Fast fashion has become a worldwide problem. Textile waste is at an all-time high, with about 100 million tons going to our landfills every year.
While the majority of the problem stems from corporations manufacturing items cheaply irrespective of the environmental cost, many designers know that corporations will only start to change their behavior once the consumer does — and it's never too early to learn how to be an ethical consumer.
Two stylists, Lydia McNeill and Natalie Hartley, launched an upcycling fashion class called Chillie Kids Club to educate youth in Notting Hill, London.
The kids can choose to bring in their own projects or be guided by staff. Past projects have included upcycling blouses into patchwork skirts, accessorizing denim jackets, and converting straight-leg jeans to flares.
"We want to give them the space to be expressive, because that's what fashion should be," Hartley said to the Financial Times. "It's not like a screen-printing class where you follow steps, and all come out with the same thing."
All material used is secondhand. Anything left over gets used as stuffing for pillows and toys. "Nothing is wasted," McNeill said.
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The fashion industry is the second-largest consumer of water and the second-largest polluter of water. Fabricating one cotton shirt requires 700 gallons of water, according to Earth.org.
McNeill and Hartley have been friends since 2019, when Hartley was working at fashion magazines and McNeill was a stylist and personal shopper. They took their shared passion for vintage and secondhand clothing and created a vintage clothing business, Chillie London.
After successfully launching on Instagram during the pandemic, they opened a brick-and-mortar store. But it wasn't until they talked to an events manager that they got the idea to create an upcycling class for kids.
"Vintage sales were really quiet in the summer holidays, plus our own children hated going to most of the clubs that were on offer, so we decided to run upcycling clubs for kids," Hartley said. "It meant we could bring our own children along with us."
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Giving me money back 💰 The stylists rented a church hall in May 2024, hosting 30 kids. The program has since grown to five different venues that host after-school clubs, holiday events, and an adult stitching night.
"There are so many adults who can't sew a button or fix a shirt; it's a life skill we should all have," Hartley said.
The goal of Chillie Kids Club is for the children to grow up with a different outlook on fashion. "Fashion has become inaccessible," Hartley said. "It's no longer about the craft; it's about how much we consume. We want to show the process behind it."
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