11. Wear It, Wandle It

Let's have a much needed chat about fabric, the natural world and the garment industry, with Elly aka Take It Up Wear It Out! Elly is a textile artist whose creations are inspired by the natural world. Often the river Wandle runs through her work, which makes sense, as it’s a jewel in South London’s crown. We touch on some difficult truths related to poverty at home and abroad, 2013’s catastrophically deadly Rana Plaza collapse, pollution, ‘wear it once’ culture, aaaaand massive companies that don’t pay tax. But there is an awful lot to love in this dive into the waters of regenerative fashion. 

Firstly - TWEETS

• Check out what @kit_yates_maths found in his chicken feed bin recently, in this thread.
• Nancy allows Huw to submit a bonus tweet, because it is about ITALIAN DRAG.

In our chat with Elly we talked about: 

• Celia Pym
• Kate Secules
• Flora Collingwood Norris
• Fashion Revolution - pushing for transparency with the #whomademyclothes campaign
• Elly’s 3D textile piece ‘Unnatural’ that was submitted to the Mr X Stitch Contemporary Needlework Prize.
• Elly’s post on Regenerative Fashion
• Aja Barber. Read Aja’s book, 'Consumed'.
• Follow Elly for updates about her creative work and opportunities to get involved in wandering the Wandle (and even stitching the Wandle). You can also buy her zine about ‘Unnatural’ there to show your support for her work.

At the end of the episode we give some on-theme recommendations…

• Earlier this year, Nancy went to the Threads Festival at Sunny Bank Mills (home of the Sewing Bee!) and lost her mind playing with a big industrial loom. She also spotted Alex Vincent’s jewelery, created from brambles.
• Any mention of the River Wandle makes us think about the Rivers of London novels, by Ben Aaronovitch.

Cover art:

Performer/model: @mel_simpson_dance

Photographer: @londonin360