Timo Rissanen: Fashion Creation Without Fabric Waste Creation

New home - please update your bookmarks

2011-10-16T21:05:00.004-04:00

I am now at timorissanen.com This place isn't going anywhere, but nor will it be updated. I am expanding :)

Yield catalogue now available

2011-09-08T15:14:00.000-04:00

The catalogue for the Yield exhibition is now available. Proceeds from the sales of the catalogue support programming at the Textile Arts Center, the New York home of Yield. The exhibition opens to the public this Saturday and runs through December 2.

Zero-Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned - photos

2011-04-05T06:59:00.001-04:00

Zero-Waste: Fashion Re-Patterned, curated by Arti Sandhu, is open until April 16 - that's Saturday next week, so be sure to visit A + D Gallery at Columbia College Chicago. Thank you to Jennifer Murray, Gallery Director, and Megan Ross, Preparator, for sending the installation photographs. I've also included some process photos.

One of my grandmother's sheets from the 1940s with the patching visible; I used two of these.

Some process for the pyjama pants (see page from Julian Roberts' book):

The final pattern:

Above, a paper folding exercise for the pyjama top and below, the final pattern.

The pyjamas in the exhibition:

Fioen van Balgooi (Refinity) and Berber Soepboer:

Holly McQuillan:

Padmaja Krishnan:

A Magazine - I used to give these instructions for a sock jumper by Maison Martin Margiela to my students back at UTS so it was great to see them included here:

Artisanal by Maison Martin Margiela:

Nick Cave:

Derick Melander:

Just in case...

2011-03-20T17:08:00.000-04:00

...I get some new visitors due to some unloved comments on a blog I adore, let me point you to the first image on a post I wrote on a problematic birthday three years ago. (I don't know if my brother knows he shares his birthday with the Turd, and I ain't going to point it out.)

It might look like something you eat but it's actually equine excrement.

Zero-Waste: Fashion Repatterned at Columbia College Chicago

2011-03-09T07:14:00.001-05:00

This morning I'm in Chicago to do a workshop and a lecture to coincide with Zero-Waste: Fashion Repatterned, curated by Arti Sandhu at Columbia College Chicago, on show at A + D Gallery at Columbia College. The exhibition is open until April 16th so if you're in Chicago, make sure you check it out. I have a pyjama set in the exhibition that I made from two heavily damaged and repaired sheets that were part of my grandmother's dowry when she got married in Finland during the Second World War. The work draws from my chapter, Designing Endurance, in Shaping Sustainable Fashion. Other artists and designers in the exhibition include A Magazine, Nick Cave, Padmaja Krishnan, Maison Martin Margiela, Holly McQuillan, Derick Melander, and Refinity + Berber Soepboer. I can't wait to see it! More on the exhibition here.

The gallery details:
A + D
AVERILL AND BERNARD LEVITON
A+D GALLERY, 619 SOUTH WABASH AVENUE
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 60605
312 369 8687
COLUM.EDU/ADGALLERY

Shaping Sustainable Fashion

2011-02-25T15:57:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got my copy of Shaping Sustainable Fashion, the book I edited with Alison Gwilt. So proud! Thank you to everyone at Earthscan for the endless patience with my heinous schedule, thank you to Alison, and thank you to Amy Common of Sai Designs for the book design - the book looks fantastic! It will be on sale in the US in less than two months but available on Amazon already, as well as through the Earthscan link above.

thank you

2010-12-18T10:39:00.002-05:00

Coming to the end of an amazing year, it is time to acknowledge and thank the people who I've had the privilege to work with. Back in July, this neglected blog had 40 or so followers. There are now 102 of you. Apologies for the lack of posts (I was doing it but not writing about it), and thank you for your support. Many of you found me via the New York Times and Helsingin Sanomat. Thank you NYT, kiitos HS. I taught my last zero-waste class for the semester yesterday and there is still much catching up to do but just a quick thank you for the sustained interest and support.

After recent events, I didn't expect Julie Gilhart to be in my class yesterday so to have had her there was a beautiful privilege. My thanks go out to Julie (the students and I were blown away - thank you!) as well as to Scott Hahn of Loomstate and Rogan Gregory of Rogan, who also came. Scott and Gregory didn't just come to the class to share their wisdom and expertise; they made so many things possible through the semester, I don't know where or how to begin to thank both. Thank you; I cannot wait to have the next conversation with you both.

Students: thank you! Each of you went through such a unique process, and each of you taught me so much. Prior to the zero-waste course, I suspected this would be the case but I didn't anticipate the richness of processes you shared with me. Thank you; I learned so much from each of you. I very much look forward to each of you graduating, and making a change in this industry of ours. Please keep me posted on the work you do.

At Parsons, there are a number of people I want to thank. Fiona Dieffenbacher, Director of External Projects, emailed me in October 2009 about proposing a zero-waste course. I was still living in Australia, in the midst of a challenging semester at my alma mater, UTS. Safe to say, neither of us had any inkling of how amazing things would turn out. Fiona, thank you for your foresight, and the support throughout this year.

Simon Collins, Dean of Fashion, thank you. You make things work. Yvonne Watson, Director of Academic Affairs, thank you. You afford me the ability to see possibilities. Now, this might look like a suck-up to my bosses. I don't give a shit. Simon and Yvonne make good things possible and that's all there is to it. I'm just not sure they get acknowledged enough, hence my inclusion of both here.

Jonathan Kyle Farmer and Shelley Fox, thank you. You inspire me daily. A true privilege.

Caroline Priebe. You're such a gift. Thank you.

Kate Fletcher and Lynda Grose. None of us would be anywhere without you. Thank you.

Kathleen Fasanella. You're a guardian of the industry. Thank you.

Mum and dad. Thank you both for all of the support, and all that I've learned from each of you.

Heli, Sami and Juha. You're my bedrock. Thank you.

George. It's been an amazing nine years; I can't wait to see what we do together next. Thank you.

My friends: the other bedrock. Thank you.

There are countless others. For example, Holly McQuillan, Julian Roberts, Yeohlee Teng and Zandra Rhodes inspire me daily, as do Cameron Tonkinwise and Sally McLaughlin. Thank you.

2011 is full of possibilities. Thank you all.

Kudos to IVANAHelsinki (and shame on Ivana Trump)

2010-10-03T09:15:00.002-04:00

Two weeks ago I managed to squeeze in an hour at NY fashion week to catch IVANAHelsinki's show. My shoddy video of the finale above, made even shoddier by Blogger. IVANAHelsinki is a Finnish brand led by Paola Suhonen, with Paola's sister Pirjo playing an integral role, too. Congratulations to both, and thank you for your hospitality! It was great to be surrounded by so many Finns in the audience.

During that week IVANAHelsinki received perhaps more publicity than they'd bargained for. Ivana Trump, primarily known for divorcing and posing, is suing the brand. The whole thing is hilariously ridiculous in that only-in-America kind of way. New York Post wrote on the story here. A British documentary on Ivana Trump (at 4.55):

Anyhow, below are some of my favourites from 'Where The Fuck Is My Sailor?' by IVANAHelsinki for SS2011. Enjoy!

Hupparin kaava ja linkkejä kuviin

2010-10-02T12:32:00.000-04:00

Jos minulla suomalaisia lukijoita on, tämä on teille.

Kiitokset Helsingin Sanomille ja Terhi Widthille asiallisesta artikkelista. Huppariohjeiden nettiversiosta jäi hupparin kaava pois, joten se on tuossa yllä; toivon mukaan siitä on apua. Hupparista löytyy kuvia täältä ja täältä.

Waste management hierarchy

2010-08-22T12:04:00.000-04:00

Image from the Wikipedia article on waste management hierarchy.
In the wake of the NYTimes article and it going viral, it's perhaps timely to reiterate a few things. A number of people have left comments on various blogs as well as emailed me directly about various textile recycling options. Thank you all.

