Fashion graduate Helen Boxall aiming for a 'fashion free year' to raise £500 for Oxfam

Helen Boxall

Fashion graduate Helen Boxall won't buy any clothes for the whole of 2017 as part of her aim to raise £500 pounds for Oxfam by 29 December.

Helen, who works as a teaching assistant, set about looking at ways she could reduce the amount of waste she produced when she discovered someone who challenged themselves to go one whole year without buying any new clothes. She decided to take on the challenge: one year without buying any clothes at all, including second-hand ones.

She said: “I thought the idea was perfect and could even be combined with my aim to raise £500 pounds for Oxfam. I don’t know how I’m going to do it but the idea of raising the money really motivates me.”

The idea came about when Helen was moving house and discovered how many items of clothing and other gifts she had been hoarding.

Helen, from Healey, said: “For the last few years when people have asked me what I want for Christmas, I’ve said I didn’t need or want anything and I’d be happy for people to donate to charity instead.

“Christmas day would come around and I’d receive gifts, almost all of which I didn’t need or want and it would be put in the back of a cupboard and forgotten. I moved house a few weeks ago and all these forgotten gifts resurfaced.

“I couldn’t help but feel guilty for the sheer amount of stuff I’d hoarded over the years and decided to donate them to charity with piles and piles of forgotten clothes.”

25-year-old Helen decided to make a change and asked for any money to be donated towards Oxfam, her charity of choice as she volunteered for five years at specialist store Oxfam Originals (selling vintage and designer clothes).

It was this volunteering that sparked her love of fashion, encouraging Helen to go back to college and study it. She became deputy manager of Oxfam Originals in her final year of studying.

She said: “Oxfam does some amazing work around the world and I thought it would be the perfect charity to benefit as their reach is so broad. Their mission statement to make poverty history is something that cannot be argued with.

“Having studied fashion, I knew a lot of it goes to waste and I couldn’t believe I was one of those people. Fast fashion is killing the planet, and we as consumers are voting for it.”

In 2015, the fashion industry fell under scrutiny when Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall revealed in ‘Hugh’s War on Waste’ that it takes just ten minutes for UK residents to throw away 10,000 garments, making up approximately seven tonnes of clothing destined for landfill.

When addressing this issue, Helen added: “We spend over £56,000 million on clothing each year in the UK and £140 million ends up in landfill. The clothing industry is one of the most unethical and unsustainable industries, it’s a worldwide problem that affects all of us- and that’s before you even start getting into the horrendous sweatshops and human rights violations.”

She added: “I know it’s hard to find affordable and ethical fashion, but it’s not impossible and the more we buy it, the cheaper it will become.

“Buy pieces that will keep their style and last longer. Buy it second hand through charity shops, car boot sales or even apps through your phone. Donate, swap and rework your old clothes, you don’t need to throw fabric away.”

Unwanted clothes and fabrics, including damages, can be donated towards Oxfam through the ‘Shwop Drop’ boxes found near tills in M&S stores across the country, including Rochdale.

Since the partnership between Oxfam and M&S began in 2008, over 24 million garments have been donated. Everything is then either sold through Oxfam stores, Oxfam online, sold overseas or recycled into fibres for new materials if it can’t be sold on.

To donate towards Helen’s fashion free year for Oxfam, visit:

http://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/fashionfreeyear