Use Ethical Fabrics to create this season's key items
Charlie Bradley Ross
Monday, 23 June 2014
The first thing that caught my eye when I became familiar with the variety of Ethical Fabrics in Offset Warehouse was the new Thick Basket Weave Banana fabric - yes, really, a fabric that’s made out of 100% banana! A charming fabric to wow your friends with the ingredients, its loosely woven structure has a lightweight look to shape into anything from a white summers coat, a simple tote bag, or two piece top and skirt combo.
It’s manufactured in Nepal and is fair trade, low energy, low impact dyes, low water, unbleached and organic properties make it especially unique.
Initially, my first thought on what I could create with the fabric was a summer coat, with either no collar and a rounded neckline, or alternatively with a long and wide sweeping collar. This would be a key piece to match with any look, as white has featured in many trends from the last Spring/ Summer season, including J JS Lee- complete with coat- along with a SS14 Edun look below.
It’s a thick natured fabric so ideal for an English evening after the sun goes in at the pub. A straight coat could therefore be added to various looks and would compliment any print fabrics or other textures, leaving lots of room for added impact of mixing prints or block colours. You could even customise the piece using interesting buttons or fastenings. At £23.99 a metre it is definitely worth testing out your ideas and creating a new piece for your wardrobe, and if there is any leftover fabric you can easily turn it into a summer clutch bag or purse so there is no additional waste.
Read more about Katie Thomas at www.eco-vintage.com