Grow your own biodegradable fashion

Having worked in the fashion industry for over twenty years, and spending my younger years guilty of buying a new outfit almost every time I went out, sustainable fashion is something I am very aware of. Fortunately, 'Thrifting' for clothes is now seen is a norm for my teenagers, and I have a great network of friends who I regularly 'share' clothes with. According to Clothes Aid 350,000 tonnes, that's around £140 million worth of used but still wearable clothing goes to landfill in the UK every year. This equates to more than 30% of our unwanted clothing currently goes to landfill which is staggering amount. 

This week I was lucky enough to be invited to Chelsea Flower Show, with my good friend Zena Holloway, who creates material out of growing roots from wheatgrass seeds. She uses natural materials such as beeswax and coral to allow the roots to grow and weave themselves together, creating pale, delicate material which looks like lace and makes the perfect material for a dress.

After spending years as an ocean photographer she witnessed the extent of the plastic pollution crisis for herself; "I saw the growing amount of plastic in the ocean over the years and became upset about the materials we were using." 

Zena has turned her hand to sustainable design, and came up with the concept for a sustainable, biodegradable wedding dress which she unveiled at the Chelsea Flower Show. "The concept of this dress is a sustainable wedding dress. If they got married by the ocean for example, she could sustainable trash the dress and...get in the water and all the fish would just eat it, and it would just become part of the ocean". 

Zena's intuitive and visionary work is a 'leap into the future' and she hopes she will encourage others to explore using sustainable, biodegradable materials. 

Maybe in the future we will all have the opportunity to grow our own sustainable fashion.