No Debutante Vs Kecks Clothing - A Contradiction

My Bristol buddy and fellow fashionista mum Helen from Kecks Clothing has been taking part in a challenge set by Labour Behind The Label to wear only six items of clothing for six weeks, a challenge that I know I could never consider (as shallow as it sounds, I just love all of my clothes too much!!) so it's a challenge that I am very intrigued by and definitely wanted to find out more about as well as helping Helen promote her challenge.

Helen, loves fashion and clothes and works in an environment where she is surrounded by clothing everyday, new ones, coming in all of the time, can you imagine any fashionista resisting all the lovely new (or rather salvaged) clothes??? I know this is a personal challenge for fashion lover Helen who took on the fundraising challenge for Labour Behind The Label - a campaign that works to improve conditions and empower workers in the global garment industry. 

The challenge itself is an anti Fast Fashion campaign, or a Fashion Fast as it's been named, against the fast fashion turnovers which now take place within the fashion industry. Fast fashion gets products onto the high street quicker, to meet the desire for new fashion trends, which can change on a 4 weekly basis now that social media spreads the word quicker than the monthly fashion mags used to. With the desire to sell more, consume more, make more, waste more causing a devastating effect on the people who make our clothes. 
This anti fast fashion challenge makes you look at how many clothes you are buying, wasting and hopefully will make you see that you can live with fewer items in your wardrobe and that you do not need to buy extra items just because they are cheap. Plus if the items are cheap, how low is the wage of the person making your cheap fast fashion?? Consider upcycling and fashion salvages to save items from landfill and get creative with upcycling your own clothes.

The Challenge

Helen's challenge is now completed. WELL DONE HELEN!! However you can still donate or help fundraise for  Labour Behind the Label, So dig deep people.

Helen chose her six items, which can be worn with any coats, shoes, accessories (and of course underwear) and then covered up her (already filled to the brim) wardrobe with a big sheet to stop her lusting after extra fashion items. Please check out how Helen is did on the Kecks Clothing blog.

Four weeks in  Helen had reported to No Debutante that having only six items of clothing to choose from each morning had made getting ready in the mornings simpler but she wishes she had chosen warmer items as the weather here in Bristol has been pretty cold the last few months.

 'But all in all, it's been good, despite a few moments of getting bored with the six items the challenge is going well and accessorising has really helped.' 

Check out Helens blog Kecks Online to find out how the challenge went for Helen.

Helen's Six Items for Six Weeks

1. An extra large Pink Floyd t-shirt,
2. Faded denim shirt,
3. Black three-quarter length sleeve jumper,
4. Black and white striped vest dress,
5. Red wrap around dress
6. Helen's favourite ripped skinny jeans  

 A few of Helen's six items in six weeks outfits - The perfect capsule wardrobe

I am almost intrigued enough by the challenge to have a go, how hard can it be? In contradiction, let's have a look how many items of clothing No Debutante has worn over the past six weeks........You may think I am not up to the challenge...I am honestly embarrased by what is coming!

No Debutante's items for 6 weeks
(this list has been shortened into basic terms otherwise we'd be here all year)

9 x Jeans / Trouser/ leggings 

12 x Tops including t-shirts, long sleeves and shirts

5 x jumpers and sweatshirts

3 x jackets

14 x dresses (yes, 14 dresses!)

3 x skirts

(Thank goodness I didn't have to declare all of the shoes and coats that I wore too!)

A small selection of the 45 items that No Debutante wore over six weeks! 

In conclusion, I would firstly like to justify that I am a total hoarder and I have owned a lot of my clothes for years, basically I become very attached to nearly every piece of clothing I own, I really do love my clothes, perhaps I don't need to own and keep this many clothes but I am not wasting clothes and sending them to landfill, I just want to save all the clothes from landfill.....and put them in my wardrobe.....ahem! I love fashion and changing my look so much that i don't think the Six Items challenge will make me stop wearing so many clothes but it does make me stop and think about how often I am buying items just because I think I need them or because they are cheap. Do I really need them??

Don't forget to  check out Labour Behind The Label to find out more about the workers who make all your fast fashion items and fundraising and Kecks Online  for ideas on upcycling and sustainable fashion. 

Perhaps in the very near future you may get to see a 6 items challenge from No Debutante.......Watch This Space...Why not try it youself or let me know how many items you have worn in six weeks, I bet you'll be surprised!

All photos, except for the No Debutante images, courtesy of Helen Brown at Kecks Clothing.
 
If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante or getting featured on the No Debutante blog please contact me / send me a message on any of the following social networking platforms all under the No Debutante name #nodebutante

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Google +, Pinterest.

