Amy Powney's ground-breaking fashion documentary gets TV release in time for Earth Month

FASHION REIMAGINED, the ground-breaking documentary about fashion designer Amy Powney's mission to transform the industry for the better, has gained its television release coinciding with Earth Month in April.

In the critically acclaimed documentary, the creative director of the sustainable fashion label Mother of Pearl, talks about her childhood when brought up 'off-the-grid' in a caravan in rural Northern England and how this shaped her feelings towards the environment and, indeed, the fashion industry.

When she was bullied at school for her background and her family's evident lack of materialism, Powney saved up to buy herself a pair of Reebok trainers to gain social acceptance and it was this that helped her understand the power of fashion.

She went on to take advantage of the readily available fast fashion on the high street to fit in with her friends but says that after reading Naomi Klein’s NO LOGO about sweatshops and corporate greed she “completely changed course.”

Early in her fashion career, Powney won the Vogue award for the Best Young Designer of the Year, and used the prize money to create a sustainable collection from field to finished garment, and to transform her entire business. Mother of Pearl is recognised as one of the pre-eminent sustainable fashion labels on the London fashion scene and Powney is lauded as an agent for positive change in the industry.

Toronto-born, UK-based director and filmmaker Becky Hutner began filming Powney back 2017 and the documentary was released cinemas in the UK and Ireland in March. It will be made available on the Sky streaming service NOW on 9 April.

"My aim with FASHION REIMAGINED is to bring into sharper focus, the story of our clothes. To highlight the people, animals and resources that go into a garment across complex global supply chains, in the hopes of fostering a greater appreciation for clothes as items to purchase thoughtfully and cherish. Despite the leaps we’ve made since Amy was a university student in the mid 2000s, and notably since we started filming with Amy in 2017, fashion is still a major and ever-accelerating contributor to climate change, ocean microplastic, deforestation and landfills.

"The way we produce clothing and indeed our very relationship with clothes needs to change fast. And I hope FASHION REIMAGINED can help usher in a new narrative for fashion, one in which we can all enjoy this vital artform and tool for self-expression in a way that centres people and planet," Hutner said of her work.

Watch the trailer for FASHION REIMAGINED below.