Copying the catwalk

Style

Mar 28

Once a year, during London Fashion Week, a team of like-minded souls get together to recreate catwalk looks moments after they appear on the runway. They use only what they find around them - which, for the past few seasons, has been charity shop stock. This year, the event took place in Barnado’s, Brixton. Charity Fashion Live, is the brainchild of Emma Slade-Edmondson, sustainable stylist and founder of Back of the Wardrobe, a service that helps customers make the most of what they already have in their closets.

‘I’d like to facilitate a shift in the way that we interact an approach our clothing,’ says Slade-Edmonson. ‘CFL is an interruption to the throwaway culture that is pervasive in fashion today. As a stylist, I’ve always been interested in clothing that has been passed down. There’s a real beauty in unique pieces that have a story.’

Henry Holland is one of the LFW names whose AW17 show gets a CFL makeover. He's far from precious about it. ‘As a designer, I’d love to see one of my looks created at a CFL event,' he enthuses, in the short film the team made about the night. 'What I love about making clothes is seeing how people interpret them. Can't wait.’

Each year, 350,000 tonnes of clothes are sent to landfill in the UK; that's 350,000 tonnes of reusable resources just chucked away. This is the waste Slade-Edmondson wants to address. ‘CFL celebrates the potential of pre-loved clothes,’ she says. ‘Getting creative with your wardrobe, buying secondhand and donating unwanted clothes ensures threads have another chance to shine.’

Working with photographer Rachel Manns, Emma re-created looks from Chalayan, Ryan Lo, Molly Goddard, Julien Macdonald, Jasper Conran and Ports 1961 as well as Holland. And where the looks aren't exact - Macdonald's futuristic evening gown is translated into a sheer trench - their spirit is captured and transformed.

What if you don't have a charity shop full of promising stock around you? Use your own. Rather than forking out for one more back-of-the-wardrobe piece, pair items you never thought would go together, wear jumpers back to front, turn that skirt into a dress. Leave one half of a shirt untucked (see Ports 1961, above). There's nothing more stylish than knowing how to use what you already have.