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas xx

ND xx

Mini Fashion Salvage

Back In October, I attended the BTR Mini Fashion Salvage event at Bristol lab Space with the queen of upcycling, Helen from Kecks Clothing. As you may have seen I attended BTR (Bristol Textiles Recyclers) Fashion Salvage event back in the summer and loved it! To see what happened last time click here and for those who missed the brilliant fun Helen from kecks and I had styling up these Fashion Salvaged items back in Sept click here

The event was BTR's second fashion salvage event held at Bristol lab Space ( the first fashion salvage event was at the BTR factory with more clothing than I have ever seen and all set for landfill unless we saved it, I made it my personal mission to save as much as I could at that event! The Mini Fashion Salvage was a much smaller affair but was still bursting with wasted clothing all waiting to be fashion salvaged by the twenty odd salvagers keen to get stuck in! All salvagers had bought tickets with 100% of the proceeds going to the charity for garment workers right abroad, Labour Behind the Label. With more money being spent on the extra garments bought at the event at very reasonable prices, in this case all clothing was only £6 a kilo which averages out at approx 4-5 garments per kilo, depending on the weight. I think it is a great idea to encourage people to buy at these event but at low prices, people will be less intimidated to attend and will buy more, raising money for the charity and saving the garments from being wasted. Spreading the word about these events and the brilliant items you could find can only be a good thing. With creatives on hand to teach you how to upcycle and style up garments and to make you see items in a new way, whatever your style.

This charity fund raiser for Labour Behind the Labour encourages you to upcycle and reuse, it will astonish you to know that 20 tons of garments a day are sent to landfill, this waste is crazy and senseless. I am not saying that I am not guilty of over buying, we all are and slowly we will prevent this from happening, through these events and also through learning what you can do to help and consider how much your household is wasting. These events inspire you, to show you what you can do, if you love fashion, Love a bargain or are just interested to find out more then please come along!

I love rummaging through the piles and rails of clothing, to see what I can find. Towards the back of the event i found shelves full of oversize t-shirts which I had trouble finding at the last fashion Salvage event so i made a beeline for them and collected and handful and took them over to the haberdashery area where Lady Gonzalez and her team were ready to help you customise your found items into new ones! I had an oversized maxi dress and  tassels in mind and when I started it, I wish I had the whole day to make more and more! I could have had a whole customised t-shirts range by the end of the night given more time! I really got stuck in an enjoyed. Making customised t-shirts reminded me of my upcycling fashion label I ran over 12 years ago, I knew nobody else doing it at the time and would have loved the Bristol Fashion Salvage scene that is thriving in Bristol now. I am happy that I did it however and to have been involved in the scene for so long.

Following the salvaging, upcycling and outfit creating, it was time for the final photoshoot for the competition and a quick chat with the team filming the event, I talked about how I find charity shops a let down since they seem to be cleared of any personality and oddities which used to be the interesting thing about the charity shop didn't it? Why would I want to buy a plain second hand H&M top for possibly more than H&M sold it for? The prices have gone up and the standard of the stock has gone down. I buy more furniture than clothing from charity shops these days! With the help of fashion lead events like BTR's Fashion Salvages and charity run spaces like The Shop on Gloucester Road Bristol, where you can find vintage charity bargains and upcycled gems from Fix Up Look Sharp. Hopefully things are starting to change for the better. I attend these events one because I love fashion and two because you find the most amazing and alternative gems, I love one offs and being inspired by a found item that I hadn't considered before, I love mixing colours and prints and wearing things in a different way, I am never short of inspiration at these events! I Love Fashion Salvage!!!

My favourite outfit from the Mini Fashion Salvage winners was the clashing prints crop top and hareem trousers ensemble. The Crop top was made from a dress, literally chopped in half, I am so giving the chopping up dresses a go next time! I'm inspired. I had created my oversize maxi dress which I wish i had had the time to make even longer ( I forget how long I am sometimes) another panel could have been added to the bottom of the dress in my opinion! Always the critic! I also made a tasselled crop top which I love! Amongst the customised t-shirts I also found two crochet jumpers, a gold bodycon maxi and a 1980s Puma vest. Not bad for one night! Although I didn't win on this occasion, (Helen from Keck's was one of the judges too, that wouldn't have gone down well!) I did win a bottle of wine for being creative and inspired at every event and for really understanding what the fashion salvage events are about. I honestly love these events so much and was gutted to miss the Christmas event but unfortunately it clashed with my daughter Sylvie Belles 4th birthday party! I will definitely be attending the next event and I will be on hand to inspire and help people look at their found items in a different way and help style them up for their photoshoots. I'm already excited about being involved! Watch this space for details. Thanks BTR I had the best time!

What I wore inc dress (worn as a jacket) and Midi skirt both from the Summer BTR Fashion Salvage Event

My Upcycled T-shirts outfit

My Favourite winning Outfit

Fashion Salvagers

Helen From Kecks Clothing

Lady Gonzalez Team

 If you are interested in collaborating with No Debutante please contact me / send me a message on any of the following social networking platforms all under the No Debutante name #nodebutante

Keep up with No Debutantes OOTD posts, collabs and current fashion obsessions posted daily on all of the following. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, Google +, Pinterest.

Thanks for checking in Fashionistas xx

ND xx