel a little bare. As a passionate vintage collector, I am always hoarding treasures but one of my favourite, simple (and yes, extremely cheap!) accessories is a piece of ribbon.

Many people associate a bow with childhood but it doesn't have to be a two-pigtails-in-the- playground affair. Marie Antoinette adorned her shoes and dresses to show her wealth, couture designers have favoured bows and ribbons for many a catwalk collection and even high street shops are using them to their advantage. Here are my ten ways to accessorize the bow...

1- Neck Bow

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HuffPost UK is running a month-long focus around masculinity in the 21st Century, and the pressures men face around identity. To address some of the issues at hand, Building Modern Men presents a snapshot of life for men, from bringing up young boys to the importance of mentors, the challenges between speaking out and 'manning up' as well as a look at male violence, body image, LGBT identity, lad culture, sports, male friendship and mental illness.

To begin with an embarrassing admission: I feel good when I buy men's style magazines. I know there are eight pages of advertisements before you reach the contents page, and another eight before the first article - itself a glorified ad - but still, the feel-good rush is shamefully undeniable. Reading them is akin to shopping for clothes: a rush when you're doing it followed by feelings of vapidity and hollowness (an empty wallet, too).

The desire to buy the mag derives from its open admiration for aspiration - the longing for improvement and enhancement that speaks to all of us. To get fitter, richer and better looking. Its online equivalent is the weird lifestyle advice plastered over pictures of models on Twitter or Instagram (example: "what people think of me is none of my business" - Eh?).

Easy to mock but these pithy quotes answer to a very basic human need for clarity, wisdom and insight. It's a poor substitute for real self-knowledge, but they're easy to digest and, crucially, make you feel good. Just like men's lifestyle mags. (And always consider this: who is the great sage penning these tips? Usually a struggling copywriter).

You do not buy Esquire or GQ for critical insight. What you do when you buy these mags is collude in the lie; that we can all look that handsome, smell that great, wear those expensive clothes, buy that watch and be that clever, smart, wealthy, funny and attractive. It is completely unattainable and yet very seductive. It is aspiration, free with every issue.

Simultaneously, the post-modern nature of the magazine and its readership means it cannot help but acknowledge that it is all a delusion. It's what is not being said, what is half-buried beneath the words; the semi-apologetic tone of the editor, who'd like to put more articles from Will Self in but is given a load of gear to flog.

Some of it is just plain excruciating. The articles where middle aged men admit how hopeless they are at all this modernity lark. And who can blame them, for modern life is fraught with the fear of causing offence. Many guys are terrified of appearing either too masculine or too soft, trying desperately to avoid the charge of insecurity as a result of over-confidence or limpness due to a passive personality.

Easier it would be for all us chaps, if we could admit that what we actually want is more than sex. To yield to our desire for sympathy, affection, tenderness, conversation and warmth. All this, and ferocious sex too, if you wouldn't mind. It's a lot to ask, but more honest and rewarding than being chained to the narrative that all men are crude creatures, interested only in sports, cars and chicks.

If we were bold enough to make this admission, men's magazines would begin to reflect it. It is alas probably already too late for printed monthly mags. The Internet's infinite capacity for discussion - coupled with the benefits of anonymity - make it a platform far better suited for introspection and debate (if the nuances are not lost amid the abuse - a topic for another day) with sites like Vice and Buzzfeed offering a broader picture of modern man than any men's mag available.

Men's lifestyle magazines, like women's, play on our deepest insecurities and essentially exploit them for profit. How refreshing it would be to read a mag that was a forum for issues worthy of consideration: mental health, repression, violence, friendship and sexuality. But who's going to advertise next to that? True knowledge means you do not need to buy a Rolex to be happy, something an advertiser will never be keen to reveal.

First posted on my personal blog

To blog on the site as part of Building Modern Men, email ukblogteam@huffingtonpost.com. If you would like to read our features focused around men, click here, and for more about our partnership with Southbank Centre's Being A Man festival, click here.

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Photo credit: Grace Howard

We live in a digital age. University journalism courses offer modules in blogging and SEO, and your chances of bagging a career in the creative industries are slim if you don't have some sort of online presence. Chiara Ferragni's blog, The Blonde Salad, and its spin-off ventures have raked in over $8 million. Meanwhile, circulation figures for women's magazines keep dropping, with many titles turning digital-only. Few of us could buy our first homes for £1 million at the age of 24, but that's exactly what Zoella did earlier this year. Spot a theme? The future, it would seem, remains online. But are bloggers replacing journalists?

To be a successful fashion blogger, one seems to need the following: a DSLR camera, an iPhone, abundant spare time and endless money. Neither an in-depth interest in fashion nor a passion for writing seem to be prerequisite to blogging success. In the business of newspapers and magazines, journalists are hired based on their writing ability rather than their capacity to edit selfies, which is why some bloggers can make 'real' writers want to bang their heads against a wall. I remember a well-known newspaper journalist tweeting a link to a Blonde Salad article earlier this year, bemoaning the writing style and questioning how people are reading (and, more curiously, enjoying) this crap.

But those who miss reading proper articles are probably old-fashioned. In a society where Snapchat makes images combust after 10 seconds and Twitter never sleeps, it's hardly surprising the Buzzfeed-style 'listicle' is our preferred way to digest information. Why read 3000 words on relationships when you can quickly consume the same thing in a 12-point list, complete with hilarious Sex and the City screencaps, during your lunch break?

And then there's Instagram, which encourages us to capitalise on our Kodak moments to accrue likes and followers. Carefully curated documentations of Our Perfect Lives are the norm on Instagram, particularly on bloggers' feeds. Indeed, some people have created visual blogs, forgoing any written aspect.

Sophie Davis, who blogs at Filthy Paws & Silky Drawers, reckons Instagram is ideal for those with a fashion or beauty focus. "In primarily visual industries like fashion and beauty, I see no problem with bloggers only uploading visual content," she says.

Another blogger, Jemma Sleeman, uses solely Instagram due to its speed and simplicity. "I love looking at people's outfits for inspiration and finding new ways [to] put an outfit together, or finding a gorgeous item that I wouldn't have looked at without seeing it on," she says.

But does Instagram devalue her 'blogger' status? "I actually enjoy reading some 'traditional' blogs as long as they are not too long-winded. I'd probably have one myself if I had the time to do it properly. I currently don't have the time to make a decent stab at one," Sleeman argues.

While Sleeman's Instagram feed has a firm fashion focus, other bloggers use Instagram to document life's banalities. With the help of apps and filters, mundane tasks like visiting Starbucks become glamorous moments. Similarly self-absorbed content is a large part of the fashion bloggers' arsenal. Clothes shopping wishlists and 'What I Wore Today' photos are classic fashion blog fodder. From a reader's perspective, I can see why. My favourite blogs are written by people whose written 'voice' sounds a lot like my best mate when she comes over for coffee. In the same way advertisers use personal pronouns and eye contact to draw in consumers, bloggers take faux-intimacy to a new level, reeling us in with promises that the créperie down the road is the place to eat, and that their flawless skin is all down to the £3.99 cleanser they've been using.

But maybe that £3.99 "miracle" cleanser is only a miracle because the blogger is being paid to push the product. And the créperie down the road? It probably received such a stellar review because the blogger behind it was given enough free crépes to feed a homeless person for a week. Earlier this year, London patisserie Anges de Sucre expressed its disgust over a blogger who, after being told she couldn't get her hands on nearly £100 of free food in exchange for a review, went forth and slammed the establishment online. Despite their butter-wouldn't-melt image, some bloggers seem just as shady as journalists when it comes to morality.

In a way, blogging heavyweights are doing the same job as anyone who writes for Cosmo: being paid to flog a product. The only difference is that journalists work in offices, whereas most bloggers work from home like glamorous freelancers. And while the masses don't particularly care about someone else's favourite shoes or beauty rituals, there's comparable self-absorbed chat in the average magazine columnist's work.

Consider citizen journalism, a term thrown around when members of the public harness their 4G connection to break a news story. Citizen journalism is sometimes bashed by people who work in the media, but the public are a force to be reckoned with. Cast your mind back to the Charlie Hebdo shootings' coverage - the most poignant scenes were the bits of shaky footage shot on camera phones. Surely this a sign that citizen journalism, unpolished as it may be, isn't any less of a valid journalistic form than something carefully produced for the BBC?

The same could be said for blogging. For every girl with who's just in it for the likes, followers and free clothes, there's a girl who has a genuine passion for writing - and an interest in fashion besides just shopping - and wants to use their blog as a pedestal to career success. Hannah Gale and Tavi Gevinson are perfect examples.

Owen Jones was right when he described journalism as "a closed shop for the elite." It's no secret that the fashion industry is built on nepotism - getting a job on the Vogue features desk often isn't about knowing your Galliano from your Gaultier - so you can't blame bloggers for taking their future into their own hands.

