ABOUT
Amanda Riley is a creative and an environmentalist. Age 8 she learned to sew on her grandmas sewing machine. She trained in Fashion & textiles at Kingston and then set out to work in mainstream fashion in Milan, Hong Kong, India & the US.
Working in this sector drew her attention to the enormous waste and pollution fashion was creating. She turned down a top job at Arcadia & vowed never to return fashion land. She dusted off her sewing machine instead to revisit her love of design & make.
She turned her living room into The Fashion Factory (see video below) studio in 2009 and has been teaching complete beginners aged 8-18 years how to use their hands to upcycle new clothing, accessories & products from old textiles headed for landfill.
"IT'S ENGINEERING BUT WITH FLOPPY FABRICS”
James Dyson
Her students have appeared in Vogue, on TV and the Fashion Factory book was published in 2015 by Quadrille. The classes were over subscribed until lockdown when she could no longer teach. Concerned about an ocean of plastic masks she made an instructional video for a face mask that could be upcycled at home. People found it easy to follow. Her story was covered in the media & she realised the positivity in this form of education and maybe it could reach many more beginners than her studio classes ever could.
In 2020 she set out to create an online programme to support DT staff teach these important new life-skills in numbers without a major headache… She knew how difficult it is to teach DT in larger groups & that teaching 5 or more complete beginners on machines at once is like trying to teach 5 children on 5 pianos at once, very challenging. And because starting with clothing would be like learning a symphony rather than the chords first. After many years of teaching hundreds of beginners & hoping that children & teachers anywhere could benefit she learned to film & edit during lockdown & created her own course specifically for teaching complete beginners.
Fashion Rebellion her online eco-sewing course is now in its second year at her local Primary school, Princess Fredericas in Kensal Green NW London. It runs as an after school club 3 days a week. There are 10 places in each session and every term is a sell out.
“Using the programme means that children progress at their own speed & to their own ability so they can enjoy the learning process. They love their eco-makes & the technical drills help them to understand how to use the machines confidently so there are far fewer issues & the session is fun & stress-free.”
Nureen Khan, session leader
Where it all started. The Fashion Factory studio in NW London & some of my talented students. A glimpse of how we started & one of our catwalk shows.
Amanda and two of her students feature in the documentary Generation rewear. Aired at London Fashion Week in June 2021 it is a documentary about designers, brands & everyday people at the forefront of sustainable fashion.
"Amanda is showing a generation brought up on fast fashion, that watching things grow slowly can be as much a pleasure as going shopping. Those appliqued T-shirts & denim dresses are the most special of all clothing: something that has been touched by human hands."
Suzy Menkes OBE, Fashion Editor & journalist