On Being a Ripple
By Clare Limb
It all started when a group of us went along to a Clotheswise event held by Transition Chesterfield in the autumn of 2024. We were inspired by the stories of slow fashion shared on the night, interspersed with research about how damaging fast fashion is
to people, place and planet.
There was a presentation by New Mills Fashion Week Activistas, who had brought some upcycled pieces from their collection to show at the event. This inspired one of us so much that she invited the activistas to take part in a sustainable fashion show in Crich the following Spring.
Fast track six months and Crich’s first ‘Love it Again’ sustainable fashion show took place in May 2025, in partnership with the New Mills group and attended by
approximately 90 people. The evening was full of community spirit and inspirational messages around reuse, recycle, repair and reinvent.
Our journey as a group has continued with the establishment of a regular clothes swap at our quarterly Share and Repair Cafes as well as members of our community sharing their stitching and darning skills at our monthly Make, Do and Mend sessions.
And then came along The Ripple Effect. A project which included pieces of embroidery, which were made using recycled pieces of fabric, by over 100 people and then stitched on to a beautiful dress. The project was designed to raise awareness of the beauty, uniqueness and fragility of our oceans, and to honour the birthday of Sir David Attenborough, whose film ‘Ocean’ had provided the initial inspiration for the project.
In February Transition Crich hosted its own Ripple Effect workshop, lead by one of the project team, Lise Bennett. We had 12 people attend, each making their own embroidered piece to go on the dress.
Fast track again another couple of months and the dress was ready to be revealed to the community and Hazel, Clare and Linda from Transition Crich were invited along to the event, which took place on 8th May – almost a year to the day of our very own sustainable fashion show. We had a stand which showed people about the destruction of the fast fashion industry as well as proposing sustainable alternatives.
We displayed facts about fast fashion as well as a collection of cherished charity shop separates and outfits, carefully curated by Hazel for the evening.
It was soon time for the dress to be revealed, and when that moment arrived, we were all asked to put down our phones and just observe it and be in the moment.
First up came the Shark Cape, a fantastic garment made of upcycled fabric which made us all think of the magnificence of the creatures in the ocean. The came the dress itself whose beauty was beyond belief. The model, Kay carried the dress so elegantly as if she was embodying the spirit of all the contributors to the dress.
We then got to have a look at it up close and were able to locate our own piece in and amongst all the other amazing pieces. It was an awesome experience indeed.
As we were leaving, we were approached by one of the Ripple Effect project team members and asked if we would like to host the dress when it goes on tour. We said yes in a heartbeat, and so we are proudly presenting the dress as part our next Share and Repair Café on Saturday 13 th June at Crich Glebe Community Centre from 10am – 1pm.
Come and see it for yourself and be part of The Ripple Effect.