The Covid-24 Family Fashion Diary
11 June 2025
Dear Diary,
It’s been five years since we first experienced the lockdowns due to a pandemic, and so much has changed since then - since Covid-19 changed us forever.
The first time it shocked our systems so much — we just weren’t prepared at all — even though Bill Gates [1] and many others had been warning us. We had been watching comedies on Netflix rather than TED talks.
But we adapted quickly enough — and from that first experience of confinement many of us changed our fashion habits. What we learned was that there are things we really need; and then things that we really want; and we finally had some time to work out the difference. But it wasn’t that easy. In our family of four our needs and wants vary so much…
The first thing we did back then was have an almighty wardrobe sort out [2]. Bags full of clothes we knew we would never wear again went into the boot of the car, as we waited for the charity shops to reopen. We bought things that took three weeks to arrive on our doorsteps — or else ventured out to collect orders from supermarkets. My mending pile only went down very slightly; the good weather back in 2020 meant that gardening and outdoor pursuits were still more appealing than mending socks and shirts. Money concerns dominated most decisions — back then no-one knew what the hell was going on. None of us knew if our jobs would survive this tiny bug.
Five years later and we are locking down again. This time it’s Covid-24…
My daughter, now 16, still watches YouTube and hankers after what the American girl influencers wear. At least now her hoodies are now made from regenerated cardboard packaging and blended with recycled polyester [3]. She uses her own pocket money to buy clothes, and has a spending app that rewards her for choices that are better for the planet. This was a great development for a fundamentally lazy but kind girl who would live in her bed if we let her. She wants to be good, but finds it hard, when she just wants to hang out with her friends. And all the facts are so, so confusing for her, especially when it’s her GCSE’s she has to focus on. The great thing about the app is it also connects her to people that would like the hoody after her. So, we can send it on, and it has several other useful lives before going to Worn Again’s [4] amazing UK recycling factory.
She is also well served now for rare moments when she feels like really dressing up — she can buy a compostable [5] nonwoven top, made with 100% automated production [6], for the days and nights she wants to be someone totally ‘other’ than her normal, grungy self.
My son, now 18, is getting ready for college and is still a total sports freak. He is a much more considerate fashionista than my daughter. He is going to study marine biology and has been a nature lover since he was tiny. It’s like he actually feels what animals feel. He sees the world differently to my daughter, and is more open to absorbing salient facts that help him decide what kind of consumer to be.
He was so happy when the EU Herewear project that I was working on produced circular bio streetwear made from agricultural waste — cow manure and seaweed, to be exact [7]. His favourite brands making brilliant fibre choices and committing to circularity, is right up his street. Now that they also have better localized, distributed digital manufacturing capacity, he can also get his special purchases engineered and customized.
The thing that is still proving tricky is his feet. Have you any idea how many trainers, football boots, rugby boots, running spikes, tennis shoes, etc., a growing boy gets through? The next thing the footwear industry needs to do is create some service options for families like us with sporty kids. Cost is a massive disincentive these days. Schools have to charge for after school sports clubs, and coaching for things like tennis is super-expensive. It’s such a shame to have to say no to kids pursuing sports because of the lack of kit service options — especially when Covid has made our UK obesity problems even worse.
My husband, on the other hand, has become even more minimalist in his dress sense. I wouldn’t generally describe him as being “low maintenance”, but when it comes to clothes, he is the most sustainable person I know. He actually still wears a vest in bed that is older than our 20-year relationship! Since Covid first struck he has invested in a few more key items from Rapha [8], his favourite brand, but mostly he wears what arrives by post each six months. T-shirts, underwear — the exact ones he likes. I pity whoever has to process his returned garments, but chemical regeneration is definitely the best EOL route for these!
As for me, I am always looking for my ideal choice of time- and money- saving services. I adore my Mendaroo girl. She nips around on her moped, picks up the mending, alteration and sewing projects I need help with — and whizzes off to get it done in her safe studio space. I regularly use My Wardrobe HQ [9] these days, since discovering the power of wearing a McQueen jacket on an important Zoom call back in 2020 [10]. I would also now call myself a Fashion Philanthropist [11] — I buy pieces that I know have been made in a way that supports other communities, and will be used well by others before going back into a regenerative material system [12].
When I do venture into town, I love to browse the local boutique where my Chelsea textile graduates remanufacture waste from over-production and fallout, using the skills we taught them at UAL [13]. Their boutique is situated in a row of shops that include totally transformed charity shops. You wouldn’t recognise Cancer Research shops now. I think it must have been those funky Covid Research shops that opened up after the first pandemic and the unbelievable amount of unsold stock that piled up. It really was the wake-up call we all needed back then.
This is a script from the CoGo Good Impact Series: Fashion, chaired by Mike Barry on 11 June 2020. Film of the whole 60-minute session is available on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dj2rz6V6RG4
Acknowledgements
The diary is based on research conducted with multiple experts at Centre for Circular Design (UAL), the Mistra Future Fashion Programme and the Trash-2-Cash Project (RISE). The EU-funded HEREWEAR project began in October 2020. Find out more about this exciting circular bio-materials research at http://herewear.eu/
References
[1] Bill Gate’s TED talk, ‘The next Pandemic? We’re not ready’ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Af6b_wyiwI
[2] Shake Down, http://www.beckyearley.com/weekly-diary/2015/1/18/week-2-the-wardrobe-shakedown
[3] Trash-2-Cash Project, https://www.trash2cashproject.eu/
[4] Worn Again, http://wornagain.co.uk/
[5] Pulp It, Circular Design Speeds project, https://www.circulardesignspeeds.com/
[6] Mistra Future Fashion, http://mistrafuturefashion.com/
[7] Herewear Project, EU Research and Innovation Programme, https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6672162287568072704
[8] Rapha, https://www.rapha.cc/gb/en/mens-products/new-arrivals/category/new-arrivals
[9] My Wardrobe HQ, https://www.mywardrobehq.com/
[10] From a quote by Jane Shepherdson (My Wardrobe HQ) during the ‘Responsible Fashion — How Climate Change and Covid-19 will change the World of Fashion’, CogX Conference session and chaired by Tamsin Blanchard (10.6.20) https://cogx.co/
[11] A Fifty Year Fashion Statement (Service Shirt), Circular Design Speeds project, https://www.circulardesignspeeds.com/
[12] Top 100 Project, http://www.upcyclingtextiles.net/
[13] Centre for Circular Design, https://www.circulardesign.org.uk/
