Orsola de Castro

Last updated

Orsola de Castro (born 1966 in Rome) is an upcyclist, fashion designer and author. She is the co-founder and creative director of Fashion Revolution, an activism movement which works towards a sustainable fashion industry. [1] De Castro has been in the sustainable fashion space for more than 20 years, since founding upcycling brand, From Somewhere, in 1997. [2]

Contents

Career

In 1997 de Castro started From Somewhere, a fashion label that addressed and repurposed pre-consumer textile waste. From Somewhere's 100% upcycled collections have sold around the world featured regularly in the international fashion press; collaborations include upcycled collections for Tesco, [3] Speedo [4] and Topshop. [5]

In September 2006 Orsola, together with her partner Filippo Ricci, started Estethica, a dedicated ethical fashion showcase at London Fashion Week for the British Fashion Council. [6] Estethica ran from 2006 to 2014 and has showcased designers such as Christopher Raeburn, Katie Jones, Bottletop, People Tree and Veja.

In 2011, Orsola and Filippo founded Reclaim To Wear, an organization that brings designers, producers and distributors to create upcycled capsule collections. Reclaim To Wear collaborations include Livia Firth and Central Saint Martins. 'Topshop's Reclaim To Wear', a collaboration running from 2012 to 2014 in which Topshop reclaimed surplus and excess stock fabric from factories in Turkey, India and the UK to make 3 capsule collections. [5]

In 2013, together with Carry Somers, Orsola co-founded Fashion Revolution, a creative campaigning initiative aimed at raising awareness about the fashion industry's human rights and environmental issues. Fashion Revolution was founded following the Rana Plaza 2013 Dhaka garment factory collapse in Bangladesh, which happened on 24/4/2013 and took the lives of more than 1,100 garment workers. [7] On the first anniversary of the tragedy, 62 countries took part in the first Fashion Revolution Day on 24 April 2014. Since, the campaign has seen more than 1 million people around the globe ask fashion brands "Who Made My Clothes?" on social media as a call for industry transparency. [8]

De Castro wrote her first book, Loved Clothes Last, published by Penguin Life (Penguin Group) in 2021 (Publication date 02/11/2021). [9] The book is a memoir of her work as an upcyclist and practical guide to clothing longevity, mending and fashion activism.

Orsola continues to mentor emerging designers, both in her personal life and via The British Fashion Council, Fashion Open Studio [10] and as a visiting fellow at Central St. Martins. [11] Her past mentees include Bethany Williams, Angus Tsui, Kevin Germanier, Katie Jones and Matthew Needham. [12] [13]

Personal life

Born in Rome in 1966, Orsola is the daughter of Venetian artist, Matilde Dolcetti. As a young artist, she took part in her first group exhibitions of etchings and drawings in Rome and Venice aged 15. Orsola moved to London, UK in 1982 where she lives today.[ citation needed ]

Publications

Loved Clothes Last. Penguin Life, 2021.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Karl Lagerfeld</span> German fashion designer (1933–2019)

Karl Otto Lagerfeld was a German fashion designer, creative director, artist and photographer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alexander McQueen</span> British fashion designer (1969–2010)

Lee Alexander McQueen CBE was a British fashion designer and couturier. He founded his own Alexander McQueen label in 1992, and was chief designer at Givenchy from 1996 to 2001. His achievements in fashion earned him four British Designer of the Year awards, as well as the CFDA's International Designer of the Year award in 2003. McQueen died from suicide in 2010 at the age of 40, at his home in Mayfair, London, shortly after the death of his mother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Valentino (fashion designer)</span> Italian fashion designer

Valentino Clemente Ludovico Garavani, known mononymously as Valentino, is an Italian fashion designer, the founder of the Valentino brand and company. His main lines include Valentino, Valentino Garavani, Valentino Roma, and R.E.D. Valentino.

TOPSHOP is a British fashion brand for women's clothing, shoes and accessories. It was part of the Arcadia Group, controlled by Sir Philip Green, but went into administration in late 2020 before being purchased by ASOS on 1 February 2021. It now operates via the ASOS website and app, as well as being sold in Nordstrom stores in the US and Canada and on Nordstrom.com. TOPSHOP previously had around 510 shops worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hobble skirt</span> Type of skirt with a narrow hem

A hobble skirt was a skirt with a narrow enough hem to significantly impede the wearer's stride. It was called a "hobble skirt" because it seemed to hobble any woman as she walked. Hobble skirts were a short-lived fashion trend that peaked between 1908 and 1914.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Biba</span> Fashion store & brand

Biba was a London fashion store of the 1960s and 1970s. Biba was started and primarily run by the Polish-born Barbara Hulanicki with help of her husband Stephen Fitz-Simon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Azzedine Alaïa</span> Tunisian fashion designer

Azzedine Alaïa was a Tunisian couturier and shoe designer, particularly successful beginning in the 1980s.