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It came as no surprise to see the global madness that ensued when H&M stores opened their doors to rabid customers seeking a purchase of the Balmain and H&M collaboration. Or any garment at that judging by the mindless running. Don't get me wrong; I also enjoy fashion and the high of a well-timed buy but at the expense of my dignity and your safety? No, just no. How no one received a coat hanger to the eye, a stomp on the neck or choked on a Balmain bead dislodged from its host jacket is mind blowing. You must have seen the photographs or video footage? Don't worry, it can easily be confused with a wild battle scene from MadMax Fury Road: I swear I saw a woman wielding chrome spray paint and a flame-throwing guitar.

In the global pecking order we like to believe that we are at the top and the reason we are there is because of our superior brains and civilised behaviour. LOL. What I have learnt is this: you can't hide what you really are. This behaviour is firmly in our DNA and no matter how sophisticated we try and act (brunch, anyone?) there are actions that will give us away. Sex, periods and pregnancy rightly remind us that we are mammals; a fight over a dress shouldn't. This behaviour spreads across social media demanding 'likes' as wearers peacock their trophies. Once these items are displayed on social media will they be worn again? Hell no. An item shared once is no longer a valuable entity.

I distinctly remember visiting an H&M store a mere 48 hours after the Lanvin collection landed back in 2011. It was a disturbing and rather unsurprising scene. Lonely, lacklustre dresses were left rocking to themselves on racks. Billowy blouses lay deflated and stepped on like the trampled bodies crushed during the opening rush. It was too late for the faux fur jacket; just leave it on the floor. The quietest corner of the store and the staff were not interested either. It was the barren aftermath of the aforementioned MadMax scene. Brands had bored consumers on their hands already.

Fashion journalist Suzy Menkes says that fashion is crashing; she's right and it's taking humanity with it. I want to be that person who says, "Oh they are just having fun, what's the harm you miserable git?" But unfortunately my conscience won't let me so I have to become a pseudo-sociologist to calm it down. The speed with which we live our lives and demand that others fill it is exhausting. Menkes rightly points out that designers have everything but time. The demand of working all day, every day, to satisfy the world's cravings is frightening. The pressure to be relentlessly creative is terrifying. In the same chain of production the garment worker in a developing country is asked to smash out hundreds of dresses in record time too, for little pay, long hours, and in absurdly dangerous conditions. The designer is at one end and the garment worker at the other and both are asked for their blood and guts to be wrung out onto the cutting room floor. Just so we can wear an item once and discard it. The pressures we place on those that are the sturdy framework of the industry are showing signs of collapsing.

We ain't nothing but mammals baby but when will our smart brains finally understand that we cannot sustain these consumer habits. Our planet cannot sustain our greed. Now here comes my socialist, hippie bit: wouldn't it be great if we could harness this insatiable energy and enthusiasm and use it to satisfy the world's energy consumption? Or visit our lonely neighbour or provide shelter for homeless refugees? If we replace the level of drive we have for what we want in to getting things that people need, maybe I wouldn't need to write this complicated sentence. And the side effect might just be a healthier planet.

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So the weather is getting cooler and there's a bite in the air most mornings and evening. For me, this means I have the urge to get my fall sweaters out of the cupboard and luxuriate in their warmth while still wanting to look good and keep my style. So here are some top tips on wearing a fall sweater and still being stylish.

Casual but stylish
Most people automatically think that fall sweaters are a casual item that should be worn in dress down situations. And this is true for a lot of these sweaters, with their soft fall colours and chunky knits. But even the casual, dress down look can exude style.
Long length tunic style sweaters are a great option that will work with a range of looks. Consider a plain coloured tunic sweater paired with a maxi skirt featuring your favourite type of pattern and finished with a pair of ankle boots. These longer length tops also work perfectly with leggings or jeggings and knee high boots.

Perfect match
Normal length sweaters come in so many styles that there's no end to range of outfits you can make with them. look in any of the black fashion magazines in London and you will see a celebrity with a sweater on, looking just as stylish as they do any other time of the year. Choosing the right sweater for both your style and the occasion is the key!
Lots of the recent catwalk shows also features sweaters. There were plain ones with loose style pants as well as colorblock styles with plain short skirts and even striped sweaters with leather skirts. But one of the perfect matches for the top has to be jeans.
Whether jeans to you mean skinny jeans, boyfriend styles, destroyed looks or any of the other variations, celebrities show that jeans and jumpers are still best friends. Add in a scarf or a piece of jewellery and the outfit suddenly can be a little dressier.
For the Boho inspired ladies, the open sweater with a top and shorts is another perfect match. Long length, almost to the ankles, these sweaters can be plain coloured or patterned and combine the practicality of keeping you warm with that essential Boho style.

Dressy sweaters
The idea of dressy fall sweaters may seem a little odd but it is surprisingly easy to do, just look at my picture! Here I have taken my favourite fall jumper and paired it with very stylish strappy boots and my favourite handbag. The result is very much in my style, classy and suitable for any occasion.
After all, sweaters don't have to be just functional - they can have all the glitzy and glamour that an African fashion blog would love! Think metallic threads in place of cotton, beaded accents or any of the other features that might fit your style. Or you can opt for the simple black sweater that you can add your favourite layered necklace or statement jewellery set with and the sweater will simply back them up beautifully.

This post was previously published on my blog : www.ivyekongfashion.com

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Every single day we walk past a handful of London's 7,000+ people who sleep on our streets. Our homeless neighbours. Yet every day, although we may feel sympathy, we keep walking. We look the other way.

For something so impossible to ignore we are doing a brilliant, and terrible, job of ignoring it.

We, the founders of CRACK + CIDER: shop for the homeless, wanted to do something to change this. We wanted to give people a way to help that didn't involve handing over cash on the streets: something which people had told us "makes [them] feel wary and uncomfortable".

CRACK + CIDER offers a simple solution. It's a shop where you can buy from a selection of items which are then given to rough sleepers in the city: helping to keep them a little warmer and drier through the cold winter months.

When we started this project we knew very little about the realities of homelessness and so we turned to a number of experts to understand the current context. We are still learning about this complex issue but here are some of the most interesting, and shocking, things we have discovered so far:

Homeless Hierarchy

We met a local shelter, Shelter from the Storm, to investigate which products would be most useful for homeless people. After speaking with the founder we were told that the planned recipients of these products are a different "kind" of homeless to those who sleep in the shelter, and that in fact, there are different levels of homelessness.

We discovered that although charities often use the image of the "rough sleeper" to inspire donations, more often than not, they are servicing the needs of another "level" of the homeless community.

A rough sleeper contacted us via email to confirm this point: "Thanks for noticing that RoughSleepers & Homeless are not the same."

We were advised that helping those who are currently in shelters would be a better use of our time, and after investigating further, we were shocked at the lack of support for those sleeping on our streets.

Although we knew that our project couldn't solve rough sleeping, we decided we wanted to do our bit to help this community who "feel ignored and invisible".

Housing First

Although governments and NGO's often campaign for jobs and healthcare for the homeless; "housing first" is "a proven policy that eradicates homelessness." (Stephen Robertson, CEO, The Big Issue).

"House them first and then put in the support network."

With this in mind, the shocking truth of homelessness is that it could be solved overnight. England has enough empty properties to house all of the country's rough sleepers.

We need to find a way to provide accommodation where people "can sleep safely with both eyes closed" (Paul Williams, CRI). Sleeping on the streets leaves you "very vulnerable to crime" (Stephen Robertson, The Big Issue) and therefore significantly worsens the effect.

Early Intervention

It is perhaps no surprise that there is a huge opportunity to prevent homelessness through early intervention based on identifying behavioural issues.

"Over 40% of those on the streets also ran away as a child: the concept of absenting oneself at a time of crisis is learned early in life" (Paul Williams, CRI) and therefore, healthcare intervention at an earlier stage could significantly reduce the prevalence of homelessness.

This is, of course, a long term approach that feeds into the need for the UK to address the extreme lack of investment in mental healthcare: Councils spend just 1% of their budget on preventing mental health problems (Mind, 2015). When you take into account that homeless people are seven times more likely to wind up in A+E than those that are not homeless, more investment in mental health could in fact reduce costs to the NHS in the longer term.

Community over Government

Finally, with the current Government in power it is widely thought that "if you're waiting for the big boys you'll be waiting forever," (Paul Williams, CRI): this leads us to ponder on an alternative group to address the problem.

At CRACK + CIDER, we believe that there is a huge opportunity to engage a younger audience who will use their passion to create other community projects such as C+C.

Stephen Robertson commented; "when there are projects from young people taking initiative and doing something [about homelessness] it's very powerful: it gets a whole new group of people engaged and it makes people challenge what they think homelessness is."

