Inside Anya Hindmarchs sustainable fashion revolution: after the iconic I am not a plastic bag
“Bags for life are not the answer: it seems like the noble next step from plastic bags, but in reality people take one every two weeks, and most of the time it’s not recycled,” says Hindmarch. “Ensuring something that’s 100 per cent recyclable is a challenge, but the No 1 is making something desirable, that people want to reuse. That’s half of the problem.”
Who is Antoine Arnault, the 45-year-old poker-playing potential LVMH heir?
Having run her eponymous label since 1987 – when she was only 18 years old – the London-based designer is known for her bespoke accessories such as bags printed with customers’ photographs, embossed with their drawings or messages in their own handwriting, as well as embroidered monograms. Last year, she extended her fashion footprint to a cafe, hair salon and more with The Village, a clutch of five shops in Knightsbridge, London.
With retail pieces that can be priced at upwards of US$1,100, Hindmarch’s fight against plastic on the back of a US$6 supermarket tote 15 years ago didn’t come naturally, especially given the hefty expenses incurred in research and in setting up the manufacturing.
“I don’t really care [about cost]. I passionately care that we do the right thing. In the early days, when people didn’t understand sustainability, they were coming to the bag for the wrong reasons. But if a part of the message has changed their behaviour, then buy it,” she says, adding that her reward is knowing that every tote bag bought means less plastic destined for the landfill.
In 2020, version two of the “I am not a plastic bag” tote was launched highlighting a cotton, canvas-feel fabric created from 32 half-litre recycled plastic bottles, again designed to be kept forever. Hindmarch commemorated the debut during that year’s London Fashion Week by shutting her shops in the capital and filling them with 90,000 recycled plastic bottles – the number bought globally every six seconds.
A year later, she achieved full biodegradability with the Return to Nature collection. These leather handbags were made with skins sourced from Scan-Hide Swedish farms boasting some of the world’s highest standards of animal welfare and were finished with Activated Silk (pure silk protein from real silk cocoons and water). Hindmarch conducted an independent study, finding that Return to Nature bags composted nearly as quickly as untanned skin and delivered 20 per cent stronger plant growth in the soil.
Inside Manolo Blahnik’s long copyright battle in China – and victory
“I want to use the powerful platform that is fashion to communicate the misuse of single-use plastic,” she says. “After the 2007 project, we realised that the problem of plastic waste wasn’t really going away. So we wanted to revisit the subject by understanding circularity rather than buying something, using it for five minutes and putting it into landfill. Fashion is only beautiful when it’s not damaging. There’s nothing luxurious about that.”
Now 15 years into her vocation, Hindmarch is still obsessively hands on. She recalls, for instance, the sleepless nights before she discovered the Activated Silk coating for her Return to Nature handbags, which would boil up with “chicken pox-like” spots after getting wet. She also remembers overcoming the challenge of retaining leather traceability for each handbag after the hide is tailored and the tag is nowhere to be seen.
Though her other lines have yet to adopt such extreme shades of green, all Anya Hindmarch deliveries are only wrapped in FSC-certified paper and are free of non-compostable plastic, foam and silica gel packs. Packaging tape is cellulose-based and inks are soy-based. Also high on her to-do list is exploring renewable materials like recycled sequins and canvas.
Which luxury fashion brand will Lanvin acquire next?
“In nature, there’s no waste. You won’t see a cow in landfills: it eats apples, dies, composts in the soil and the soil supports the apple again. Humans are such idiots, what are we doing wrong?” says Hindmarch.
“[My label] will keep going in a way where we can have a business that grows and employs people. We talk about progress, not perfection. It’s just using common sense and sharing our journey to encourage others without judgment.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7tK%2FMqWWcp51kuqKzwLOgp52jZMC1xcueZqedp6h6tb7Ep5usZ5Gnwaqvy55mbGlobH93gY6ipayhlJp6orrYmmShoZ6ZuqK%2BwqGqZqulqMGitc2amaWdXZuutLTIqKVmqpWrvK3B06Kmpw%3D%3D