Mar 7, 2023
In episode 289, Kestrel welcomes Amy Powney, a UK based fashion designer, creative director and activist living in London. After starting as an assistant who swept the cutting room floor, Amy worked her way up, and is now the Creative Director and owner at Mother Of Pearl. A luxury womenswear brand, Mother of Pearl celebrates individuality, authenticity and sustainability. Amy is also the star of a new documentary called Fashion Reimagined, that tells some of her story building Mother Of Pearl into what it is today.
“I guess growing up on a farm, growing up the way I did, working you know, in the bottoms of the supply chains and agriculture, et cetera, it just kind of — it felt homely and it felt raw and it felt honest and it felt important and it’s really motivated me even more to want to tell that story, and for us to really understand when we see our product, what people and places and craftsmanship has been added. And that we can’t just focus on this pure kind of end part, and we need to be really respectful and honored for the farmers and these workers — you know, without them, we don’t have clothes and without them, we don’t have food. I think we need to connect that supply chain up and respect it. And it’s given me so much more respect as a designer to what I’m doing and why I’m doing it.” -Amy
In Fashion Reimagined, Amy takes folks along with her on a journey to shift Mother Of Pearl toward a more sustainable direction. It all starts in 2017, when she wins the British Fashion Council/Vogue Designer Fashion Fund award and decides to invest that cash into tracing her supply chain back as far as possible to the raw materials.
The most exciting part of the film is watching them navigate their way through the sourcing process. We see their adventures in Uruguay to find a wool supplier, and their journey in Turkey to find a denim mill and factory, we see how they cultivate a relationship with a mill in Austria that uses steam rather than chemicals to soften the fabric, and of course, unexpected events happen, reminding us how important it is to be an exceptional problem solver in this industry.
The film culminates in the launch of the No Frills collection at London Fashion Week in September of 2018 – when Mother Of Pearl was the ONLY sustainable collection on the schedule. A reminder that this was only 5 years ago.
While we are undoubtedly seeing a lot of shifts in recent years – more brands showing more sustainably-focused collections, entire fashion weeks like Copenhagen dedicated to sustainability, and more mainstream discussion about it, Amy reminds us in the film that – “It’s not enough – we aren’t changing fast enough.”
As Pedro, the owner of Lanas Trinidad (Mother Of Pearl’s wool supplier), says in the film —
“We talk about sustainability and the environment – but we have to live the way we say.”
Quotes & links from the conversation:
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“I guess, the highlights, albeit being obviously one of the hardest parts of the process, was just reconnecting with the people in the supply chain. You know, in the fashion industry, it’s notorious for promotion and sales and social media. We see fashion and we very much see it a kind of a glossy moment. And I think historically, a lot of the conversations around supply chains has been a bit boring and it’s turned people off. And I think there’s one thing learning about a supply chain or thinking about it, but another thing is when you actually meet these humans involved in it.” -Amy (17:11)
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“If you look at a cotton garment, a wool garment, a viscose garment — I mean, even if you get into polyester and synthetics; obviously it’s all been through these plastic processes and fundamentally, it is plastic. But its origin is actually oil, so we’re actually taking from the planet in a very raw way to make our products, but we’re so disconnected at the end. And actually, if we look at farming and agriculture, it’s exactly the same in fashion — it’s just it’s a few more steps back, and people just don’t connect the dots, and I think that’s the piece of education that we all need to understand to respect our things in a different way.” -Amy (21:54)
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Lanas Trinidad, Mother Of Pearl’s wool supplier
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Fashion Reimagined Website (Fashion Reimagined - in cinemas 3rd March, 2023 and available on Sky Documentaries and streaming service NOW from 9th April, 2023)