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Phoebe English, Miss Jason in Glasgow, Contemporary Chinese furniture design

Fashion designer Phoebe English on putting sustainability at the heart of her label, Miss Jason in Glasgow, and a discussion on contemporary Chinese furniture design.

At the recent London Fashion Week, designer Phoebe English made waves not just for the clothes she'd made but the work involved in designing her label's most sustainable collection. She had stood down from three seasons of fashion shows in order to research the best ways of ensuring her label was using sustainable materials and minimising waste. She talks to Mary about why she feels that fashion will need to look to the past as well as to the future to find solutions for its damaging environmental impact.

This week Mary Portas: On Style's fashion correspondent, Miss Jason, is in Glasgow talking to those he encounters on Buchanan Street about whether they're happy to repair their clothing, or does a missing button or tear mean that the garment in question is destined for the bin?

Chinese furniture design has been rising in originality, skill, and popularity in China. The proliferation of furniture fairs and design weeks in the country have been important launch pads for new generations of Chinese designers but arguably the most important lever for change has been the Made in China initiative which the Chinese government launched in 2015 with the aim of turning China into a design superpower. Design author Charlotte Fiell, who has just co-written a book called Contemporary Chinese Furniture Design, and Zheng Qu, architect, urban designer, and founder of the Chinese Design Centre join Mary to discuss why 5000 years of design history are now providing China’s design future.

Presenter: Mary Portas
Producer: Ekene Akalawu

Available now

28 minutes

Phoebe English

Phoebe English

Contemporary Chinese Furniture

Contemporary Chinese Furniture

Broadcast

  • Tue 1 Oct 2019 11:30