Safia Minney: Five things I know about style

1 Fashion was important to me from a young age. I remember the outfit I wore to go to my first disco in Berkshire, where I grew up. I danced like an idiot to "Red Light Spells Danger" wearing elasticated high-waisted flares, a polo neck and a pair of wedges. 2 I worked at the local market in my early teens and really loved charity shops and car-boot sales. At 17, in my first job in London, I'd spend my tiny salary on clothing that other people didn't want – I really developed my eye for fabric and print then. 3 Clothing production plays a huge part in developing countries – the GDP of Bangladesh is 60% garments. When I realised that there was such an unsavoury side to fashion, I felt even less comfortable buying new clothes. 4 We now know it's ethically wrong for a top to cost as little as a sandwich. Nine years ago, when we started People Tree, people thought we were crazy. But in the past five years there's been a huge change – people are more uneasy about fast fashion. 5 Synthetics are terrible for the environment, and I would never wear fur, but I do wear leather shoes – I don't get the argument of wearing synthetic or plastic shoes that take hundreds of years to biodegrade. peopletree.co.uk