The Phoebe English studio in an old school in southern London is a brilliant space with three sewing machines under large windows, thresholds bordered by vibrant plants. On a rail of clothing at one end of the studio, it is hung a delicate white top, built from hearts cut in Silk waste, part of a personalized bridal costume for the wedding of a customer this summer. At the opposite end of the room, four models bear pieces from the English archives recently acquired by a large American museum. All are made from thrown fabric; A silk dress in square -shaped layers is overdowing in a shade of Chartreuse, a color obtained from the hen bar with yellow flowers, an unwanted weed on agricultural land, taken from a Warwickshire farm.
“We are really interested in the colors right now,” said the 39 -year -old designer, sitting in a stool from the studio's big cutting table. “Not only the particular shade, but the components that made the creation of the color. Obviously, we are in an urban environment, “she said, pointing to the parking lot outside the window,” we therefore find the most effective means that we can be in contact with nature and with people working in ways to increase biodiversity, water health, carbon sequestration, is binded with dye plants and botanical dyes. “
Sometimes, however, nature finds its way to them. Studio director Clara Jedrecy recently brought a Buddleia brush blown with a railway arch during a storm. They threw it into a dye bath, stems and everything. “He made a beautiful dark green color,” explains English.
The creation of its collections from excess materials and natural dyes are only two of the ways in which English, the calm warrior of British fashion, seeks to detoxify the fashion industry, or at least its small part. This month, as part of the new exhibition of the Victoria and Albert Dundee Museum, Garden future: design with natureThe Englishman collaborated with Zena Holloway, an ocean photographer who has become a bio-conceptor, on an ethereal dress without seam, coming from wheat grass roots. Holloway, which was moved to work in the development of natural textiles after having seen the growing quantities of plastic waste on the seabed, pushes the roots on sculpted models of beeswax, creating a flexible but durable textiles that it named Rootfull. Last year, Rootfull invited English to design a dress for the exhibition.
“It is built from this rebounding cultivated lace that Phoebe has intelligently framed and attached with a torn cotton bodice,” explains Holloway. It is based solely on the binding of the roots and a series of nodes and links for construction. “We tried various experiences to reach a stage where Phoebe thought it was suitable for the body. The finished dress is a beautifully light structure with openings, very portable and there is a link size to adapt to different sizes.”
For its part, English considers the rootfull dress as both a precious research and development element in alternative textiles – the material is cultivated from seeds over 12 days, using only light and water and is biodegradable – and an important information carrier. “He encourages dialogue and, above all, action around alternative ways to work in design,” she says. “Thanks to the dress, you receive information on Zena's scientific exploration and that arouses questions: what are my clothes made of?” And is there a different way? ”
English has not decided to be a sustainable fashion designer. She launched her eponymous label in 2011, just after a BA and MA in fashion design and knitting at Central Saint Martins, where she was educated by the late renown teacher Louise Wilson. Immediately rented for her mastery of textile crafts and an aesthetic of winning design that plays with the decorative and utility, she continuously showed the London Fashion Week, won the leaders of Change Award at the British Fashion Awards in 2021 and had work acquired by institutions such as Victoria and Albert Museum and the Costume Institute of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
The studio had been in business for almost seven years when, in 2018, the Englishman had a climatic realization, triggered by the combination of the American withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the activism by the rebellion of extinction and the documentary of the BBC of Stacey Dooley, Fashion dirty secrets. “It seems stupid because it is more generally known now, but I started to see the enormity of the damage that the fashion industry made on a planetary scale,” she says. Rather than yielding to feelings of misfortune and leaving industry, she rather decided to take measures. “History shows that art and design reflect the reality of the period in which it is created,” she says, “I therefore decided to answer the moments when we live.”
While at one point, the studio conceived four collections per year for men and women, rushing to respond to the requests of wholesale buyers, today it sells directly to consumers and presents a collection of sexist fluid each year created with a circular design approach. This considers the complete life cycle of a product and its effect on the environment and natural resources, of the design stage through its content, production, production, packaging and the biodegradable potential of a garment. “We are very Lo-Fi,” explains English, who works with two part-time employees (the studio recently spent a four-day week) with two to three other independent staff supported if necessary. “But I have always been a defender of the idea that just because something is small, it does not mean that it is neither relevant nor important. I think it is an answer to be part of an industry that has so much excitement around bigger is better – great shows, big collections. For me, it has never been a priority.”
The collections are fully manufactured from pre-consumed waste textiles from the studio alternative Network Alternative Sourcing, which includes wedding companies based in the United Kingdom. “We live in a time when there are communities physically drowning our waste,” explains English. According to the Report on the 2024 textile market situation By Wrap, an environmental action NGO, around 421,600 tonnes of used textiles was exported from the United Kingdom in 2022. “How do designers react to this?” We consider our collections as an opportunity to use waste and reissue waste in circulation. ”
Over the years, English has proposed a reactive design process for the varieties of unwanted textiles they receive – anything of 500 meters of silk with tiny decorations. “With large quantities of fabric, we can approach something with a larger silhouette or implement design characteristics such as folds,” explains English. “The small parts that we can use to build on surfaces in our patch work category. We have done so many different versions of this. ” The most recent collection and shield cutouts are an example.
The “fiber fiber mono” approach of the studio – using a single fiber content rather than in mixtures, which can be difficult or impossible to recycle, and zero components made from plastics and petrochemicals, such as zips or fasteners – considers the final life of the product. “He tries to make a garment with the potential to be decomposable and composable, returning to the earth in the safest way,” she says.
Although reluctant to reveal the company's financial services, over 14 years, the studio has formed a loyal clientele who, with advice, educational projects and design collaborations with brands and partners such as Rootfull, maintain the viable company. The nuptial category is developing as alternative attraction alternative wedding clothing and more people reject the idea of synthetic for their special day. “We attract people who want something that is done with intention and who can have a prolonged life,” explains English. “We have a list of natural dyers to which we can connect customers if they want to change the color of their garment.”
Even in the face of an extreme policy, climate Denial and sustainability fatigue, English remains optimistic. “If there are no other executives for people to be referenced, there is really no other option,” she said. “We are never going to move away from a structure that does not fit into the realities of our planetary limits. For us, it is really not the activity that we finish in the only studio. It is a question of transmitting information and seeing how the next generation could reinterpret this. ”
English is part of a small cohort of British fashion designers with an ecological spirit trying to tackle the problems of industry with similar techniques, notably Bethany Williams, Amy Powney from Akyn, Paolo Carzana and Emma Chopova and Laura Lowa from Chopova Lowena. But generally, says English, designers must work harder. “We are resolvers of trained problems. We can use these skills to think beyond the silhouette, color, adjustment and pattern. ” In its own way, English shows how.
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