Emma Watson Wedding Dresses

[YearsSinceISawYou]

All those at the Earth shot Awards were asked to wear outfits that considered the environment-I suppose this means second hand or worn before. At any rate, that's what they did.

Along comes Emma Watson with her Harris Reed designed dress, made from 10 upcycled wedding dresses from Oxfam.

AIBU to think that if Emma really cared about this sort of stuff-as she often says she does-she would have left the 10 wedding dresses in Oxfam, so that 10 people would have been able to recycle 10 dresses-with the added bonus that they would have been affordable for those people.

Instead, she takes all ten of them and chops them up, thus showing herself to be an over-privileged hypocrite, who cares more about making a headline than 'saving the planet' or thinking about the women who could have made real use of those dresses.

Surely she had something else in her wardrobe that she could have used.

Pretty in Pink dress is the best

It's rare that I buy anything in a charity shop without intending to upcycle it. I've never bought 10 wedding dresses to make oneugly top admittedly, but I can't see how she did anything wrong.

@chocolatericecakes that does change it a bit for me actually because it's obviously his business model and it's a good choice on her part to go with someone like this. I hadn't seen that article or gone beyond quickly scanning headlines so thank you for a good read.

I still find it a bit virtue signally of her when just repeating a dress would be more powerful though- she still had a "new dress", and the concept of "not feeling you can wear it twice" is a real issue.

YABU

Like others have said, most clothing donated to charity shops are destroyed or relegated to the global south. If they bought ten that means ten more can be potentially sold.

YAB massively U. This is part of a collaboration between oxfam and designer Harris Reed, designed to make people think about reusing and recycling. As well as the article below (showing some of the other outfits created) there is a piece about it on the oxfam website.

metro.co.uk/2021/09/23/rising-designer-harris-reed-creates-catwalk-looks-from-oxfam-clothes-15304044/

@natwebb79 👏👏👏

Also echo what @TheWumpus said. We had a silk wedding dress in the shop recently, it was a massive puffy 80s thing and was not the sort of thing ANY modern bride would wear.

But people who are in to sewing and fashion are not looking and seeing a 1980s wedding dress. They are seeing 10 metres of ivory silk, some nice pearl buttons, several metres of net underskirt, and lace trim.

What's better - a very dated wedding dress sits on our rails for months, waiting for a bride planning a recreation of a 1984 wedding, or we sell it for £20 to someone who is going to chop it up and use the component parts?

Repurposing and upcycling clothing is a huge industry and there are some very clever people out there doing some very smart things with old clothes. We regularly get people in the shop buying XL men's shirts, curtains, blankets, dresses as "fabric" not as the item of clothing. Good for them. I just wish I had half of their skill and creativity.

@PissyMum

Yanbu Emma Watson is among the worst virtue signallers out there. I don’t generally have much opinion on celebrities but the way she turned on JK Rowling, the woman without whom she would have no career, was despicable.

I agree with this

@PissyMum

Yanbu Emma Watson is among the worst virtue signallers out there. I don’t generally have much opinion on celebrities but the way she turned on JK Rowling, the woman without whom she would have no career, was despicable.

Yup. & don't get me started on the whole he For She nonsense, a.k.a. Women Ask men For Permission To Be Feminists, which focuses on GENDER equality while totally failing to promote SEX equality.

Plus, even on the very attractive EW, the frock is fucking awful -
author.vogue.in/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Emma-Watson-Content-Image-1.jpg

Really interesting thread - lots of food for thought

YABU

It is great that Oxfam and other charities have bridal boutiques which a) help the planet and b) allow brides to buy dresses they might not otherwise have been able to afford. I helped my BF refashion two into her dream wedding dress. However, the concept was not a new one for the designer who used a lot of secondhand wedding dresses in the recent collection. I think it is great to see designers reusing garments instead of buying new fabric and let's face it, few garments have as much fabric in as the average 1980s marshmallow (hangs guilty head in shame).

Meh.

They do worse things.

I read she donated money to the charity though. She's a big charity giver so I imagine it was a good sum.

That being said though I doubt she was the one who chose it. She'd have been given the brief of 'white dress made from upcycled Oxfam wedding dresses' would have had her measurements taken and then would have turned up for a fitting.

Regardless, the dresses got bought and reused. That's what they're there for.