We really hope that our small project goes on to inspire others to do even greater, more impactful things. Together, and only together, we can make a difference.

If you would like any advice or guidance on setting up your own project please reach out, we'd be delighted to help.

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The wedding planning has begun. We have booked a venue and I have asked four wonderful women to be my bridesmaids now the scary bit... bridesmaid dress buying!

There are so many things to think about, number one of which is I don't want to make four of the most important women in my life unhappy. When one of them is unhappy it's is bad enough, imagine four at once - I am having nightmares about it and getting my 'it actually looks really nice' phrasing ready.

Dilemma two is style of dress. Should you choose one dress that they all have to wear and broach the almost impossible task of finding one style to suit all shapes and sizes? Or should you go modern and have different dresses for each bridesmaid but one theme that ties them together? Or as I have four bridesmaids I could do two different styles of dress but what if they all prefer one style over the other? You can see these many dilemmas currently chasing each other around in my wedding filled brain.

What I do know is my colour scheme. We are having a winter wedding so I am going for a dark red and white also dark red looks good on me - yep selfish but this is the one day I am allowed surely. My first point of call was just to search for dark red dresses for inspiration in the hope that the answer to my dilemma would present itself via the internet. I find that the internet is generally good for answering dilemmas although don't go on forums - everything is scary on those. Oh by the way, Pinterest is a great resource for all things wedding and wedding inspiration.

Whilst I was looking for inspiration I obviously forgot what I was doing and went on an internet tangent: I started shopping for nice party dresses for myself. It was then, on my selfish tangent that I came across some brilliant bridesmaid options! If you search the internet for 'bridesmaid dresses' you will be faced with wedding shops and lots of dresses whose price tags have been doubled because there is a wedding involved. My advice is just to look through evening/party dresses at shops you like and you will find bridesmaid inspiration at half the cost!

I found Lindy Bop this way. Lindy Bop works for me as I love the 1950's style and I think it's very flattering for nearly all shapes. Luckily they have a wide selection of colours and lots of dark red dresses to choose from at incredibly reasonable prices. I spotted my favourite straight away and posted the pic to my bridesmaid Whatsapp group (yea we have a group it's actually really useful). They loved the look of it so I took a leap of faith and bought them - £30 each! Coming in under budget makes me so happy! That is more money for alcohol to convince everyone ours is the best wedding ever. Although I still haven't got petticoats, shoes and tartan sashes - can anyone help?

Here it is... the bridesmaid's dress ... and there are loads of colour options that might be right for your wedding too!

image credit: Lindy Bop

The only problem is my wedding isn't for at least a year! Have I been too rash? I did buy the dresses a size up for everyone and the plan is to get them fitted closer to the time for the perfect fit. I just didn't want to risk them discontinuing the dress. Rash or not it is one thing off my mind in a whirlwind of planning.

So that was my answer to the bridesmaid dilemma, maybe this has been your bridesmaid dress inspiration or just an internet tangent. Either way happy shopping!

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Have you ever wondered where that leather belt or bag came from? Eight-year-old Rebecca did, and when her mother couldn't tell her for sure, she made a point of finding out. That's the premise of "Labels", a new PETA video created by Catsnake Studios.

Without showing blood, guts or any imagery of animal suffering, the video leaves the viewer with a sobering message: that leather items can come from any animal, including cats and dogs. It's a hard pill to swallow - but a necessary one.

The video comes on the heels of a recent PETA Asia investigation which exposed a thriving dog-leather industry in China, in which workers clubbed dogs, slit their throats and tore off their skin to make women's dress gloves and other products that are falsely labelled as leather from sheep and exported around the world.

More than 1 billion animals are killed for the leather trade every single year. Horses, cows, calves, goats, lambs, pigs - and, yes, even dogs and cats - are shipped off to abattoirs around the world, but only after enduring the same misery as do animals on factory farms: confinement to filthy pens and crates, chronic infections and diseases triggered by severe crowding, and castration and other invasive procedures without anaesthetics.

Cows are supposedly revered and protected in India - which, along with China, produces most of the world's leather - but the animal-skins industry thrives there nonetheless. Traffickers circumvent the law by forcing cows (sometimes by the thousands) to walk to distant abattoirs. The death march is arduous, and the cows are not allowed to rest. When they collapse from exhaustion, they're beaten, their tails are broken, and chilli pepper and tobacco are rubbed into their eyes to get them back on their feet and to keep them moving. To maintain their weight so they can fetch a higher price, they're given water laced with copper sulphate, which destroys their kidneys and makes them unable to urinate.

What can you do? Easy: just choose cruelty-free fashions, which are available for every budget - from bargain-priced leather-free shoes at Topshop to high-end vegan purses made by Stella McCartney. It's the only way to make sure that your wardrobe has not contributed to appalling animal suffering.

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When I clapped eyes on the Moschino, Spring Summer 16, spray bottle phone case it was love at first sight.

Ok, love may be a slight exaggeration, it was an intense fascination and I had to have it, immediately.

On the first morning of my, après boring phone case life, I was in phone case heaven; it was cool, I subsequently alluded myself to believe I was cool and all was well with the world. Then I left the comfort of my own home.

I quickly realised that not only do very few people understand the irony of a bizarre phone case but apparently strangers on the streets of London do in fact possess the ability to speak to one another. Turns out if you have a ridiculous phone case, anyone and everyone will speak to you about it.

Whilst I relished in the attention for about an hour, after a month of dealing with around 10 people a day talking to me about it, I am really, very over it.

I know, I probably deserve it, anyone who willingly buys something so ridiculous probably does. But in truth it was purchased for my own entertainment, and also because I smash my iPhone as frequently as plates at a Greek wedding.

Anyway, here are the 17 things people need to stop telling me about my phone case.

1. Is that actually your phone case?

Yes it is.

2. I thought you were just carrying a cleaning bottle around.

Surprisingly I am not.

3. I've been staring at it for while.

I saw you, just chose to ignore you.

3. Are you really into cleaning or something?

Nope...

4. Does it squirt anything? (said whilst trying to squirt me)

5. Nope, it doesn't, that's annoying

I don't think my phone case's lack of ability to spritz you is the annoying part of this conversation.

6. It should spritz perfume or something.

That actually would be cool.

7. Did someone buy that for you as a joke?

No, now go away.

8. It is so big.

Yep.

9. If definitely wouldn't fit in your back pocket, does it fit in your back pocket?

Funny you should say that, no it doesn't, hence why I am holding it in my hand.

10. It must be really impractical.

11. It is also heavy.

12. Apple must be so annoyed you have made its sleek iPhone look so chunky.

Haven't really had the chance to discuss it with them yet. I'll be sure to let you know their thoughts when I do.

13. Does it fit in your bag?

Depends, bags do come in different sizes.

14. Can I touch it?

Thank you for asking, normally people just grab it.

15. At least you won't lose it.

My phone is definitely now jinxed and practically crawling away from me.

16. Oh I didn't realise it was Moschino. That's cool.

17. Can I take a picture of it?

www.victoriadrysdale.com

Image: Author's own

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Given that most of my days include either running or cycling, I've come to know and trust a few products that I now exclusively rely on. I'm fairly lazy to try things out for the sake of it and I'm very non-tech so these things provide me with everything I need. If you fancy becoming a slightly hippy-ish low-tech barefoot runner who turns up to marathons with the wrong bra, then grab yourself some of the things mentioned here.

1. Brightly coloured running clothes from Reebok
Now I wouldn't want to give anyone the impression that I'm a spokeswoman for big companies like Reebok as I'm certainly not. But the 'lazy' thing I mentioned earlier? Yeh, the Reebok shop is five minutes' walk from my front door. I pass it constantly and have got to the point where if I need anything, I just go there without looking anywhere else. It's so easy. It is more than that though, their brightly coloured leggings are fabulous. Running is almost the only time I wear loud fun clothing and I really like to indulge in some lizardy green or look-at-me orange. They also did this whole range designed by Les Mills which had the initials LM on them. Obviously I got a few of their t-shirts and told everyone Reebok had designed them for me. I think they believed me.

2. Karrimor water bottle
It's one of those water bottles with a hole through the middle for your hand and I love it. I've got a dark coloured one so that when I take crazy chia seed and spirulina concoctions out with me, people can't see that my drinking water is actually a worrying green. Although I'm not massively reliant on water during a run, I do like to have it in case of a suddenly dry throat. It was invaluable for my mental wellbeing on my Wellington Run to know I had water if I needed it.

