Why is SARAH POLAND showing during Slow Fashion Week?

Here outlines the brand's commitment to sustainability and how we achieve this through our design practice and business model:

SARAH POLAND is an artisanal, natural plant dyed, slow, UK made purpose driven contemporary clothing brand, which celebrates the tension between form and ethics and is uncompromising in its responsibility to the world it draws from.

It’s circular fashion model helps to redefine luxury by integrating natural dyes, zero-waste design, non-toxic, organic and regenerative agriculture into every stage of production. The concept closes the loop by ensuring that all materials used are either biodegradable, recyclable, or compostable, returning safely to the earth at end-of-life without toxic legacy.

FASHION DECLARES! hosts Crafting Fashion Futures, a regenerative fashion futures event in the beautiful 1920’s Conway Hall in King’s Cross on 17th September 2025. It’s a great start to London Fashion Week and I’ll be showcasing a collaboration with Safia Minney - her organic cotton fabric, my design and natural dyed, painted dress. Safia founded People Tree, a pioneering sustainable and Fair Trade fashion label and Fashion Declares.

It's July and the dye garden is bursting with fecundity - of both plants and ideas.
Here’s a very short video of part of the regenerative natural dye, food and medicine garden, it forms a part of the forest garden.

The Serpentine Gallery Summer Party is THE event on the art calendar. 

Photographer and film maker Mark Lebon, known for his boundary breaking fashion photography in the 1980's and 90's, wears a commissioned SARAH POLAND kilt to the Serpentine Gallery Summer Party 2025.

A SHORT INTRODUCTORY VIDEO ABOUT MY JOURNEY TO START A NATURAL DYED, LIMITED EDITION, UK MADE CLOTHING BRAND, PLUS A DIP INTO THE REGENERATIVE DYE GARDEN.

The why and what SARAH POLAND Art | Fashion is about and stands for as a clothing brand with sustainability and ethics at its core, with zero waste, circular design principles.

In the studio, this year for me is all about getting out there - gaining visibility, collaboration and well, just keeping on keeping on.

This month and probably next month too, will be a creative time. For many years I’ve wanted to create my own wardrobe, wear mostly my own designs.

You could call it a capsule collection, perhaps a mini collection, I’m just going to call it a wardrobe for now.

On Wed 6th Nov 2024, SUSTAINABLE FASHION WEEK hosted an event at Bristol Cathedral called FASHION ON EARTH. Invited to take part, I showcased a natural dyed corduroy bomber jacket in 5 different colours with a few one-off pieces, including a natural dyed painted kilt. Raven Roundwood Timber Frames, created a stunning exhibition stand for my natural dyed, hanging canvas installation backdrop.

I was a tutor at Newlyn School of Art on the year long mentoring course in 2024, and they invited me to take part in their annual online fundraiser.

I have ten pieces in the online exhibition. Included are some of my oak gall ink and Moon Drawing diptychs and triptychs, a card maquette for a 3-D painting installation plus a couple of pieces from the (2008) archive.

When creating artwork dye irregularities doesn’t matter so much as it adds visual texture, plus I paint on top of the dyed canvas. But a mark in the wrong place on a garment can look like an unwanted stain. It’s one reason people combine tie-dye or batik with natural dye, the blemishes become disguised. But I want to create a different look than we are used to with natural dye - it’s a challenge to create an even colour - something more chic, by using interesting colour combinations (I’m a colour geek) and beautiful planet conscious fabrics.

On Wed 6th Nov 2024, SUSTAINABLE FASHION WEEK hosted an event at Bristol Cathedral called FASHION ON EARTH. Invited to take part, I showcased a natural dyed corduroy bomber jacket in 5 different colours with a few one-off pieces, including a natural dyed painted kilt. Raven Roundwood Timber Frames, created a stunning exhibition stand for my natural dyed, hanging canvas installation backdrop.

In a David and Goliath scenario, I’ve been pressured into changing my natural dyed clothing brand name (before it’s even launched).

We hear about insecure, avaricious big companies working to squeeze out independents, putting pressure on them in some way with their big buck budgets.

Well, they object to my use of the word sonnet in the name SONNET by Sarah Poland.

I’ve got some exciting news about a new project that I’ve been focused on developing over the last 4 months. If you saw my solo exhibition in 2023 (either in the real or on my video tour), you will have spotted an area showing a few pieces from a natural dyed clothing collection, with prints inspired by the art work. I am creating sustainable, ethical, designed, sourced and manufactured in the UK, clothing brand, SONNET by Sarah Poland. (This has since been rebranded to SARAH POLAND due to JD Sports objecting to the use of the word SONNET. They have an in-house, fast fashion, sports wear brand called SONNETI.)