Green is the new black this year according to top designer Laurence Llewelyn Bowen as he embraces the threat to our environment in his latest design project. With iconic designers opting for eco-style glamour in an effort to protect our environment, green A-list celebrities are now strutting the pavements dressed in recycled designer outfits and enviro-friendly tote bags. Recycling is not only one of the best ways to save the planet it is also the easiest way to boost our sense of chic, and we all have our part to play in protecting our environment.

Demonstrating the benefits of recycling, style guru Laurence Llewelyn Bowen is the first interior designer to lead the way in eco-friendly home furnishings taking his inspiration from drinks cans to design a contemporary armchair masterpiece. It would seem that the drinks can is the new designer friendly material.

H: Hello and welcome to the Lifestyle Show, I’m Liz Speight. Now, did you know that green is the new black this year? With recycled dresses, handbags and even shoes being spotted on catwalks right around the globe, and some really iconic designers have been choosing eco-style glamour to put in their collections, in a bid to do their bit for the environment. And some of the greener A-list celebrities have been seen strutting their stuff on the pavements wearing designer recycled outfits. And us mere mortals can also do our bit by snapping up recycled tote bags. So we can all do our bit to protect the environment, and recycling is a really good way of doing that, and recycled fashion can be really chic, and I’m delighted to say that Mr Chic himself, Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has joined us, top designer – hello Laurence, welcome along. Now Laurence is leading the way in eco-friendly home furnishings and he’s going to be talking us through his latest project a little bit later on, but first of all this is a interactive show – an interactive show – and we’d love you to get involved, so if you have any questions at all, for Laurence then all you have to do is type your question in the box that’s on the screen, put your name in there and maybe where you’re from and press submit and it’ll come through to us here in the studio and we’ll try to answer as many as we can over the next 20 minutes. But back to the environment, we’re all much more environmentally-friendly now aren’t we and the supermarkets are trying to get us to reuse our bags, give us bags for life and as I said some of the fashion designers as well are getting in on the act using eco-friendly styles in their collections and Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen has also been doing a spot of recycling himself, so Laurence tell us about your latest project?

L: Well basically I’ve – what I’ve done is come up with this chair which is really trying to get people to understand quite how flexible and quite how creative you can be about recycling. I think you said earlier that recycling and our responsibility towards the environment is now something that we take very very seriously but actually there was a time when it was considered to be rather dull, rather boring, rather nichy –

H: A little bit loony as well actually

L: A little bit loony exactly

H: Yes. You wouldn’t think that now would you?

L: No no. But the point that I’m making here is that it can also be extremely glamorous, as you’re saying you know it’s now become something that’s actually very very fashionable, and what we want to do with this project is to show really highlight the kind of responsibility that we all have at home, and to also start addressing various issues about how environmentally-friendly, how recyclable a lot of the, you know the stuff that we’ve got at home actually is

H: So explain to us a little bit about this chair then, we’ve got some images of your sort of initial designs of it. Explain how you came up with the idea and the idea behind it?

L: Well the idea was to create something that would – really drew attention to this fact that if you’re, you know if you’re buying something in a can it’s one of the best ways of doing it, it’s 100% recyclable, there’s no waste involved in that, it’s something that I think we can all, you know make that kind of commitment to that if you’re faced with an alternative about buying a drink in a bottle or a can, actually a can is a much better way of doing it

H: Because you can use it again?

L: Because it gets used again exactly, and very very easily as well, it’s very easily recycled

H: We have some of your initial sketches up here –

L: Yes what I wanted to do was to create a chair that looked as if it had been made out of a giant can basically, to really show that the whole things is, you know there are so many different uses that the drinks can that you recycled today could come back as an airplane, it could come back as a chair, it could come back as another can, and – so the idea was to do something that also played on the term can-can, you know because you can recycle

H: You can do anything with a can

L: You can, exactly

H: And so the arms are sort of peeled out and folded –

L: Yes the idea was to make it look as if – absolutely, a giant can had been cut into pieces and then folded round. This is obviously all you know entirely made of material recycled from the – from drinks cans. But I wanted to do something that was also quite sort of feminine and quite boudoiry in a way

H: It is it’s lovely, that would look lovely in somebody’s bedroom wouldn’t it?