3. Vibram minimalist shoes
These dinky little sock-shoe things have had a bad press. People love to hate the Vibrams. I'm not sure why as they protect my precious little feet and I'm so grateful for them. If I didn't have them, as a barefoot runner, I'd have no skin left, in some of the places I run. Give me a Royal Park and I'm sailing. Bare feet out, off I go. If, however, if I'm hill-running at Primrose Hill, the floor there is grimy. Very very grimy. If I didn't have some protection, I'd have bleeding cigarette-butt-covered feet. Vibrams have enabled me to be the runner I want to be. I love them.

4. Look Mate socks
Now I'm a girl who loves a subscription with a passion. I currently receive a chocolate subscription, a breakfast cereal subscription, a vintage book subscription, a different-independent-magazine-every-month subscription and now I have discovered a company which sends a sock subscription! The socks themselves are clever designs such as a yellow one which has a squiggly blue line working its way around the sock which, when you look properly, you realise is the line of the Thames. Whenever I point that out to someone, they realise how clever it is and suddenly want a pair! I'm currently wearing my two pairs to death as they're so soft and comfy and great for days on the bike.

5. Audiobooks
I'm not one for listening to music while running. I worry about becoming too reliant on it and feeling utterly stranded if my battery dies one day mid-run. I prefer to listen to the sounds of life itself or an audiobook. I can't explain how much I've learned through audiobooks while running. My latest favourite title was Chanel: An Intimate Life by Lisa Chaney but I've listened to a fair amount by the Australian novelist Lianne Moriarty and she's excellent. I look for something that I can get stuck into, that makes me care about the characters. That way, if I want to know what's going to happen next, I have to go for a run as it's the only time I allow myself to listen. The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey and The Teahouse Fire by Ellis Avery were particularly good for forcing me outside on lazy days because I was so invested in the story. Listening to Scott Jurek's Eat and Run changed a lot about how I view running and my life and I loved that I was listening to him talk about running whilst out on my own runs.

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I am not especially fashionable, never paid fashion a great deal of attention - if it doesn't involve jeans and a t-shirt, more often than not with a pair of deck shoes thrown in there's a strong chance that I'm not going to be very engaged. But I'm in the minority, millions of people across the globe are engaged, enthusiastic and passionate about fashion. Whilst estimates vary I was somewhat shocked to learn that the fashion industry in the UK is worth about £26 Billion. According to fashionunited.com the global fashion industry was valued at a staggering US$1.7 trillion in 2012 and employs about 75 million people globally which puts it as one of the largest industries in the worlds. And as with any industry of this magnitude it has a significant social, environmental, and economic impact across the globe, both positive and negative.

On the 3th of November I attended the annual Kering talk at the London College of Fashion organised through the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. The event consisted of an initial talk and Q and A with Kelly Slater, 11x world surfing champions as well as the presentations of the Kering award for sustainable fashion to students who had shown innovation and imagination in creating sustainable fashion products. Each were awarded 10000 Euro and a prestigious internship.

Kering owns Volcom and now with Kelly Slaters new brand Outerknown it has become a significant sustainability leader in the surfing world. Kelly was headlining the event and as someone exploring the way sustainability is being integrated into the surfing industry I popped along to the talk for a listen. On the Outerknown website Kelly says:

I created Outerknown to smash the formula. To lift the lid on the traditional supply chain and prove that you can actually produce great looking menswear in a sustainable way...the last two years have been a huge eye-opener for me. It's clear now just how challenging it is for any brand to put sustainability at the forefront of their business and I'm proud that we're one of the few taking the lead

.

It's my job to be sceptical to ask questions and explore what sustainability means in any given context, and I'm doing just that. What is clear to me though after listening to Kelly talk, as well as talking to him afterwards is that whilst, by his own admission he is at the beginning of this sustainability journey he is also someone that is genuinely committed to engaging with the principles of sustainability and understanding what it means for himself, his brand, the industry and the world at large.

When initially launched Outerknown received criticism around its sustainability credentials. Kelly was very aware of these and admitted that comments he received through various channels including social media were hard to read but made him reflect on what it meant and acknowledge that getting it right is a learning curve. Kelly told the audience that his sustainability Eureka moment came during a fast where he began to question where products came from, how they were sourced and what went into them. For Kelly it starts with personal health and radiates outwards, not that surprising from one of the world's top athletes.

The question for me then, what does this mean for increasing the profile of sustainability not only within the surfing industry not even only within the fashion industry but in multiple facets of society? Even the die hard sceptic has to concede that with Kelly behind it, by far the most recognisable name within and beyond surfing, this has huge educational and transformative value. Surfing itself is inspirational and aspirational. Those of us that do it want to keep doing it. Those of us that don't do it would like to do it. And those of us who don't want to do it still want a taste of the image and lifestyle that it projects, illusory or not - that pacific dream, the T-shirt. So again this reinforces for me surfing's capacity to inspire and encourage people from many different walks of life, from many different countries to engage with sustainability and importantly ask the questions that matter, for themselves and for their children.

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Beatie Wolfe moves to the beat of her own drum. An entrepreneur, recording artist, song writer, polished public speaker and folky technophile, Beatie is making and promoting her music, her way. We met at The Hospital Club to talk about music, fashion and technology.

An Independent artist with an impressive roster of mentors and collaborators some of whom were met through family contacts, others by chance at events and gigs - She met Wynton Marsalis, who now mentors her, while gigging at Ronnie Scott's. She's not shy and grabs unexpected and obtuse opportunities with both hands. She is pushing the limits of her musical vision and staying true to her love of storytelling, eschewing potentially lucrative big label offers. It's a bold move that she says is instrumental in maintaining her integrity as a recording artist and allowing her to work with other artists, maintaining the freedom to say yes to exciting collaborations without a big label calling the shots.

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It's fascinating to hear Beatie's journey. She began playing piano aged 8 and confesses she used her piano tutor to transcribe her songs for her, rather than learning to play herself. The piano was restrictive in a way the guitar was not and a chance conversation with a Spanish handyman (who happened to be a guitar virtuoso) fixing her parents kitchen led to lessons and a passion for getting her songs down on paper via acoustic guitar. From then her storytelling and songwriting passion grew.

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The decision not to study music was an early one - Beatie says she prefers to learn on her own terms rather than in a pre-prescribed way. A degree in English Literature followed secondary school, culminating in a dissertation on the poetry of Leonard Cohen (an act of defiance against her tutors who contested the choice citing Cohen's work as absent from the English literary canon). Beatie got a first and the dissertation has been published and shared with Cohen since. Beatie is articulate and eloquent and admits she's honed her email-writing skills over the years which has helped her make initial connections with people and grab opportunities. She is clearly a highly motivated, goal-oriented entrepreneur who is neither phased by the fame or expertise of her peers and mentors nor prone to listening to those who say there's a 'right way' of doing things. There's the path most trodden, then there's the Beatie path.

Beatie's recent Power of Music and Dementia project is the first of its kind to attempt to engage and reconnect dementia sufferers with emotions and memories through new music. The Independent reported it as 'A musical miracle for dementia' and it's one example of an array of interesting projects she is involved with.

Beatie's upcoming album is to be launched via cards embedded with NFC technology, enabling smart phone users to scan the cards (created in collaboration with Moo) to initiate instant song playback whilst viewing the song artwork and lyrics. It's a tactile, immediate and intimate introduction to her music - via technology - which is what makes it so interesting. No wonder it captured the imagination of David Rowan, Editor of Wired Magazine and iTunes pioneer and founder of record label AWAL (Artists Without A Label) which counts Nick Cave amongst its artists, Denzyl Fiegelson. Beatie's deck of NFC playback cards harks back to an era when music was sold on vinyl. It also reminds me of giving and receiving CDs as gifts, compete with the lyric booklet and album artwork. Nick Cave's textured and embossed CD cover for the Abattoir Blues/Lyre of Orpheus album still sits proudly on my bookshelf as an object of beautiful design and Beaties cards are giving back that tactility in an age of downloads and streaming.

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Individual NFC cards for each song off Beatie's album

Beatie's NFC launch is powered by Microsoft's Nokia Lumia, whose fashion tech collaborations with Fyodor Golan were covered in my previous blog post.

I first met Beatie at Wired Next Generation and was compelled to speak to her on hearing about her upcoming collaboration with the David Mason, head of soon-to-be-revived fashion label Mr Fish and Nadia-Anne Ricketts of BeatWoven.

BeatWoven is a textile brand creating digitally generated woven fabric from sound. The live recording of Beatie singing Take Me Home with the ambient sound of her audience at David's flat at 34 Montagu Square is currently being woven into a fabric to be crafted into a gown by David Mason and launched at DLD (Digital-Life-Design) conference in January.

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Beatie Wolfe and her Pack performing "Take me Home" at 34 Montagu Square

The process of BeatWoven founder, Nadia-Anne Ricketts is a fascinating fusion of textiles and technology, explained in the video below.

The Fabric of Sound - BeatWoven from Goldsmith on Vimeo.

