Throwaway Britain - my TV debut on ITV

In January I gave a talk at Manchester WI (click here for more info) about the importance of re-styling and re-imagining clothes to keep them out of landfill:approx 10,000 garments get thrown away every 5 minutes in the UK. 6 months later I had a phone call from ITV asking me to come in for a meeting about the same topic. An ITV researcher had been sitting in the audience at my WI talk and had recommended me. With the help of my trusty and talented seamstress, Laura from Just Sew Perfect (click here for her website), we had a day filming at the awesome Photolink studio (for more info click here) in Manchester with 8 women who wanted to get more wear out of their clothes. 

Styling kit ready and waiting

Lights, camera...ACTION!!

My set for the day. How mega are the chairs??!!!

Lulu Guiness slippers came in handy after 12 hours in heels...

We upcycled, we swapped, we styled. The finished result will be on ITV on Thursday 1st August at 9pm. It's a 1 hour Tonight Special on waste called Throwaway Britain.

 

Kudos to those re-inventing the wheel

The brains behind the Manchester WI: 

Lucy Adams and Alexandra Taylor.

Back in the day the WI used to be PIONEERING and POLITICALLY active. Started in 1915, it now has over 200,000 members. I owe a huge chunk of my career success with The Wardrobe Angel to the WI and I won't hear a word against it but when you think of the WI (Women's Institute) your first thoughts may wander to jam, tea, cake, knitting. You may even get as far as Calendar Girls. But forget everything you think you know about the WI because two young ladies in Manchester have ripped up the rule book, changing the face of the WI ...forever....

Lucy Adams had lived in Manchester for 2 years and whilst working away in luxury retail she realised that the late nights and long days had left her with little time to make the most out of what is a truly magnificent city. She wanted to create a network of like-minded women who turned the city inside out for their own enjoyment, using local products and services and supporting each other in turn. Her step-mum was a member of an old-fashioned WI and Lucy, savvy chica that she is, realised the model for uniting women worked, it just needed a re-vamp, a push, nay, a shove into this century. Lucy contacted the WI Head Honchos with a brief for a younger, more vibrant, more relevant WI. 

Now this is where the fates intervened. Another plucky young chic of Manchester origin also wanted to start a WI in Manchester city centre: Alexandra Taylor. She too had contacted the mother-ship WI with similar plans. The mother-ship WI put Lucy and Alexandra in contact and the rest is history. The two ladies met up over a series of months to define their brand of WI, the logo, the speaker content, the location. They got their ethos sorted: support grass roots businesses, shop local, craft the night away and question mass culture and fast fashion, all while creating a community vibe in the city centre. 

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The self styled "sistas from another mista" Lucy and Alexandra have created a brand of WI that is invigorating, fresh and fun: a modern slant on the traditional concept. Featured on BBC Breakfast and partnered up with Oxfam to promote upcycling and recycling, there isn't a whiff of Jam and Jerusalem here! Membership is capped at 150 to keep the community vibe but they open up to new members each January to avoid elitism. And it has worked! They now have a craft club, fitness club, cinema club plus numerous others...

Check out their Facebook page with all the details of meetings and happenings by clicking here. 

Why I love tea

Steeped in my history, pouring through the bloodlines of my family, caveat to my life, an entity so inextricably linked to the ups and downs of my existence that it has created an enduringly unfathomable love… tea. It scares me when people don’t like tea. I’m sorry, what? You don’t like tea? We could never be friends. Our family is practically founded on tea: its meaning in our house is what a steadfast currency is to a thriving economy. My mum requires two cups in the morning (which, FYI, has progressed to a whole pot now she has retired), my toddler nephew offers up tasty hot beverages to teddies at his tea parties but it was my Grandma who ultimately won tea top trumps, raising the stakes to a previously hitherto unknown level: steaming hot tea within which contained the forbidden fruit: one teaspoon of sugar. We weren’t allowed sugar in our tea at home. How’s that for a crafty game of one-upmanship with her daughter-in-law? And to put that into perspective in case you are thinking “but I have two teaspoons in my brew every time!” we were only allowed sweets on a Saturday and a Sunday. At a non-negotiable rate of 5 per day.

Then there’s the time my friend Joban and I spent £165 on tea whilst on a trip to San Francisco. Yes. You read that correctly. £165. We had fun getting that through customs – a large cake of Chinese Pu-erh tea which looked suspiciously like hash. When I was training for a half marathon and gave up drinking alcohol for a month I needed a drink replacement so, naturally, tea it was. The half marathon complete, I celebrated by giving up drinking entirely and my tea intake rocketed. The mark of my friendships is how well I know my way around their kitchens in order to get my brew fix.

Pumpkin Tea

Tea is routine, structure, order, mental balm, comforter and confidence all wrapped in one tasty package. And it’s not just me. That molten brown mass is a national sticking plaster:  where would we be without it? How would the plot lines of Corrie play out if they couldn’t put the kettle on in a time of crisis? And remember that iconic image of tea being served on a riot shield after the London riots in 2011? 



Tea makes everything better. Been dumped? Passed over for promotion? Putting the kettle on is a proven formula for guaranteed pain relief. There is something so wonderfully blissful in the routine of running the water, selecting your mug, retrieving the milk from the fridge all the while accompanied by the cacophony of steamy noise exiting the kettle. And you are rewarded with the ultimate pleasure of that rich dark liquid touching your lips and soothing your soul. So, what’ll it be? Mug not cup, soya milk if you have it, no sugar, and, do you know what? Leave the bag in a little while longer. I like mine strong.