Where waste is unavoidable, reuse and recycling are of course solutions. It is, however, always better to try and avoid creating waste in the first place, and this is the premise for my research. A fairly simple idea: that when making clothes, it is NOT ok to not use all of the fabric in a garment. A look at various recycling schemes for pre-consumer textile waste have only strengthened my view on this, as often the resulting product is of lesser value than the original textile. I played with this when I did the exhibition Bad Dogs in 2008: two garments were made from a military blanket that was made from textile scrap; bits of jersey were still visible in the felt, and my apartment was filled with fluffy dust after I cut them out. McDonough and Braungart, amongst others, called this reduction in value through recycling downcycling in Cradle to Cradle. A lot of the time, I'd argue, recycling is a 'band-aid solution' to a problem. Waste avoidance and minimisation are preferred. Nevertheless, textile waste isn't going anywhere fast, and a couple of solutions merit a mention. Perhaps the most common thing people have emailed me is the use of denim scrap as insulation, as covered by Treehugger. Nevertheless, given the huge impact cotton farming has in certain parts of the world (Lynda Grose deals with the complexity of cotton farming beautifully in her chapter in Sustainable Textiles), I'd say waste avoidance is better here, too. A somewhat better option in that the function of the cotton fibre is retained through recycling is R.E.U.S.E Jeans. On this, the retention of function in recycling, I'd recommend reading Paul Palmer of the Zero Waste Institute.

The two garments are below. I hope it's obvious but in case not, I aimed to make a beautiful coat and an ugly waistcoat from the coat scraps. Get it?

There is a lot of other misinformation out there already, which I'll address in coming days, time allowing.

New York Times on Parsons and Loomstate

2010-08-19T10:44:00.000-04:00

Thank you to Stephanie Rosenbloom at the New York Times. Sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning the article on the Parsons and Loomstate collaboration went live, and life has been somewhat busy since. I'd like to welcome all my new followers, and apologize to all of you still waiting on a response to an email or phone message; I'm getting there slowly.

It's an absolute delight that so many deserving designers have received additional attention as a result.

'Normal' posting to resume soon.

Updated: zero-waste and less waste designers

2010-07-19T23:40:00.015-04:00

Update August 2nd: to be as transparent as possible on this blog, I should note I've joined the Amazon Associates program. I will only link to books I have personally found useful and worth buying.

Update July 27th 2010: Sometimes those closest to you are the easiest to ignore or forget. Very much part of this list should be Fiona Buckingham of Kyotap by Fiona Buckingham. We've been friends for over 14 years and there are no bounds to the respect I feel towards Fiona's work. Fucken oops!
Last August I attempted something of a list of zero-waste designers that I was aware of; since then a few more have come to my attention so here's an update on that list. I also omitted some researchers because I've probably taken their work for granted for too long. Please don't hesitate to email me if you know of someone not listed here. This list also aims to include research on the topic that precedes current projects. As for the purpose of this list? I hope it will initiate interest in the included designers and researchers' work. I'll keep updating this as comments come in and as my poor memory decides to remind me of someone.

The pioneers
Dorothy Burnham: Cut My Cote from 1973 was a seminal text that summarised decades of Burnham's research into cuts of traditional dress.
Claire McCardell: Bernard Rudofsky included some of McCardell's work in Are Clothes Modern? in 1947 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. My understanding is that only a few of McCardell's pieces were zero-waste (or close to).
Bernard Rudofsky: He put some of his research into practice in Bernardo Separates, a clothing line in the early 1950s.
Zandra Rhodes
Yeohlee Teng
Julian Roberts: a pioneer for me in the sense that he has for a long time discussed fashion design, patterncutting and sewing as a holistic one.
Materialbyproduct: the company doesn't - wisely, I might add - make zero-waste their primary selling point but the respect for fabric is evident in their collections going back to 2004.
Alabama Chanin: while the designs aren't necessarily zero-waste, the zero-waste policy that governs everything the company does is a delight to read.

More recent, in no particular order:
Holly McQuillan
Myself
Carla Fernandez/Flora 2 (Download the book!)
Mark Liu - check out the article by Mark in Ecouterre
Tara St James/Study NY
Jennifer Whitty
David Telfer
Andrew Hague
Caroline Priebe - she'll be the first to tell you she's not a zero-waste designer but she knows more about it than most.
Samuel Formo
August
Tiffany Ouyang

Also important to look into:
Center for Pattern Design/Sandra Ericson. Why? Here's one reason.
Fashion Incubator/Kathleen Fasanella. Designing manufacturable things is crucial and there is no better place for fashion on the topic than this. Her book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Sewn Product Manufacturingis a must.
All the old texts on world dress by Max Tilke, like Costume patterns and designs: A survey of costume patterns and designs of all periods and nations from antiquity to modern times
The wonderful books by Janet Arnold.
Winifred Aldrich's Fabric, Form and Flat Pattern Cutting
Thayaht's tuta.
Betty Kirke's Madeleine Vionnet

Credit should also go to Lynda Grose at CCA and Arti Sandhu at Columbia College Chicago for encouraging students to engage with zero-waste.

The bottom line is, keep your eyes open and have fun with it!

Resurrectine

2010-06-17T14:39:00.004-04:00

Terry Fox, Resurrectine, 2007

The Junky Styling Wardrobe Surgery is an extension of Resurrectine, a fantastic exhibition at the Ronald Feldman Gallery. I spent a good hour again yesterday checking it out. The exhibition has been extended by a month to July 23 so do see it. I don't have images for two of my favourite works but I'm going back on Saturday to say goodbye to Annika and Kerry so will get photos of them then. In the meanwhile, I adore the things I've included here.

The artists include:
Udi Aloni, Elaine Angelopoulos, Eleanor Antin, Cory Arcangel, Ina Archer, Kenseth Armstead, Conrad Atkinson, Brandon Ballengeé, Guy Ben-Ner, Sanford Biggers, Chris Burden, Luca Buvoli, Nick Cave, Gordon Cheung, Sue Coe, Liz Cohen, Brody Condon, Keith Cottingham, Chris Doyle, eteam (Franziska Lamprecht & Hajoe Moderegger), Alessandra Exposito, Roy Ferdinand, Terry Fox, Yishay Garbasz, Rico Gatson, George Gittoes, Leon Golub, Brent Green, Jane Hammond, Kelly Heaton, Christine Hill, Shih-Chieh Huang, Junky Styling (Annika Sanders & Kerry Seager), Peggy Jarrell Kaplan, Suzanne Lacy, Deborah Lawrence, Jae Rhim Lee, Ellen Levy, Jane Marsching, Jennifer & Kevin McCoy, David McDevitt, Lori Nix, David Opdyke, Pepón Osorio, Sarah H. Paulson, Frank Perrin, William Pope L, Erika Roth, Christy Rupp, Jason Salavon, Alan Scarritt, Dread Scott, Andrew Sendor, Marie Sester, Paul Shambroom, Todd Siler, Eve Sussman and Melissa Dubbin & Aaron Davidson, Mark Tribe, Mark Wagner, Carrie Mae Weems, Hannah Wilke.

From the press release:
The Feldman Gallery will present Resurrectine, a large-scale group show of more than fifty artists. The selection of artworks embraces the notion of transformation – the creative act of taking form, appearance, nature, character, or meaning, and making it new again. The title of the exhibition is based on the name of the fictive elixir which restores life as imagined by Raymond Roussel in his 1914 novel Locus Solus and “rebottled” by the conceptual artist Terry Fox in 2007.
Resurrectine, the exhibition, is a guide to the always changing possibilities of language, signifying a rebirth and an expansion or narrowing of language, which in turn is linked to the visions of artists. In the spirit of the fanciful conceit of Roussel’s potion, the theme introduces new ways of thinking and the power of creativity.