A BeatWoven fabric

This isn't the first time Beatie has explored promoting her music via technology and her first album 8ight launched with 3D interactive Palm Top Theatre app which projected Beatie atop a smart phone screen, effectively putting the listener/viewer in the front row of a virtual Beatie Wolfe concert. Pretty ingenious.

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We chatted about the new album Montagu Square, which I had been listening to on my way to the interview. Firstly, I'm surprised at the simplicity and ease of the songs. It doesn't sound overly-produced (which is refreshing after being forced to listen to commercial radio far too much recently) and a strong percussive sound with a bluesy overtone, especially on Green to Red. It sounds low-fi and honest. It's storytelling - no bells and whistles. Maybe that's why the innovative tech-led presentation works so well in contrast. In her music, Beatie is concerned chiefly with lyrics and expression. Her literature degree is an important and powerful tool in this amazing all-round creative tool-kit she has built. It makes me think about the BA fashion students I teach and how important a creative and entrepreneurial approach to life, study and work is, rather than simply relying on being a creative individual. Beatie's story is both a lesson and an inspiration.

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Beatie will be promoting her album via iTunes appearances stateside and public speaking engagements in the coming months and I can't wait to hear next collaborative instalment. I'm finishing up this article listening to 8ight. Bowie's Man Who Stole the World is next on my playlist (for musical and sartorial reasons).

Montagu Square is out on Monday 9th November. The launch gig is on November 12th. Check out beatiewolfe.com and iTunes for more details.

Make your own NFC cards with Moo here

Header Image: Clay Patrick McBride. All other images (except Beatie and I at The Hospital Club): Stuart Nicholls

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It doesn't matter if your black or white? Or does it...

It seems in the fashion industry it does matter, which leads me to this question.

"Is the fashion industry racist?"

That is the message I am beginning to feel it portrays. I mean when it comes to fashion black is always a must, a chic LBD is a staple for any girls wardrobe.

However black it seems is never in fashion if it is your skin colour.

It's 2015, so why is the world still so black and white? Where are the beautiful Hispanic, Asian and black models?

Models of colour still are being ignored.

After working with a cosmetics company for many years and as a white woman I have always felt ashamed and embarrassed that we have never stocked darker shades of foundation. Luckily we have just launched a new range of foundations which cater for darker beauty.

The exclusion continues In New York fashion week where 80% of models who walked the shows were white, the other 20% were made up of Hispanic, Asian and black models.

I guess they had to put a few "token" darker models in, because this makes headlines right? Are darker models used as a gimmick? If you slip a couple into your show does that win the designer a few more fans?

However we must remember 2015 showed a massive milestone when Vogue used a black cover girl in the form of supermodel Jourdan Dunn. Dunn was the first black solo model to grace the cover in 12 years. Well done Vogue let me clap my hands and congratulate you on this, let's make it clear I am being sarcastic as I type this.

How it took Vogue well over a decade to do this is crazy, even more ridiculous is the fact that her beautiful black skin was still not good enough as I personally think her skin has been photo shopped to look lighter.

The latest uproar is about Jourdan being replaced in the Victoria Secret catwalk show by reality star and model Kendall Jenner, now was Jourdan replaced because of her skin colour or the likelihood Kendall would gain the show more exposure, you decide.

I spoke to Mari Koyama from leading Model Agency BMA about the lack of models of colour.

Mari echoed what I had originally thought "People are still in the notion that Caucasian models models are the identity of beauty. Yes we have the likes of Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks and Iman who have made huge impact on the fashion and modelling world. However there is still a long way to go."

Mari continues to highlight that designers and the fashion industry can help change the face of beauty " The fashion industry in general need to help change the stereotype of beauty and fashion to accept more models of colour. I think we have come to a time where there shouldn't be designers differing models because of the colour of their skin. We have come too far for that."

This is true, the fashion industry can make a change on how beauty is perceived and in turn I would hope in everyday life people would judge someone on them as a person, not to be judged on skin colour.

This is the message Angel Sinclair and her team at Models of Diversity are spreading, EVERYBODY is beautiful regardless of what skin colour you have, because all are beautiful.

MOD model Elesha Turner had some recent success after being awarded with a BEFTA award, winning best female model out of 30 contenders. Amazing news for models of colour, MOD and for Elesha who has worked so hard and is more than deserving for such an award.

Angel Sinclair said " What changes need to be made is that models of colour do not sit back and accept they are a 1 in a 1000 chance, but to STAND UP AND BE COUNTED "

We already have the likes of SimplyBe , Boohoo and Topshop who are embracing models of colour, with them in the forefront in advertising. More brands need to follow suit.

So what can you do?

Social media is a massive tool, so use it!

1. Tweet brands, question them as to why they do not use a diverse range of models.
2. Set up a petition, get the message out there.
3. Follow us on twitter @MODSOFDIVERSITY tweet us your views.

With diversity increasing we are only heading in one direction, the RIGHT direction!

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On Wednesday 11 November 2015, we brought together more than thirty fashion designers, leading journalists and CEOs of major brands, retailers and manufacturers at the UK Houses of Parliament to discuss how sustainability can be taken to scale in the fashion and textiles industry and how the new Mysource.io platform will make that possible.

Jointly hosted with Baroness Lola Young of Hornsey OBE, this roundtable convened many of fashion's leading figures, including: Hilary Alexander OBE, former Fashion Director of The Daily Telegraph; Roland Mouret, award-winning luxury fashion designer; Eric Musgrave, former Editorial Director of Drapers; Catarina Midby of H&M; Brigitte Stepputtis, Head of Couture at Vivienne Westwood; and several world leading suppliers.

Some of the roundtable attendees from left: Brigitte Stepputtis, Head of Couture at Vivienne Westwood; Tamsin Lejeune, CEO Mysource; Assheton Stewart Carter, The Dragonfly Initiative; Baroness (Lola) Young of Hornsey; and designer Roland Mouret.

Kicking off the roundtable, I referred to a recent blog post that I wrote which discussed the three things that I believe are preventing the sustainable fashion movement from going to scale - sustainability being perceived as a cost rather than an opportunity; lack of industry-wide awareness; and both professionals and businesses shifting responsibility for sustainability to other parts of the supply chain - before inviting others to share their opinions and thoughts on the issue.

Lucy Shea, the CEO of communications agency Futerra, said she sees an evolving sea change where sustainability is becoming a business imperative, especially as more consumers are looking for products made in a sustainable way. However, the research behind Mysource suggests that only a minority of businesses are taking a triple bottom line approach to business - one that considers social and environmental goals alongside financial targets. Shea agreed, "there is a huge potential for more of the fashion industry to get involved and that it's going to take pioneering solutions like Mysource to move sustainable business from niche to norm."

Mysource aims to help fashion professionals to do business better, by matching them with the connections and resources they need to succeed, both commercially and sustainably. This tech platform that we are currently building builds upon our 10 years of work with the Ethical Fashion Forum which already reaches a network of 220,000 people in 141 countries.

Sustainability is a business benefit

The roundtable united business leaders from one end of the supply chain to the other. On the supply and manufacturing side, there was consensus that sustainability has been an important business benefit. For the Hirdaramani Group, top manufacturer in Sri Lanka, they believe that trying to be more sustainable is simply the right thing to do and their investments in social and environmental improvements have shown a payback.

Shafiq ul Hassan believes that his company Echo Sourcing, a UK and Bangladesh based manufacturer, has seen medium-term business benefits but wants to see brands and retailers move in the same direction. This is where Mysource.io comes in. For suppliers like Hirdaramani and Echo Sourcing, Mysource will connect them with customers who share their values and will help them get discovered by more prospective customers as a reward for their pioneering best practices.

Fashion industry players need to take a lead on sustainability

There was much discussion over how regulation and legislative incentives are needed to push the industry towards sustainability. However, Baroness Young noted that changing legislation at the UK level is a long term project. It was argued that industry players need to take a lead in driving change - and that governments can at least look to be more supportive.

The need for more transparency, collaboration and "making sustainability sexy"

Lucy Shea believes that the power of Mysource is in its wide reaching network and that it is the people using Mysource who will truly take sustainability to scale in the fashion industry.

Catarina Midby from H&M talked about the need for more industry transparency and collaboration and how Mysource will be a crucial tool for industry professionals to connect, share and learn from others on the platform - making both transparency and collaboration a practical reality.

The more that brands like H&M are able to demonstrate and communicate to their customers about sustainability, the more likely it is that sustainable business will be scaleable. Hilary Alexander argued that not enough companies are talking about their sustainability efforts and need to do more. She believes that the businesses that are working sustainably should promote this more publicly - if we want to truly change mindsets.

