What is the most stylish and sustainable way to celebrate our 10th anniversary? We started with Ten out of Ten – a series of events with traditional dance roots across Edinburgh in autumn 2024 highlighting the diversity and breadth of activities by our 200+ members. Then we were invited to be the national charity of choice for this year’s ReFashion Edinburgh – a sustainable slow fashion event curated by our Pomegranates 2024 festival fashion designer-in-residence Alison Harm of Psychomoda. This now traditional annual event returned for a third time to the Leith Arches on 17 November 2024 and together with 200 guests we were wowed by the sustainable fashion creativity of the nine Edinburgh designers, supported by 18 models, including a dancer, a collective of makeup and hair professionals, as well as an excellent light, sound, video, photo and welcome team – all working for free to bring us this event. We were overjoyed to hear that this spectacular ReFashion Edinburgh night raised £2,000 from ticket sales towards our charity. We couldn’t be more grateful for this generous and glamorous birthday gift marking our 10th anniversary. Thank you, ReFashion Edinburgh! This donation will enable us to continue embedding diversity and sustainability in traditional dance across Scotland.
How did it all come about? It was in April 2024 when we curated Vengefully Changed Allegiance – Alison Harm‘s first solo exhibition in a public institution exploring sustainable fashion and the role of tartan in traditional dance as part of our third annual Pomegranates Festival – Scotland’s third International Trad Dance Festival. Her work was on display at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh and Edinburgh Central Library and thousands of our festival visitors were stunned by her designs. For the last 30 years her work has been challenging the living tradition of the tartan cloth still used in the Highland Dress dance costume and the kilt with all its accessories by mixing different tartan patterns together and upcycling industry scraps, vintage cloth and broken jewellery.
In 2022 Alison’s passion for upcycling led her to founding the ReFashion Edinburgh fashion show – an antidote to fast fashion shining a spotlight on local designers who strive for sustainability and ethical creativity. A collective of nine designers showcased their latest collections at the event this year, supported by 18 local models and as many members of the back stage team, all united by Alison’s passion and the message: sustainable fashion doesn’t need to cost the Earth. Alison’s words with which she addressed the audience will continue to resonate with us all:
“It’s well known by now that fast fashion is the second worst polluter of the planet and since its rise in the1980s we’ve seen a terrifying dystopian future emerge, one with mountains of nasty cheap discarded clothing which will never degrade, covering beaches and lakes, depletion of natural resources and indigenous cultures, as globalism takes over. Human trafficking, child labour and slavery go hand in hand. These are the problems.
At ReFashion Edinburgh we are joining our voices to the growing counter culture of a slower, more thoughtful way of expressing ourselves through the media of clothing. By taking part, designers are encouraged to find sustainable solutions. And the audience is given food for thought, how to have fun with your wardrobe but keeping it sustainable. The fashion industry is elitist and has a structural hierarchy almost impossible to penetrate. When they get their favourites, they stick with them, leaving it very difficult for micro businesses to succeed. Events are usually run on a profit-making basis and you might be surprised to learn that they can cost hundreds and even thousands of pounds for designers to participate. They also usually have a competitive theme, an award for example. Often they are only open to graduates or international companies. Recently, I was dismayed to learn that the Scottish Fashion Awards held no category that I could even enter.
ReFashion Edinburgh seeks to offer an alternative. We are a supportive environment, celebrating each other’s achievements. We are inclusive. The ranges in age from 18 to (cough) mid 60s. Seriously, I’m up near the top end. Never been known for keeping my mouth shut in the face of unfairness, I decided to take matters into my own hands and this is the result. Our receiving charity is the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland, who do a lot of great work supporting dance projects locally nationally and internationally. Our intention is to support local businesses, nurture sustainable creativity and raise money for charity.”
Alison Harm
At this year’s ReFashion Edinburgh award-winning slow fashion designer Jen Byrne presented the collection Junk Nouveau: waste textiles meet vintage fabrics, reborn as artful garments. Jen breathes new life into forgotten fabrics and her one of a kind garments are crafted in house with an attention to detail that redefines luxury. With a commitment to sustainability and creativity, Jen’s pieces embody the essence of mindful fashion and showcase the beauty of reuse.