As a form of time travel, the artworks incorporate contradictions: a low budget home video reenacts Moby Dick; a Medieval painting of the Resurrection becomes a video game; a flash animation combines the looting of Iraq’s antiquities with 3-Card Monte; trees inhabit libraries and museums exhibit human taxidermies; a mirror transforms the viewer’s reflection into that of Andy Warhol; doilies are stained with menstrual blood and Audubon prints are productively vandalized. We are also engaged by the invention of nursing, fallen angels, a parent’s footsteps to a concentration camp, remembered spaces, the story of the Black film industry, escapes from death, Old Masters reborn, a Cheshire Cat, apocalypse management, a living electronic painting, reenacted famous protest speeches, and dozens of other resurrectines. Resurrectine is a state of mind, and multi views have been welcomed.

Special thanks to Sean Elwood, Director of Artists Programs, Creative Capital.
***
Gallery hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 – 6:00. Monday by appointment.
31 Mercer Street, New York, New York 10013
212 226-3232 fax 212 941-1536 www.feldmangallery.com

Rico Gatson, Angela, 2007

Kenseth Armstead, Spook poster Jamie Foxx, 2010 Dread Scott, Triangle Shirt Waist, 2001

Rogan and Loomstate sample sale

2010-06-17T13:54:00.002-04:00

Sorry to miss this; Finland beckons in three days!

Junky Styling - Wardrobe Surgery

2010-06-15T13:22:00.003-04:00

Annika and Kerry from Junky Styling are here! From today until Saturday they have a pop-up shoppy thing at the Ronald Feldman Gallery as part of Resurrectine, an exhibition I'd highly recommend. You can take an old garment for consultation, and Annika and Kerry will perform their magic to resurrect it. The details are:

Ronald Feldman Gallery
31 Mercer Street
New York NY 10013
Open Tuesday-Saturday 10am-6pm

Resurrectine provides an amazing surrounding for Wardrobe Surgery, and I'll try post about it later in the week. What a week this is turning into...

Julian Roberts & J.R. Campbell NYC workshops 11-12 June 2010

2010-06-13T08:00:00.023-04:00

Firstly, to those 1265 of you waiting on me to respond to emails etc. I am so very sorry. I am currently doing about three full-time jobs' worth of work (in fact, about to head to the office on a Sunday morning) while dealing with the excruciating stress of being far away from a very sick grandmother and a very sick sister. I will be with both in a week, still hoping for a different trip to my last in October 2008. Anyhow, all will be up-to-date within two weeks or so. Not good enough in so many respects but this is how it is.

Yesterday and Friday were a fantastic break from some of the above; I left the workshops with Julian Roberts and J.R. Campbell inspired and reinvigorated. Thank you both, and thank you Sandy Ericson from Center for Pattern Design for organising, Matthew Stewart from Kent State University NY Studio for looking after everyone and Rachel Poulter for the constant encouragement and help. If Julian is coming to a town near you over the next month, attend! Sandy has the details; it seems Ryerson is already sold out so folks in Vancouver and St Helena, get in quick!

Cutting to the chase, here are my photos from the two days:

I want all of these posters:

View from Julian's living room:
My notes:

Some of Julian's teaching tools:
What Julian prepared earlier:
What Sandy prepared earlier:
Printed fabric by J.R. Campbell, sewn into a tube with a black and white stripe fabric. Leave one end of the tube open.
The man in action:

My play after Julian's demo; thank you Shelley for helping out with fabric! Of course I couldn't resist making a non-subtraction zero-waste subtraction dress (I used slashes instead of cutting out circles to make the tunnel). I will eventually unpick the garment, take a proper pattern and share on here; mine was made with three holes:

My colleague Yvonne Watson working with Sandy on her dress and the beautiful result:

Photos from the show and tell; congratulations to all:

Julian and J.R. showing the tube; pattern by Julian, textile design by J.R.; J.R. with the finished dress:

Some of my textile play. I'm working on something for the 2010 International Fashion Art Biennale in Seoul; this was kind of a quick hybrid of that and Julian's pattern:

Sydney September 2010 dust storm meets Julian Roberts:

Give it a go!

To finish off, the most beautiful off-cuts I've seen:

Parsons 2010 Show - some of the sustainability tiles

2010-05-20T07:10:00.006-04:00

Here are some of the tiles I created for the sustainability section in the School of Fashion exhibit in the Parsons 2010 Show. I should note, Jonathan Kyle Farmer made the process very easy and fun for me by having a template to work towards.

The School of Fashion Sustainability Manifesto:

A Sydney friend's laundry as part of the exhibition:

Hee Lim's thesis collection:

An adjustable dress whose designer I've misplaced - to be fixed soon!

Dress by Jayme Cyk:

Some of my play from three years ago:

Images from the repair workshops in February:
On a not entirely unrelated note, having just looked through over a hundred line sheets, couple of tips regarding photography to fashion students worldwide:

You should NEVER model your own collection in a line sheet. Not only does it seem narcissistic, you should be directing the shoot and seeing how things look through the camera. I mean, are you going to take photos of you to an interview? Seriously.
Places you should NEVER shoot your collection in: your bedroom/living room (lazy); a garden/back yard (naff beyond words)

Done...

2010-05-19T18:26:00.005-04:00

Parsons 2010 Show

2010-05-19T07:02:00.008-04:00

At work we've referred to this as the Five Schools Show - the Schools of Fashion, Art, Media & Technology, Design Strategies, Art & Design History & Theory and Constructed Environments are coming together within the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center to share accomplishments over the past year. I'd like to congratulate a colleague, Jonathan Kyle Farmer, who designed the School of Fashion exhibit: The Periodic Table of Fashion Elements. Congratulations to all the other schools, too: the space is looking amazing (I will take photos of all the exhibits later). The show opens today at noon. It will be ready :) Check it out fast - it comes down after Monday! Special thanks to Daisy Wong, whom you see on the ladder in many of the photos, and thanks to the whole team from the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center led by Radhika Subramaniam.

CutPrint = JR + JR: Details

2010-05-15T09:43:00.007-04:00

As I mentioned some time ago, Julian Roberts is coming to NYC; less than a month to go now! The details for the NYC event are below but Julian's tour will also cover Toronto, St. Helena CA and Vancouver. In NYC Julian is teaming up with JR Campbell from Kent State University, the host of the NY event. The tireless Sandy Ericson from the Center for Pattern Design is the powerhouse behind the tour and can provide more details. The current issue of Threads has an article on zero-waste fashion design and my work features in the article quite prominently so thank you Sandy as well as the team at Threads!

WORKSHOPS
FRIDAY, JUNE 11 1:00PM-5:00PM
Workshop I: Elementary Sub-cutting with Julian Roberts
Introduction to the basics of subtraction cutting.

SATURDAY, JUNE 12 1:00PM-5:00PM
Workshop II: Advanced/Expert Level Sub-cutting and Applications of Digital Print Design with Julian Roberts and J.R. Campbell
Geared for people who already have many of the subtraction cutting concepts down and want to see the pros in action in a live cutting performance. Digital printing concepts are also introduced to demonstrate how this medium can be applied in the sub-cutting process. Participants receive patterns in advance in preparation for the workshop. Workshop II is also open to anyone who participated in the June 11th Workshop I: Elementary Sub-cutting.

MAIN EVENT
SATURDAY, JUNE 12 7:00PM-9:00PM
Sub-cutting Presentation and Fashion Show
Presentation includes a collaborative JR/JR demonstration presenting the concepts of Subtraction Cutting and the application of engineered digitally printed designs to the subtraction cut garments. The last hour includes a reception and fashion show presenting work by Julian Roberts and J.R. Campbell as well as garments created by the students in the supporting workshops. Refreshments provided.