Many of the roundtable delegates agreed that sustainability at scale is not going to be led by consumers but by business. Prama Bhardwaj, the CEO of Mantis World, further elaborated saying that "customers want above all to trust brands and to feel confident that they're conducting their business in the right way."

Luxury designer Roland Mouret described his passionate commitment to producing his designs in the most sustainable way possible but has found it difficult to access enough suitable materials and fabrics. Mouret said enthusiastically that "if sustainability is made sexy then all women will want to buy it." Mysource will make that possible.

Mysource's in-built rating feature will give companies, such as H&M and Mantis World, the opportunity to showcase their sustainability initiatives in a credible way. Mysource also will give industry professionals practical information and training on how to most effectively communicate what they do.

A full room at the Houses of Parliament

Building a coalition of leaders to take this to scale

Prama Bhardwaj believes that sustainability is the responsibility of business leaders and industry professionals. Shafiq ul Hassan of Echo Sourcing, Lucy Shea and Hilary Alexander agreed that it's the visionaries at the top who will drive this forward.

Mysource, through events like this roundtable, is building a coalition of leaders - companies and individuals - who will back Mysource and help take sustainability in the fashion industry to scale. Industry leaders who have already committed their support include Amber Valletta, supermodel and entrepreneur; Jane Shepherdson CBE, CEO of Whistles; Dolly Jones, Head of Digital at Condé Nast; and Baroness Martha Lane Fox. See who else is backing Mysource, here.

The Mysource team have launched a crowdfunding campaign, allowing anyone to become a shareholder, and benefit from the projected growth of the platform. Learn more about Mysource, including a 3 minute video introduction at www.mysource.io. Be part of a better future for fashion: Visit Crowdcube for all the details on how to become a shareholder, including Return on Investment. www.crowdcube.com/mysource

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It's an insightful and warm conversation that plays out in the depths of Somerset House where Fyodor Podgorny and Golan Frydman, the designers behind fashion label Fyodor Golan, invite me into their temporary studio while their usual one is undergoes renovation. Golan tells me they're arranging pre-collection production now, then beginning their main line production before moving onto designing the AW16 collection, which launches at London Fashion Week in February. Phew! The fashion wheel keeps on turning...

Production at the Fyodor Golan studio

Fyodor points out very early in the conversation that the fashion industry has changed dramatically since their Fashion Fringe launch seven seasons ago. Their evolution as designers and as business owners has been just as dramatic. They began by making restrictive, complex couture and changed direction when they gained global attention and realised that one Fyodor Golan woman did not exist - there are many. She comes in all shapes, sizes and ages and she doesn't want to wear a corset. The philosophy of making their clothing lighter and easier sits well alongside two designers who are natural, pragmatic and thoughtful. Their customers speak, they listen.

Fyodor Golan Fashion Fringe Winning Collection, 2011

Fyodor explains that the internet explosion and uptake of social media means that the old system of designers dictating whole customer 'looks' died with Instagram's birth and has fertilised the Fyodor Golan brand's growth. It's safe to say they are happy with fashion's democratisation and credit fashion bloggers and clients styling their own looks on social media as sources of inspiration, revealing their fashion personalities and breaking down the 'whole designer look' phenomenon.

They gain new clients across the globe who contact them directly for special one-off pieces or to purchase garments directly on the strength of an Instagram image. This is a powerful tool and leads us to contemplate whether the relentless pre-prescribed fashion industry collection schedule makes sense. Do they need it? As a small label they are still responsive and in touch with their clients and that is a strength and competitive advantage. Fyodor explains that he would love to make mini collections every three months, freeing them from the restrictive shackles of fashion's seasonal calendar. I notice from images and seeing first-hand the constructed textiles of their pre-collection that they are no less ambitious in terms of materials and concepts when creating their pre-collections, in contrast to some designers who approach these as "mainline lite" collections in terms of design and realisation. It's clear Fyodor Golan don't take short cuts and invest their energy into realising ideas, not churning out product. I admire them and I admire their ease and resolve. They know exactly why they are creating their collections, and it's not just for the sake of it or because the fashion calendar says it's time to churn another one out. They have recently launched resort S/S16, deciding to create one pre-collection per year instead of the standard two, in addition to their two mainline collections (Spring/Summer and Autumn/Winter) so that they can maintain some balance and not stretch themselves too thinly.

Fyodor Golan Resort S/S16 postcards

This leads us to a discussion about the recent exit of Raf Simons and Alber Elbaz from their fashion design and creative directorships of Dior and Lanvin respectively. As admirers of both designers, Fyodor and Golan discuss the unrealistic expectations on such designers to conceive and oversee the execution of upwards of eight collections a year, plus accessories, fragrances and in some cases retail spaces. Being spread too thinly kills creativity. We know it and have experienced it. Golan wrestles with it when having to abandon concepts for collections part way through the development phase because he does not have the time and means to see them through. He talks of being forced to wade through admin work and arrange business transactions in order to meet responsibilities to staff and suppliers - people have to be paid on time - leaving his unrealised ideas lingering. It's a tough and bitter pill that leaves doubt in the mind of a designer as to whether they have accomplished what they set out to and whether their vision has evolved into full bloom. The idea of the creative exploration being curbed too soon is a brutal one, especially considering a collection takes up to six months to create and is presented in around 6 minutes on the runway. If you don't get to finish your sartorial sentence it's an all too abrupt ending.

Fyodor Golan have embraced technology and the changing fashion landscape more than most. By launching a smart phone skirt collaboration with Nokia Lumia and a Microsoft-powered runway show with an impressive pyramid installation displaying projections from Nokia Lumia cameras in the front row, they have been at the frontier of experimenting with how tech gadgets can interact with fashion. Their forays into combining fashion and technology have been facilitated by the Fashion Innovation Agency, spearheaded by FashionTech stalwart Matt Drinkwater.

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Fyodor Golan x Nokia Lumia smart phone skirt in collaboration with research and design studio Kin (Photo by Ben A. Pruchnie/Getty Images)

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FG x Microsoft + Nokia Lumia

Both designers are at ease combining fashion and technology, but also recognise its current limitations. The limitations they cite come as a shock. Where previously I believed the lack of collaboration between technology and fashion designers lay with the designers' lack of affinity for tech or a mismatch between the tech and the textiles or aesthetics, what it truly comes down to (at least in part) is the insistence on a new product outcome within a very short and strict timeframe. One year to innovate and create a whole new fashion tech product? "How is that possible?" asks Golan. The expectation of technology companies during pre-collaboration discussions with Fyodor Golan has been to create a new tech-driven product to sell within 12 months. There appears to be a lack of appetite for experimentation for its own sake and for exploring long-term, ambitious and integrated fashion tech innovations in this collaborative environment. Maybe that's why fashion and technology aren't integrating seamlessly and desirably yet - at least in the wearables space.

Fyodor and Golan are experimenters with spirit. They have a penchant for grabbing familiar references and layering textiles in a way that captures the imagination. Their clothes are bright, bold, fun and attractive. They're highly tactile and attention grabbing. It's hard to imagine not feeling happy and celebratory wearing their printed, vinyl, ruffled neoprene shift dress with neon trims. It's a recognisable silhouette, making it firmly wearable, but it's shaken off any shift-dress dowdiness by way of neon trims and chunky metal zips and the unexpectedly successful pairing of roses, ruffles and neoprene. SOLD!

Their latest SS16 collection, which launched at London Fashion Week, evolved out of an existing collaboration with toy maker Hasbro. The designers used My Little Pony as inspiration for their A/W15 'Rainbow Wheels' collection and when offered the chance to delve into the Hasbro Transformer archives for S/S16 they grabbed it.

A/W 15 collection in stores now

Unfortunately I'm not able to view and publish those original images, suffice to say that the bright colours and bold transformative nature of Transformers comes through at least in the spirit of the collection, and through the Transformer-inspired prints on sweatshirts. Being in the priviledged position of seeing never before published Transformer sketches the collection spontaneously erupted into a cacophony of colour and graphics.

Golan and the 'front row' Transformer

FG x Kat Maconie S/S 16

A smattering of Geisha-inspired silhouettes and accessories (the shoes were a collaboration with Kat Maconie) give gravity to the playful colours and prints. The indigo pieces are a personal favourite and appear to ground the collection amongst the flurry of digital prints, vinyl and colour.

S/S 16 London Fashion Week Show

Fyodor Golan is the unexpected. The designers themselves define it as 'a spirit'. I define it as a breath of fresh air. They're as candid as their clothes. And that's rare.

Header Image: Noctismag

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As the owner of a womenswear brand one of the most important decisions I have to make is the choice of model for our marketing campaigns. Aside from the ethics of our brand, as a woman, I am forever conscious of not wanting to present unrealistic body images.

I've written about this previously - how we started with faceless models before transitioning to non-model models. Overall neither choice has been well received.

