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.

*Anyway, I still think she is a virtue waving hypocrite-no, I don't like the persona she puts forward- although I can see that the thread has raised the blood pressure of a few, one or two to a dangerous level.

I'm on the app so I can't see the live blood pressure measurements from posters - can someone tell me how to view them?*

Amazing

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.

Exactly - we looked at one recently - great trim and lace and buttons but DD1 didn't like the feel of the fabric so we decide not to buy in the end - but that was why we looked - lots of fabric.

DD1 repurpose several bed spread into dresses and blouses - it gets quite expenisve to keep her in new bought fabric. DH made a jacket out of linen curtains - a unusal pattern on the fabric and he hates how bland most mens clothing is these days - and I've made a draft excluder from some of those remains.

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

Interesting, @InPraiseOfBacchus - whenever I have seen her speak as EW rather than a character she's acting, I've felt quite the reverse, that she's not very confident or secure.
I dislike the Wokery, esp with regard to the outrage committed against JKR, but genuinely feel a bit sorry for poor little Emma, looking for a role in life post-Potter. All that money doesn't compensate for some of the horrible negatives of child stardom.

I think if you're a person, particularly a woman who shows any type of environmental /ecological conscious, you're basically open to people ready to jump on you when you slip up environmentally in anyway. No matter how much good you do.

I think it looks like shite but it’s not a principle I can get worked up over, in fact it’s hard not to see it as a good thing from a recycling/repurposing pov.

Charity shops don’t exist for the purpose of providing those without lots of money cheap items so that argument doesn’t really hold water either, even though it’s slightly irritating that as a long haul rummager a good bargain is getting harder and harder to come across. The flip side of that a rise in the popularity of buying second hand is much better for the environment. On balance it’s quite hard work to find something negative in EW wearing recycled wedding dresses and probably just easier to say you don’t like her 🤷‍♀️

No matter how much good you do.

I do this is a very poor example of re-use - but that's down more to the designer.

Oxfam have got PR that they sell wedding dresses and dresses in case this had escaped some people notice and Emma Watson got headlines which helps her career and the designer - well can't say I'd want to buy from them after that dress but then I'm not their target market.

*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?*

Wow touchy or what. Funnily enough, i don't know you so fucking obviously i wasnt talking specifically about your oxfam dress.

Look at the link. The top 10-20 listings are hideous 80s wedding dresses that no bride in 2021 will wear. Or poorly made fast fashion dresses. If they can be cut up and the components reused then that's better than them being thrown out because nobody is going to be buying that 80s dress with its huge puffy sleeves to wear as it is.

I agree op. Surely the first step is to consume less. I have noted that this point is missed by many. As long as they do or buy recycle(d) or buy sustainable or bamboo products many feel they done it. We need to consume less. No need to covert 10 dresses into one. Wear and rewear one dress

@Glitterybug

*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?*

Wow touchy or what. Funnily enough, i don't know you so fucking obviously i wasnt talking specifically about your oxfam dress.

Look at the link. The top 10-20 listings are hideous 80s wedding dresses that no bride in 2021 will wear. Or poorly made fast fashion dresses. If they can be cut up and the components reused then that's better than them being thrown out because nobody is going to be buying that 80s dress with its huge puffy sleeves to wear as it is.

I didn't buy it from Oxfam, I bought it from ASOS but you sounded very sniffy about high street/"fast fashion" wedding dresses in general. I also don't think they are comparable to 80's meringue frocks either, so I found it a bit weird to lump them in the same category.

I have bought clothes from charity shops for the fabric, the nearest haberdashery shop is a good 15 mile round trip. But the dress is actually bloody awful isn’t it. I was wrapping up my Pippa dolls in paper doilies like that when I was about 5.

I find it amusing that people defend EW as a strong famous woman whilst ignoring that she fucked over JKR.

Most people are fed up with the constant celebrity hypocritical virtue signalling. The penny should have dropped by now. I don't understand why they continue to do it.

I work in a charity shop, the actual wedding dress boutique part was closed due to lack of interest. We have a wedding dress rail where they are priced between £5 and £25. They don't sell, nobody wants to buy them so selling 10 in one go would be brilliant for us. I couldn't care less what the person did with them afterwards.

Oh please op.

Most of the wedding dresses in charity shops are out of date and very few people would want to wear one. I love the creativity of making something new out of the old and unwearable. She's not robbing anyone.

