Edinburgh Napier graduate dresses models in recycled festival tents at London Fashion Week

Revellers' tents transformed into catwalk clobber
James Marshall and Imogen Evans/ a model wearing some of the recycles tents.James Marshall and Imogen Evans/ a model wearing some of the recycles tents.
James Marshall and Imogen Evans/ a model wearing some of the recycles tents.

An eco-conscious entrepreneur has been turning people’s forgotten festival tents into high-fashion catwalk clobber.

For the most dedicated followers of fashion among us, walking around in other people’s rubbish may not sound appealing, but one graduate dressed models at the prestigious London Fashion Week (LFW) last week in the remains of festival tents.

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James Marshall, who graduated from Edinburgh Napier with an MSC in Environmental Sustainability, realised the impact textile waste has on our environment and decided to do something about it.

The clothes were donned by models during London Fashion Week.The clothes were donned by models during London Fashion Week.
The clothes were donned by models during London Fashion Week.

The 24-year-old’s brand, 10T, was showcased at LFW on the first runway made out of recycled waste.

James, who is from the Borders, came up with the idea at the end of 2018.

He said: “Last summer we went to music festivals Eden and Kendall calling and with the help of my family and friends we collected about 300 tents.

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“We also worked with a charity in England who collect tents at the end of festivals and give them to refugees.

“They don’t normally collect broken tents so they did and sent any parts over to us.”

'The future is rubbish'

Once he collected the materials, James employed Edinburgh designer Imogen Evans to create the collection.

He added: “I didn’t want the aesthetics to be sacrificed by the materials but I wanted it all to be sustainable. It’s about getting that balance.”

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10T have created jackets, bucket hats and bumbags, with everything, zips included, taken from tents, excluding the stitching.

The firm also produces duffel bags made from the ground sheets of tents and is hoping to sell their products online from mid-March, in time for the festival season.

Speaking of future collections, James added: “We will stick with collecting waste from source ourselves but we will start looking at other forms of waste, we already have a few ideas.

“What I want to hold on to is that we collect, manifest, sort and clean the materials and make the products ourselves, the future is rubbish.”

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10T were approached to be a part of brand Absolut’s sustainable fashion runway at LFW which they created to celebrate the launch of the Absolut Recycled bottle.

The runway itself was made from waste picked up from London Fashion Week’s biggest parties.

Raja Banerji, Marketing Director at Pernod Ricard said, “At Absolut, we believe that waste is useful and with a little creativity we can all drive positive change.”

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