Today · World Post
44 minutes ago Grace Wood Yorkshire Kathryn Widdowson Sarah Turner from Ilkley will be wearing the same blue wool dress for three months As fast fashion makes clothes increasingly disposable, one woman is undertaking a challenge to wear the same dress every day for 90 days. Sarah Turner said she was doing it as part of a campaign against mass-produced garments and to "champion" British wool. The average person discards 192 items of clothing a year – equivalent to around 16 items every month, according to British Wool, a rise of 65% since 2023.
Turner, from Ilkley, believes locally made products, despite their high prices, are part of the answer. The navy blue, herringbone shift dress is knitted from Masham and Blueface Leicester sheep's wool woven by Martin Mills in Otley and created by Norton and Townsend Tailors in Ilkley. "I am taking it [to] everything from dog walking to a black tie dinner in a Blackpool ballroom.
So it really can be that flexible," says Turner, the founder of laundry and body care firm Little Beau Sheep. "It is very comfortable. And so far, I know it's only two weeks in, but I'm not bored of it at all yet and still sort of relishing the challenge." Kathryn Widdowson Sarah Turner uses Swaledale wool at her business Little Beau Sheep Louisa Knapp, a textile expert at British Wool, said one benefit of wool is its longevity.
"Natural fibres such as British wool have been valued for generations for their durability and ability to be worn and enjoyed for many years – decades rather than seasons," says Knapp. "A good quality wool garment can become something that stays in a wardrobe for years, rather than something that is simply replaced when the next trend comes along." Turner, who has driven sheep over London Bridge and held a fashion show on the shearing stage at the Great Yorkshire Show, says British wool has an unfairly earned reputation. "British wool has got a bit of a bad reputation in terms of being difficult to look after, too hot, too scratchy," she says.
"So rather than just telling people that is not the case, I'm putting my money where my mouth is." Kathryn Widdowson The dress was made by Norton and Townsend Tailors The biggest question people have asked, she adds, is how will you smell? "I'm thankful it has suddenly got quite a lot colder this week, because I wasn't relishing the idea of a heat wave in October," she says. "But wool is thermoregulating.
So, it keeps you cooler when it's warmer and it keeps you warmer when it's colder, because it traps the air particles both ways. "It is quite a good fibre to be wearing in all different ways." Turner will be matching the dress with various bits from her wardrobe to keep it interesting and sustainable, she says, but even two weeks in she's yet to get bored. "The most sustainable thing you can wear is what you already have in your wardrobe," she says.
"What stresses me out the most is spills. I'm not brushing my teeth in it, full disclosure, because I think that will be the worst." The main thing she will miss, she says, is a well-tailored pair of trousers. "I will be ready to put on something else.
But what I am intrigued about is how much I want to reach for it again, even when I don't have to." More stories like this Related internet links
Source: BBC
