Reading scientist's climate change image to feature in fashion collection

The world famous climate stripes have inspired ethical designer Lucy Tammam

Author: Jonathan RichardsPublished 15th Sep 2021
Last updated 16th Sep 2021

A design depicting global warming which was developed by a scientist at the university of Reading will make its debut in the world of fashion on Thursday evening.

The climate stripes - were created by clima-scientist Professor Ed Hawkins - and have been described as the 'most compelling global warming visualisation ever made'.

Now the climate stripes have inspired a new fashion collection to be unveiled at a London fashion week show by ethical designer Lucy Tammam from the House of Tammam. She says fashion is a great way to start a conversation:

"People go up to each other and say 'oh I love your dress, I love what you're wearing' if you can then say 'yes the stripes on it are the climate change stripes which shows how the world has warmed over the last 150 years and its made by fair trade by artisans in India' and all of these things with a story behind it, to me that's what fashion is all about."

Lucy says her collection called “Flight” and is inspired by nature, birds, female aviators and of course the climate stripes!

"So we've got quite a few dresses that are fully covered in the stripes fabric that was hand woven in India, we have a cape that has a climate stripes lining and we have lots of little details that use the climate stripes. I'm really excited about showing it to everyone and I really hope everyone loves it!"

The climate stripes can be regionalised - the one above shows global warming stats for Berkshire from 1850

The climate stripes were the creation of university of Reading clima-scientist Professor Ed Hawkins who was recognised for his work on climate change with an MBE in 2020.

He says he's excited to see the stripes be used in a catwalk show:

"We've seen them used in so many ways and they've been used in the US senate, they've been used in museums, they've been used on cars, on trams, and on buses and by rock bands - this is now reaching the fashion world and so it's starting a conversation amongst a completely different group and raising the issues of the critic issues around climate change.

"You know someone will wear a scarf for example and a friend or a colleague may see that scarf and wonder what it's all about, and that will enable us to have these conversations which are so important because the most important thing we can do about climate change is talk about it, about the risks we face and the actions we can all take to do something about it".

Find out more about collection at www.tammam.co.uk

You can find the stripe graphics at https://showyourstripes.info/

Hear all the latest news from across the UK on the hour, every hour, on Greatest Hits Radio on DAB, at greatesthitsradio.co.uk, and on the Greatest Hits Radio app.