Eco hero: Polly Hope, organic textiles manufacturer
I was born in the 197s and somehow got stuck there. Aged five, I was sewing and mending and as a teenager I was always the one wearing the dodgy tie-dye T-shirt. I made things because I couldn’t find them anywhere else. My friends still tease me about the self-styled red towelling flares I used to wear as a textiles student in Manchester – but I liked them.
I grew up in rural Wiltshire. My mother made butter from the cow next door and used my grandmother’s ancient sewing machine to make our clothes. When I go to weddings I still wear the polka-dot skirts she made for herself in the 198s.
After university I worked for Fine Cell Work, a charity that teaches prisoners to sew. The cushions and tapestries that they create in their cells end up in the grandest houses. I made them embroidery kits with detailed instructions and felt intense excitement whenever a finished article arrived by post.
Travelling in India as a child with my parents, and later working as a weaver at the Little Flower Leprosy rehabilitation centre in Bihar, made me aware of the devastating environmental effects of the textile industry. There are hundreds of square miles of textile factories in India, all dumping harmful waste into water, which is the life source of villages downstream.
It doesn’t have to be like that. Polly Hope fabrics are made of 1 per cent organic cotton and hand-printed with herbal dyes from plants. They are made in the heart of India’s manufacturing region, amid all the chemical plants, in a family-run factory that uses only organic materials and natural dyes, and recycles clean water back into the system.
On a research trip to India in 27 I chanced upon Arun Baid, an environmental pioneer who has spent years dipping fabrics into buckets to perfect the art of dyeing naturally on a mass scale. His factory can now dye up to 5,m of fabric
a day without using a single chemical.
My designs are influenced by India to some extent but you wouldn’t immediately label it as Indian fabric. And it doesn’t have that homespun, earthy look that you often associate with eco-friendly textiles.
It’s amazing how you can transform a tatty old sofa with a new fabric. I always encourage people to re-cover their old furniture rather than buying new; it horrifies me that it takes seven years for a modern sofa to stop excreting chemicals from the foam, glues and MDF that were used to make it.
My tips
I follow the holy trinity of eco living: remake, reuse, recycle. Reupholster old furniture rather than buying new. I use Alan Watson “>weavewoodandwatson.co.uk), an organic upholsterer who uses all the traditional techniques and 1 per cent natural materials. Attach water butts to all your downpipes. This should provide enough water for most gardens and will reduce your water bill – contact your water provider for details. Don’t send your old furniture to the dump; embrace freecycle.com, the free living website. I furnished my house with furniture that other people didn’t want.