Workshop and Event Fees
A la carte:
$100.00 Workshop I: Elementary Sub-cutting with Julian Roberts
$150.00 Workshop II: Advanced/Expert Level Sub-cutting and Applications of Digital Print Design with Julian Roberts and J.R. Campbell
$75.00 Sub-cutting Presentation and Fashion Show

Combine workshops and event and save more!
$150.00 Workshop I + Presentation and Fashion Show
$200.00 Workshop II + Presentation and Fashion Show
$225.00 Workshop I & II
$275.00 All 3 Events (Workshop I & II + Presentation and Fashion Show)

TO REGISTER, VISIT https://commerce.cashnet.com/fashionshow
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT (212) 967-1730

All workshops and events take place at The Fashion School’s NYC Studio, located at 315 West 39th Street, #402, between 8th and 9th Avenue.

Julian Roberts is represented exclusively by the Center for Pattern Design in the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Thank you WGSN, with thanks to Lynda Grose and Kate Fletcher

2010-05-14T23:29:00.004-04:00

Thank you to Libby Banks and Andrew Jobling at WGSN; I feel humbled. I must say, my sustainability heroes are Kate Fletcher and Lynda Grose. Two amazing people who've been at it longer than most, and too often overlooked. Even once is too often, and I should have acknowledged both in the interview. Kate and Lynda, I wouldn't be here without you two. Libby, huge thanks to you, too!

thank you

2010-05-13T07:29:00.004-04:00

Thank you once again Zoe! Once again, these beautiful birds come at a particularly welcome time; two of my closest are quite unwell, though with potentially positive eventual outcomes. Being far away is hard. Also, about a month ago I found out about an old friend in Sydney passing away suddenly. Not one of my closest, to be sure, but someone I knew and had a huge amount of admiration for nearly 15 years. Enjoy:

Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion (part 2)

2010-05-05T14:49:00.011-04:00

The press photos provided by the organizers are simply too beautiful not to use so here they are - thank you organizers! The copyright owner of all the photographs is the Swedish Institute, www.imagebank.sweden.se Please do not republish any images without permission from the Swedish Institute. Don't hesitate to contact me if you spot an incorrect link - I am working on adrenaline now. Sleep beckons in July.

Julian Red
Photography by Mikael Schultz

Nudie Jeans
Photography by Jonas Linell

Pia Anjou
Photography by Pia Anjou

Dem Collective
Photography by Camilla Boström

Swedish Hasbeens
Photography by Swedish Hasbeens

Righteous Fashion
Photography by the Swedish Institute

Johanna Hofring
Photography by Aia Judes

Zion Clothing
Photography by Richard Ström

Camilla Norrback
Photography by Ann-Katrin Blomqvist

Anja Hynynen
Photography by Ardalanish Isle of Mull Weavers

Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion (part 1)

2010-05-05T10:37:00.016-04:00

This wonderful exhibition, having already toured extensively, opened last night at Scandinavia House here in NY with a symposium on which I've written at the Parsons School of Fashion blog. The exhibition is commissioned and produced by The Swedish Institute, and the curator and exhibition architect is Karin Gräns. Congratulations on the beautiful design of the space! The wall plaques are made from natural rubber, and the stands are naturally dark rather than dyed black wood. The circular motifs of the plaques and stands help create a cohesive overall feel for the space. Once again, my photographs do not do the design of the exhibition justice so you must go and check it out for yourself. My camera batteries died and some photos are 'courtesy' of my iPhone, including the symposium photo on the Parsons blog. There are some beautiful photos and video at Tear-n Tan. A background video on the exhibited designers is available here.

The exhibition will eventually tour further and as those details become available, I'll post here. Free gallery admission is made possible by a generous grant provided by The Barbro Osher Pro Suecia Foundation and the exhibition is also supported by the The Swedish Institute and the Consulate General of Sweden in New York.

I hope that the styling of the looks comes through in my photography. Exhibiting contemporary fashion as well as styling fashion for an exhibition can be tricky, as styling should support rather than overwhelm the clothes on show. In my opinion, this worked well. The styling served to make the clothes accessible, every day - an important quality in this kind of exhibition: these are clothes for living, for all of us. The stylists are Jacob Bernhardtz and Ursula Wångander. The strong educational focus in the wall plaques is useful and this comes through in the catalogue, too - including the often neglected impacts of laundry. Mathilda Tham served as the sustainability consultant for the exhibition so it is no surprise that the subject matter is dealt with in a robust way. Finally, Kajsa Guterstam acted as coordinator and Mats Hedman was the graphic designer. Once again, congratulations to everyone involved!

Here are the exhibited designers. Worth also mentioning is the short film, 'Globalization', directed by Johan Romin, on show in a side room.

Dem Collective
Fair trade is important for the company, both in fabrics and labour, much of which takes place in Sri Lanka and India. Karin Stenmar of Dem Collective reiterated this beautifully in the symposium.

Julian Red
More than 60% of the company's fabrics are organic and fair labour conditions are important to the company. The coat is organic linen and lurex - sure, not cradle to cradle as Anna Maria Bernitz, Project Manager at the Swedish Institute acknowledged, but it is a coat that one would have for a long time and perhaps eventually pass on to a younger generation. A heritage piece, something that came up a number of times in the symposium. It reminded me of Caroline Priebe's comment at The Sustainability Equation: Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Fashion. The organic cotton denim on the right is amazing!

Nudie Jeans
Do I need to introduce Nudie? I didn't think so.

Pia Anjou
A graduate of the Swedish School of Textiles in Borås (where Marcus Bergman lectures), Anjou aims for a design approach that allows mixing of pieces from consecutive collections.

Bergman's
Bergman's make men's shirts in Peruvian organic cotton. Marcus Bergman, the Managing Director of The Ecocotton Co, was one of symposium speakers.

Johanna Hofring
Hofring is very much involved in and her collection is stocked at Ekovaruhuset in New York.

Righteous Fashion
The company was started by Kajsa Cappelen Holst and Paula Kermfors, who studied Human Rights Law.

Camilla Norback
Perhaps one of the better known designers in the exhibition, Norrback has been in business for eight years.

Zion Clothing
The company focuses strongly on organic cotton and ethical production.

Reflective Circle
My photos of Reflective Circle's look didn't turn out, but there are some beautiful images here. The look next to Hynynen's below is the one. The company was established in 2001 by Josefin Lassbo.

Anja Hynynen
A Swede with a Finnish name, Hynynen works on two collections, one under her own name and another with Ardalanish Isle of Mull Weavers, a mill in Scotland.

Swedish Hasbeens
All the shoes are based on original 70s models and manufactured in the same factory they were back then.

RIP Malcolm McLaren

2010-04-08T19:36:00.003-04:00

Waltz Darling - one of my favourite albums. Enjoy:

Not from Waltz Darling, I know:

Je ne Regretsy rien

2010-04-08T07:42:00.003-04:00

My Regretsy book arrived! Exciting, as it means one less stolen piece of mail (I really should post a photo of the mail boxes in my building - it's a postal buffet) and a recap of some of the best laughs courtesy of April Winchell/Helen Killer over the past six months or so. I still covet the hummingbird feeder hat on the cover.

It needs to be said that Regretsy isn't all about taking the piss at others' expense. From the outset charity has been integral to Regretsy so please consider buying your next gift from the site's Zazzle store. I love that even an accusation about blankets killing babies becomes an opportunity for further charity.

Lifecycles at UTS

2010-04-07T11:00:00.002-04:00

Sydneysiders, today (I think - I'm lost in time zones) UTS is hosting Lifecycles, a seminar on sustainable fashion organized by Professor of Advanced Textiles, Marie O'Mahony. And what a line-up!

