Why did I set up The Charlotte Edit?
3 reasons have brought me to develop The Charlotte Edit; My M&S ‘Insider’ (Influencer to the rest of us) experience, my passion for empowering women to feel the best versions of themselves & doing “my bit”, in the only way I know how, to help to give my children a planet for their future!
© The Charlotte Edit
I had never planned for this, yet it has always been a dream of mine to make women everywhere feel good about themselves, which they 100% deserve to feel. I LOVE styling clothes! And it was this love, & natural flair, of styling that gave me the chance to represent M&S as an Influencer on an Instagram platform. Styling up M&S clothes, shoes & accessories enabled me to grow a brand-new account to 20k followers in 18 months, organically, something which I am incredibly proud of bearing in mind when I started, I didn’t even know how to post a story.
It was whilst representing M&S I had thousands of chats with followers in particularly about 2 subjects:
* How do I style…? How do I wear X with Y?
*You make the clothes look so much better than M&S do!
© The Charlotte Edit
So, because styling comes naturally to me, and I am so passionate about it, The Charlotte Edit has evolved. Over 20 years of experience has brought me to this place, a Style Consultancy, with two main aims to share my knowledge, experience & expertise to all I can & to empower women everywhere to have the style confidence they deserve & make getting dressed fun & less stressful to reduce the amount of clothing being ploughed into landfill; giving clothes the life they deserve & you the knowledge to make better choices first time when making purchases ( saving you both time & money).
“The value of unused clothing in wardrobes has been estimated at around £30 billion. It is also estimated £140 million worth of WEARABLE clothing goes into landfill each year, that’s approximately 350,000 tonnes”
I can plant trees, eat a mostly plant-based diet (I’m not ready to give up cheese or Cadbury’s chocolate just yet!), reduce my plastic consumption & educate my children on consumerism & “looking after our beautiful planet”, BUT it’s not enough by a long shot! Fashion is the 3rd most polluting industry & as women, consumers, mothers, WE CAN DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
During covid & the long periods of time at home I got to thinking about how I could possibly do some good/help others/share the knowledge & passion I have in a meaningful way. I know clothes, I have worked in the fashion industry for over 20 years, I understand how they are designed, produced, purchased & unfortunately “wasted”; plus, don't get me started on the millions of items of clothing that never even make it to the shop floor, but go straight to a landfill site in BRAND NEW SALEABLE CONDITION. The reality is that one rubbish truck of textiles is dumped to landfills or burned every second! READ THAT AGAIN.
I want to give clothes the life they deserve. No clothes are made/should be bought to be worn once! I’ve previously talked about “cost per wear” & it doesn’t sound sexy but actually I will show you how to create styles & incredible looks, wearing items again & again with simple creative tweaks.
All of us have to be keenly aware of our impact on people & the planet and our responsibility towards both must be embedded in every decision we make. In order to save the planet from all this textile waste, fast fashion needs to slow down & we all need to become more responsible consumers.
I’m definitely not saying don't buy, BUT buy better, make educated, confident choices. I am here to guide you & help you gain confidence in doing this! I know it’s fun to buy new stuff, (I love the buzz of it too), it brings excitement & variety into our lives but sadly this mentality has a devastating effect on our planet. It is something we don’t think about enough in our everyday lives, mainly because it’s all hidden, and everything is marketed with happy, gorgeous-looking people to manipulate us, or an Influencer, who is paid to promote that product.
If clothes don't fit you, don't suit you, don't work for you ... give them to someone they do fit or suit or maybe make some cash for yourself by selling them on one of the many platforms available (I can even help with this!). Think about #secondhandseptember for example.
Clothes can make or break your mood in a nano second, but they don’t have to. I could spend years re-training to become a therapist, working with women across the country to feel better about themselves, and maybe one day I will, but right now I feel that I have the expertise & extensive fashion knowledge & experience, plus natural flair, for doing this through the clothes you already own and a few additions you could own. We all take getting dressed for granted, but I encourage you to think about the clothes, where they come from, where they end up and how we can maximise their usage whilst feeling bloody brilliant in them!
Television series like “10 Years Younger” are fantastic, but they cover maybe 10-20 people a series. I want to be helping at least 10 people a month to feel this good (albeit without the invasive treatments or surgery). Programmes like this always have, and always will, strike a nerve with me (I almost always end up in tears at the end seeing how much the self- care, time spent on themselves & newfound confidence changes their whole outlook), and I want to give everyone I can this opportunity!
And THIS is why The Charlotte Edit has evolved.