10 years ago, I joined a friend in running a stall selling re-cycled clothing, baby slings, bio-degradable Moltex disposable nappies, Homeopathy advice, and an exchange board for parents with “stuff” to exchange and sell. We occupied our space on Greenwich Covered Market every Friday and very soon had an enormous clientele relieved that shopping for clothes for growing babies and kids had suddenly become less stressful, less time consuming and cost less money. The re-cycled clothing for 5 years and under saved busy parents time, energy and money!.

The result was shocking, we were asked to leave the market because we compromised the profits of the children’s clothing shop on a permanent site, we consulted lawyers, were told we had a strong case, but we had babies and gave up our aims.

Forward 10 years, finding it difficult to find durable, accessible play clothes for boys and girls that don’t follow a “fashion” market and unnecessarily market our children as mini adults and the unwanted projection that we as parents reject.

Finding cheap clothing stores pampering to the “in one season out the next” disposable clothing market wasteful, and ‘who the hell do they fit!?’. Annoyed I’m channelled to the mail- order industry and the hassle of returns and do I really have to purchase from another country to satisfy my needs and bloody hell I have a very clear idea of what is needed right here!

At this point, I look at the politics of the clothing industry (if you can bear to, I invite you to too!) If not - carry on with my story.

I looked at the politics and thought we had the right idea 10 years ago with re-cycling. Once a garment is in the public domain, the deed is done, the producer massively short changed so let’s reduce the demand by re-cycling the garment. It works great for adult clothing as we change our sizes, go off colours and can’t believe we ever really liked that bomber jacket! Kids grow and change too! Apply the same principle, the kids are more amenable to the concepts - especially if they know the politics.

So here we are, a microcosmic version of our separate and combined journeys and just in case it makes you laugh, I’m an ex-Rock Star and Nicola’s ‘still’ a Genius!

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Hi, I’m Nicola and this is what Re-wear is about for me

I am a practical sort of person. My foray into re-wear and re-styling clothing started off being less about the politics and more about making the clothes my kids want to wear, finding something individual or fixing/extending the clothes that they wear incessantly.

Clothing has become so much cheaper lately, especially if you buy in the big bulk stores but let’s think about that…

Spending Power? Put your money where your mouth is! With the money in your pocket you make choices everyday – you vote with your feet. Our spending habits are monitored closely and have far more impact on government decisions than putting your mark on a ballot paper…It’s simply a question of economics and the economic wealth our leaders are hungry for. If sustaining the planet’s resources for future generations is important to you, then put your money where your mouth is. This is what it is about for me.

I suspect me and Linda will just about break even in terms of time and financial input on the re-wear but it’ll be fun to get the message across.