Jon Lewis was my photography teacher way back in 1997 and he would probably be horrified to know I still occasionally hold a camera. A truly inspirational man, though, and a co-founder of Greenpeace Australia.

I met Bronwyn Darlington while working on a project with Grant Young. A pioneer of sustainable fashion in Sydney; so sorry to miss her talk.

Alison Gwilt - I don't need to explain. We continue working together on Fashioning Now; the book is coming together very well. I will be able to post details soon.

Mark Liu, a UTS and CSM graduate and a zero-waste designer. It's good to know that despite my leaving zero-waste is getting talked about at UTS. It feels like a circle closing, kind of. I started my PhD on zero-waste fashion design in 2004 when Mark was finishing his undergraduate collection at UTS and was delighted to hear he'd later taken it up for his MA at CSM. I do have reservations, however, about whoever wrote some of the press releases about Mark's work around 2007/2008, with claims that didn't hold. Also, at times certain sections of those releases read somewhat similar to the paper I presented in Denmark in 2005 but the paper wasn't ever acknowledged in those. Dear PR folks, it's good practice to cite your sources and give credit where credit is due. Anyhow, this is very short notice; I believe the talk is at 9am this morning. Attend if you can!

Junky Styling: Salvage, Sustainability and Fashion

2010-04-07T10:29:00.005-04:00

I've reported on last night's fantastic discussion with Annika and Kerry from Junky Styling elsewhere. It was truly inspiring; I left wanting to set up my sewing machine straight away and get my hands dirty. The book Junky Styling: Wardrobe Surgeryis worth every cent, too.

Secret Shop Demolition and Sample Sale

2010-04-06T20:29:00.002-04:00

Sydneysiders, this is a must visit for you over the next three days. Over the past eighteen months the building has been a true hub of creativity, with Marsu Homme, George Plionis jewellery (both forming a crucial part of my tiny NY wardrobe), Jane Pollard jewellery and Friedrich Gray all under one roof. It has come to an end. As part of the UTS City Campus Masterplan, the somewhat-heritage-listed building is getting demolished to make way for progress. I enjoyed several nights at the Secret Shop, followed by early-morning dinners in Chinatown - Zoe, I miss you. It will be fun so go.

CutPrint = JR + JR

2010-04-06T09:27:00.003-04:00

New Yorkers, save the dates June 11th and 12th: Julian Roberts will be teaming up with JR Campbell from Kent State University for the NY leg of Julian's Subtraction Cutting Tour. Sandra Ericson from the Center for Pattern Design has more details. I'll post here, too, as things firm up. Being in Australia, I missed Julian's 2008 tour so very excited to be here for this! Yes, Julian's website is only open on Wednesdays, which in this age of instant gratification is a nice reminder for us to slow down a bit. Check it out tomorrow.

My magazine subscriptions

2010-04-03T10:19:00.005-04:00

One point I left out yesterday was a comment Maria Cornejo made about fashion magazines feeling alienating; she said she subscribes to the National Geographic and Architectural Digest. It was a privilege to have a subscription to National Geographic throughout my childhood - thanks dad; something I'll likely renew later this year as life in NY settles down. Guess which one magazine I bought during last week's trip to Taipei? That's right:

Make no mistake; I love fashion magazines, even if I don't buy them with the frequency I did some years ago. Anyhow, during the move, I redirected the three subscriptions I had back in Australia to New York. This may or not surprise. The first:

Emu is a peer-reviewed journal but somewhat thin on fashion content. Emu is published by CSIRO and I opt for it as part of my Birds Australia membership. Likewise with the two that follow:

World Birdwatch is published by Birdlife International, a conservation organization that works closely with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN). IUCN is behind the classification system of conservation need of each species on the planet; Birdlife International looks after this where it comes to the class Aves, better known as birds. The classification ranges from Least Concern (LC) to Near Threatened (NT) to Vulnerable (VU) to Endangered (EN) to Critically Endangered (CR) (with a subcategory of Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct)) to Extinct in the Wild (EW) to Extinct (EX). The last three are depressing for sure. Take the Po-ouli, (or Po'ouli) for example. The last known individual bird died in 2004 and although for the moment the species hasn't been declared extinct, it's safe to assume it is. Gone forever. A while back a student suggested that cloning will reverse extinction (this came after my 15-minute monologue, during a meeting about a fashion design project, about the dire straits of birds in New Zealand and Hawaii). I have difficulty in agreeing. Cloning an individual dead animal may well be possible but then what? An individual does not a viable population make. Sure, some species are less prone to inbreeding problems: all Black Robins in New Zealand descend from one female and to date there have been minimal problems with the thankfully increasing population. Contrast that with the Whooping Crane. Down to 15 birds in 1941, there are now more than 500 in the wild and captivity combined. A fantastic blog from Operation Migration documents the captive breeding efforts each spring (the new season is almost upon us) and each year there are chicks with deformities and other problems; almost certainly a result of all the birds descending from a likely eight individuals. This is no criticism of the captive breeding effort - truly, the various stakeholders working towards saving Whoopers do an incredible job - but a reminder that once a population has experienced a bottleneck, inbreeding problems are likely. So, I'm not convinced that cloning will ever be a viable solution even if in some cases it may be a possibility. Maybe the Pyrenean Ibex, eventually.

Um, I did have a point. 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity. It's a year to celebrate the tireless work by Operation Migration, the International Crane Foundation, the Kakapo Recovery Program, and countless other organizations working to conserve what is left. It's also a year to remember what has been lost for eternity. Back in 1999, I did a project based around the current extinction wave, and it pains me to say that things are worse now than they were 11 years ago. Nevertheless, projects like Operation Migration and the Kakapo Recovery Program provide hope and optimism for the future. Thank you.

Voices in American Fashion at Cooper-Hewitt

2010-04-02T09:54:00.012-04:00

Last night was a true privilege. First , Sarah Scaturro, a textile conservator at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, gave me a private tour of Design USA: Contemporary Innovation. Sunday is your last chance to see it so go! And why does Sarah's name ring a bell? With Francesca Granata, she curated the beautiful Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion. She also contributed a paper to the special issue of Fashion Theory dedicated to sustainability in December 2008. And more. Thank you, Sarah; such a delight to meet you properly, and thank you for the look-see!

Then, Voices in American Fashion (video above), an event organized by the Cooper-Hewitt with Yeohlee Teng, Maria Cornejo and Francisco Costa. The panel was moderated by Washington Post Style Editor Robin Givhan - she did a tremendous job. The discussion topics ranged quite broadly, keeping the audience focused throughout the 90 minutes. What follows is based on my somewhat disjointed notes, which some of you may have seen. You see, earlier today I was working on this post, had to stop, went to save and instead pressed publish. Oops! I wouldn't care so much but the published draft still appears on my Google Reader, despite me deleting it nine hours ago. Anyway, here goes, and not necessarily in the order it occurred, as is clear from the video above. Oh and as anyone with Google Reader would know, yes I did use the loo at the same time as Francisco Costa. Truly my greatest fashion moment yet. There may have been a compliment about one of the panelist's legs in the notes, too. Please ignore such forwardness.

There was talk of model size. Francisco made a point that using 'real' women would probably be good for business as less adaptation would be necessary to take the sample patterns to production. Yeohlee provided a reality check by saying that showing a collection with variation in sizes would be more expensive because of the extra time required for fittings and pattern changes; anyone who has ever done a show knows this. Using models in one size is incredibly efficient as much as it doesn't reflect reality. Most of us evil fashion designers know this is not perfect but it is how it is. Creating the sample collection is stressful and complex enough without an extra criterion so kudos to every designer who has ever experimented with this. Maria said that fashion editors don't want too much reality on the runway. When in her first show she used 'real' women with only one model, the response wasn't great. She's used the same fit model for nine years, by the way. I love that; Materialbyproduct back in Australia are on a similar journey. Maria's point about the conventional seams (sides, shoulders and so forth) defining the body so much when each body is different was fantastic. Fashion students everywhere, take heed.

