Fashion Reimagined

When designer Amy Powney – head of popular brand Mother of Pearl – decided to create a fully sustainable collection for the autumn 2018 season, she had no idea that she had set herself a challenge of monumental proportions. In Fashion Reimagined, director Becky Hutner chronicles Powney’s journey as she endeavours to limit waste, reduce footprint and trace the fabrics’ origin all the way back to the farms – a feat that proves to be not only difficult but apparently unprecedented.

The documentary relates Powney’s life and career, starting from her childhood in the countryside to her sustainability-focused show at university, and then her success as a top designer. Her lifelong interest in ecological matters, coupled with the prize money won as the UK top emerging designer in 2017, led her to dream up and start working on the ambitious collection No Frills. Her aim was for every step of the making to be transparent and every material used to be organic and traceable.

The initial phone calls and internet searches prove to be as vague as they are discouraging. Powney and her collaborator, brand manager Chloe Marks, soon discover that in order to get real answers about the provenance of a fabric, they have to enquire in person. In spite of their best efforts to keep it local, the nearest farm that ticks all the sustainability boxes is all the way in South America, and so they cross the ocean and begin their quest. In spite of numerous setbacks and time restrictions, Powney and Marks manage to launch the collection in time, although it initially receives a lukewarm reception. As sustainability has since become a hot topic, Powney’s work has increasingly gained more attention.

Haute couture designers place no barriers to their creativity as they launch new lines each season, but it seems that the lack of boundaries extends to waste. The absence of legislation controlling the output of clothes being made, the methods employed to make them and the source of the materials used, means that the fashion industry is causing a huge environmental strain that could become catastrophic.

As designer labels show no sign of radically changing the system, and with fast fashion outlets going from strength to strength, it is clear that this documentary is only a drop in the ocean. This is why it should become compulsory viewing in schools and universities, especially for fashion students, and it should also be urgently watched by the public at large, as consumer awareness can be the first vital step in reducing demand and hopefully reversing the damage.

Mersa Auda

Fashion Reimagined is released in select cinemas on 3^rd March 2023.

Watch the trailer for Fashion Reimagined here: