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Fill your week with clothes swapping and ethical shopping
Anti Black Friday: Fashion + Lifestyle Concept Store
If scuffles at the tills give you chills, this pop-up shop will be a welcome antidote to all the consumer madness. Loaded with ethical apparel, Lone Design Club’s Anti Black Friday Concept Store supports slow fashion and brands specialising in sustainable design. Head along to meet the makers behind the green garms and join workshops schooling you in everything from needlework to knit mending and join meditations connecting you to fabric consciousness. Ommm. 64-68 Charing Cross Rd. Tube: Leicester Square. Until Sun Nov 25. Free entry.
Fuck Fast Fashion
The commercial fashion industry is an enormous contributor to global greenhouse gas emissions and human rights violations. It’s a grim picture. This evening of talks and panel discussions aims to show a sliver of a silver lining behind the dark fast-fashion cloud. Listen to fashion leaders talk about how ethical brands are innovating the industry, discover ways we can all help to slow down the onslaught of fast fashion and meet fellow sustainable souls over drinks. Not a conscious consumer yet? Your knowledge will be way less woolly by the time you leave. 64-68 Charing Cross Rd. Tube: Leicester Square. Thu Nov 22. £15.
Festival of Sustainable Fashion
Forget fashion hauls. Right now it’s all about swishing and swapping. You’ll find both at this festival celebrating forward-thinking fashion. Bag up your unwanted clobber and exchange it all for someone else’s garb you’re not sick of wearing at The Big Swish Clothes Swap hosted by Betsy’s Closet Swap Shop. Once you’re swished to bursting, hear panel talks from Fair Trade, eco-focused company Sustainable Threads or give your battered wares the Cinderella treatment at the Repair Café. Hackney House. Shoreditch High St Overground. Sat Nov 24. Free entry.
Walk in Wardrobe
It’s time to swish swish, bish, at this clothes swap with the mantra ‘if it fits, it’s yours’. Entry may be a bit on the pricy side, but you’ll get access to a whole room of glorious pre-loved clothes. Stick around for the panel talks with environmental entrepreneur Kresse Wesling MBE and the founder of Ethical Hour, Sian Conway. A personal stylist will show you how to make more considered purchases, because we all know that pair of snake-print flares won’t be making it out of the house next year. Treehouse. Tube: Barbican. Sat Nov 24. £18.
Wasted Chic x Student High Street Anti Black Friday
As big brands cash in on Black Friday, support the little guy at this pop-up shop from Wasted Chic and Student High Street. Both platforms champion young emerging designers and small independent fashion labels, giving you a chance to get your mitts on small-batch streetwear, curated vintage attire and ethical, sustainable pieces. Keep an eye out for raffles with designer prizes and giveaways throughout the day. Who needs rock bottom discounts, eh? Old Spitalfields Market. Tube: Liverpool St. Sat Nov 24. Free entry.
Quilting from Waste
Fashion designer Phoebe English is opening up her Deptford studio in the name of zero-waste fashion. Join her for a patchwork quilting workshop, where she’ll teach Londoners how to turn the off-cuts from her latest collection into a beautiful textured quilt, which will be displayed in a special exhibit. Then take your new skill home and use it to turn those old socks at the bottom of your drawer into something special. Art Hub Studios, 5-9 Creekside. Deptford Bridge DLR. Sat Nov 24. £15.
Islington Vintage Kilo Sale
Stop old clothes from ending up in landfill and grab a bagful of bargains while you’re at it at this vintage institution. Roll up your sleeves and rummage through tons of vintage goodies from the ’70s to the ’00s (even the clothes you wore in secondary school are now considered ‘vintage’, sorry). Take your well-picked wares to the scales and pay just £15 per kilo. There’s no minimum spend either, so load up with light items and you’re laughing. Which way to the silk shirts? Islington Assembly Hall. Tube: Highbury & Islington. Sun Nov 25. £3 early bird, £1.50 noon entry.
UpStuff: Winter Gifts
Step away from the bin. Take all the gear you’ve worn out, grown out or just plain want to throw out to this workshop teaching Londoners how to make beautiful gifts from old, everyday items or past fashion choices we’d rather forget. Rethink throwaway culture and recycle those clothes you haven’t worn since uni into a snazzy Christmas present. Plus, nobody can turn down a handmade gift, nobody. 116 Church Elm Lane. Dagenham Heathway. Wed Nov 21. Free.
Vintage Fill a Bag Sale
Do chic for cheap (and help stop textile pollution while you’re at it) at this no-frills vintage sale. Run wild in tons of garb from days gone by, which will be topped up throughout the day. Then cram your chosen regalia into a medium bag for £10, or a large bag for £20 if you want a full wardrobe overhaul. Better start practising how to fold like an origami pro. East End Vintage Clothing. Tube: Mile End. Sat Nov 24-Sun Nov 25. Free entry.
Find more brilliant pre-loved bargains at London's best charity shops.