Organisers of the L'Oréal Melbourne Fashion Festival, take note. Francisco Costa paid a huge compliment to you, by describing what you do. His point basically was that showing the public what is in store now is great for business. "A trunk show?", a colleague whispered to me. "A trunk show that looks like fashion week" was my response. I'm not sure how Costa's Aussie adventure came about but Malcolm Carfrae, the Executive Vice President of Global Communications at Calvin Klein Inc. is Australian and was in the audience at the Cooper-Hewitt. Costa's comment and the discussion that followed reminded me of what Donna Karan was saying at the talk at Parsons, about the distance in time between showing the collections and when the garments actually hit retail. As Maria said last night, by the time clothes arrive at retail they are so overexposed - magazines and blogs tend to shoot the same things - that they seem old.

Sustainability was a big part of the night's discussion, explicitly and less so. Here's what I've thought for a long time (and this came through in the discussion and I had a chat with Sarah about it on the subway after, too): the three designers address sustainability in their work in a profound way, even if it may be easier to grasp with Zero + Maria Cornejo and Yeohlee. If you were to buy a piece from any of the three tomorrow, more than likely you could wear it in five, ten years from now without your appearance screaming Spring 2010. These designers create things to last; not just physically but aesthetically as well. The dress from Costa in the exhibition was a beautiful example of this; the cut was ingenious yet so simple you missed it at first. All three talked about designing clothes that complement and work with ones from previous seasons. Robin asked a great question, about how does a designer reconcile with trying to create desire for things people don't have yet. Maria did note how there is just too much stuff out there, this time reminding me of Julie Gilhart at the Pratt talk. The idea that as much as we're living in a financial crisis, we're living in a moral one, came up more than once. Sure, it would be easy to dismiss a group of fashion designers getting into a 'trendy' topic but all three showed a genuine concern, a cause for much personal hope.

Yeohlee brought up her dedication to zero-waste a number of times, and it was great to hear, considering how many fashion students were in the audience. She said it's fun - "what the heck!" Go for it, dear reader - it truly is liberating. On a personal note, I've always loved an interviewee that begins to interview the interviewer - it's an entertaining change in dynamics. Yeohlee called time the ultimate luxury: "if you design something really well, you save time for the client". She regards her sarongs - a repeating motif throughout her collections - her most successful designs: sarongs are versatile, (in Yeohlee's case) zero-waste, one-size-fits-all, unisex and so forth - a true Yeohlee leitmotif. When designing, she asks,"How many wears will the client get out of this?" Yeohlee stated she wants people to wear her clothes to death, quipping that Susan Sontag was buried in Yeohlee. She brought the house down.

One final point that I will dedicate some space to is the idea of local. I'm professionally involved in a project, Sidewalk Catwalk, with the Fashion Center BID; although new to New York, I do believe in preserving local skills, knowledge, employment, networks and culture. Not preservation in the sense of turning something into a museum exhibit, but preservation in the sense of helping a community to adapt and eventually flourish again. Yeohlee is passionate in this respect. Last night she passed me a flyer for 'Made in Midtown', "a look at the Garment District, its relationship to the fashion industry, and what it takes for creative industry to survive - and thrive - in New York City". She mentioned an open directory that's in the works to help businesses connect with whom they need to. Another step away from the paranoia and secrecy of old. So, while Zero + Maria Cornejo knitwear used to be manufactured in New Jersey and is now made in Hong Kong because the kinds of manufacturers the company needs no longer exists here, perhaps the situation will change one day. I do need to clarify that by no means do I object to off-shore manufacturing - it wouldn't be realistic anyway - but the loss of local skills and knowledge is a concern, and an economic loss in the long term, too. With the price of clothes as low as it is, however, I don't know how we will ever re-educate consumers that locally made will also cost more - at least as long as off-shore means countries with cheaper labour costs. Who knows, one day there won't be a division between a developing and a developed world. Who will make our clothes then?

I really could go on - my notes do - but the video is up above so please take the time to watch it. And what happened next? As it turned out, Sarah and I had a shared engagement: Caroline Priebe's rodeo-rich birthday. An amazing night, all in all. Thank you and congratulations to the Cooper-Hewitt, and thank you to the four people on the panel for their generosity.

Secondhand Culture: Waste, Value and Materiality

2010-03-30T16:59:00.004-04:00

This event hosted by the Bard Graduate Center is looking very promising. Alexandra Palmer, Nicky Gregson and Susan Strasser have all written texts that have considerably enriched my research so I very much look forward to hearing each speak.

Details from the above release:

RSVP required to academic-events@bgc.bard.edu or 212 501 3019

For more information please contact Alex Phelan at phelan@bgc.bard.edu

Bard Graduate Center 38 West 86th Street, Lecture Hall

Thursday, April 15th, 5pm - 8pm
Film Screening: Secondhand (Pepe), 2007
followed by Q&A with the filmmakers, Hanna Rose Shell and Vanessa Bertozzi

William Davies King
Professor of Theater, University of California Santa Barbara
Suited for Nothing: Collecting Second-Hand

Friday, April 16th 9am - 4pm
Shirley Teresa Wajda
Historian
Secondhand Culture Studies: A View from the Rust Belt

Alexandra Palmer
Senior Curator, Royal Ontario Museum
Back to Back: Retro-fitting Fashion within the Museum

Alison Isenberg
Associate Professor, History, Rutgers University
Second-Hand Cities: Antiques, Inheritance, and Preservation from the Civil War to Urban Renewal

Nicky Gregson
Professor, Geography, University of Sheffield
Death, the Phoenix, and Pandora: End of Life Ships, Chock-Chocky Furniture and the Bangladeshi Middle Class

Marilynn Gelfman Karp
Emeritus Professor of Art, New York University
In Flagrante Collecto: Caught in the Act of Collecting

Susan Strasser
Professor, History, University of Delaware
Commentary

I hope to see you there!

Sustainable Fashion Symposium & Opening Party In Conjunction with Eco Chic Exhibition

2010-03-29T11:01:00.007-04:00

Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion
May 5 - August 21, 2010 @ Scandinavia House

Symposium - Towards Sustainable Fashion
Directly followed by the Opening Party for Eco Chic in Volvo Hall
Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 6:30 pm, Victor Borge Hall
RSVP required. Please respond by Thursday, April 29 to malin@amscan.org

Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion opens at Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America, May 5, 2010 and showcases Swedish fashion designers who take an environmentally-friendly and ethical approach to their work, without sacrificing style. On view through August 21, this exhibition illuminates high-fashion alternatives to much of today's environmentally harmful clothing.

Proving that "going green" is more than a feel-good fad, Swedish designers collaborated to establish a culture of sustainable fashion. The fashion industry faces major challenges in both resources and labor, but designers featured in the Eco Chic exhibition strive to change the general attitude of fashion and consumption. They believe that sustainable development is not simply an empty phrase, and fashion is not just about appearance. This touring exhibition from The Swedish Institute (SI), which premiered in Belgrade in the winter of 2008, has visited major international cities including Minsk, Kiev, Riga, Istanbul, and most recently Berlin. The installation at Scandinavia House in New York marks the first American stop on this tour.

Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion presents garments and footwear by various Swedish fashion designers. Designers featured in this exhibition include: Anja Hynynen, Bergman's, Camilla Norrback, Dem Collective, Johanna Hofring, Julian Red, Nudie, Pia Anjou, Reflective Circle, Righteous Fashion, Swedish Hasbeens, and Zion. These designers aspire to create a culture of principled design and production. Through this touring exhibition, they hope to inform consumers that fashion can be simultaneously stylish and sustainable.

