Bright Fashion Lights to Watch: dialog

The most interesting trend at this year's London Fashion Week is the number of small companies working with disadvantaged groups in the production of eco clothing. Not only are these young designers saving the planet for us, they are also making new, productive lives for people in trouble. Whew! The least we can do is buy their stuff.

Dialog, a new label from two art student graduates, takes old and traditional fabrics from Asia and revives them as modern accessories. They work with community development projects in Hong Kong and train the women in skills such as sewing and making trim for the handbags. Their signature is a recycling technique from Malaysia that incorporates small origami folded squares of mixed fabrics. The bags are made out of recycled fabrics from Malaysia and Viet Nam.

They start the women working on this trim and they progress to learning further skills. The sewing workshops provide a way out of poverty by offering livelihood, skills and empowerment. The sewing school in a village in Vietnam is the biggest producer of trimming. There are 47 students from the surrounding villages in the school.

The design of the bags reflects the nature of the cloth. They have now started working with another group of women in Pakistan to make the components for jewellery which will be designed in Hong Kong. :: dialog