Dawn Till Dusk:
A Sustainable Fashion Designer’s Guide To London

Fashion designer Christopher Raeburn’s motto is simple, though unusual for someone in the clothing industry: “What could be more radical than making nothing at all?” The designer tells us about his London favorites, fashion, and why he set out to be a force for change.

It feels strangely appropriate that on the day Expedia interviews Chris Raeburn, London is sweltering through a record-breaking red-weather-warning heatwave – an experience that has made climate change and its impacts a national talking point. For Raeburn, however, humanity’s impact on the climate has long been an obsession.

Since launching his own fashion label, Ræburn, 13 years ago, the 39-year-old designer has been focused on “innovative and responsible design.” Raeburn has built his career, and his label’s reputation, on reworking surplus items into fashion-forward, highly functional pieces to sell from his Hackney studio and his Carnaby Street shop. “Our whole business is driven by what we call the ‘Three Rs’” he says. “Remake, reduce, recycle. There are billions and billions of things out there already. There’s no such thing as waste – just things in the wrong place.”

Raeburn’s interest in the environment was inspired by his idyllic childhood in Kent. He grew up near the Ashdown Forest – and the real 100 Acre Wood, the intensely magical, fern-dense forest that inspired the Winnie the Pooh series of books. At an early age, he was struck by the contrast between this carefree playground and his trips up to London. “From the age of five, my mum was militant at taking me to everything from Iron Age forts to the V&A and the Science Museum: it was incredibly impactful. I’m now a museum obsessive: I find the mixture of technology and tradition in London’s museum scene just fascinating.”

“Students come from all over the world to study in London, and I believe that sets the right foundations for solving the problems, and breeding the creatives, of the future.”

Christopher Raeburn

That early interest evolved when, as a hard-up fashion student at London’s Royal College of Art, he discovered an unexpected treasure trove: surplus ex-military items sold off cheap. Spurred on by the free-thinking environment of the school and the students around him, Raeburn created a new fashion concept: parachutes painstakingly reconstructed into outerwear. “London’s educational facilities for creatives are amazing – Central St Martins, Royal College of Art, London College of Fashion. Students come from all over the world to study here, and I believe that sets the right foundations for solving the problems, and breeding the creatives, of the future.”

London, he thinks, is a rare city in that “you can just get stuff done. There’s a spirit of getting on with trying things, and if it doesn’t work, that’s fine – it’s all part of the fun.” It’s the only place in the world where punk could have happened. “When something spikes, you have a counterculture. Punk was a reaction to the establishment, and in the world of fashion, we’re now going through something similar: an amazing digital transformation, with an opposing theme – even more love of craft, hand sketching and getting back to tradition. It’s that ping-pong that pushes the industry forward.”

Raeburn travels for work a lot, and I wonder how he reconciles that with his concerns about climate change. What advice can he give to travelers who want to reduce their impact? “It’s tricky,” he acknowledges. “I offset the carbon of all my trips. But also: focus on reducing single-use plastic. We all use more than we need to. I created a Glastonbury survival kit that doesn’t feature any single-use plastic anywhere. And, when I travel, I squeeze the most out of everything: I make sure it’s going to be really meaningful. Tag a weekend onto every work trip, see the place, go cycling, suck as much out as you can. In fashion it’s about buying less but buying better, and that stacks up in travel, too.”

“When I travel, I squeeze the most out of everything and make it really meaningful. Tag a weekend onto every work trip, see the place, go cycling, suck as much out as you can.”

Christopher Raeburn

A Sustainable Guide To London

“London is unique in that it’s 51% green spaces,” says Raeburn. “I get claustrophobic when I can’t see anything green.” So, we asked him for a tour of London from a climate-friendly POV….

Expedia: So, what's your favorite green space in London?
I once walked the Capital Ring, a 78-mile ring of connected green spaces, parks and canals around the outskirts of London. My favourite bit is the walk from historic Sydenham Woods through to Crystal Palace Park, where you can see the quirky Victorian dinosaur sculptures.

You're a museum obsessive. Tell us about one we might not know.
I love The Horniman Museum, an odd collection of offbeat curios in South London. Insider tip: most people never make it down to the aquarium in the basement, but it’s my favourite bit. They do conservation work around jellyfish and always have different species. I saw an enormous one called The Dustbin Lid – literally the size of a dustbin lid – but then next time, I saw 150 tiny ones. Fascinating.

Best museum for one-off exhibitions?
The Design Museum has consistently hosted some of the best shows I’ve been to and lots of it is free to visit. It’s architecturally interesting, and it’s right next to Holland Park, with its tranquil Japanese garden. Well worth a visit.

Greenest way to get around London?
London is now a genuinely good cycling city: bikes available for hire and a good network of Cycle Superhighways. The parks all link with the canals and the river. I have a couple of favorite routes: from Hackney down to Wapping, which is like traveling from one world to another. There’s also a little-known disused canal, The Grand Surrey Canal, at the bottom of Peckham, which I commute along. It takes you past Old Kent Road and then over Tower Bridge: perfect London scenes. 

Easiest way to reduce impact when moving around London?
One huge thing we can all do to reduce our impact when we travel is avoiding single-use plastic. There are now water points all over London and there’s a useful app, Refill, that tells you where they all are.  

Best place to find out more about sustainable fashion?
The Ræburn Lab is our studio in Hackney, and we do monthly tours for £5 (under $6), which anyone can sign up to. It’s a 45-minute tour offering education and inspiration around impact, sustainability and fabrics – people love it (it’s five-star-rated on Google).

Best places for sustainable shopping?
London is a fashion capital and people of course come here to shop. Our department stores are second to none. Selfridges, in particular, does a lot to innovate in the responsible space, supporting new designers and new thinkers. It’s well worth a trip from there down Oxford Street to Carnaby Street, with lots of shops featuring small designers doing really interesting things, whether that’s our Marshall Street store, Ganni, Supreme, CP Company, Stone Island – all in the beating heart of Soho.

Best spot for a day out?
I watched The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in East London go from bulldozers to a whole site built for the 2012 Olympics and it still fascinates me; I run and cycle there regularly. It has a velodrome, great playgrounds, places to eat, and the world’s longest tunnel slide, built by Anish Kapoor.

This is the third installment of “Dawn Till Dusk,” an Expedia-produced series that digs into the buzzing creative cultures of some of the world’s most fascinating cities. Each episode reveals some of the most delightfully unexpected facets of urban creativity that make each city worth your much-coveted vacation days. Find the first, second, and fourth installment here, or check out our complete London guide for even more tips and inspiration.