About

Between 1999 and 2014, Bel Jacobs was Style Editor for Metro. The fall of Rana Plaza in 2013 forced a re-assessment; today, she is a writer, speaker and activist with a focus on animal rights, climate justice, alternative systems in fashion and the need to transform culture to answer the climate emergency. She is co-founder of Fashion Act Now, a campaign group with a focus on degrowth; co-founder of Islington Climate Centre, a community centre aiming to inform, engage and connect communities to the realities of and solutions to the climate emergency; founder of The Empathy Project, which aims to reframe human and animal relationships for the benefit of all.

Bel can speak, write and run workshops in the following: animal rights and the environment; changing ways of seeing the world with nature connection at the heart; the future of fashion journalism, the future of fashion education and new systems in fashion; the need and ways to build community in the face of the climate emergency; storytelling about the climate emergency.

To invite Bel as speaker, editor, writer or moderator, please email info@beljacobs.com

Profiles

Interviews

“Sustainable fashion is stuck in ‘pilot phase’”, Rachel Cernansky, Vogue Business (Dec 15, 2022)

“Meet the fashion editor, pig farmer and aircraft engineer who quit to fight the climate crisis”, Big Issue (Nov 25, 2021)

“Earth Day promises: What to avoid”, Rachel Cernansky, Vogue Business (April 22, 2021)

“An education in the realities of fashion”, Atlas of the Future (April 14, 2021)

Citizenship Sector Snapshot, Canvas 8 (March 2021) 

“Fashion Matters/Apocalypse Mode VA”. A film by Olivier Nicklaus / (c) Slow Production, Arte TV (2021)

“Fast Lessons in Sustainable Fashion”, Daily Telegraph (Dec 22, 2020)

“Western Brands need to Pay Up 100%”, Rainbow Collective (May 16, 2020)

“Extinction Rebellion takes aim at Fashion,” New York Times (June 10, 2019)

Articles

“Britain's most chaotic traditions”, BBC Culture (Feb, 2023)

“How to dye your clothes at home - naturally.” BBC Culture (September 2023)

“Britain's most chaotic traditions”, BBC Culture (Feb, 2023)

“Ley lines: The UK's mysterious ancient pathways”, BBC Culture (Nov, 2022)

“What defines cultural appropriation?” BBC Culture (May, 2022)

“The Revival of Ancient Beauty Rituals”, BBC Culture (April, 2022)

“How to be a sustainable fashion lover – and why it matters”, BBC Culture (March, 2022)

“Inside the ethical beauty boom”, BBC Culture (March, 2022)

“How the 'beauty of fluidity' went mainstream in fashion”,

BBC Culture (Dec, 2021)

“Why planting a tree is a radical act”, BBC Culture (June 21, 2021)

“'Cluttercore': the anti-minimalist trend that celebrates mess,” BBC Culture (May 4, 2021)

“How rest and relaxation became an art”, BBC Culture (Dec 23, 2020)

“Why buying vintage clothes is ‘the new luxury’”, BBC Culture (Nov 17, 2020)

“A new way of living and dressing”, BBC Culture (Sept 22, 2020)

“The Nasty Truth about Trainers”, BBC Culture (Mar 3, 2020)

“Katharine Hamnett: the original fashion eco-warrior”, BBC Culture (Jan 15, 2020)

“How we fell in love with the jumpsuit”, BBC Culture (Nov 6, 2019)

“The brave new world of China’s Gen Z fashionistas”, BBC Culture (April 26, 2019)

Speeches (animal rights)

‘I am so proud to be vegan’, Love and Resistance, Animal Rising (Aug 2022)

National Animal Rights March, (Aug 12, 2022)

Meat & Dairy = Climate Crisis, Animal Rising (Sept 17, 2021)

Speech at #KillTheBill, Animal Rising (June 21, 2021)

We Want to Live, Animal Rebellion (Nov 3, 2020)

On being a parent in a Climate Emergency, Extinction Rebeillion (Sept 1, 2020)

Blood on your hands, Animal Rebellion (2020)

