Olympic Champion Imogen Grant Showcases Upcycled Rowing Kit Dress at Sports Personality Event

Olympic rowing champion Imogen Grant appeared on the red carpet at the Sports Personality of the Year event in a distinctive dress. This garment stemmed from an innovative initiative that allowed Grant to merge her dedication to sustainability with her interest in high fashion. The 28-year-old athlete, recognized as BBC Green Sports Awards Athlete of the Year, contributed her used sports kits to the London College of Fashion. The purpose was for these items to be upcycled into a dress for her to wear at the awards ceremony. “I think it’s an amazing project, and I really hope it sends a message,” stated Grant, who secured a gold medal in Paris alongside Emily Craig in the women’s lightweight double sculls. She further elaborated on the issue of waste: “As athletes we get given lots of kit and so much of it gets wasted. As soon as a sponsor changes, a whole new set comes in.” Grant articulated her aspiration: “I hope this shows there’s another life it can have. The way we make kit at the moment is just not sustainable.” The creation of the dress spanned two months, during which its maker, Aishvarya Verma, encountered multiple technical difficulties. Verma explained, “We had to work with lots of different fabrics that weren’t manufactured for an evening dress.” She added, “But I would say the hardest part was taking the pieces apart because we did not want to waste anything.” The final design incorporated six items of kit, each possessing a unique history. Verma dedicated seven days solely to unpicking the stitching of one of these items. Grant detailed the origins of the materials: “The front section is the kit I wore when I won the gold medal in Paris. There’s kit that I raced in and trained in when I was a newbie on the GB team.” She further noted, “I’ve set world-best times wearing some of it, and they’ve even used part of the jacket I wore for the opening ceremony at the Tokyo Olympics.” Reflecting on the process, Grant stated, “Back in October, when I handed over a big bag of kit I had no idea how they were going to transform it – but they’ve been worked into a red-carpet look.” Verma commented, “We wanted to blend her memories into one dress.” Grant modeled the dress she wore at Sports Personality of the Year, which was crafted by London College of Fashion graduate Aishvarya Verma. In addition to producing a commendable garment, participants in the project aspire for it to heighten awareness regarding the environmental consequences of sportswear and the millions of tonnes of textile waste deposited in landfills globally each year. “Sportswear is a $300bn industry worldwide and it’s set to grow,” stated Professor Dilys Williams, who founded the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. She further explained, “Not only are we buying more things, those things are going to be here for a long time because 99% of sportswear is polyester.” Williams added, “A lot of it is made in countries that are still using coal-fired production for their energy. This creates a mix that is very toxic from an environmental perspective.” Ella Sharp, a course leader at London College of Fashion, expressed her belief that the industry has room for greater effort. Sharp stated, “We need to think carefully about how we use fabrics. It takes hundreds of years for polyester to decompose.” She proposed a solution: “I think it would be great if sportswear companies designed for disassembly. They could develop dissolvable thread that could be disintegrated in microwaves so that the garments could be upcycled. It’s complicated, but it can be done.”