L: It would indeed

H: Draped with a nice feather boa or something?

L: Exactly again this is quite funny because there it is, you know this is – we think of metal as being a very cold, very harsh material, but actually it can be incredibly decorative, and I love the idea of playing with the fact that you’ve got the inside of the can coming through here, so you’ve got the shiny metal and then the pattern on the surface at the same time. So that was – yes that’s absolutely the way the whole thing started off, that was just a sketch idea that I came up with

H: And it looks pretty much like that actually

L: Shows I’ve done my job right!

H: Yes it’s pretty good. Moving on I think we have some other images of the chair actually in sort of different colours and what have you. Presumably the colour that it’s come out as you could do it in different colours and designs –

L: Oh yes definitely and different patterns as well. We went through a whole series of different patterns to see what was going to work, because the key thing was to get this idea of you know the outside, the screen printed outside – which is exactly what happens with a drinks can

H: Oh that’s nice

L: Well that’s just a – that’s a construction model that shows how the whole thing was going to be pieced together

H: So each piece is a different colour basically isn’t it?

L: Yes basically, but no I know what you mean it does look a but gaudy

H: But that’s a completely different image to the one we have in the studio

L: Yes yes

H: That could go in a nice trendy bar or something couldn’t it?

L: Well exactly. I mean that to me would be absolutely lovely, would be to maybe get interest in this particular design from the leisure industry, from bars, restaurants –

H: Yes

L: Because it does have that sort of rather cheeky take on the fact that it is ultimately – you know you’d be sitting in a bar, having your gin and tonic and with any luck the tonic would be poured straight from a can rather than coming from a much more difficult to recycle bottle

H: So these are some of the other images –

L: Yes so that’s how the whole thing actually pieces together, how it fits together. And then eventually we come to an image, which just shows – that shows the construction models behind it.

H: So how long did it take you to actually do the design?

L: The design was quite quick to be honest, the idea was very very – you know – straightforward. I had a quite clear vision right from the very outset about how it was going to work – and you see this is a – we went through a series of different patterns. This is a pattern I use a lot for this year, it’s –

H: Red and black

L: Yes it’s something that I’ve used on wallpaper, on my mug designs; we’re doing it on a room fragrance project. So it’s a very now, very fashionable pattern. And this is very much how I want the project to be viewed, that yes absolutely recycling is now a very fashionable thing to do, but it needs to go beyond that you know, it’s not something that we can take on as an idea and then shed in a year or so

H: Well exactly, it’s not –

L: We need that commitment -

H: It’s not fashion – sort of disposable fashion as it was –

L: Fad

H: No fad, that’s a good word

L: Although bizarrely of course disposable fashion I mean yes that is entirely recyclable, this time next year that could be recycled as a completely different chair

H: So if you got bored of it you just screw it up, squash it up and start again?

L: Theoretically

H: If you had a Laurence to come along and design you another one!

L: Theoretically, I suggest you don’t

H: Well that’s a point, how much does it cost do you think if I wanted to buy one of these?

L: well at the moment because it’s a prototype stage we’re looking at thousands

H: Right

L: So you’d need quite a stern commitment to that particular design, but as I say I mean I’d love it to be something that catches on, and becomes a very recognisable thing then, you know that you get used to seeing it around and you know that it has been a very symbolic statement about the fact –

H: Because it looks like a drinks can

L: Well this is the whole thing, exactly

H: But it’s very clever. I mean I couldn’t have come up with that, you know it’s simple but very clever isn’t it, and that’s the point

L: Well it’s very, it’s important that it’s a decorative object but it does get the message across and it does say to people that there is now a choice. You obviously have a very specific responsibility to recycle as a household anyway, but also you can make that decision much earlier on by ensuring that you’re buying things that have an innate recyclability or an easy recyclability, like buying anything you possibly can in a can, it makes a lot of sense

H: Yes. And do you think that we’re doing enough to recycle in our homes and what have you?

