Summer Rayne Oakes's innovation: sustainable design | Environment | The Observer

Summer Rayne Oakes's innovation: sustainable design | Environment | The Observer

Oakes's website, source4style.com, aims to make it easy for fashion designers to use more ecologically and socially friendly textiles. She has teamed up with best friend Benita Singh, 27, an expert in fairly traded products, who has extensive experience working with small-scale textile-producing co-operatives around the world. These producers need access to market, and source4style.com puts them directly in front of designers. There are currently 30 different textiles to choose from, with nine exclusive designs. "Designers spend 85% of their time sourcing and 15% marketing," observes Oakes. "That leaves no time for the creative process. So we source and you can design."