It started with the Oxfam shop in Summertown, Oxford - 20 bags of second hand clothes, carefully selected for the teenage eye by the clever Oxfam team. On a cold Saturday morning, clearly requiring silly hats, clothes were collected and taken to St Clare’s College on the Banbury Road where a team of fashionistas from St Clare’s, Oxford High School, and The Cherwell School were waiting to turn second hand into high fashion.
A few days earlier the group of students from the three schools had met for the first time at Cherwell School, where they presented to each other the findings of their research on the problems of the fast fashion industry for the planet (water use, pollution, waste - it’s not pretty) and for people working in poor conditions in the supply chain. Galvanised by an appreciation of the extent of the problem, our teams were back together to show the world how to turn second hand into top teen fashion.
After several hours of sorting, selecting and creating with the help of fashion fan, Jeni Williams from Big Wheel Theatre in Education, our teams had their outfits ready to go.
In the wake of a passing climate march we made our way to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, where we were met by Museum Educator, the wonderful Sarah Lloyd.
Then it was out into the Museum for some fashion shots amongst the dinosaurs.
Two days later we were back together, this time at Oxford High School, creating posters, with the expert help of the school’s technicians. And finally, the censored versions made it onto social media.
Huge thanks for this project go to Vicky Bullard from St Clare’s who picked up this project and ran with it with me; to St Clare’s College for a wonderful venue for our outfit selection and an all day breakfast for everyone; to Charlotte Richer from Cherwell School who does so much on enrichment for their students, on top of a full teaching schedule; to Oxford High School’s Helen Wilson, Head of Textiles, and her colleagues Yasemin and Joanna, the wonderful Art and Textile Technicians who taught the students to use Photoshop to make their posters; to Janet and her team at the Oxfam shop in Summertown and the Oxfam education and communications teams who were so helpful; to Rebecca Nestor and Julia Patrick from Low Carbon Oxford North who supported the entire project; to Sarah Lloyd at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History for being so flexible and kind; to Jeni Williams for bringing her creativity and calm; and of course to the wonderful, fun, creative, passionate and simply amazing young people who gave up their time and energy to this project.
Hopefully we can do a rerun next autumn with a new group of year 12s, and without Covid so that the students can all mix more easily and we can build on our experiences of this year.