Christopher Raeburn praises ethical style
Christopher Raeburn makes many of his pieces from reclaimed material as he loves the “functionality” of quality fabric.
“I don’t think for a minute that I started this. I’ve got photos of my grandmother in 1941 in a bombed out church getting married in a silk parachute dress,” he told British newspaper The Independent.
“The attitude of make do and mend is by no means new, but there has been a renaissance – not to deflect from what we’ve done here.”
Christopher loves the idea of transforming something which has been discarded into a brand new item which someone will love.
His love of old fabrics stemmed from his days as a student, when he became interested in sturdy fabrics which usually happened to be from days gone by.
“I was interested by the technical side; making things properly – I’d stay after class, late into the evening practicing my sewing. With that came a love of robust quality fabric and the functionality that comes with it,” he explained.
“So many of the original garments that I really loved, you couldn’t buy the fabric on a roll even if you wanted to because they were from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Instead I was going to Portobello Market in London or military surplus warehouses and picking up jackets dating from that era at $8 a piece.”