L: It’s something that I think more and more people are becoming very very committed to. I mean I – one thing I think is extremely good now is just – my children are obsessed by it. It’s something that they learn so – in so much detail at school that it is now becoming an inescapable – and I think quite rightly – inescapable fact of life

H: And it’s the norm for them isn’t it

L: Yes

H: Like your TV remote control or computers; recycling is just part of their lives which is fantastic

L: Yes. I think we all – I mean really it’s just down to a little bit of extra organisation that you know it’s down to knowing that you have to sift your rubbish before you do it, but then thinking back –

H: It’s not hard

L: It’s not. But 30 or 40 years ago we all used to do it with things like bottles, because bottles you used to get –

H: 5p or whatever

L: Yes exactly and I think that we’ve been through a phase now in the past 10, 15 years where we’ve really lacked responsibility in terms of the materials we use and how we use them. We’ve become so distanced from it

H: And we’re such a throwaway society –

L: Exactly

H: You just think, “Oh I’m bored of that, chuck it out, get a new one” – we can’t be like that we’re very –

L: It’s wrong, we’re very bad at saying well actually that could be fixed so I’m going to get it fixed and I – one of the things that I really enjoyed about this project was to really highlight this issue that actually there are really good ways of packaging things that not only have an enormous environmental, positive to them but actually they can be very very decorative as well and there is something – I mean to me I mean you look at these just done as a drinks can, you know –

H: It’s quite pretty isn’t it?

L: That’s a very attractive object; it’s much nicer than a plastic bottle –

H: Yes

L: And you know that a plastic bottle carries with it an enormous amount of – you know – negativity. Environmental negativity

H: You can’t really get rid of it

L: I think we’ve gone packaging crazy, you said earlier about the supermarkets really encouraging people now to actually take bags to the supermarket. We are in danger – I think – of absolutely choking this planet with plastic. I was filming in the Jordanian desert a few months ago –

H: Like you do

L: Like you do! As you do! And it is frightening –

H: The amount of litter –

L: Incredible, beautiful space and yet there are plastic bags blowing around. You know they literally travel round the world

H: It’s terrible isn’t it, it really is. You’re obviously very interested in it at home because we’ve had lots of questions coming in, we’re about halfway through the show now so keep your questions coming in and we’ll start to put some of those to Laurence now. First one is from Becky, and she wants to know “do you recycle a lot at home Laurence?” We touched on that a little bit. Any helpful tips you can offer?

L: I think the key with recycling is to be quite organised about it and I think that’s – it’s quite an important issue in terms of kitchen design, and it’s amazing how few kitchen designers actually really think about it. I – we’ve moved and I’m working on the design of the new kitchen at the moment – and I’ve never been into these sort of small bins that you have incorporated into kitchen units. I think it’s far better to have decent sized bins that you can then sort your recycling into

H: So you have one for glass, one for cans –

L: Absolutely, absolutely

H: And they’re quite fashionable, I know it’s a bit of a silly think to say – but they are quite trendy, bins at the moment aren’t they

L: Absolutely

H: You can get some quite fashionable stainless steel ones

L: Particularly if you get yourself something like this, recyclable – a bin that is itself recyclable! Which is good – I mean again these dreadful plastic flip-top bins, you know those are something that you’re not actually – we’re never going to be able to get rid of

H: No

L: You know what people need to understand about plastic is you know it hasn’t come from the earth, it’s made scientifically, it’s a man-made procedure –

H: And it can’t biodegrade.

