The Wimbledon Sustainable Fashion Week returns for its third year, championing sustainability, community and women’s empowerment.
The Fashion Week is running until 22nd September, with events, including catwalks, workshops, showrooms and a fashion design competition, all being held at the Wimbledon Quarter this weekend.
The event aims to empower the community to choose well and wear their values, emphasising that sustainability can mean upcycling old clothing, restyling vintage clothing or wearing sustainable materials.
The fashion show, which launched on 18th September, began with a sold-out clothes swap and offers free events with activities for the whole family.
Sophia Lorimer, the creative director, explained: “It is really to make sure that everybody has a chance to see sustainability in such a light that it doesn’t have to be boring, it doesn’t have to be dull.
“It can really be exciting and fun, and also really encapsulate the whole community in a gorgeous way”
The weekend will feature 30 showrooms of sustainable local businesses and catwalks showcasing six different female designers, all handpicked by Lorimer, who also is the founder of Fine-Tuned wardrobe, a sustainable styling business.
Lorimer added: “Most of the women that are in the showrooms or showcase on the catwalk are women that have started this from their kitchen tables with baby in tow.”
The whole event is produced by Go Inspire International, a women-centred company founded by Marina Sardanopoli, also a founder and the CEO of the fashion week.
Sardanopoli explained that the whole fashion week is about celebrating women and building a sisterhood within the realm of sustainable fashion.
She said: “It’s good to see women coming together, leading by example, creating something positive.
“For us it’s all about positivity in a world of negativity.”
The 40 models for the show are all applicants from the community, the majority with no prior experience, who get trained and are supplied with hair and makeup.
One of the models from this year is a grandma who visited the show last year and loved it so much that she was inspired to apply for this year’s catwalks.
Aisha Ngabile, a founder and the media and style director, explained that the models will ride down the escalators in the newly refurbished Wimbledon Quarter, before strutting down the catwalk and weaving through the crowd.
The event, which is sponsored by Wimbledon Quarter, LoveWimbledon, Elys, Wimbledon Club and Wagamama, will have a Wagamama food truck and Graveney Gin stand providing food and drink for the visitors.
