Tag: Comic Relief

Vivienne Westwood for Comic Relief

Yesterday my friend Lettice blogged about this year’s Comic Relief t-shirts, designed by Vivienne Westwood. This meant that I had to get myself down to TK Maxx as soon as possible, and buy one for myself.

As a fan of Blackadder, I’d had every intention of buying the same t-shirt as Lettice, the one with Miranda Richardson as Queenie (Queen Elizabeth I) on the front. And then I saw this one, and simply couldn’t resist!

I’m rather glad that the red “noses” don’t sit in the same place on me as they do on “Costume sous Louis XVI” by Andre Deveria, and I think that after Red Nose Day I might dye the t-shirt red to make them a little less obvious. But I do like to support Comic Relief, and if I can get a Vivienne Westwood t-shirt out of it, then hooray for charitable causes!

Investigating African textiles.

When I worked in a fabric shop, we had a large number of customers who would come in and buy linings and haberdashery to go with the most amazing fabrics that they’d brought with them from Ghana. The image above is a beautiful example of embroidered french lace, which you can buy in the UK from Middlesex Textiles.

I was watching Comic Relief last night, and looking at all of the amazing textiles being worn by the women in Africa.

I buy my organic cottons from Bishopston Trading, who import directly from rural India with the sole aim of fair trading. What I’ve been trying to find out today is whether there’s a company in the UK who works on a similar basis with textile producers in Africa.

I think batiks and wax prints would work beautifully with my new dress, as would the laces and embroideries.

It would be brilliant if I could say that every dress in my future range was made from fabric that had been locally sourced, recycled, organically made or supported fair trade across the world.

To be honest, it seems like the least I can do.