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.

Jesus Christ… what happened to women supporting women?
She upcycled charity shop clothes, that’s a good thing.

@slashlover

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.

You could make a window display of ‘vampire bride’, ‘corpse bride’ and ‘bride of Frankenstein’.

My friend did that one year (she specifically asked for a wedding dress to make into a costume with blood etc) and it looked amazing. She got a few years wear out of that one.

@natwebb79

Why didn't you just call this thread 'I don't like Emma Watson because she's a trans ally so I'm going to slag off her dress' and be done with it? This website is a fucking joke nowadays...

This 100%

I have worked in an Oxfam shop. The basement of that one shop was absolutely stuffed with wedding dresses. In the two years I was there the only people that bought them were going to fancy dress, putting on a production or dressing up a stag.

At the very least Emma demonstrated how they could be used more creatively.

All this it's disrespectful, those poor women who donated their 80s meringues and they were (gasp) cut up!!! What bollocks.

Fashion comes and goes and nobody wants a very dated dress in their wedding day. As other volunteers have said, they hang on the rails unsold. Until some creative comes in and decides to buy the lot, dye them pink and turn them into cushion covers or whatever, if we sold 10 wedding dresses at once we'd be hanging out the bunting and celebrating a huge sale.

When you donate to a charity shop you are relinquishing control. Your things are no lingers yours. You are donating them to us to make the most money possible for the cause. If that means selling them to an art student to cut up, or fit someone to hack at with scissors and splatter with blood as a Halloween outfit that's what we'll do.

This idea that we should be interviewing customers to find out their financial status and intentions for their purchase is ... interesting.

ConstanceGracy
Jesus Christ… what happened to women supporting women?

Why would anyone want to support a hypocrite that throw another woman under the bus?

@ConstanceGracy

Jesus Christ… what happened to women supporting women? She upcycled charity shop clothes, that’s a good thing.

Your sex doesn't mean you can avoid scrutiny. I'd rather support women living in poverty than a multi-millionaire. But I have lived and worked in low income areas where people do shop for clothes and items from charity shops by necessity not because they're into vintage as PPs have implied. And my cousin managed an Oxfam shop. Oxfam is known for having designer and good quality wedding dresses. They have brand new wedding dresses donated by designers and stores. And there is a real issue with people thinking they can swoop in and buy up the best items.

I once unwrapped about 30 sheets of newspaper to find one of those cardboard baskets you put strawberries in at PYO. Used.

Off topic admittedly.

Jesus Christ… what happened to women supporting women? Whatever they do?

And there is a real issue with people thinking they can swoop in and buy up the best items.

Fucking bastards!

As it happens I think EW has done some very questionable things. I just don't think, with the exception of those monstrous shoes she also wore, this is one of them.

@TSSDNCOP

And there is a real issue with people thinking they can swoop in and buy up the best items.

Fucking bastards!

I get that it's hilarious that people come in from out of area and buy up all the best items so the people who actually live in the lower-income areas can't buy them. Poverty is so funny for certain posters on MN

So she can never buy multiple things from a charity shop? Maybe she should go naked. Give her a break.

No, shiny happy poster. You are wrong. Charity shops are there to make money. Not provide cheap stuff for "poor people".

Wedding dresses date badly. Unless it's a Halloween costume or you're appearing in a period piece set in the 80s no one is going to want to wear an non-modified dated wedding dress.

In the days before fast fashion it was very normal to take old clothes and remodel them into something more up to date.

It was a one off. The amount she donates and gives to people will make it all back. She probably got them all from a wealthy area anyway.

Also anyone I know who is struggling gets them off ebay anyway.

No. It's happy days all round for the charity that's flogging them. Oxfam definitely don't ask punters for their council tax bill when they're trying to sell.

There is also a system in place where the really fancy pieces (we were trained to spot them) are centralised to shops in areas where shoppers with £ or vintage shoppers are more prevalent.

Yes, I see your point OP

There are some gorgeous dresses via that Oxfam link.

@ShinyHappyPoster

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

Except this isn't what happened. The designer if the dress has a 10 piece collection that reuses 10 wedding dresses. 1 of which EW wore to an event.

I wonder how many extra hits and visits Oxfam gets as a result of a cut up dress.

They're going to need to find a lot more goats.

I get that she donated a lot of stuff, but aren't oxfam just going to sell it for hundreds anyway? But if a juxtaposition for a charity which is meant to provide affordable second hand items.

Oxfam are awful for over pricing anyway.

But if a juxtaposition for a charity which is meant to provide affordable second hand items.

More bollocks.

The only thing a charity is "meant" to do is maximise funds for its cause Oxfam's cause is poverty in the developing world, not providing affordable second hand items. Just as cancer research's aim is funding science, RSPCA is looking after animals and so on.

It's a total myth that charity shops are there to provide cheap stuff, and that those of us who volunteer in them should be policing or vetting the customers to ensure they are worthy enough. Or poor enough. Or make them sign a promise not to cut up a pair of old curtains or a dress.

Charities spend a lot on advertising to get donations. Emma Watson got very good publicity for them. It also publicised the idea of upscaling and recycling older clothes in an interesting and fashionable way - encouraging other people not to dismiss the clothes in Oxfam's Collection but to go and buy some and reinvent them.

Can't see what is wrong with that.