Listening to Ada Zanditon speak, you’d think she was a biologist-or as one publication romantically puts it, an eco warrior-princess. Her passion for wildlife tempered with a killer dress sense embraces what she calls a paradox of a calling in life. Ada Zandition is a fashion designer with a green conscience. Ada is one of [...]

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The Sundaytimes Sri Lanka

Think before you wear

Duvindi Illankoon meets Ada Zandition, a fashion designer with a green conscience from the UK
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Listening to Ada Zanditon speak, you’d think she was a biologist-or as one publication romantically puts it, an eco warrior-princess. Her passion for wildlife tempered with a killer dress sense embraces what she calls a paradox of a calling in life. Ada Zandition is a fashion designer with a green conscience.

Ada: Campaigning for green ethics

Ada is one of London’s brightest young twenty-something fashion sirens. Here in the country for the Sri Lanka Design Festival (SLDF) organised by the Academy of Design, she speaks to the Sunday Times Magazine about her passion for ethical fashion and how young designers can redefine what it means to create with a social conscience.

Ada has had success in the UK’s high-end fashion circles. A graduate of the London College of Fashion, she interned with Alexander McQueen, Jonathan Saunders and Gareth Pugh before setting up her label. “I was four when I saw my first copy of Vogue in a supermarket,” she remembers. “And from then on I was absolutely hooked. My mum could get me to do anything-the washing, ironing, dishes-if she got me a copy of Vogue afterwards!”

Education, surprisingly, proved to be the first hurdle. “I was at a school that was focused on academics, and they pushed me to choose academic subjects for my A ‘Levels. So when I finally managed to break out of that mould, put together a portfolio of my work with the help of an art teacher who took pity on me and applied to Kingston they made an unconditional offer. I actually cried!” She smiles wryly at the memory. “It was fantastic to have someone recognise that I was an artistic person. I felt like that side of me had just been overlooked and trampled on for the past few years.”

That artistic side took root and blossomed over the next few years, when she secured a prestigious internship at just 19 years of age with designer Alexander McQueen and started design studies at the London College of Fashion where she attained a 1st Class BA (Hons) in women’s wear.

Ada hadn’t begun to even consider ethical fashion design till she happened to read a paper written by a friend about the impact of fashion on the environment. It was, she admits, a revelation. “I realised that two things I loved doing the most were at odds against each other, and that they didn’t have to be. I could combine my passion for fashion with my love for nature-it was a matter of finding inspiration from and sourcing the right materials.”

Thereafter, she began transforming her designs into ethically conscious wear. Organic cotton, recycled denim yarn and reclaimed polyester are mainstays in her collections. Why? “Because these are bio-degradable materials. Think about it – you buy a synthetic top on Friday, wear it to go out clubbing on Saturday and rip the material. So you throw it away. But that top will sit in the earth’s soil for at least a hundred years before it begins to properly decompose. In UK, non-bio degradable material the size of a five-storey house is discarded every day. Doesn’t that scare you?”

“People look at a fur coat and say ‘Oh I won’t buy that because it’s fur, and an animal was hurt during the process.’ Why can’t they look at cotton and synthetic materials the same way?” asks Ada. “I believe that it’s really important for consumers to know what they’re buying, the impact that it will cause on the environment and the alternatives available in the market. Designers need to start incorporating green ethics in to their creations-especially the younger ones who are still learning.”

Showcasing her sustainable brand

At the AOD workshop Ada talked to a group of students about her sustainable brand and how they could set up their own. It was a lively session, with the participants even creating a hypothetical brand in the space of two hours.

Two days earlier she showcased her Spring and Summer 2013 collection ‘Tigress Rein’ at SLDF’s Future Designers Fashion Show. It’s inspired by a rather Tarantino-esque modern woman. “You know, glamorous but hardcore at the same time; nerves of steel-think Kill Bill.”

Needless to say, this collection epitomises Ada’s sustainable approach to design once again. As she puts it, “It’s a business at the end of the day. But I’m determined that it will be a business that treats people, planets and profit in equal measure.”




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