The Interview: Mother of Pearl Creative Director, Amy Powney
Amy Powney, Creative Director at Mother of Pearl, is a sustainable fashion pioneer. Long before sustainability became front and centre of the fashion industry agenda, Powney was pushing the reduce, reuse and recycle mantra at the contemporary women's brand, where she rose from studio assistant in 2006 to being appointed creative director in 2008.
Mother of Pearl's contemporary collection features an array of sustainable attributes, for instance, some products are traceable back the field, some are traceable back to the factory and others are made from sustainable fabrics. TENCEL™ features heavily in the designs and Powney has just been appointed an ambassador for the lyocell and modal fibres from manufacturer Lenzing, which are derived from wood pulp and known for their sustainable and super-soft qualities.
To celebrate the partnership, which marks the fibre's 30th anniversary, Powney has created the 'Naturally Beautiful' edit this summer featuring products made from TENCEL™and photographed in a campaign by Mary McCartney in a shoot inspired by her book The White Horse. A series of limited edition prints of the shoot is available to buy on the Mother of Pearl website, with profits going to McCartney's chosen charity MIND.
Mother of Pearl Naturally Beautiful Edit, shot by Mary McCartney
As well as via its own website, the Mother of Pearl collection is available to buy from some of the best-known multi-brand fashion retailers such as NET-A-PORTER and Zalando.
Powney tells us all about her approach to sustainability and design, as well the TENCEL™ partnership.
Sustainability has really come to the fore in fashion in the past two to three years, but you have always blazed a trail in this field. At what point did you initially become so engaged with these issues and what sparked it?
I was always passionate about responsible ways of working within the fashion industry given its long history of social issues and more recently the enormous environmental impact with the growth of fast fashion and consumerism. I grew up off-grid on a farm in the north of England which gave me a grounding of respect for the natural world but also respect for key workers in supply chains.
As a result I always felt that fashion shouldn’t come at a cost to the planet in which we live, but we also shouldn’t have to compromise style for ethics either. The industry seems to be finally waking up to the dire need for sustainability, yet this is something we’ve been championing and integrating in our business for years
When you joined Mother of Pearl, what were your priorities when it came to being conscious of environmental concerns and how have those priorities evolved as the brand has grown?
I joined the brand 16 years ago as a junior and have worked my way up to creative director and since then taken over the business fully.
From the very beginning, creativity and ethics sat equally in our brand philosophy. I believe in delivering beautiful clothes without compromising on integrity.
There wasn’t a handbook given to me on how to make a brand sustainable, we began at the beginning. There was lots of late night researching, asking millions of questions to our suppliers and some travel to understand things with our own eyes. I went on a journey to first create a collection, our No Frills line, which could be fully traced from field to final garment. Since then everything I learnt we integrated throughout Mother of Pearl and changed the entire business.
Our biggest belief is in transparency and in giving access to the full story behind our products, showing the customer exactly what we’ve done with each garment via our online sustainable attribute filter. This puts the power into the consumer’s hands to make informed choices about the clothes they’re purchasing.
Sustainability is not an emerging topic for me, it’s been my passion for 16 years.
Mother of Pearl Naturally Beautiful Edit, shot by Mary McCartney
From a wider fashion industry perspective, what do you think are the main priorities the market should be focused on right now?
It is so easy for brands and large retailers to overplay their sustainability credentials with capsule collections or the right marketing. It can be very convincing and it is important for the consumer to know the difference, which they rarely do.
What we need is systemic change. There needs to be concrete legislation which sets the parameters on all areas of the supply chain, from field to final, around the materials and processes used and in how we protect the people involved. We need to set industry standards which address and limit how we impact our planet’s natural resources, its people and the environment otherwise the market will not evolve as it really needs to.
You have been appointed an ambassador for TENCEL™, can you explain to us how and why that partnership came about?
When I started on my journey to turn Mother of Pearl into a sustainable brand one of the first areas I looked at was the materials we were using, how they were grown and where they came from. Naturally we focused on organic cotton and mulesing free wool first but they can be quite tough fibres, I still wanted something that gave that soft touch effect.
I came across TENCEL™ a while ago and have been using it in my collections for a number of years. It is the flagship brand under The Lenzing Group that covers textile specialty product fibre offerings and manage their forests sustainably. TENCEL™ Lyocell and Modal fibres are produced through environmentally responsible processes.
I have been championing them in my collections for a while so it felt only natural to take on the ambassadorial role with TENCEL™ and be able to talk about this incredible wood based, cellulosic fibre.
What does being an ambassador mean in practical terms and what activities do you have planned?
I’ve long supported TENCEL™ but by being an ambassador it means I can go on a much deeper journey. It's been an incredible education for both me and the team to be able to understand what they have achieved over the past three decades.
