This week was Fast Fashion Free Week at FHS, featuring a series of initiatives to highlight the disastrous impacts of fast fashion – and to celebrate the joys of thrifting, swapping, repairing and upcycling clothes.

We kicked off with a Life Skills session on Wednesday morning for Years 8 to 11, in which the hidden costs of that shiny £5 top were explored: the forced labour to make it; the microplastics in its fabric; the pollution of rivers by toxic dyes; and the top’s likely ultimate destination: a mountain of unwanted, non-biodegradable clothes in Ghana or Chile. We learnt that, in a globalized economy, even a cotton t-shirt has a huge carbon footprint, and over 2,000 litres of water are used in its production. The message was: Buy Less, Buy Well. And treat your clothes as cherished, long-term investments!

Over Wednesday lunchtime, the Sustainability Ambassador and Prefect organised a Sixth Form Clothes Swap in the OSH. The sounds of café jazz wafted through the air, pre-loved outfits flew off the hangers, money was raised for our partner charity, KLS, and a good time was had by all.

Thursday’s event was Samara’s Sustainable Fashion Show: a crowd-pleasing highlight of the Careers Fair. Following Samara’s rousing introductory speech, explaining the sustainable agenda of her show (which she produced as part of her EPQ), her models – all in the LVI – strutted their stuff along the catwalk with professional aplomb. The crowd loved it!

Today (Friday), Years 7 to 11 had their own Clothes Swap in the Hall – somewhat bigger and rowdier than the Sixth Form’s version. Any clothes left over are being donated to Clothing Collective: a charity tackling clothes poverty in the UK, that one of LVI mothers is involved with.

Finally, today was also Old Clothes Day, with girls and staff encouraged to wear anything vintage or borrowed. Highlights included Jemima G’s 100-year old ear-rings and Allegra C-D’s jacket from the 1930s: both hand-me-downs from their grandmothers. Which begs the question: I wonder what today’s teenagers will be handing down to their grandchildren, to draw admiring gasps at a school Old Clothes Day in 2124? (Spoiler: it won’t be a £5 top from Shein.)

Big thanks to Ms Hammond, Keziah A and Samara for all their amazing work organising Fast Fashion Free Week, to Nina, My-Lan and Sofia for their excellent posters – and to all the girls and staff who contributed.

Mr MacDonald-Brown, Head of Enrichment (Upper School), Sustainability Coordinator, Teacher of English and Classics