Alison Curr is a Scottish design treasure. As a knitwear and crochet designer specialising in accessories for the home and person, her work is about style rather than dictated by fashion and her new collection included knitwear and a wide range of hats, mittens and other cosy stylish items in a wide range of colours. At ReFashion Edinburgh she presented two collections Lust for life: inspired by the music of the 1970s, crafted from repurposed materials and garments, as well as Moonlight and Roses: each garment celebrating the beautiful rose.
Séverine Fouché’s designs are steeped with refences to La Belle Epoque and known under her label Needlebow. A French designer, dressmaker and hand-embroiderer based in Edinburgh, Severine presented her latest collection Modern Love: romantic exploration of style using couture techniques combining different textures and decorations such as see-through fabrics with cut-out fabrics using up-cycled garments and second-hand materials.
Gerry Gapinski is known for painting large-scale interior canvases and murals. For the last three years, he has been applying the techniques he uses for his artwork, onto upcycled and vintage clothing, creating one-off, mixed-media wearable street art. Each piece in his ReFashion Edinburgh collection Street Talking Graffiti: recycling of Beatnik, Hippie, Hip hop and Punk offered a fusion of street art, popular culture, and musical influences that spans from the rebellious spirit of punk rock to the vibrant colours and patterns of the psychedelic 1960s.
Alison Harm, the founder of ReFashion Edinburgh, presented a fresh new take on her Pomegranates Festival solo exhibition Vengefully Changed Allegiance: post-punk and historical mash-up made from kilt industry scraps and found fabrics. Alison has over 45 years of experience in creating clothing for all occasions, including sustainable garments made from remnants and antique cloth, vintage and recycled jewellery, as well as knitwear. Her collections of history-inspired garments use both pre and post-consumer fashion waste.
Claire Pattison of Clara Textiles brought her new collection Typical Girls to ReFashion Edinburgh. It was inspired by the inventive, riotous passion and fury of women’s art and activism in the 1970/80s and the relevance that these artistic acts of activism still have on women’s place in society today. Claire makes bold, textured and playful designs, reusing and repurposing pre-used fabrics and found objects.
Carina Rose made her debut at ReFashion Edinburgh this year and presented her new collection Echoes of the Rebellion drawing deeply from the Jacobite Rebellion with a focus on the symbolic Jacobite rose which is intricately woven throughout. Each piece embodied both heritage and innovation, tying it to the narrative of courage, loyalty and sacrifice. The colour palette featured rich reds, deep greens and blues, touches of white and silver, with signature ruffle details crafted from offcuts and deadstock fabrics.
Fawns Reid of Fabhatrix label presented her collection Fantastical Felt Hat Whimsy: uniquely devised shapes and techniques made from traditional blocked hat waste. Using off-cut waste her works featured fantastical whimsical shapes and the ever-popular tweeds.
Rita Szentivanszki’s collection The Little Blue Dress focused on basic silhouettes you can combine with your existing wardrobe. As a recent Textiles and Costume Design graduate, Rita has learned a lot about good design and focuses on the colour blue. Her key material is reclaimed jeans chosen for their durability and timeless appeal. The size limitation of this pre-loved material forces Rita to think creatively and she seeks to design a patchworked capsule collection you can enjoy wearing every day.
The third ReFashion Edinburgh finale was a real blast with an art collection and a timely message encouraging us all to buy less and upcycle more this Christmas. The designers were given the option of making an art piece that expressed the theme of sustainability by using only waste products. It’s not fashion and doesn’t have to be something you could wear, but it does have to be actually wearable. The results were varied. Some are truly amazing and others, like Alison’s own complete with a placard, were just a bit of fun. Although the theme was serious, the costumes were not. What an absolute honour to celebrate our 10th anniversary alongside such incredibly talented designers, both new and established, amongst audiences who not only loved the designs but will stop and think next time they buy a new outfit and look for a sustainable alternative.
Our way of saying thank you to Alison Harm and all who made ReFashion Edinburgh 2024 such a runaway success and trusting us, the Traditional Dance Forum of Scotland as this year’s chosen charity, is to invite the ReFashion Edinburgh team as special guests to our new series of Ceilidh Plus events open to all at Edinburgh’s King’s Hall which blend Scottish Ceilidh with dances and tunes from Greece and Italy (7 December 2024) or from Ireland and Bulgaria (22 March 2025) and more to be announced soon.
Further details about our Ceilidh Plus series here.
Words by Iliyana Nedkova. Images courtesy of 244 Studio and ReFashion Edinburgh 2024 team.
