Victoria Jenkins co-chairs our Representation and Inclusion Committee and is a garment technologist with 14 years of experience in the fashion industry who became Disabled in her 20s. She is behind the sustainable adaptive fashion brand Unhidden. The idea was born after a chance encounter with a woman with cancer that changed the course of her life. As she watched the woman during her own hospital stay, she realised that there were no adaptive clothes on the market and this is how Unhidden was born.
Now Victoria is listed as one of Vogue’s Top 25 Powerhouse Women, redefining Britain and co-presents and designs on Channel 4’s Unique Boutique. A must-watch where inclusive fashion lovers and designers create bespoke outfits for every-body in a custom-built shop.
We speak about future plans for a not-for-profit arm of Unhidden, training people with disabilities and chronic health conditions how to sew adaptive alterations so they can then work as and when they choose making adaptive alterations for any one who doesn't sew. There are also plans for workshops that will cover how to adapt clothing you already own yourself so there is no barrier to accessing adaptive clothing and re-loving your existing wardrobes.
Finally, Victoria shares her key policy asks to ultimately make fashion more inclusive.
[This is an image of Victoria Jenkins, wearing a royal blue power suit, standing in the street, with a sparkly mobility aid. Credit: Deb Burrows]
According to figures by Fashion United, the fashion industry is worth around £1.65tn globally. Creativity is often upheld as a niche human quality, however, the rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI), risks eliminating a number of creative and fashion jobs. A paper prepared by PwC for the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, predicts that technology threatens devastating job losses over the next 20 years in wholesale and retail; transport and logistics; and manufacturing. The report suggests that as many as 30% of UK jobs could disappear within this period. A high-level exploration of how AI is and could affect the fashion sector moving forward.
Stephen Jones is perhaps one of the most influential milliners of our century, bursting onto the London fashion scene during the explosion of street style in the late seventies. Yet even today, Jones’s designs have retained their modern and compelling edge. At the forefront of fashion, Jones’ hats are exquisitely crafted and quixotic – all whilst encapsulating the mood of the moment. Jones’ latest collection could not have come at a better time, where young people are reportedly leaving Wales, particularly in Welsh speaking heartlands, this collection offers hope. Entitled ‘Cymru’ and cited as a ‘love letter to Wales’ I delve further into the haunting magic of this collection – from the reimagined Welsh ‘Het’ to the use of Dylan Thomas poetry – ensuing a sense of strength and pride in Jones’ Welsh heritage.
Gerwig is by definition a feminist filmmaker and her characters are often transgressive and curious, rebelling against their suppressive environments (think Jo March!). Barbie is no exception. While it’s important to recognise that Mattel’s 60-year-old flagship doll has had a long and controversial history and in the past has been blamed for its unrealistic beauty standards, the propensity of the film exists to raise women, well, up. In this Op-Ed Meg Pirie explores the issue of fast-fashion brands capitalising on a feminist film and how this pummels the film’s entire meaning.
Last week, womenswear brand Mother of Pearl announced it would be joining forces with door-to-door repair and tailoring app SOJO, as part of the brands ongoing commitment to circularity. We hear from both women CEO’s on the collaboration and share a special offer for our newsletter subscribers.
A new Playbook by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) talks directly with fashion’s communicators. Written for marketers, brand managers, imagemakers, storytellers, media, influencers and beyond, ‘The Sustainable Fashion Communication Playbook’ from UNEP and UN Climate Change, provides a much needed framework when policies around how to communicate environmental claims increasingly come into force. We speak with Rachel Arthur, the UN Environment Programme’s Sustainable Fashion Advocacy Lead and author of the Playbook, who delves into the aim of the Playbook and the untapped power communicators hold in setting new cultural trends and value shifts for a more equitable and just fashion future.
In her book, ‘To Dye For’, award-winning journalist and sustainability expert, Alden Wicker, decided to break the story of unregulated toxic chemicals in fashion and their impacts on health and wellbeing. What follows is a candid conversation, with clear advice on what we can do now.
Our researcher, Meg Pirie, has always loved to read and will often read a book to understand something better, before searching online. For this week’s informer she shares her top 5 books on sustainability and fashion. Click through to read more.