L: So it just doesn’t go anywhere. The whole point about you know presenting things in metal is there’s a cycle there, there’s a circle –

H: It goes on forever and ever and ever

L: Exactly. Same with glass, you know glass is just sand

H: I feel dreadful if I throw glass away – I can’t do it! Now Hatty from Buckleberry – I don’t know where Buckleberry is, that sounds very glamorous wants to know “where can I buy eco-friendly furnishings from?” She says she thinks this is a great idea. Anywhere you can think of where you can get this sort of thing?

L: The thing is, I mean most – it’s such an incredibly big issue now, most manufacturers will claim to have you know good eco credentials, but the simple thing to do is to really explore that further, you know go onto their website, ask questions from whoever you’re buying it from, but there are various specific green society websites

H: Oh right

L: Which will lead you towards, you know there are furnishing fabrics which are made from literally recycled, you know curtains, you know materials, all that kind of thing which can steer you in the right direction

H: I suppose sustainable forests as well – is that sort of a similar thing?

L: Yes, no absolutely I mean you’ve got to be very very careful about – really we need to be very careful about all the materials that we use

H: And the more pressure we put on –

L: Exactly, and that’s bizarre things as well like stone, I mean people don’t realise this but actually there are certain sorts of limestone which have become very common for us to use in gardens or kitchen floors or things like that, but obviously it’s non-sustainable. You need to be really –

H: There’s a big hole in the ground somewhere –

L: Absolutely

H: Where this has come from

L: I mean my point is that you know, you can’t – I’m not suggesting that we all live in the Iron Age and I’m not suggesting you put the clock back, but certainly understand the responsibilities from absolutely everything you use, and definitely stop seeing it as a disposable issue. One of the problems I think we’ve got these days as a society is that we’re so used to everything being so cheap

H: I know that’s right, we don’t save up –

L: We don’t consider it

H: For anything any more do we?

L: As I said earlier, if you knew you were getting 5p back on a bottle every time you returned it you’d think a bit harder about it

H: Exactly

L: We’re just so used to this idea of things being cheap, disposable, get rid of them

H: Exactly so we’ve got to think again. Now James has written in and he wants to know “do you think recycled furniture will ever really catch on or is it just a passing phase do you think?”

L: No I think that the – I think we will get to the stage where absolutely everything has to be recycled; I mean lots of things are recyclable for goodness sake. One of the things I find amusing these days is that ultimately most of us are into recycled furniture if we’re doing things like selling things on, you know you buy a bright pink sofa, you have it for a year, you know you then sell it on a website or – you know –

H: Antiques, I mean that’s

L: Antiques, ultimate recycling. But I think that the critical thing is that it will get to the stage where actually every purchase we make, whether it’s for the home, whether it’s food – you know you see how much information is now given in supermarkets about where food comes from –

H: Exactly

L: And what’s in it. That will happen.

H: There’s a little picture of the farmer and his cow –

L: The bloke, exactly. But I think that will happen eventually in all aspects of our life including you know furnishings, furniture we will want to know exactly what every little bit is, is used to make that piece up. Where it’s come from and what kind of responsibility comes with it

H: Yes. Now Layla is obviously doing up her house at the moment and she says “hi Laurence, how feasible is it to be green when doing up your home? I’m just about to start work on my new home and expect it may be costly.” So is it more expensive to be green do you think?

L: I mean time wise, I can remember about 10 years ago doing a specific feature on green paints –

H: 10 years ago, so you were cutting edge back then?