Podcasts

“The Fall of Fast Fashion with former The Metro's Style Editor Bel Jacobs”, Brave New Girl Podcast (October 2023)

“How Can I Make a Difference? A conversation with Bel Jacobs.” Heart Community Group (September 2023)

“Animal rights is a social justice issue now”,. Sentientism Ep: 140 (Jan, 2023)

Animal Rebellion, Global Vegfest pp36-7 (Sept 18, 2021)

“What is the role of activism in driving change within fashion?” The Impact Fashion Podcast (April 16, 2021)

“How challenging the fashion industry starts with compassion for people and planet”, Marie Claire’s Start Somewhere with Sara Vaughan (March 17, 2021)

“Consciousness Beyond the Product”, Sabinna (2021)

“Speaking Truth to Power with Bel Jacobs”, Common Threads (Jan, 2021)

“Fast Fashion and Climate Justice”, A-Dress Festival (Dec 9, 2020)

“Bel Jacobs, Journalist and Blogger”, Clothes and the Rest (Nov 16, 2018)

Lectures

Bel Jacobs on Climate Change, World Hope Forum (October 2023)

Secrecy and Collapse, Part of the University of the Arts London Regenesis Series (March, 2023)

Guest lecture and workshop on fashion journalism, Cambridge School of Visual and Performing Arts (Oct 26, 2022)

Keynote presentation: Future of International Fashion & Design Education, Istituto Marangoni (Sept, 2022)

Activism in Fashion, Kingston University (Dec 13, 2022)

“How to become an Activist”, Hawkwood Climate Action Lab (Feb 23, 2021)

Panels

“Fashion and Degrowth: Who Pays the Workers?” with Simone Cipriani, Ethical Fashion Initiative; Clare Farrell, co-founder, Extinction Rebellion and Asad Rehman, War on Want. Fashion Act Now for Extinction Rebellion (April 13, 2021)

Bel has spoken on panels for Fashion Declares (2022); Sustainable Fashion Week (2022); Vegfest (2021); Interfaith conference (2023), XR Fashion Action (2021), Future Fabrics Expo (2021), London Business School (2021), London College of Fashion (2021), Graduate Fashion Week (2021) and London Legacy Development Corporation on Future Careers in Fashion (2021)

“Recipe for Success: how editorial teams have the power to normalize #plantbased #climatefriendly eating.” Better Food Foundation (September 2023)

“On factory farming.” Citizen Network, (May 2023)

“Fashion and Degrowth: Who Pays the Workers?”, Extinction Rebellion (April 13, 2021)

“Global justice in the fashion supply chain”, terra{fora} with Extinction Rebellion (June 28, 2021)

“Parents for a Future, by Rupert Read - Online Book Launch”, Extinction Rebellion Families (Feb 10, 2021)

“Together we can save the planet”, Evolve Sessions (Jan 26, 2021)

“Fashion and Activism”, Showstudio x Fashion Roundtable (Dec 5, 2020)

The Islington Climate Centre

Co-founded by Bel and Anna Hyde, the Islington Climate Centre is a lively hub for local community groups and residents who want to address the impact of the changing climate on Islington.

Between March 2022 and January 2023, during its residency at the Angel Central Shopping Centre, Islington, the Centre hosted up to 100 workshops in visible mending and repair, swap shops and toy swaps, film screenings and panels on education, biodiversity, recycling and much more. The aim: to build community resilience and adaptation for a sustainable future in Islington and beyond.

Highlights included a collaboration with Islington Tribune and Camden New Journal to create a North London COP during which expert speakers in the climate and ecological movements came together to inspire change.

For more information, visit www.islingtonclimatecentre.co.uk

Radio

In the lead up to #InternationalWomensDay, for Rebel Radio, Bel interviewed Claire Barnett, executive director of UN Women, Hiba Ahmad from Global Justice Now and Farah Ahmed of Julies Bicycle on women in the climate emergency.

In the lead up to #InternationalWomensDay, for Rebel Radio, Bel interviewed Claire Barnett, executive director of UN Women, Hiba Ahmad from Global Justice Now and Farah Ahmed of Julies Bicycle on women in the climate emergency.