BITCHES UNITE! It’s in fashion

A few weeks ago I registered for the intriguingly titled ‘How to be an Eco Warrior(ess)’ event, held last week at Sellar Design + Development.  Foolishly I hadn’t done my research and was slightly taken aback when an e-mail popped up from ‘Bitch-Online’ confirming my place.  The sudden prospect of an evening spent with a group of angry women, advocating the need to sharpen our green swords and wage war on modern living, was a little daunting.  Having agreed to attend on behalf of Style With Heart, I found myself between a prehistoric rock and a hard place; with ticket in hand, and no viable reason to duck out, I decided to brave it.

How glad I am that I did. Bold Intelligent and In Total Control of Herself is an online magazine (BITCH_online) aimed at ambitious entrepreneurs and career focussed businesswomen, the brain child of Sandra Donskyte.  For their first ‘social entrpreneurship and eco business’ networking event they’d lined up a panel of four women, all of whom run their own sustainable ventures.

Leading the pack was Servane Mouazan, director of the aptly named social organisation Ogunte (translation Warrior) which promotes talks, events and learning programmes.  The focus of her venture is to support women wanting to boost local and global welfare by creating more sustainable business opportunities. Servande’s war cry is a genuine call for women to assist women, advocating the importance of working on our legacy now in order that we leave something future generations will be proud of.  A noble rant indeed.

Warrior(ess) number two was Seraphina Davis, one half of the sister team behind Nancy Dee, a fashion brand with an ethical backbone.  As someone who’s started her business from scratch Davis was particularly honest about the exhausting challenges she’s faced along the way, mainly around quality control and communication with her Indian suppliers.  Interestingly this is something that Eleanor Dorrien-Smith, Central St. Martins graduate and founder of Partimi, also voiced when speaking at the British Library a few weeks ago.  Similar to Eleanor, Serephina’s solution was to spend “hours, days, weeks, months” doing her research, and for this she has every reason to be proud.  Not only does the Nancy Dee range sit comfortably alongside mainstream fashion brands in terms of style and quality, the label supports British manufacturing skills ever since production moved to Leicester two years ago.

Taking a slightly different tact was cutting edge designer Lucy Tammam, recent School for Creative Startups (S4CS) graduate and creative director of House of Tammam.  Lucy’s business employs Indian tailors to create handmade, handcrafted, bespoke wedding dresses for a global audience. Her account of the on-going struggle to get the right sheen from eri silk using a power loom was just one example of how the entrepreneurial path is no picnic.  Yet listening to her speak I had the distinct impression that she was the type of person who wouldn’t rest until a solution to her problem had been found – a worthy warrior, passionate and courageous to the core.  Speaking briefly afterwards, Lucy was also quick to recommend the S4CS mentoring scheme for anyone aspiring to run their own business.

Completing the panel was Elena Corchero, owner of Lost Values, a company melding technology with craft in a truly innovative way.  Elena’s frustration with the growing distance between the maker and consumer had taken her down a technology path leading to MIT Media Lab Europe, an environment of creative play research.  Faced with the question ‘What is it that truly matters?’ Corchero found her answer in Design Activism – the philosophy that through designing a product she could actively change consumer behaviour.  As a result Lost Values promotes people’s interaction with the planet through bespoke products, integrating materials that are easily recyclable with electronics and technology.  A great example of her desire to recapture lost traditions whilst blending these with the modern world are the augmented hand toys, used to bring touchscreen games to life through the simple magic of puppetry.

After discussing the complexities and contradictions inherent within the ‘ethical’ realm, it was clear that the rocky road of running a sustainable business is likely to put anyone on the warpath. Yet all four speakers were prime examples of a new and modern breed of warrior; bold individuals undaunted by their challenges, smoothing over rocky bumps with sheer hard work, infectious determination and a very tangible belief in what they’re doing.  All in all, I left with a feeling that being an Eco BITCH might just be the new black.

Kate Richards

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