With so much debate about body image and insecurities I have found myself questioning the best approach and particularly now given we are in the throes of preparing for the launch of our Spring /Summer 2016 campaign.

What I have come to realise is that I need to meet the needs of two parties - the industry and the customer - and that the two are, in many ways, disparate.

My analysis of the industry over time has led me to conclude that there are various instances when the industry seems to be disconnected from and acts independently of the customer. This is never truer than Fashion Week.

Fashion Week is a time when designers showcase their vision, inspiration and creativity via collections for the upcoming season. As far as the industry is concerned this is less about clothes and more about the presentation of art, to its inner community, in as pure a form as possible. It is only later that crystallised and diluted aspects of this art form the ready-to-wear collections and trends we see later on the high street and in department stores.

What I believe the customer sees during Fashion Week is the exhibition of a product, lifestyle and body image that they are being encouraged to adopt - and all in a literal sense. It is not uncommon for people to view catwalk designs with incredulity and describe them as ridiculous and unwearable. They perhaps do not realise that what they will end up wearing is a much more filtered down version of what is displayed at a show.

What garners more attention, however, is the focus on a designer's choice of models. It is during Fashion Weeks that condemnation of ultra-thin models is at its loudest.

While I in no way condone the use of very young, very thin models I do believe that for designers the models they choose are not being presented as women but rather as mounts or fixtures for their art. And creating an art that is unique or different is becoming progressively more and more difficult. This is evidenced by the ongoing repeats of historic trends, e.g. SS15 was dominated by the 1970s while AW15 is seeing the return of the 1980s. So ultimately designers are looking to create an art that stands apart and is no way detracted by the model. Perhaps with this in mind it is not surprising that catwalk models are becoming less and less personally significant and disappearing, almost literally, before our very eyes.

This is all in sharp contrast with the models of previous decades. The 1990s is a particular case in point as this period coincided with the beginning of the end of original fashion and the zenith of the catwalk model - the supermodel, none of whom was unhealthily thin. While the term supermodel has now become somewhat hackneyed, at the time it encapsulated a hitherto unseen elevation of the fashion model. Quite literally, models such as Cindy Crawford, Linda Evangelista, Naomi Campbell et al and later Kate Moss, were often much bigger stories than the clothes they were wearing. In some respects it was the last hurrah.

Supermodels are now a rarity for designers other than for Victoria's Secret (where models, although still very slim, are promoted as paragons of heath and fitness). Cara Delevigne, and perhaps Jourdan Dunn, are the main celebrity models today but the potential for others now seems limited not least because there has been displacement of fashion models by A-list movie and music stars, such as Cate Blanchett, Jennifer Lawrence, Marion Cotillard, Michelle Williams, Rihanna etc. The competitive landscape for a model has been transformed. This is underlined further by increasing representations of gender fluidity. In order to stand out models, male and female, it would seem, need to meet broader and broader definitions.

Caroline Nokes MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Body Image and campaigner for the 'Be Real' campaign, also makes an interesting point with regard to the stances models now assume in photo shoots. She protests against the submissive poses that have become all-too-frequent, e.g. lying on the floor. Such images are certainly incongruous with some of the more empowering images of the 1980s/1990s, a time when women made great strides in securing personal and financial independence. This regression is an interesting phenomenon given women now have more opportunities than ever before.

So far I have managed to resist the pressure to change. But this is becoming more and more difficult. I need the industry, more importantly the fashion press, to endorse the presentation of our product. What I have found is that non-conformity is generally considered unacceptable especially by small brands such as mine which sit low in the overall established hierarchy. The industry is highly fragmented and we are simply neither large enough nor influential enough to drive major change.

But I do think there is a solution, one which can help reconnect the industry with the customer. And it is one which needs to come from the top. It is the big names in the industry that set the tone and direction for the rest to follow. If long-term industry dignitaries, such as Karl Lagerfeld or Anna Wintour, were to advocate and commend the use of healthier looking models the industry would, without a doubt, follow suit.

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When people ask me what I do, I am sometimes loathed to admit that I work in fashion. It is not the glamorous industry it sells itself as but rather a vast and reckless monster, bulldozing its way through the seasons.

Then I remember the reasons I was drawn to it: creativity, freedom and inclusion.

I am on a mission to rediscover these lost aspects of the industry. After all, it is we who have caused their loss and therefore it is our job to fix it. As designers we must ask ourselves if this is the kind of industry we want to work in. I know what my answer is and I'm trying to do something about it. And ultimately, whether consumer, retailer or brand, we all have a part to play.

I'm a knitwear designer. Mention the words 'knitwear' and 'sustainable' in the same sentence and you get some fairly pitying looks. Be so bold as to add the word 'handmade' and in terms of design respect, it would seem that you're pretty much doomed.

2015-11-17-1447774734-1051191-jumpergreywoolbritishcrewragalnstudy34.jpg

study 34 A/W 2015

That's right, I make jumpers and not the kind with pompoms on. I don't make them because I'm 'crafty' (unless you mean quick thinking and original, I'll take that). I do it because I'm thoroughly depressed by the state of the fashion industry today, which too many people are ignoring, and at the moment, it's the only thing I can do to address the problem in any real way.

The fashion industry is one of the biggest employers in the world, and the power it has as a result of this truly gives it the ability to change lives. But instead of using this power for good, it uses it for exploitation.

Fast Fashion is cheap, it's low quality and it requires minimal effort - phrases I'm sure no one aspires to align themselves with.

As consumers, we have become so used to the low price and fast turnaround of our garments that some argue that we can never go back.

Well, I have more confidence in the consumer.

In terms of style, Sustainable Fashion has a bad rep. But sustainability is separate to the well-chosen colour and perfect shape of a garment.

Sustainability is about how and under what conditions a garment is made. Has the fabric dying process caused water contamination? Can the person who made it afford to feed their family? Is it made well enough to last?

Sustainable Fashion is just Fashion, but respecting people and the environment at the same time.

While the percentage of designers and brands who work in a responsible way may be relatively small, there is something on the horizon that has the ability to change that...

The next phase coming from the team at Ethical Fashion Forum, Mysource is a platform that nurtures and encourages better practice in the fashion industry.

Image courtesy of mysource.io

Making it in the fashion business isn't easy. There's a lot to get right and for millions of fashion professionals there are two huge challenges: How do you grow a profitable company in a market that's globalising, fast-paced, and increasingly competitive? And, how do you do this in a sustainable way with respect to the people behind your products and to the environment? - Mysource, 2015

There is more to life than fashion. But for millions of people working in the industry, fashion dictates their lives, and through it all too often they meet their demise.

I won't live and work knowing that my actions as both a consumer and a designer are directly affecting somebody else's quality of life for the worse.

We all can and must #DoFashionBetter

This post was originally featured on the study 34 blog

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I talk with people who both buy and sell used clothes a lot and often discuss the role of preloved clothing in conscious and ethical consumerism. Quite often people tell me that they feel used clothes are ethical & sustainable by their nature. Here is why I think this is both true and false.

First, let's deal with ethics and sustainability issues separately because there are a couple of differing factors at play.

Buying Used Clothing is on Balance more Sustainable than New Clothing

Buying preloved clothing absolutely improves the sustainability of a garment. Research by WRAP in the UK shows extending the average life of clothes (2.2 years) by just three months of active use per item would lead to a 5-10% reduction in each of the carbon, water and waste footprints). While extended use does not make the garment a totally sustainable one (the definition of sustainable is somewhat vague to say the least), it certainly helps reduce the impact the garment has on the environment. This is because the impact of a garment on the environment continues throughout its entire life cycle. As well as having the environmental impact during its creation, i.e. the water to grow the cotton, waste created during fabric creation and dying processes, fabric waste during construction, post creation a garment continues to have an impact through transport, water use and how it is eventually discarded.

So yes the choice to buy a preloved garment over a new garment means you are making that garment more sustainable. Just like selling a garment instead of tossing it out makes it more sustainable (each family throws away about 70kg of clothes a year and they go straight to land fill to release methane).

Of course depending on the garment, some new clothes will be more sustainable than preloved ones. For example a preloved polyester garment shipped across the world may on balance be less sustainable than a new garment grown and constructed locally with waste minimising processes employed. So there are no hard and fast calculations, but on balance given that most of our clothing is mass-produced in low income countries preloved clothing is probably more sustainable than most new clothing, but not more ethical.

Buying Used Clothing can be an Ethical Choice but that Does Not Make Preloved Clothes Ethical

Things get a bit trickier when it comes to preloved clothing and the ethics of a garment. When I say ethics I am meaning the conditions under which your clothing was produced. So the employment and labour conditions of those who grow and sell the raw textile products (cotton, wool etc.), those who process it into fabric, those who dye it and print it, sew it, and those who are paid to sell it (that t-shirt involves at least 25 production steps). While buying a preloved garment can be an ethical choice for a consumer - they are choosing not to give money directly to those companies who profit from exploitative labour practices, - it does not make the garment ethical (note I am not talking here of reconstructed, upcycled, recreated garments, just good old simple second hand clothes).

