Sarah Ratty

What was your original inspiration for green fashion?

I've always been involved in green fashion and one of the first collections I did was in 1993. In the U.K., there's this very typical, old-fashioned style of knitting known as Aran, from the Aran Islands in Scotland. It's like a cable knit and everybody gets knitted a white or cream sweater at some time in their life. So Oxfam saved me loads of sweaters, and I laundered them and made them into mad creations. I sold it all to Browns on St. Martins Lane—it's a mecca for fashion—and my recycled Aran knitwear coat ended up in the permanent collection at Victoria & Albert museum.

What were your biggest challenges along the way?

Working with recycled post-consumer waste was extremely difficult then. It was like working with your hands tied behind your back. It was hard to find fabric—you had to really look and ask around. And if you found fabric, the source may have had it laundered and it shrunk or another hole may have occurred. In 1996, I started using sleeping bags from Salvation Army to make jackets and coats, and it was very mad—'90s club wear inspired by ski wear. Like a tiny, cutesy '50s dress that was A-line and space age-y. Trouble was, people didn't understand they couldn’t just order the color they wanted. We had to work with what turned up, which was mostly bright blue—we couldn't manage to find olive green for them. In 1998, I found a fabric made out of recycled aluminum that was like a gossamer silver with rubber silicon on the other side. It was so beautiful, I made an outfit for a band over here called Lamb for the Glastonbury festival—it was a great dress with butterfly wings. Then I found some loathsome hemp things, really horrible stuff [hemp grows really fast and so is a renewable resource], but in these last two years it has been blended with silk and suddenly, it's really glamorous and gorgeous in lovely colors and with a great hand. It's really exciting to find fabric like that, because then I can make a beautiful frock—hurrah!

What is the most recent green habit that you have adopted in your own life?

I contribute to staro.org, which is a rainforest charity that one of my friends set up. It's brilliant—you go on to the website and pick the forest you'd like to save, pledge your support and pay. It puts the power back in the hands of us—you don’t have to wait a long time for politicians to do what you want them to do.

Is there a product or service that you wish were green but isn't?

All of the appliances we buy—the stereo and television and [cable] boxes—they all have these standby lights. I just wish they could make them without those lights, have them time out after certain period, like a half hour. That would save us so much money and energy. It would be huge if they could just do that very small thing, because it's not easy to get to the plug at the back of the wall behind the TV. Pass a small law: From now on, you have to design all electric equipment with a time out switch built into the circuitry. Everyone could buy it and stop feeling guilty. Designers should think about how to make things for the world we live in, and in a greener way. Ask questions, look at every component and make it better, and in the end, get a really green product.

When was the last time you experienced an eco-conflict, and had to weigh a choice between, say, an organic vs. local item?

It’s been on my to-do list to change my energy server over to something that is more energy efficient. You can request solar power and wind power, but I feel funny about wind power—I worry about the birds. My boyfriend’s family is from Tarifa, Spain, and they have lots of wind farms—and lots of dead birds can be seen when walking along there.

Do you have any eco-sins—a guilty pleasure or enjoyable indulgence that isn’t green but you must have in your life?

Wine, only one glass, every day—it's medicinal. And chocolate—not always organic. Sometimes what you want isn't organic at all. It's like homeopathy—a little bit of poison makes the cure. You can't be so regimented and trying to live by the rules. You have to break the rules a little.

How did you come to Ciel?

Before Ciel, I ran another environmentally-based fashion line, a younger and more streetwear line called Conscious Earthwear. It was doing very well. I went on holiday for the millennium and had a bad road accident and broke my back, arm and leg. I was very ill and couldn't work for a couple of years. But I still wanted to be useful, so I got involved with the Pesticide Action Network in the U.K., to make people more aware of organic cotton. The Soil Association [an organic farming organization in the U.K.] asked me to come on board as a member representing the design point-of-view.
Like occupational therapy, Ciel started as a hobby to keep my brain going while trying to heal my bones. A group of shops saw a coat I made and said, 'We love your coat!' and I made some coats and some jumpers. I thought it would be great to make some t-shirts, so it all built up in a very organic way. Now I've been working full-time for a year and I'm 80% recovered, so that’s really great.