_________________________________________________________

Symposium - Towards Sustainable Fashion
Tuesday, May 4, 6:30 pm, Victor Borge Hall

A symposium, in conjunction with the opening of the exhibit Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Fashion, with fashion designers who take an environmentally-friendly and ethical approach to their work, without sacrificing style. The panel of speakers includes designers and fashion experts from Sweden and The United States - Marcus Bergman, Karin Stenmar, Sass Brown and Eviana Hartman, and is moderated by Dr. Hazel Clark, Dean of the School of Art and Design and Theory, Parsons: The New School for Design.

The symposium is followed by a party celebrating the opening of the exhibit Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Fashion at Scandinavia House. The exhibit will be open until 9:30 pm.

Marcus Bergman is one of the partners of Bergman's (a part of the exhibition). Bergman is a researcher at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg and lecturer at University College of Borås. For more information, please visit www.ecocotton.com/

Karin Stenmar - One of the two founders of Dem Collective (a part of the exhibition). Since 2004 Karin and Annika Axelsson has ensured that Sweden receives a steady supply of fair produced and organic clothes from Dem Collective's own factories in Sri Lanka. For more information, please visit www.demcollective.com/

Sass Brown is a full time professor at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, now resident in Florence, Italy, where she is the Resident Director for FIT's study abroad program. Originally from London, England, Sass established herself as a designer with her own signature collection selling across Canada, and as VP of Merchandising for Perry Ellis Kids. As an academic, Sass's area of research is in the area of community outreach and ethical design practices in fashion based businesses. Sass has published papers and spoken around the world on the topic of sustainable design. She has also worked and volunteered in women's cooperatives in Latin America, and in particular in Brazil's largest favela - Rocinha, as well as taught workshops to manufacturers and fashion enterprises in Peru.

Eviana Hartman, founder and designer of Bodkin. Hartman was the fashion features editor at NYLON, fashion writer at Vogue and Teen Vogue, and the founding columnist of EcoWise in The Washington Post. She collaborated with designer Wendy Mullin on the Sew U series of books for Little, Brown and Potter Craft, and has written about music, style, architecture, and design for such publications as Dwell, I.D., Purple Fashion, VMan, Domino, and Wired. Her interest in sustainability began while studying under architect William McDonough, author of Cradle to Cradle. She is also a modern dancer and plays drums in the band Open Ocean.

Dr. Hazel Clark is Dean of the School of Art and Design History at Parsons the New School for Design. She is a design historian and theorist who has taught internationally and has a particular interest in design and culture, and fashion and textiles including ethical practices. Her most recent publications include co-editing Old Clothes, New Looks: Second Hand Fashion (Berg, 2005), The Fabric of Cultures: Fashion, Identity and Globalization (Routledge, 2009) and Design Studies: A Reader (Berg, 2009). Her articles include: 'SLOW + FASHION - An Oxymoron or a Promise for the Future..?', Fashion Theory, 12: 4, December 2008.

_________________________________________________________

This exhibition is commissioned and produced by The Swedish Institute. The curator and exhibition architect is Karin Gräns.

The Swedish Institute is a public agency that promotes interest in Sweden abroad. SI seeks to establish cooperation and lasting relations with other countries through strategic communication and cultural, educational, and scientific exchanges. SI works closely with Swedish embassies and consulates around the world. Please visit www.si.se/English/ for more information.

Scandinavia House is a public forum presenting a wide range of exhibitions, films, concerts, lectures, symposia, and family programs that illuminate the contemporary vitality of the Nordic countries. It also houses the headquarters of The American-Scandinavian Foundation. Please visit www.scandinaviahouse.org for more information.

The American-Scandinavian Foundation (ASF) is the leading cultural and educational link between the U.S. and Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. It works to build international understanding with an extensive program of fellowships, grants, intern/trainee sponsorship, publishing, and membership offerings.

Gallery Hours: Tuesday - Saturday, 12 - 6 pm
Due to a generous grant from The Barbro Pro Suecia Foundation, admission is FREE.

Scandinavia House
The Nordic Center in America
58 Park Avenue (@ 38th Street)
New York, NY 10016
General Information: 212.979.9779 & www.scandinaviahouse.org

IFFTI 2010 Conference: Fashion: Sustainability and Creativity

2010-03-28T21:39:00.005-04:00

I am back from Taipei and Fashion: Sustainability and Creativity, from what was simply a fantastic conference. Thank you to the organizers - not just for the quality and richness of the papers but also for the other activities throughout the three days. I was going to post a full report on the conference here, but since I've just posted a report on my top three papers on 560: Magazine for Parsons School of Fashion, it's easier to simply link there.

In addition to the three papers by Holly McQuillan, Daniel James Cole and Patricia Lockren, I'd like to commend and briefly comment on the following papers:

Katherine Townsend & Yumi Chon, Nottingham Trent University:
Remaining Beauty: A Sustainable Approach to Surface Pattern Design
Chon was not able to come to the conference but Townsend presented Chon's work in a beautiful light.

Yu Han Au, Joe Au & Raymond Au, Hong Kong Polytechnic University:
Development of Theoretical Framework of Ultimate Fashion and Textile Design Process Model
Having read most of Joe Au's papers on fashion design process, it was exciting to hear from one of his research students - in short, it is good to see rigorous research into fashion design process. This may have changed, but a couple of years ago a read-through of the keywords for Design Studies, one of the key journals for design research, did not include fashion design while around 20 other design disciplines made it.

Kritika Dawar, Pearl Academy of Fashion:
Collaborative Efforts Towards Sustainability
Dawar reported on Shared Talent, a heart-warming collaboration between six Indian and six UK designers, and students from India, UK and the Netherlands. I was so immersed in listening that my notes were somewhat brief, but here's a tidbit: "Sustainability need not compromise creativity or quality."

Kathryn Brownbridge, Manchester Metropolitan University:
The Impact of Advanced Knitwear Technology: Fashion, Sustainability and Innovation.
Brownbridge presented interesting findings from three UK companies that had implemented complete garment technology. It certainly sounded like the investment paid off for all three. This was Kathryn's first conference presentation; if the moderator hadn't said so, we would have never known. Congratulations!

Patricia Brien, RMIT:
Imagination, Inspiration, Imitation: A Preliminary Exploration of Rudolf Steiner's Theories. Holistic Clothing and Sustainable Fashion Design
Perhaps the most left-of-centre paper I heard - in a good way: so rich and interesting. Brien made an interesting link between Rudolf Steiner, Joseph Beuys and AF Vandevorst. I hope Brien continues with this endeavour.

Ok, I missed the following two; it was so difficult to have to choose between six parallel sessions. Yes, six. I can cope with three or four but at times I wanted to go and see all six at the same time. I should note that Holly, Todd and Kate had their presentations at the same time and I went to Holly's, hence missing these two.

Todd Robinson, University of Technology Sydney:
Thematizing Change: Creativity, Dynamic Practices and Sustainability
Todd is a former colleague whose PhD project is promising to be of great interest. Watch out.

Kate Fletcher, London College of Fashion:
Systems Change for Sustainability in Fashion.
Kate wasn't in Taiwan to present; instead, Helen Thomas presented for her. Kate discusses systems change in her book and I would have loved to have heard where she's at with this, but I will have to wait until next time.

IFM will host the conference next year. The race is on, folks; to top the calibre of papers from 2010 will be a truly exciting challenge!

