Go From Fuffa to Fabulous!
4 Apr
Guest blogger, Rachana Nakra from Mumbai is on a mission to rescue you from all the Fuffa (what Anna Dello Russo calls ‘rubbish’) that’s weighing your closet down and restyling, rehashing and revamping your pre-loved clothes in her own stylish way. Her project is now traveling all over the world from Mumbai to Dubai and beyond, turning fuffa to fabulous, one closet at a time. Here’s the story:
Rachana Nakra, blogger and founder of the Fuffa Fabulous project
My interest in vintage, recycling and second hand clothes was mainly piqued while at university in London last year. I attended a fantastic lecture by Elizabeth Laskar of the Ethical Fashion Forum, a UK based industry body for sustainable fashion that inspired me to learn more about the environmental impact of fast fashion.
In fact, many today are getting increasingly aware how buying a T-shirt the price of a latte or shopping a dress for a Saturday night out has other consequences, overflowing landfills only being one of them. I discovered designers who were using ‘upcycling’ to reuse discarded clothes and make completely new designs.
The Fuffa Fabulous project: Get in on it!
Stores such as Rokit and Bang Bang are putting used clothes back into the fashion cycle, selling them to vintage lovers at low prices. Then there is the posh William Vintage on Marylebone Street. On appointment, you can browse through a collection of vintage Dior, Balenciaga, Ossie Clark and more, curated by William Banks-Blaney, dubbed the vintage king by Vogue. Of course, there is a massive difference in the approach and clientèle of these stores but the concept of reusing remains the same.
A friend from Uni also took me along on his vintage shopping spree. The gorgeous Serbian had a wardrobe that sported the best labels – Gucci man bags and Hermes scarves amongst them. While a lot of it was bought full-price, much of it wasn’t. He usually had a bagful of designer clothes that he would exchange at his favourite vintage store in Soho for new designer clothes. His drug was finding that good-as-new Marc Jacobs T-shirt for 60 quid and having a completely new wardrobe every few months.
The Fuffa Fabulous Project
Which brings me to my project!
I am asking friends and countrywomen to lend.. or well, give me their old clothes, shoes, accessories. Clothes that are not hanging in their wardrobes but clothes they are hanging on to, for sentimental reasons, or any other justification we give ourselves to still keep that 5 year-old dress that we have worn only twice. I am asking them to let go and promising them to love their stuff like my own, style it and take fuffa to fabulous.
And then?
I am giving you a chance to make it your own – The Fuffabed clothes you see on the blog in perfect condition, carefully curated and thoughtfully re-priced, for you to give a new lease of life.
Visit fuffabulous.wordpress.com
But what do the original owners of the clothes get after the emotional parting, you ask?
Besides a neater wardrobe and a lighter spirit? They have one of two very noble choices:
1. Ring out the old, ring in the new. The fuffa is now money, go on a shopping spree!
2. Divert the money to a charity closest to your heart or ours.
So much joy all around, isn’t it?
Learn what exactly fuffa means and more about the project at fuffabulous.wordpress.com
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