Fashion debut for dress made out of excess material at Scottish PPE business

Lorna Gibson, a 20-year-old fashion student from the University of Salford, has created the dress from unused material at Annan-based Alpha Solway’s factory. The firm is part of PPE manufacturer Globus Group, a market leader in producing products for both the industrial and healthcare sectors.

Gibson, a student from the University of Salford and daughter of a power station engineer, said her aspiration was to help raise awareness around the low representation of women in industrial jobs.

Her creation will now be showcased at a graduate fashion show, with plans to eventually be showcased at London Fashion Week.

Lorna Gibson has created a unique dress using fabric exclusively from excess material from Globus’ PPE manufacturing process for her final year university project.

She said: “The social expectations surrounding women in industry are somewhat unclear and out of date.

“My ambition was to make typically ‘unstylish’ safety workwear more appealing. I was passionate about upcycling protective clothing from the sector to make it stylish.

“Although an intimidating task at first, the firm and thick nature of chemical suit material makes for a great base fabric when producing high volume.”

Steven Binnie, managing director of Alpha Solway, added: “Lorna’s talent partnered with our quality-made protective clothing has resulted in an exclusive for one of the world’s biggest fashion stages - something that, as a manufacturer, we could never have envisioned.

“Innovation and sustainability have always been part of the Globus DNA and Lorna’s Chemmaster dress certainly embodies that approach.

“With Lorna’s incredible eye for design, the opportunities are endless in terms of future prospects.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this article. We’re more reliant on your support than ever as the shift in consumer habits brought about by coronavirus impacts our advertisers. If you haven’t already, please consider supporting our trusted, fact-checked journalism by taking out a digital subscription: www.scotsman.com/subscriptions