About

I am Libby and I created The Way Of Tea as a reaction to Fast Fashion.

I believe in beautiful clothes, I believe in creativity and expression. I believe in women feeling incredible and most of all THEMSELVES, EXACTLY AS THEY ARE in the clothing with which they choose to adorn their bodies.

I don’t believe in greed over people.

I don’t believe in profit over planet.

I don’t believe in children working in sweatshops.

I don’t believe in people dying to sustain a huge global industry.

I don’t believe in filters.

I do however believe that passionate people, combined together, can create change. We create change with our passion, our words, our actions, our self reflection and our creative drive.

We CAN be the change, and this is my way of doing it.

Libby Double - The Way Of Tea

ABOUT TEA

The Way Of Tea uses either organic fabrics or upcycles pre-loved items such as clothing, bedding, sofas or curtains. Zips and threads are pre-loved or organic, buttons are thrifted, dyes are natural – flowers and coffee are the favourites and each piece is dyed and stitched by hand, one by one.

Each piece is unique. I don’t believe in making all women look the same. We aren’t. And I want to celebrate this. Natural dyes can never be repeated, and neither can we. To own a piece of Tea is to own your own individual garment that no other person in the world will ever own.

To further encourage sustainability, I offer a re-dye service. Natural dyes do fade over time – as we all do. But I can bring them back to life with a fresh dye job. I can also mend or re-work if so required. You constantly evolve – your clothing can evolve with you. Just contact me for details.

WHY SUSTAINABLE?

How long have you got?

Fast fashion is the second biggest polluter after oil. It is destroying our planet, abusing our people and crippling our resources. Here are some numbers and they’re not pretty:

  • The carbon emissions generated by the clothing in the average UK household is equivalent to driving an average modern car for 6,000 miles. (WRAP 2011)
  • On average, the global water footprint of the UK household’s clothing exceeds 200,000 litres PA – that’s 1,000 bathtubs. (WRAP 2011)
  • Clothing production DOUBLED between 2000 and 2014. (McKinsey 2016)
  • The fashion industry’s CO2 emissions are projected to increase to nearly 2.8 billion tonnes per year by 2030. This is equivalent to 230 million cars being driven for a year. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)
  • 4% of what Australians spend on clothing goes to the garment workers. (Oxfam 2017)
  • Over 50% of workers in the garment industry are paid less than the national minimum wage. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)
  • In Pakistan’s garment sector, 87% of women are paid less than the national minimum wage. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)
  • Around 300 million people who work in cotton production are living in poverty. (Fairtrade 2017)
  • Less than 1% of materials used to produce clothing is recycled into new textiles and fibres. (Elle MacArthur Foundation 2017)
  • Cotton farming covers 3% of the world’s land, yes uses 16% of all insecticides and 7% of all herbicides. (Greenpeace 2017)
  • It is predicted that by 2030, the fashion industry will use 35% MORE land for cotton, forest for cellulose fibres and grassland for livestock. (Global Fashion Agenda 2017)
  • It takes 2720 litres of water to make one t-shirt – enough for one person to drink in THREE years. (EJF)
  • It takes 10,000 litres of water to produce a pair of jeans. (WRAP 2011)
  • 1.3 trillion gallons of water is used every year in fabric dyeing alone. (World Resources Institute 2017)
  • Garment manufacturing is responsible for 20% of the world’s water pollution (World Resources Institute 2017)
  • 60% of clothing made ends up in landfill after ONE YEAR of being made. (McKinsey 2016)
  • The UK throws away 350,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill per year. (Greenpeace 2017)
  • Australians throw away 6 tonnes of clothing textiles every 10 minutes. (War On Waste 2017)

Thank you to Jennifer Nini for collating these stats on ecowarriorprincess.net.

WHY NATURAL?

Synthetic dyes are polluting our beautiful planet’s water. People, animals and flora are getting fatally sick and dying from the pollution. But there is another way. Humans have known about it since we’ve been making clothes – but it got lost amid the industrial revolution.

Many people know the benefits of eating well, eating natural foods and not processed, eating organic where the budget is possible.

However, many people continue to wear toxic chemicals on their skin. Our skin is our biggest organ. We absorb so much through it.

Plus, in 2015, polyester production emitted around 706 billion kg of greenhouse gases – this is the same as 185 coal fired power plants.

Not natural is NOT pretty.

Choosing fabrics that are organic, or that would otherwise be thrown away, is kinder to us and our planet. It is kinder to our children’s futures. And choosing natural dyes is kinder to our planet’s water, and our bodies. Plus natural FEELS nicer next to our skin. It feels kind to us. It feels comfortable.

Libby - Way of Tea.