Sports Personality of the Year: Imogen Grant wears upcycled dress
When Olympic rowing champion Imogen Grant walks on the Sports Personality of the Year red carpet on Tuesday, she will be wearing a special dress.
It is the result of a unique project that allows Grant to combine her passion for sustainability with high fashion.
The 28-year-old man’s name is BBC Green Sports Awards Sportsperson of the Year, Donating her old tracksuits to the London College of Fashion so they can be upcycled into dresses she wears at awards shows.
“I think it’s an amazing project and I really hope it sends a message,” said Grant, who won gold in the women’s lightweight double sculls with Emily Craig in Paris.
“As athletes, we are given a lot of equipment, but a lot of it goes to waste. Once the sponsor changes, there’s a whole new set of equipment.
“I hope this shows that it can have another life. The way we currently make gear is unsustainable.”
The dress took two months to make and maker Aishvarya Verma faced several technical challenges.
“We had to use a lot of different fabrics that weren’t made for evening wear,” she said.
“But I would say the hardest part is taking the pieces apart because we don’t want anything to go to waste.”
Six kits were used in the final design, each with a story, and it took Velma seven days to unstitch one of them.
“The first half is the jersey I wore when I won the gold medal in Paris,” Grant said. “I wore this kit to games and training when I was new to Team GB.
“I’ve done world best times wearing some of them and they even used part of the jacket I wore at the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics.
“Back in October, when I handed over a big bag of gear, I had no idea how they were going to transform it – but it was already transformed into red carpet looks.”
“We wanted to incorporate her memory into a piece of clothing,” Velma said.