Consumer Choice is Not the Only Things that Matters in Terms of Ethics

I am not in any way having a go at those that buy and sell used clothing here, because buying and selling preloved is a really important part of conscious consumerism and changing the fashion industry. Slower more thoughtful consumption on a mass scale will we hope eventually lead to a slower more thoughtful fashion industry, which may lead to better labour conditions. BUT when people believe preloved clothing is automatically rendered ethical by its preloved status they are seeing this consumer-purchasing behaviour as the ONLY thing that matters in the ethical fashion equation.

What they miss (and no one can blame them for this because the textile industry is a vastly huge and confusing one) is that an ethical garment is actually one that is created by a business that is transparent, operates under fair labour conditions, scrupulously works to avoids indentured (slave) labour, is safe for its employees, and has a central mission of industry improvement and accountability to its workers as well as its owners and shareholders. A garment produced under such conditions is an ethically produced product. Whereas buying preloved clothing is a choice that may lead to a change in production practices. It is different.

For a consumer choosing between new and preloved clothing, the preloved choice may be the more ethical one but it does not neutralize the conditions under which those clothes were made in the first place - this requires a lot more effort and at multiple levels throughout the system. If you are interested in how this might happen in fashion, have a look at this model of how to fix fashion. It describes many of the necessary activities ranging from the individual to political level.

So keep buying used clothes and selling used clothes because it matters in a lot of ways and is an important part of changing the industry. However, if you want an item of clothing in which no person has been exploited to create, then buying ethically produced clothing is the only way to achieve that, while buying preloved ethically produced clothing clearly hits the jackpot!

Jess Berentson-Shaw founded the social enterprise muka kids' to connect consumers, designers and garment workers across the world, and empower them to make the clothing industry a sustainable one. Muka kids has a marketplace to trade preloved organic, ethical & sustainable clothing. Through its partnerships with accredited brands it also helps make new sustainable clothing more affordable. Sales on the marketplace fund a micro finance scheme for women cotton farmers in India trying to pull themselves out of poverty.

Follow Jess on Facebook

This blog originally appeared on mukakids.com

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So accustomed are we to being presented with faux images of beauty in the media, that often we forget to challenge the things that we might not necessarily agree with. We choose to feign ignorance instead of opposing the rules prescribed to us by society, but why do we do this? The root of the problem stems from the misconceptions about beauty that are fed to us on a daily basis by the media - we are so blindsided by representations of what makes a body acceptable or desirable, what kind of skin type you need to be recognised and what kind of hair you need in order to be noticed. Often, the ideal image presented in magazines, advertising and on television are of tall, slim, white (but tanned) women, with shining manes of hair and westernised features. But where these women reside on their glossy pages, not all is as it seems. I'm sure that most of us can cultivate the awareness to realise when an image has been retouched or photoshopped, particularly where the media is concerned. After all, no-one's stomach is that flat, no-one's skin is that flawless and no-one's eyes can be that bright, surely? But whilst we know that a lot of these images aren't accurate in their representations of the people they include on their pages, that doesn't stop us from comparing ourselves to the 'ideal' that is being offered to us.

Photoshop and retouching has long been a cause for concern and the media needs to acknowledge that there is a real issue alive and kicking that needs to be addressed. For unless celebrities make a photoshop faux pas as we've seen with Beyoncé's misshapen thighs, or the many blunders that the Kardashian's have made, the alteration of images often falls under the radar and we are expected to accept these women and their preened-to-perfection bodies without question.

I'm not ignorant to the suggestion that in the celebrity-world there is a high demand to look the best and to compete, but these celebrities could do so much more to combat the beauty misconceptions that they are, whether indirectly or inadvertently, supporting. They need to make it known to everyday women who are idealising them and putting them on pedestals because of their perceived perfection, that it isn't real. That this ideology they are perpetuating is false - and the media could do more to support this.

Such is the nature of this appearance-obsessed culture that we live in, that if you, your body, your hair, your skin and your eyebrows aren't "on fleek" then you are side-lined and belittled in favour of someone who is closer to the physical ideal - but the effect of this on self-esteem can be detrimental. With young men and women in an often precarious position where the relationship with their bodies is concerned, they are vulnerable and impressionable to the popular images presented to them, and it is saddening to learn that the biggest cause of bullying is appearance based. Young people compete to be the best and strive for physical perfection, but when they are presented with unrealistic beauty images and find that they can't ever meet the faux perfection of celebrities, the effect on their self-esteem can be destructive.

Magazines use photoshop and alter images to maintain a quintessential goal for men and women to adhere to, but those who are represented in the media have a luxury that is out of reach to the rest of us. They are able to eliminate their blemishes, they can change the shape and size of their waists, their thighs and their faces, they can smooth down their hair, they can create an unachievable level of beauty. When celebrities are in a position of influence, they need to recognise that people are looking to them for inspiration and up to them with admiration; they have a level of responsibility which sadly, many are failing to live up to - but some celebrities are getting it right.

Actress Kate Winslet is taking a stand against unrealistic beauty retouching in the ad industry. Not only has she spoken out publicly about shunning the practice, she has also employed a "no retouching" clause in her modeling contract with cosmetics company L'Oréal. This public display of challenging the media and the way that she has been presented in ad campaigns and magazines is refreshing and is something that many other celebrities could learn from. More could be done to disclose that images in magazines and elsewhere in the media are not representative of real people, if photoshop has been used then people need to be aware of that - if not, then a collapse of self-confidence is imminent. If an image has been photoshopped to within an inch of its life, then there should be a disclaimer somewhere on the image to reinforce the fact that it has been altered, rather than reinforcing the beauty ideals that society has set out for us.

If you want to make a stand against the photoshopping of images in the media, then please click here to sign my petition.

This article was originally posted on Fran Hayden's blog, here.

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Future Fabrics Expo, Photography by Zephie Begolo

During the upcoming United Nations Conference on Climate Change, COP21, Paris will play host to some of the most influential and powerful people in the world, just some of the individuals and groups who have the power to help move us towards meeting the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Countries around the world have been invited to adopt this set of goals to 'end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda'. Each goal has set targets to achieve over the next 15 years, with goals ranging from ending poverty and hunger and ensuring education is available to all, to promoting sustainable agriculture, ending biodiversity loss and ensuring sustainable consumption and production patterns.

These goals have been formulated to guide people in repairing, caring for and creating a better, more resilient world to live in for generations to come, and they require the input and cooperation of everyone if we're to come close to achieving them - these goals aren't just for politicians and governments, but for communities and individuals too.

Significantly, any and all of these goals can be applied to the fashion industry; as one of the biggest employers, producers, and polluters of any global industry, fashion touches everyone - from those who make it to those who wear it. As such, we all have a part to play in ensuring it becomes a fairer, cleaner industry.

With this in mind, of particular interest to us at The Sustainable Angle are the goals to 'promote sustainable agriculture', and to 'protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss.'

These particularly concern us because with cotton and polyester accounting for over 80% of global textile production annually, we're at a critical point of dwindling natural resources, water depletion and contamination, loss of soil fertility, a morbidly excessive use of synthetic pesticides and fertilisers, and an over dependency on oil from the creation of plastics, synthetic fibres and more. This is affecting communities and economies as well as our planet and resources.

It is possible to contribute to change though. Via the Future Fabrics Expo, we have spent years researching, exploring and showcasing some of the most exciting, and some of the most humble sustainable alternatives to cotton and polyester. We have curated a growing collection of beautiful fabrics from around the world that have been created with respect for people and planet, from organic cotton grown without the use of chemicals, to bast fibres like hemp and linen which can be grown with little or no chemical or water input, and innovations including recycled polyester and leather alternatives made from bi-product pineapple leaf fibre.

There are so many wonderful material alternatives available which could help move us towards these goals, so we're encouraging designers and makers to shoppers and sellers to find out about the way the materials they choose have been made, and to ask how can they be made more sustainably? Instead of buying a standard cotton garment, look for GOTS or Soil Association certified organic cotton to ensure the cleanest production standards possible, or seek out recycled or Fairtrade materials to support reuse of waste and fair trading standards for global communities respectively. There are dozens of ways to make a positive impact, and you can find out even more about sustainability, certifications and material choices on www.futurefabricsvirtualexpo.com.

Next time you're thinking of designing, making, buying or using something, you absolutely have the power to help contribute to these goals.

Originally posted on www.thesustainableangle.wordpress.com and the Fashion Future Network, join the conversation here.

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