It’s all about sustainable and cruelty free fashion for this Weekly Collection, plus The Queen in the frow.

The Queen Sits in the Frow at Fashion Week

In some of the only fashion news that has bled into mainstream headlines – Queen Elizabeth II sat front row at this year’s London Fashion Week. Sitting next to editor-in-chief of Vogue USA, Anna Wintour – who some have crowned the ‘Queen of Fashion’ – Her Royal Highness was dressed in a trademark duck egg blue tweed jacket with a matching skirt. While the Richard Quinn show must’ve been a nice break from her daily duties, she wasn’t in attendance just for her own entertainment. Her Majesty The Queen presented Richard Quinn with the inaugural Queen Elizabeth II Award for British Design.

According to the Royal Family Twitter page, “The Award, initiated in recognition of the role the fashion industry plays in society & diplomacy, will be awarded annually to an emerging British fashion designer who shows talent and originality, whilst demonstrating value to the community and/or sustainable policies”.

Plastic Bags by Celine

In her penultimate collection with the brand, Phoebe Philo has presented a plastic bag that has left fans of the brand content with purchasing a plastic bag that isn’t for their groceries. Unfortunately, Celine doesn’t price match Woolworths’ 25 cent plastic bag fee – this design will be selling above the market at $750. Not designed like your typical plastic shopping bag, the design appears to be of a thicker plastic with the trademark ‘Celine Paris’ logo on the front, along with a ‘warning label’ that says, “To avoid danger as suffocation keep away this bag from babies and children” in four different languages. The bag was first seen on the runway for Celine’s Summer 18 Collection and will be released to the general public in May this year.

Fur (Industry) Free for Tom Ford

Tom Ford is making steps towards a cruelty-free brand, with his latest decision to halt the brand’s usage of fur and coats from the fur industry. Instead, he will be using fur that comes from food by-products. This decision has come after Ford’s personal decision to go vegan. While this switch means that his current season is using food by-products as well as faux fur, Ford is still unsure of the direction his company will take in the future. In an interview with WWD, he said:
“I’m also very torn about this because fake fur is terrible for the environment. People think of fake fur as a disposable thing. They buy it, they wear it a few seasons, they throw it away, it doesn’t biodegrade. It’s a petroleum product. It is highly toxic. And then, you could argue that tanning leather is a highly toxic process. A fur coat gets recycled. People wear them for 30 years, they give them to their kids, then they turn them into throw pillows. So I don’t know the answer to that...”

“The world’s most sustainable shopping centre” in Melbourne

According to Broadsheet and Frasers Property Australia, Burwood Brickworks in Melbourne will be converted into “the most sustainable shopping centre in the world”. The shopping centre will feature a rooftop farm, and as part of the Living Building Challenge (think Central Park Mall in Sydney), the building will have no carbon footprint. This means, it will have no waste, produce more electricity and water than it uses, be made of recycled and non-toxic resources and grow agriculture on at least 20% of the site.
Creative consultant Joost Bakker and Frasers Property are on the search for tenants – however, it’s still unclear as to whether fashion trade will take place in this shopping centre as of yet.

This week’s pop-up sale

Who:  theUNDONE and An Organised Life

What: Pop up sale

When: Saturday February 24, 9am-5pm + Sunday February 25, 9am-4pm

Where: Blank Space Gallery, 374 Crown St, Surry Hills, NSW 2010