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- The fashion industry is one of the most harmful industries
when it comes to the environment,
but thankfully, there are some some independent brands
that are making us look really good
while also having a minimal impact on our environment.
So I'm at Ragyard today, which is one
of London's most sustainable fashion brands.
- My name's Josephine Starsmore,
and I'm the founder and creative director of Ragyard.
Ragyard is a premium reworked vintage brand.
We focus on taking what's already existing,
reworking it, and remodeling it
to create something that's really new
and exciting for the fashion market.
(bright hip hop music)
I've always been involved in sourcing vintage clothing
and reworking vintage.
I used to find some really special treasured pieces,
which I knew there was a market for.
What my husband and I decided to do
was to create a premium brand, Ragyard,
really celebrating all of the one-off
or very, very limited treasured pieces that you find
and reinterpret them, give them some love,
rework them, and put them back into the market.
We buy from the States, we buy from Europe,
as far flung as you can imagine,
then going through a process of laundering it
and sourcing it before it then gets cut up
or reworked or reimagined, tie dyed, or cropped or patched.
It all happens in the UK.
It's very important to us that we are local
and use as much skill here in the UK as is possible.
Right now, we are in our North London offices and studio.
We also have our own UK laundry and dye house,
which is run by my stepson
and uses only cold water non-reactive dyes.
I hate to see things go to waste.
I the concept of us producing just
for the sake of producing.
I think there's so much special product out there
that can be reinterpreted.
Something like this, for example.
All of these appliques we design,
but then we actually use vintage Levi jeans
that we've cut up, and we use that to actually make this,
and this is all done in the UK.
Probably our most popular piece
is this peacock embellishment.
We run these on T shirts, sweatshirts,
hoodies, and jackets, I guess because the person
who likes to be really unique,
sometimes you say they're peacocking.
They're showing off their style.
All of our jerseys now on organic
and recycled polyester blends.
All of our swing tickets are 100% recycled cardboard.
All of our back neck labels are 100% recycled polyester,
and Ieva Li, who is a young female artist,
has reimagined these vintage denim pieces for us.
Our mission statement at Ragyard
is that creativity and people come actually before profit.
We have no end of incredibly talented young
and older people working with love.
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- Hi guys, I'm studio manager here in 16
and Ragyard vintage buyer.
So this is our rework station here, and, as you can see,
we're literally surrounded by sportswear.
So we've got the textiles here laid out,
and we do is we cut all the patchwork pieces.
And when we're cutting from the spots
where we make sure we're using as much
of that garment as possible,
and we do hold onto the scraps as well
to the hopefully use them in future collections as well.
So we really do want to make sure
that we're reducing as much waste as possible.
And we're all about creating those really cool graphics.
Alexandria here, she's preparing them for the machiners,
and then, once they're prepared,
we pop them in here, which is like our docket box,
and then it goes on to the machiners,
and they complete the docket for production
to then send out.
(upbeat hip hop music)
So these pieces here are a part
of our 20.1 spring summer women's wear
and men's wear collections.
It's all very much about reworking
with really cool sportswear pieces.
So in the collection, we have cycling, football,
basketball elements and sportswear elements as well,
mixing different brands that are all vintage pieces.
- [Jess] So how do you put the different pieces together?
- So we create the textiles here in our studio.
In terms of the textile, we cut it all into patchwork,
and we include different elements of the sportswear as well,
like the poppers and the zips
to make a really cool, unique piece.
From there, we have our machiners
who put the textile pieces together,
and then we cut and make the garments.
- [Josephine] Ragyard was actually launched
as a retail-only concept.
We're extremely grateful that,
because of the success of the stores,
we've actually gone on to become a wholesale brand also.
- So how did you come to deciding
that you wanted to open a shop in Notting Hill?
- Portobello Road is such a historic site.
We get visitors from all over the world,
and, because we're Ragyard, we celebrate
and show our love and appreciation
for global finds and global treasure.
We just felt it was a really great hub,
and we love to bring a bit of color
and fun to Portobello.
(upbeat hip hop music)
- This video is part of my sustainable London series.
So if you want more tips on how you
can visit London in a more sustainable way,
then click the video playlist that's popping up
below me to watch more videos.