Pre-loved! Miquita Oliver gives her mother and grandmother a makeover at a charity shop
"I think it's so sexy to dress up for a five," says Miquita Oliver. She looks a million bucks in an ivory off-the-shoulder strapless top with feathery cappuccino mousse below the neckline and blue jeans that sit perfectly on her hips and skim the top of her tiny heels. It's a perfect supermodel cosplay at an afterparty - "my 90s Kate Moss look", she says - but until two days ago these clothes were buried among the mountains of scraps at Oxfam's Yorkshire warehouse.
Oliver – TV presenter, fashion week figurehead and now Oxfam Ambassador – is a new kind of style icon, one who believes that second-hand clothes are not only better for the planet (although they are) or more affordable (ditto) but cooler – and sexier – than new clothes. Not second-best for being second-hand, but happiest for being pre-loved. In fact, she believes in it so strongly that today she took on the challenge of styling her mother, TV chef Andi Oliver, and her 84-year-old grandmother, Maria, in clothes she found during a search in the Oxfam warehouse. in Batley, to prove that opportunity is for everyone.
Secondhand September, now in its fourth year, is Oxfam's annual campaign that highlights challenged shoppers to only buy second-hand clothes for a month. With September issues of glossy magazines pushing new trends and the high street lit up with boxfresh trends, the month has traditionally been the highlight of trend-driven disposable fashion - and nowhere more so than in the UK. UK, where we buy more new clothes per person than anywhere else in Europe. It's a habit that presents a calamitous threat to the future of our planet. A new pair of jeans is responsible for approximately 16.2 kg of CO2, which is equivalent to driving 93 km in a car.
Oxfam's latest fashion ambassador including Sienna Miller and Michaela Coel, Oliver filled the studio rails today with the treasures of Oxfam. “How good is it? And this!" she asks triumphantly, tossing outfits into her mother's and grandmother's arms and sending them to change. Freed from her matching jacket, a teal flamed silk dress that was once part of from an understated suit, became a chic evening dress, paired with a contrasting mule.(In the interest of full disclosure, it doesn't hurt that Miquita has a knack for making everything she's wearing looks like couture.)
She's holding a baby blue Adidas fitted T-shirt next to a red boxy miniskirt, and pointing out a tiny pink Hobbs heel : "This one is my 'Bob Marley girlfriend' look" Andi jumps on the more exuberant pieces with a magpie eye: a full circular skirt with a jewel-colored ribbon trim is declared "very Joni Mitchel ...
"I think it's so sexy to dress up for a five," says Miquita Oliver. She looks a million bucks in an ivory off-the-shoulder strapless top with feathery cappuccino mousse below the neckline and blue jeans that sit perfectly on her hips and skim the top of her tiny heels. It's a perfect supermodel cosplay at an afterparty - "my 90s Kate Moss look", she says - but until two days ago these clothes were buried among the mountains of scraps at Oxfam's Yorkshire warehouse.
Oliver – TV presenter, fashion week figurehead and now Oxfam Ambassador – is a new kind of style icon, one who believes that second-hand clothes are not only better for the planet (although they are) or more affordable (ditto) but cooler – and sexier – than new clothes. Not second-best for being second-hand, but happiest for being pre-loved. In fact, she believes in it so strongly that today she took on the challenge of styling her mother, TV chef Andi Oliver, and her 84-year-old grandmother, Maria, in clothes she found during a search in the Oxfam warehouse. in Batley, to prove that opportunity is for everyone.
Secondhand September, now in its fourth year, is Oxfam's annual campaign that highlights challenged shoppers to only buy second-hand clothes for a month. With September issues of glossy magazines pushing new trends and the high street lit up with boxfresh trends, the month has traditionally been the highlight of trend-driven disposable fashion - and nowhere more so than in the UK. UK, where we buy more new clothes per person than anywhere else in Europe. It's a habit that presents a calamitous threat to the future of our planet. A new pair of jeans is responsible for approximately 16.2 kg of CO2, which is equivalent to driving 93 km in a car.
Oxfam's latest fashion ambassador including Sienna Miller and Michaela Coel, Oliver filled the studio rails today with the treasures of Oxfam. “How good is it? And this!" she asks triumphantly, tossing outfits into her mother's and grandmother's arms and sending them to change. Freed from her matching jacket, a teal flamed silk dress that was once part of from an understated suit, became a chic evening dress, paired with a contrasting mule.(In the interest of full disclosure, it doesn't hurt that Miquita has a knack for making everything she's wearing looks like couture.)
She's holding a baby blue Adidas fitted T-shirt next to a red boxy miniskirt, and pointing out a tiny pink Hobbs heel : "This one is my 'Bob Marley girlfriend' look" Andi jumps on the more exuberant pieces with a magpie eye: a full circular skirt with a jewel-colored ribbon trim is declared "very Joni Mitchel ...
What's Your Reaction?