Martin Margiela is a Belgian fashion designer, artist, and founder of French luxury fashion house Maison Margiela. Throughout his career, Margiela has maintained a low profile, refusing to grant face-to-face interviews or be photographed. Since leaving fashion in 2009, he has emerged as an artist, exploring the themes that made him an iconic figure in fashion. He is considered to be one of the most influential fashion designers in recent history for his iconic deconstructed, upcycled aesthetic and oversized silhouette.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phoebe Philo</span> British fashion designer

Phoebe Philo OBE is a British fashion designer. She was the creative director of fashion brands Céline from 2008 to 2018 and Chloé from 2001 to 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carry Somers</span>

Carry Somers is a British fashion designer, social entrepreneur and campaigner. She is founder of Fashion Revolution and was previously founder and director of Pachacuti.

Elspeth Gibson is a British fashion designer, known for her feminine style of design. Her designs are often characterised by lace, beading and embroidery. Gibson was the British Fashion Council's New Generation Designer of the Year in 1998, and examples of her work are held in the design archive at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her clients have included Madonna, Zara Phillips, Cate Blanchett, Uma Thurman and Queen Rania of Jordan, for whom she has undertaken private commissions.

Peter Jensen is a men's and womenswear designer.

Richard Philip Nicoll was an English fashion designer, best known for his work on modernist classics with the coined term "night-to-day" versatility.

Alessandro Michele is an Italian fashion designer who most recently served as the creative director of Gucci, the Italian fashion luxury house where he had been working since 2002. Known for his maximalist designs, Alessandro Michele revived Gucci's popularity most notably with a Geek-Chic aesthetic. He had been responsible for all of Gucci's collections and global brand image from January 2015 until he stepped down from the role in November 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fashion Revolution</span>

Fashion Revolution is a not-for-profit global movement represented by The Fashion Revolution Foundation and Fashion Revolution CIC with teams in over 100 countries around the world. Fashion Revolution campaigns for reform of the fashion industry with a focus on the need for greater transparency in the fashion supply chain. Starting in 2013, Fashion Revolution has designated the anniversary of the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh as Fashion Revolution Day and holds events each year. Between 2014 and 2020, millions of people around the world called on brands to answer the question Who Made My Clothes? The hashtag #WhoMadeMyClothes became the no.1 global trend on Twitter. They have faced criticisms specifically about the Transparency Index.

Stella Novarino, known professionally as Stella Jean, is an Italian fashion designer of partial Haitian origin. She is a member of the Italian Chamber of Fashion and the only member of Afro-European background. Living and working in Rome, Jean is considered to be Giorgio Armani's protégé.

Maria Grazia Chiuri is an Italian fashion designer. After stints working at Fendi and Valentino, Chiuri was named creative director at Dior.

JW Anderson is a British fashion label, founded by Jonathan Anderson. Anderson lived in Northern Ireland during his youth before establishing JW Anderson in 2008 and subsequently launched his fashion house in London. The brand initially focused on menswear, before moving into womenswear in 2010. From 2012 onwards, the brand and its designer have collaborated with a number of retail fashion brands, most notably Topshop and Versace with LVMH acquiring a minority stake in the brand in 2013.

Katie Jane Hillier is a British fashion designer, mostly bags and accessories.

Ganni is a Danish contemporary ready-to-wear fashion brand. Founded in 2000 by gallerist Frans Truelsen, it started gaining cult popularity as a designer label in the late 2010s under the tutelage of husband-and-wife duo Nicolaj Reffstrup and Ditte Reffstrup.

References

  1. ↑ "Home". Fashion Revolution. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  2. ↑ Salter, Jessica (11 February 2010). "Orsola de Castro: The ethical fashion designer". fashion.telegraph.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. ↑ Shields, Amy (1 March 2010). "Tesco partners with ethical label". Drapers. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  4. ↑ Farrell, Aimee (13 August 2012). "Making A Splash". British Vogue. Retrieved 27 January 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. 1 2 "WHAT IS RECLAIM TO WEAR?". Topshop Blog. 25 May 2012. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  6. ↑ "British Fashion Council". www.britishfashioncouncil.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  7. ↑ "The Rana Plaza Accident and its aftermath". www.ilo.org. 21 December 2017. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  8. ↑ "2020 Impact". Fashion Revolution. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  9. ↑ "Orsola de Castro". www.penguin.co.uk. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  10. ↑ "About". Fashion Open Studio. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  11. ↑ "Orsola de Castro | HuffPost".
  12. ↑ "Fashion Revolution Creative Director Orsola De Castro Takes Tamsin Blanchard Through Her Wardrobe". 10 Magazine. 25 April 2020. Retrieved 27 January 2021.
  13. ↑ https://www.thisisthoughtful.com/4094/orsola-de-castro
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.