Corrie star on how her passion for sustainable fashion saved her mental health

Coronation Street’s Kimberly Hart-Simpson, who plays Nicky Wheatley on the show, has another huge passion in her life – sustainable fashion.

‘I’m from a working class family that went to charity shops, so it’s in my bones,’ she explained to Metro.co.uk. ‘I’ve not changed and not going to change whether I’m on a high wage or low wage it doesn’t matter. A bargain is a bargain at the end of the day.’

Kimberly makes and up-cycles her own clothes and says the benefits are enormous. ‘I got a sewing machine a couple of years ago and that saved my mental health massively because I had this thing where I could turn stuff that was destined for landfill into something beautiful again and that resonates with me in life. You’re saving the planet and you’re working on yourself and making something beautiful and what’s not to love about that?’

She feels that the fashion industry and some influencers can have a negative impact on the mental health of young people. ‘You’re going to get somebody who thinks they’re not worthy just because you’ve posted a picture,’ she says. ‘I’m not saying “Be like me,” I’m saying “Please don’t be like everybody else.” There are other routes that you can go down.’

Kimberly is a keen promoter of charity shops and volunteers at a British Heart Foundation shop herself. The charity became even more important to her when they helped her sister Emma, who was diagnosed with Dilated Cardiomyopathy aged 41, as she explains:

‘I was doing this way before I started on Corrie. I’ve been doing this for years and years and talking about it. Where I’ve been shopping for years, British Heart Foundation in particular was a place I went to because it was local to me and they ended up saving my sister’s life. So I was unknowingly investing my money into something we’ve probably all been affected by in our families and stuff. It just makes me feel good, so why stop?’

As her skills developed, Kimberly set up a small business of her own called Hart-Work. ‘It started off making a couple of pencil cases, something like that,’ she says. ‘The cheapest sewing machine you could find put on an Argos card because I couldn’t afford to buy it outright. I started to make a couple of little things then my friend Jessica Ellis, who was in Hollyoaks, was going to the Soap Awards asked if I could make a dress and I said, “I can, but I’ve never made one before.” I tried it, it worked. She looked great, it was like an LGBTQ+ flag. I really enjoyed it.’

She’s recently signed up with ASOS as a boutique brand and will launch pop-up shops in Urban Outfitters stores from May 20. ‘I’ll be going into there as a sustainability brand,’ she says. ‘What a privilege to be part of something like that.’

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