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| May Cortazzi - Regenerate Clothing founder |
Regenerate Clothing was founded by May Cortazzi in 2007. The company was designed to fill a gap on the high street for ethically produced urban street wear. Since then Regenerate has held fashion shows, swap shops, art, music, film and dance events and even pop up kiosks, with live artists, screen printing and break dancing, helping to raise the profile of eco fashion in a positive fun way.
What is your biggest inspiration and why?
All of my work has been inspired by my work at The Barli Institute for Rural women, India, a charity where I worked helping women from remote villages develop skills to create an income for themselves in 2005. This was a pivoting point in my career where I came up with the concept of regenerating the world of fashion through design.
What Regenerate's proudest moment to date?
I would say there are many proud moments, such as winning the Chambers of Commerce Green award, joining up with the rest of the gang at Shop, watching one of our youth workshops do an ethical fashion show and seeing them win a spot at Showcase, seeing the development of my students at Trent and watching bands wear my collections and scream "This is Regenerate, support ethical fashion!" to an audience of thousands of people
How, if at all, does winning awards impact on you and Regenerate’s Clothing?
With the UK Fashion Entrepreneur I have been selected as a representative of Fashion sector in the Midlands. I’m excited because I plan to network with other entrepreneurs nationally and internationally in all fields of art and design and hold events in Nottingham to showcase design talent. Obviously the award is associated with British Council, and so to have their support is fantastic.
If I am selected to go to Indonesia this will allow my campaign and label to grow quicker so I’d be over the moon that I could make a bigger difference in the fashion industry.
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| The Regenerate Clothing collection - visit the Regenerate website for more |
How would you describe the creative community in Nottingham?
This is an exciting time for creatives in Notts to come together and get involved collectively creating something spectacular. I've realized how talented we are as a community in Notts, as far as I’m concerned this is the only city where you can go out and not only enjoy the music but enjoy the talent we have here. I find it fascinating,
The best thing about Nottingham is the support I have from Nottingham Trent University and The Hive, who have always supported my campaigns and fashion label, it’s also very convenient here, to travel to shows and exhibitions all over the country/Europe, so for my business, it’s the place to be!
Listen to May interviewed on our Poddingham podcast
UK Fashion Entrepreuners 2010 award nominations
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