This year, TENCEL™ celebrates their 30th anniversary, since 1992 they have been driving the evolution of fibre solutions for the apparel and home textile segments through a number of industry first innovations. They are empowering companies across the textile value chain to adopt more eco-friendly practices, they’re driving a commitment to positive change and fostering a carbon zero textile and fashion industry.
By understanding this better it means we can also come up with and work together on some really interesting projects which help to raise consumer awareness.
For Earth Day back in April we launched our Mother of Pearl x TENCEL™ Edit and alongside this our ‘Buy One Get One Tree’ initiative. For the sale of every MOP garment made with TENCEL™ fibres we promised to plant a tree. We recently announced that as a result of this initiative, we are planting 1500, something I am really proud of
On 29 July we launched our summer Edit ‘Naturally Beautiful’ to celebrate 30 years of pioneering TENCEL™ fibres. The collection returns to nature to include some of the brand's favourite MOP x TENCEL™ garments which are captured by Mary McCartney in a shoot charged with the unguarded intimacy and spontaneity typical of her distinctive photographic style. Alongside the collection a limited edition run of some of these prints will be sold via the Mother of Pearl website with 100% of the profits going to Mary’s chosen charity MIND and their equine project ‘Real Horse Power’.
Its initiatives such as these that make me proud to be a TENCEL™ ambassador, to work in partnership with them and come up with creative ways to give back but to also educate the industry and consumer that there are better solutions out there in terms of our clothing and what they are made of.
Mother of Pearl Naturally Beautiful Edit, shot by Mary McCartney
TENCEL™ fibers have become a very popular material with designers and brands in recent years, what do you think is the appeal?
There are so many reasons why I have been using, and will continue to use TENCEL™ fibres in my collections. Firstly, it is a cellulosic fibre of botanic origin, I have been using it in my collections for a number of years but often the consumer doesn’t make the connection that viscose, modal and lyocell actually comes from trees and that millions are cut down each year. This is leading to the destruction of some of our most ancient and endangered forests.TENCEL™ fibres however offer a sustainable alternative to this, where the trees are managed under strict regulations to make sure that the planet's natural resources are replenished.
They also offer REFIBRA™ technology which gives a second life to pre-and-post consumer products, upcycling cotton scraps which would otherwise be sent to landfill or incinerated, combining these with wood pulp to produce new virgin TENCEL™ Lyocell fibres to make fabrics and garments. This circulatory system is also important to me.
And finally, their fibres are naturally biodegradable, versatile and super soft on the skin making it perfect for my collections. It is a fibre that has the ability to transform the textile and fashion industry for the better.
Designers and brands clearly have a responsibility to work more sustainably, but how do you feel consumer sentiment has changed lately? There seems to be much more of a momentum around areas such as rental, for instance…
The last few years have brought a heightened awareness at a consumer level of our impact on the plant, through every industry. There is an ever growing trend for recycling, repairing, rental and resale which I hope will encourage more brands and businesses to respond to this shift in consumer demand and to be more sustainable and transparent and think about their environmental and social ethics.
However it needs to go a lot deeper than this. We have to see an entire system reset and a shift in consumer behaviour. We need to get back to valuing clothes as beautifully crafted pieces, not throw away objects. If a piece of clothing can be sold for £2.50 something has gone wrong somewhere down the line.
The system needs to slow down, we need to invest in core wardrobe pieces by brands with values and consider closed loop systems which encourage us to rent, repair and recycle, replacing our impulse purchases.
During the pandemic era, how have you adapted your business and what have been the key lessons you’ve taken from the period?
The pandemic cemented in my mind that I design, and try to run the business, in the right way. That it’s vital to put sustainability and ethics first and foremost. It also gave me the confidence to really focus the business on core wardrobe pieces, items that would sit in your wardrobe forever, rather than huge seasonal collections which only help drive the linear fast fashion consumption model.
It strengthened my resolve that I shouldn’t be designing something for one woman that comes to the detriment of another, or damages the environment in some way. Mother of Pearl has to work in harmony with people and the planet. As a brand and a mother, I have a part to play in securing a future for our planet and minimising the consequences of our actions.
This has always been my philosophy and the pandemic has only shown me that we are doing the right thing.
One of the big changes we’ve seen during the era is the emergence of a whole new raft of brands; what advice would you give to a brand starting out now who wants to position themselves as sustainable? Where’s the best place to start?
With Mother of Pearl, and through my ambassador role with TENCEL™, I want to show the world what can be done and what you can achieve when you open your mind up. So my advice would be to question the world and its systems and stand on your own two feet and speak the truth. To rethink things in what is a very linear and greed driven world, to try and do things in your own unique way which takes into account people, planet and nature, not just profit.
It isn’t an easy journey to try and be truly sustainable and you have to adapt and change constantly but we’ve shown at Mother of Pearl that this is possible and we’re a small brand with limited means. If we can do it, anyone can do it.