Last week, Fashion Roundtable attended the Trade Unlocked conference. This was a brand new national conference that took place on the 20th June 2023, bridging the gap between the worlds of business and politics. Trade Unlocked created a high-profile platform for businesses of all sizes and from all sectors to give views on what they need from the UK government to get their business and the economy growing. Click through to read more and watch the full panel talk featuring our CEO Tamara Cincik.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) announced the Government's plan to grow the creative industries by £50bn and support a million more jobs by 2030, with £77m of new funding for the sector announced.
Meg Pirie is in conversation with co-founder of Sole Responsibility, Simon Payne. Founded in 2014, Sole Responsibility is a business which buys, repairs and sells seconds and stock with minor damage from some of the UK’s most-known high-street stores, which would otherwise have been destined for landfill or incineration. Now the brand acts as Sustainable Partner to JD Sports, amongst others. They talk how the idea transpired and what Payne would like to see from a policy point of view for end-of-life.
In this Op-Ed by Meg Pirie, she delves into what the fashion sector can learn from Westwood’s fearless activism. Can the business of fashion ever truly measure up? With comments by Kate Fletcher, Professor at the Royal Danish Academy in Copenhagen.
Last week, we launched our Impact Report for 2022. Fashion Roundtable have consistently been the first to address the challenges of Brexit; Covid-19; climate change; exploitative working practices; Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR); VAT reduction for sustainable businesses; issues around fibre and localism; and inclusion in fashion. We use our platform to highlight inequalities across the fashion industry and to effect long-lasting social, business and environmental change.
On the 17th May 2023, Fashion Roundtable, along with Shadow Minister Stephanie Peacock MP, hosted a meeting with the Parliamentary Labour Party where industry leaders outlined the dire need for urgent action for the British fashion sector, which was at one time the fastest growing creative industry in the United Kingdom.
The meeting entitled, ‘Building Community Agency Through The Purposeful Use Of Unused Retail Spaces,’ was in direct response to the state of our high streets at a national level. Research conducted by Fashion Roundtable, provided evidence that the Covid-19 pandemic, Brexit, shifts to digital rather than ‘bricks and mortar’ shopping, and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis have changed consumer behaviour, alongside record retail closures.
A must-read, with quotes from speakers across the country and access to our full briefing.
“There's no doubt that the British High Street has taken a battering over the last few years. Not only have retailers had to contend with Covid, but Brexit and now the ongoing cost-of-living crisis have decimated the high street as we know it. In 2021, PWC reported that 17,500 chain stores closed in 2020 alone. Now with many high streets focused on recovery, consumers want something new. “
Ahead of Their Majesties' Coronation on Saturday the 6th May, new details have been released to provide a glimpse of the Coronation Robes to be worn by the King and The Queen Consort. The new images show the Royal School of Needlework’s embroidery team conserving The King’s Robe of State, which will be worn by His Majesty on arrival at Westminster Abbey, and The Queen Consort’s Robe of Estate, which will be worn after Her Majesty is crowned, on departure from Westminster Abbey.
This Sunday, protestors gathered outside a number of fashion stores on Oxford Street, in a 'Cost of Fashion' walking tour, to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse and to honour the lives of the 1138 garment workers who were killed. We hear from some of the members of the Rana Plaza Solidarity Collective and discuss our Cleaning Up Fashion Report.
Over the last two years, The Helena Kennedy Centre within Sheffield Hallam University has been at the forefront of exposing corporate and financial institution complicity in the crisis in the Uyghur Region and identifying the risk that crisis poses to our international supply chains. Now they have launched a series of issue briefs and supply chain updates. The series is intended to keep everyone up to date on what is happening in the Uyghur Region and to help us all understand a bit better how supply chains are changing in response to the crisis. We share this and our work in this area through our ‘Cleaning Up Fashion Report.’
For this week's Informer,, we spent some time with Lottie Jackson who was up until recently Fashion Roundtable's newsletter editor. Now Lottie has published her first book with Penguin and we couldn't be prouder. See Me Rolling is a playful, illuminating memoir, but it is also a clarion call for greater diversity and inclusion. Lottie powerfully explores the ways in which we undervalue and underrepresent disabled people in our society, and demonstrates how negative stigmas about 'abnormal' bodies seep into all aspects our lives, from travel, work and education, to fashion and social media. In this dazzling debut, Lottie reveals why we must strive for change and redefine what it means to be disabled in every facet of life. She has a voice that needs to be heard.
