18th-24th April: The week you can change the fashion world

Courtesy of fashion revolution.org

From the 18th-24th April it is Fashion Revolution week, which is asking people to question where their clothes have come from. The week began after 1,134 people were killed and over 2,500 people were injured on the 24th April 2013, when the Rana Plaza complex tragically collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The garment factory collapsed due to structural inadequacies and since then people have been trying to change the way our clothes are made. You can find out here how you can get involved and even just tweeting a brand and asking #whomademyclothes will help bring some awareness and make brands accountable.
However, also this week H&M have launched their own initiative called World Recycle Week, which some people have branded insensitive to be held on the same week. H&M aim to collect 1,000 tonnes of unwanted clothes via its ‘Garment Collecting Initiative’, frankly that's probably the amount of clothes I have in my wardrobe put together.

Courtesy of hm.com

They launched this idea in 2013 and all of its 3,600 stores around the world are taking part. You can do your bit for charity and planet earth by taking in any old unwanted clothes into the stores. These don't have to be H&M clothes and can have holes in, be stained (thanks Piri-Piri sauce) and they'll even take your holey old socks you've been wearing for the past four months, now that's commitment. You can also take in old sheets and towels you've been stacking up and give all these items a second life.

 

For a bag of items you bring your are given two £5 gift vouchers to use when spending £25 or more on your next shop, so what better inspiration can there be to have a good old sort out.

 

All donations will be sorted at one of seven sorting plants worldwide and either sold in second-hand stores or re-used as cloths or upholstery or recycled to become new fabric and hopefully new H&M items we will all be dying to snap up. Recycling just one shirt can save 2,100 litres of water, so you (maybe accidentally) getting rid of that dreadful curtain like flowery shirt your boyfriend bought that one time will be doing some good.

Since the initiative a.k.a hell of a good idea started in 2013, 28,000 tonnes of unwanted clothing has been collected, which is amazing. Millions of clothes are put in landfills every day and 95% of them could have a new life, so H&M are trying to bring about the end of clothing landfills. And you thought they were only good for bralets and skater dresses.

The hip-hop artist MIA is the face of its #WorldRecycleWeek campaign and has released a new video to coincide with the campaign. You can check the video out and more details out about H&M's World Recycle Week here.

Courtesy of letsrecycle.com

H&M say they want to 'Close the Loop' in textiles for fashion, recycling unwanted garments to create recycled textile fibres for new products.

A 'Close the Loop' collection was produced in September 2015 containing recycled denim and other items made up of 20% recycled cotton from collected clothes and 80% organic cotton.

Simply put they want to be able to turn old unwanted clothes into new ones without using additional materials and you can help in their project by taking in your unloved clothes into your nearest H&M store this week and receiving the two £5 vouchers. You can the give yourself a big pat on the back for helping the planet, or just let yourself have an extra piece of cake, your choice.

I'll probably be opting for the cake.

 

Second Hand Rose

XxxX

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Two programmes you NEED to watch: The Durrells and Home Fires

I've been meaning to blog for ages and have been desperate to write, but weeks turn into months and sometimes life gets in the way and you have to take your attention away from the latest ASOS sales and drooling over Bradley Cooper, well almost.

I've been racking my brains for what to start back with as my first post and two period based TV programmes that I'm in love with right now seemed the perfect subject.

 

The Durrells

The Durrells is about a family who suddenly up sticks from Bournemouth to start a new life on the gorgeous Greek island of Corfu. The series is based on the trilogy of autobiographical novels by Gerald Durrell, which focus on four years of his family's adventures in Corfu between 1935-1939, so this is perfect for all you 30s fans and it's really interesting see ing what another country was like during those years.

Both pictures courtesy of The Radio Times

 

Keeley Hawes (Life on Mars) plays the worn out mother Louisa who is sadly a widow and decides to start a new life for her children. She has four unruly children Larry 21, Leslie 18, Margo 17, and Gerry who is 11 and really does not have a lot of money, so decides the best option is to uproot them all. Well it's much better then constant drizzly days in Britain.

 

The series is on Sunday's on ITV at 8pm and contains six episodes. There have already been two (three if you're reading this after Sunday!) on but you can easily catch up on the ITV Hub here (you may have to sign up to this.)

 

They are great episodes and watch out for some yummy eye candy. If you loved The Darling Buds of May, then you will love this as it has that warm hearted feel to it and their family continues to grow animal by animal as they are rescued.

 

The family struggle to adapt to life on the island, living in an incredibly basic house with no electricity and lots of other things go wrong in the house, but it is a cheap earthly paradise. The children try to set their Mum up which proves to be an interesting experience, no Tinder in those days. There is some Greek eye candy you should definitely look out for. This series really is a funny gentle captivating series, perfect for Sunday nights. I mean who doesn't want to watch an island paradise, set in the 1930s with the odd yummy Greek to drool over and I'm not talking about Feta cheese here ladies.

Home Fires:

The second series of Home Fires started a couple of weeks ago and I was so excited to know it was back as I loved the first series. It is about the life of the women in the Women's Institute on the Home Front during the Second World War. It is set in a small rural community called Great Paxford in Cheshire where everyone knows everyone's business. The series was inspired by the book Jambusters by Julie Summers and has an all star cast including Samantha Bond and many other fabulous actors and actresses.
The first series was set between September 1939 and early 1940 and that is just about where series two picks up, in the summer of 1940. The village is caught up in the Battle of Britain and the country is bracing itself for invasion so the women are attempting to hold things together. Czech soldiers have also set up camp just outside the village which provides some surprising friendships for some of the women.

As well as the war to deal with the women are facing their own personal challenges and conflicts, with loved ones being lost or declared missing, secrets being discovered and reputations being blemished. The Women's Institue really help keep the women and village together and help each other through hard times. This programme is perfect for all of you interested in that time era, the fashion is amazing and it shows really how the women kept the home fires burning.

It's on Sunday's on ITV at 9pm, just after The Durrells so you can be in vintage heaven for two hours. You can catch up on the last two episodes (again three if you're reading this after Sunday night!) on the ITV Hub here. If you're unable to access the ITV Hub then you can stream them, tvmuse.com is a good place to start and has links for the first series of Home Fires if you really want to get into it or you can read the episode summaries on Wikipedia. I suggest you do find out what happened in series one as the story continues on for series two.

These are two programmes I suggest you watch even if you're not into the whole vintage thing as The Durrells is light hearted and peaceful and Home Fires is full of drama and beautifully written. So curl up with a packet of chocolate biscuits and enjoy some great tv, perfect for a Sunday night before a week of work and trying to avoid eating far too many slices of cake.

Second Hand Rose

XxxX

 

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