(About fashion and up cycling, not sure I agree with EW brand of feminism but that’s another thread entirely)

@Reallyimeanreally2022

I don't want to distract from the VERY VERY IMPORTANT issue of Emma's dress but when you write, " so many heinous things to get worked up about and you choose this", what did you mean by 'choose' if it wasn't...'choose to start a thread'?

Surely you didn't mean, 'choose to think about'. That would be like, you know, pretty bad if we can only mull over heinous things and not merely irritating or annoying ones.

Harris Reed has a 10 piece SS22 collection made of 10 recycled Oxfam wedding dresses - it didn't take 10 dresses to make Emma's outfit.

To be honest, that woman makes me furious - everything about her is smug!

But as much as I want to, I can't do the mental gymnastics which would let me resent her for this. It's an ok gesture. Second-hand wedding dresses are hardly a precious resource, and a great many of them are too outmoded to be worn as they are.

Recycling and updating old occasionwear dresses is a tradition that dates back hundreds of years - even the upper classes used to do it in the Regency period when clothing was well-made, and was loved, mended and respected for generations.

So I'll give her a pass for this.

It looks awful and unflattering - and can't see how 10 dresses were needed but I don't think it unusual to reuse/re-purpose clothes from charity shops.

We've take taken clothes apart and used for patterns, modifying in some way or just using for fabric for other stuff.

You tube is full of people doing this - with usually much better results - honestly it looks like a parody of the quite popular practice.

I've no love for Emma Watson - but not sure this criticism is warranted- rewearing a dress she already had would have been more in the spirt but probably wouldn' t have helped grab headlines and promote Emma Watson brand which was proably the aim here.

I've no love for Emma Watson - but not sure this criticism is warranted- rewearing a dress she already had would have been more in the spirt but probably wouldn' t have helped grab headlines and promote Emma Watson brand which was proably the aim here.

Agree. And think what you like of Emma Watson, she does grab the headlines. Her choosing to wear this creation has guaranteed coverage for her, but also for the designer who made it, and the charity who supplied the dresses/fabric.

I would LOVE to see what Oxfam's online shop web traffic was like last Sunday night compared with the Sunday before.

@Glitterybug

Have you had a look at the wedding dresses available on oxfam?

onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/bridal/category/bridal?N=4131982658&Ns=product.creationDate|1&Nr=AND(product.active:1,NOT(sku.listPrice:0.000000))&No=0

1980s monstrosities and fast fashion high street wedding dresses from places like wed2be and asos.

Best thing for them to be cut up and reused.

Wow, thanks. My wedding dress was from ASOS because I eloped and didn't want to spend thousands on a bespoke dress, plus I was 25 and didn't have a tonne of disposable income. I looked great on the day, even in my cheapo, Oxfam-worthy dress.

But I suppose the best thing for my dress is to be cut up and reused?

@KingsleyShacklebolt Absolutely. My friend's son does something like this; he buys dated men's suits and shirts from charity shops and ebay, and cuts them up to make all these daring outfits that you can only get away with when you're 6'3 and 20 years old. It's so creative it makes me want to weep!

He also sends the offcuts to a friend of his who makes teddy bears out of the material, so very little actually gets chucked.

@InPraiseOfBacchus

To be honest, that woman makes me furious - everything about her is smug!

But as much as I want to, I can't do the mental gymnastics which would let me resent her for this. It's an ok gesture. Second-hand wedding dresses are hardly a precious resource, and a great many of them are too outmoded to be worn as they are.

Recycling and updating old occasionwear dresses is a tradition that dates back hundreds of years - even the upper classes used to do it in the Regency period when clothing was well-made, and was loved, mended and respected for generations.

So I'll give her a pass for this.

YES!

She's just so fucking smug all the time.

She refused to wear a corset in little women because she found it demeaning. A fucking corset used to be the equivalent of a bra.

It's the never ending piety of 'I'm so great'.

I also read she ended up doing her lectures remotely at Brown because every time she answered a question someone would shout '10 points for Gryffindor!'

What a tedious OP.

I also read she ended up doing her lectures remotely at Brown because every time she answered a question someone would shout '10 points for Gryffindor!'

That's evidence of bullying from other students rather than of Emma Watson being "smug".

I have no strong feelings one way or the other about Emma Watson. I don't agree with what she said about JK Rowling. But laughing at other students bullying her..... just no.

I've got nothing against her wearing recycled dresses.

But they could at least have been turned into a decent outfit. She looked a mess. Sorry Emma.

YABU