I've got a 1980's wedding dress in the loft if anyone wants it. Seriously doubt they will though.

@Wroxie

I am SO sick of this misconception about charity shops.

They don't exist to provide clothing for the poor. They exist to provide money for the charity.

If you are living on very little money, and you need pyjamas or work trousers, it is cheaper and easier to go to Primark or to the clothes section of your nearby large supermarket, where you will find new, clean, and fashionable clothes in your size.

Charity shops are where you go if you have a special interest in vintage or sustainable clothes, or you enjoy the serendipity of finding a perfect silk whatever in exactly your size that you didn't know you needed, or if you want something for fancy dress. If you specifically need a white shirt for your new catering job, you don't go to the local Oxfam.

My dearest friend is a regional manager (or something like that, not sure of the exact title) for all of the charity shops in our geographical area for a certain well-known charity and she doesn't give a flying rat's banana if you're buying her stock to wear or to sell on ebay or to tear apart and make into curtains for your dog's house. If she waited for "the poor" to come along and only buy what they needed she'd never sell anything.

Yes to this! When I rule the world everyone will have to do 6 months volunteering in a charity shop before they are allowed to donate to or shop in one.

I can't see anything in the least hypocritical about this. She recycled, she gave money to charity. Can I ask how much you have done of either?

What difference would it have made realistically if she'd just bought one dress? Oxfam has no shortage of wedding dresses, nor do other charity shops, so she certainly wasn't depriving desperate brides of anything. The reality is that these things don't sell and get shoved into a bag of unsaleable fabrics and sold off for £5 per large bag. She did Oxfam a massive favour.

@GingerScallop

I agree op. Surely the first step is to consume less. I have noted that this point is missed by many. As long as they do or buy recycle(d) or buy sustainable or bamboo products many feel they done it. We need to consume less. No need to covert 10 dresses into one. Wear and rewear one dress

But what difference does it make if she converts one dress or ten? She is still recycling and isn't funding the manufacture of new stuff. Plenty of people who know what they are talking about have come on here and confirmed that charity shops have great difficulty selling used wedding dresses. If EW hadn't bought these dresses it is virtually inevitable that they would have ended up being thrown away.

I imagined she paid for them all. Maybe she went for ones that hadn't been sold for ages. Maybe not. Either way I'm sure Oxfam didn't mind. It's raised awareness.

Yes to this! When I rule the world everyone will have to do 6 months volunteering in a charity shop before they are allowed to donate to or shop in one.

We get people who we know are buying clothes to sell on eBay, don't care. As long as they pay the price we're asking (people who try to haggle should have the price they pay doubled) then if they want to spend their free time photographing the items and listing them online then it's nothing to do with us.

They may spend 20 minutes making up a listing to possibly earn £10, in that time we can go through several bags of donations, tag them, hang them and put them out for sale to earn more than £10.

I'm really sad that you feel this way OP. There are plenty of 2nd hand dresses for people to buy if they want.

Imagine if she had have just worn something from her wardrobe, we'd all be here going " it's all right for her with her back catalogue of beautiful designer dresses that perfectly fit her same size figure."

In 2021 after two kids, a desk job and a lot of pies I'm not going to fit into my 1998 velvet Dress from Richards and justify buying something new!

Oh come on! She didn’t do a Monica, and prise a dress from some poor bride to be hands. She took ten dresses, that probably wouldn’t sell, and made something new. In doing so she has promoted Oxfam and recycling/remaking clothing.

but how many more people are aware that you can get wedding dresses from Oxfam

@YearsSinceISawYou
Maybe she had the brass neck-wouldn't be shocked-to ask for them for nothing, as she would be advertising Oxfam's wedding dresses.

what is wrong with you?

YABU

I agree with you OP and think YANBU.
Cutting up wedding dresses from a charity shop shows an underlying privilege and a lack of imagination.
It's as though they couldn't imagine that someone would actually buy a wedding dress from a charity shop for their wedding day; they also couldn't imagine that people donate their wedding dresses to charity shops because they want lower income brides to be able to buy a wedding dress.
It gives off Marie Antionette vibes. 'Let me parade in dresses that would have been the most expensive clothing purchases for many people, that I have used like rags and in doing so have stopped others from being able to purchase for their big days.'

It may have fit the rules of the event at a stretch but it's as though focusing on recycling, they couldn't manage to think about poverty and privilege at the same time