L: Absolutely! They were terribly expensive at the time. The good news now is actually there’s been a lot of new legislation, which means that so many products do need to be extremely green, and the majority of just high street paints now have very very good green credentials in a way that they didn’t 10 or 15 years ago,

H: Lead taken out of paint and –

L: Yes

H: I mean that’s not particularly environmentally –

L: No even you know just the fact that a lot of it wasn’t water soluble

H: Right

L: So that when it got into the water systems –

H: People chuck it down the sink and it’s there forever

L: Exactly even just washing your brushes out or whatever, it means it never ever goes anywhere. And again you see that’s something that, as far as I’m concerned we’re just putting ourselves back on track. You know 100 years ago, 200 years ago, of course all paint was made from natural materials, therefore it was something that was, immanently recyclable. You know it’s only in the 20th century where we got so big for our techno-boots that we decided that we would add so many chemicals to it

H: We can make anything we like –

L: Exactly

H: If we put all these different chemicals together –

L: Exactly and the problem is that you know with everybody using that, it means that you know, you do then start facing huge environmental problems. The important thing I think is for everybody to take that responsibility on board now and just re-gig their lives so that they make sure they’re using things in an environmentally friendly way

H: And I think a lot of us are doing that as well actually

L: Oh for sure yes

H: Now Helen obviously is very interested in your chair, and she wants to know “are we able to see your armchair anywhere, is it not on public view?”

L: Yes it’s going to be displayed, rather grandly, at the Mayor or London’s office you know – what’s that place called?

H: City Hall

L: City Hall, that’s it

H: The one that looks like a pile of CDs that’s been pushed over. By Tower Bridge

L: Well exactly, yes – which is a very appropriate place for it in many ways! So yes it’s going to be on view there because obviously June is a very important month environmentally, it’s the environmental week and I think the focus is very much on recycling so it’s going to be used as a figurehead, as an eye-catcher really for that and then it’s going on a bit of a tour

H: Ah so where’s it off to, your lovely chair?

L: It’s touring Europe

H: Is it?

L: Which makes it sound very rock and roll. I wonder whether it’s going to get it’s own Winnebago –

H: Start making demands

L: Very diva-ish demands about only having white flowers in the dressing room

H: And where will it end up, do you think?

L: I think basically what I’m hoping to do is as I say it would be lovely to use it to start off this idea of actually coming together with a – you know a range that has very high green recyclable credentials to it

H: Yes

L: And you know with any luck it will be the great granny of many, many, many thousands of similar chairs that have the right kind of green credentials to them

H: Now James Frank, from London – I hope you’re going to go along and see the chair at City Hall James, and he wants to know, he says “I think it’s great that celebrities are using their status to get people involved in recycling, but why is England so far behind?” Do you think we are behind?

L: I think – well no I think we are and I think that we have to take very seriously the fact that we’ve got a lot more catching up to do. Certainly there are a lot of European countries are extremely slick at this, but I think the thing is, the problem that we’ve had is that we’ve been a very prosperous society –

H: So we haven’t needed to reuse things

L: So we’ve got too used to this idea of disposability, and I think that we now as a prosperous society really must you know hold our hand up and say listen we’ve got to try a lot harder with it. I think also we’re a very fertile country you know we’ve got a lot of raw ingredient here which means that we sort of, you know we take it for granted. It’s like we’ve always taken rain for granted, we’ve always taken water for granted –

H: And oil

L: Exactly, and these things to do. Places, you know Scandinavia, they’re very hard pushed for a lot of these you know natural resources, so things cost a lot more when they come into the country, so really we have got to actually do the grown up thing I think now and make sure that we do close the gap with the rest of the world, and there’s no point in sort of moaning about the fact that ok what’s the point because actually America’s very bad and India’s even worse and China – you know don’t do that, take your own responsibility first and also lead by example. It’s always down to the market; it’s always down to us ultimately making enough of a fuss about it, because then governments, businesses –

H: It’s a knock-on effect –

L: Exactly, they then understand that it’s what we want; we need to actually make our voice really very very heard about this as a commitment

H: Ok well Laurence thanks so much for coming in and sharing your design with us

L: Not at all

H: And as we said you can see it on display at City Hall in London if you can get down there, if not, if you want more information about recycling and how to use eco-friendly furnishings in your home you can click on the website which is www.cancouture.com – can as in drinks can, couture as in high couture .com, or you can of course click on the link on the screen. Well that’s it from the Lifestyle Show for today and we’ll see you next time. Bye bye.

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