The kind Christmas 2023 fashion guide with Smart Works Leeds, Cunnington & Sanderson and the brilliant Barbour repair service

Buying preloved and secondhand is one way in which we can all make sure that Christmas does not add to the landfill of discarded clothes and accessories. The Smart Works Leeds Festive Fashion Fair is a great place to start. It takes place next Wednesday (December 6), at the charity’s HQ at Mabgate Mills on Macaulay Street in Leeds.

As a growing band of super-stylish sustainable fashion shoppers will testify, Smart Works sales offers the very best in high quality preloved and new donated clothes and accessories, with sought-after designer pieces just waiting to be discovered. All the proceeds will go to help Smart Works Leeds dress and coach unemployed women across Yorkshire for job and interview success, so this really is shopping with a conscience. Find out about the Smart Works Leeds sale at leeds.smartworks.org.uk

Last month, the charity hosted its inaugural Fashion as a Force for Good Ball at the Marriott Hotel in Leeds, hosted by the charity’s ambassador Natalie Anderson and journalist and presenter Christine Talbot, and attended by a host of prominent Yorkshire folk from the worlds of TV, media, business, as well as many social media influencers.

BBC Look North presenters Amy Garcia and Amanda Harper attended, as did ITV Calendar’s Sally Simpson and Kerrie Gosney. Models, stylists and influencers included Rachel Peru, Emma Worthington and Laura Fawcett, while lawyer Jodie Hill and designer Jordan Wake also attended.

The event raised £10,000 which will go directly towards the running of the Smart Works Leeds service.

The Fashion as a Force for Good Awards celebrated Yorkshire fashion designers, influencers, stylists and retail outlets, using fashion with kindness. Retail team of the Year was John Lewis Personal Styling Team; Emerging Designer of the Year was Sarah Thomspon of TOM-O in Leeds Corn Exchange; Indie of the Year was Yorkshire-based Ukrainian fashion umbrella brand Nenya, and Influencer of the Year was stylist Laura Fawcett.

Company of the Year was Burberry, award sponsored by Haggerty Jaques; Event of the Year- Lean In Leeds, sponsored by Zeal; Supporter of the Year was Robyn Atkinson, sponsored by People Solutions; Magic Moment winner were Smart Works Leeds client champions Nicola and Fran, sponsored by Thrive Law, and the Outstanding Contribution award was won by Leeds Building Society.

Smart Works Leeds supporter and sustainable fashion influencer Penny Hindle has her own tips on making sure that Christmas does not cost the earth. “I hate the idea of a new piece of clothing being bought to be worn once at Christmas and then never again, so I love buying festive pieces secondhand and being able to add some glam without breaking the bank.

"Also the festive season is messy so going out in a dress that cost less than the drink you’re holding is always a good idea.

“One of my favourite gifts I’ve bought over the years, mostly for my sister, are vintage and designer clothes, shoes and bags which have become wardrobe staples for her. I love seeing her wear and love throughout the year something I’ve found for her, especially knowing it was a sustainable bargain.”

Luxury womenswear brand Cunnington & Sanderson founders also attended on the night and helped judge the awards. They work to the highest standards of sustainability and ethics, and use fashion and design to spread awareness of issues that impact globally and personally, working from a converted jacquard mill in Silsden, where Matthew (Cunnington) and John (Sanderson) design and craft their avant-garde and thought-provoking clothes. They recently designed and created the “Gown of Care”, made from 12 old PPE isolation gowns, for the innovative project @ppe_refashioned with curators Katherine Townsend and Eloise Salter, looking at ways in which PPE can be refashioned, because after 75 washes they are discarded and end up in landfill or the ocean. It was exhibited at Nottingham Trent University last month and you can learn more about the project and the research on the Design Research Society’s website here.

“The texture of the PPE gowns have a pleasant touch but they are usually untouchable and undesirable with the history of what they have been worn for, with marks and stains remaining from their past usage,” says John. “We decided to leave our garments with the creases and marks remaining as this quite literally embodied the wearers’ narrative and history.”

In another initiative, the duo have also designed a Pillow T-shirt, available on the Cunnington and Sanderson website, sparking their Pillow Narrative project, which sees creative people from around the world wear or use the garment to tell their stories, in whichever format they choose, to raise mental health awareness.

“The subject of mental health is a topic that is frowned upon and left unspoken, with multiple conditions classed under one heading,” says John. “This silent and unspoken illness needs to be talked about so more support can be made to make the much needed improvements to provide good mental health for all.

"This project aims to tackle the stigma associated with this universal topic and aims to encourage people to talk about their feelings and emotions, because this can help.”

All the Pillow Narrative stories, including a short film by artist and stylist Liza Lombard, can be seen on the Cunnington and Sanderson Instagram: @cunningtonandsanderson.

Repairing and reusing clothes and accessories that you (or a loved one) already own and treasure can be a thoughtful and sustainable Christmas gift, as Barbour’s Christmas campaign film demonstrates when Shaun the Sheep tackles the repair of a waxed jacket.

The film, by Aardman, follows the adventures of good-hearted Shaun, Bitzer and the flock as they decide to repair the farmer’s well-worn Barbour wax jacket. Despite their best efforts, the jacket is left looking worse than ever before. Thankfully, Christmas is saved when Bitzer clicks his fingers and the original jacket reappears, restored by the experts at the Barbour factory. Preview the Barbour Christmas film at www.barbour.com/press-christmas-preview

Barbour has been offering a re-waxing and repairs service for more than 100 years and today it forms part of the brand’s Wax for Life programme, which sees more than 73,000 wax jackets a year returned to be re-waxed or repaired. “A Barbour jacket is like an old friend – it becomes part of your life and part of your shared experiences and memories,” says Paul Wilkinson, Barbour’s group commercial director. Barbour is also working with the National Trust on its Autumn Plant a Tree appeal to help plant and establish 20 million trees by 2030.