Craft Research

2010-03-25T06:28:00.004-04:00

I'm at the IFFTI conference in Taiwan; a report of the excellent two days to come soon. In the meanwhile, I just wanted to flag a promising new journal edited by Kristina Niedderer and Katherine Townsend: Craft Research from Intellect Ltd. It was a pleasure to meet Katherine and hear about the journal. From the website:

Aims and Scope

Craft Research is the first peer-reviewed academic journal dedicated to developing and advancing contemporary craft practice and theory through research. Its purpose is to portray and build the crafts as a vital and viable discipline that offers a vision for the future through its ability to explore and challenge technology, to question and develop cultural and social practices, and to interrogate and affirm philosophical and human values.

Call for Papers

Craft Research welcomes contributions from new and established researchers, scholars, and professionals around the world who wish to make a contribution to advancing the crafts.
Contributions may include research into materials, technology, processes, methods, concepts, aesthetic and philosophy in any discipline area of the applied arts and crafts, including craft education. Accepted formats include full research papers, position papers, reports on research linking craft and industry, craft-researcher portraits, and reviews of research exhibitions and conferences.

The GreenShows at New York fashion week

2010-02-08T10:19:00.002-05:00

Work commitments permitting, I'll be attending some of the GreenShows during fashion week. The designers/companies featured this time around are:

Gary Harvey
Vaute Couture
Sonja den Elzen
Joann Berman
Keia Pounds
Popomomo
Samantha Pleet
deux fm
Ekovaruhuset
C. Marchuska

Having looked through the sites of each, the diversity of approaches and aesthetics is great to see. It's also good to remember these aren't the only labels a buyer or a journalist should seek out if his/her interest is sustainability. For example, Study NY and Titania Inglis are absolute musts on the list. I'd like to wish all the best in the final preparations and most importantly, orders orders orders!

dry ice

2010-02-05T10:08:00.002-05:00

As I've mentioned here a number of times before, freezers aren't only good for storing vodka. They can also be used to delay the need for laundering jeans, and a whole lot of other garments. I had a chuckle this morning; TreeHugger has finally caught on to this, too. Or rather, a Brazilian denim brand, Tristar, is using it as a marketing gimmick. People, amazingly this works on jeans of any brand; if you haven't tried it yet, do. As some of my earlier posts note, eventually you do reach a point of saturation (depending on how often you wear the jeans and how many wobbly friends have spilled a drink on you) where laundering becomes a social necessity. Nevertheless, I've been freezing jeans for well over two years and it works. Give it a go. A word of warning: in certain climates, say like in New York, it's worth taking the jeans out of the freezer at least half an hour before you plan to put them on. Makes the morning much more pleasant.

I love NY

2010-02-01T19:39:00.001-05:00

This was filmed in my (shared) kitchen just over a week ago. Enjoy!

Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion, and The Sustainability Equation: Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Fashion

2010-01-27T13:48:00.003-05:00

Congratulations to Francesca Granata and Sarah Scaturro for last night's panel, The Sustainability Equation: Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Fashion. The room was packed, lined with people standing, and the insights from Julie Gilhart, Senior Vice President and Fashion Director at Barneys New York, Mary Ping of Slow Steady Wins the Race and Caroline Priebe of Uluru were diverse and fascinating. As an unexpected delight, I bumped into Janet Hethorn, one of the editors of Sustainable Fashion: Why Now? It was good to see Tara St James of Study NY again; the blog post on her work is now long, long overdue. Watch this space.

My notes from the panel ramble all over the place. Furthermore, at times I was listening too intensely to take any. Both signs of an invigorating conversation, I think. Gilhart spoke about the philosophy at Barneys, and the importance of an emotional connection to clothing over product or brand. From a sustainable design perspective, she made a strong case for good design and embodied value as the most important drivers. I'd agree; we've all seen abominable things made from organic cotton, no? Thankfully it's becoming rarer but for a while there seemed to be a lot of things out there that used sustainability as some kind of apologetic excuse for sloppy design and/or crappy manufacturing. Julie mentioned how the Barneys customer is still slightly suspicious of anything labeled organic; at least in some cases the company no longer promotes garments as such, but rather, as strong statements in design. That's what attracts the customer to the clothes in the first place. Common sense, really. Apparently they are getting increasing requests for 'green' gowns for the red carpet. She recommends Isabel Toledo. Not an obvious choice to some but one that made sense to me. Toledo's work has a lovely timelessness about it, without ever appearing generic or 'classic'. Or maybe it is classic; it's just not a word I particularly like. My personal favourite statement from Gilhart, one that gives me much hope, was a quip on how at Barneys they are constantly saying how there are just "too many collections, too many clothes, too much stuff".Right on.

Caroline's notion of wanting to design things that the consumer can eventually pass on to her granddaughter sounds deceivingly simple but think about it. It's a powerful statement. Instead of maybe two, three, even five years' worth of wear, she's suggesting several decades. This stems from her having inherited her grandmother's cashmere cardigans, which she wears herself. She has also reappropriated some of her grandmother's patterns for Uluru. Caroline also talked about the need to integrate sustainability into business models from the outset, something she has done. At Fashioning Now, Rachel Bending of Bird Textile spoke along very similar lines; the audio is available on the FN website. As for the Uluru/Alabama Chanin interaction, Caroline prefers co-operation over collaboration; the former speaks of a sustained activity whilst the latter can suggest something temporary. She also noted how she seems to share everything she knows with anyone that wants to know. This is what I love about the sustainable fashion community; the secrecy and paranoia that seem to afflict the rest of industry are largely absent.

As for Mary, I think she should work with me. Why? Towards the end she spoke of having produced some leather t-shirts, and as a result she's ended up with five containers of leather scrap (size of container unclear). "It's such a waste", she said. Yes. Mind you, her team is working on designing something out of the scrap, but leather is one area I haven't delved into in my research. Mary, I'm likely to be in touch. I know I already linked to Slow and Steady Wins the Race above but because the site is such fun, here is the link again. On the whole, listening to both Caroline and Mary was a refreshing delight; reading through mainstream fashion sites it's easy to break out in hives over the banal soundbites from some fashion designers.

Onto the exhibition, which I saw over a week ago. It is open until February 20, so make sure you see it if in New York. The beautiful catalog is only $10; get it! The exhibition is beautifully designed, with large text panels supporting each of the three sections. The design is by a team of Graduate Interior Design students from Pratt, led by Professor Jon Otis. The designers are Lexie Averick, Yi-Ting (Elvie) Chang, Laura Clifford, Jenni Hellstern, Amanda Meininger, Megan Niemczyk, Alex Pethtel, Juliette Pousset, Dena Saperstein, Jeehee Son, Jinwooh Song and Jordan Wagenseller. Congratulations; the space was a delight to move through. There are three broad themes under which the designers fall; of course, most relate to all three categories, but such ordering makes the concepts easier to understand. Because I'm lazy, here are the panels for you to read, and some not-great photos; a close friend once said I destroy beautiful things with photography. My photography lecturer over ten years ago echoed those sentiments. Anyway, here you go:

Reduce:

Uluru with Alabama Chanin: Detail of a recycled cashmere sweater appliqued with organic cotton jersey:

Rogan, one of the Loomstate designers: detail of patchwork dress of recycled denim, courtesy of Barneys New York:

Rethink

Slow and Steady Wins the Race: detail of a shirt:

Kelly Cobb's 100-Mile Suit: feelers for some of the yarns and fabrics:

Revalue

SUNO (detail of dress of vintage kanga):

Alabama Chanin: Detail of an organic cotton jersey dress:

An organic cotton denim dress, dyed with natural indigo:

Finally, an audience member mentioned an 'eco-fashion' show taking place at NYU tonight. More details are here.

Reminder: Pratt Manhattan Gallery tonight

2010-01-26T07:59:00.004-05:00

Update: Just got an email, the catalog is now available. At $10, thanks to a generous grant from The Coby Foundation, it's a no-brainer.

This is on tonight, I hope to see you there:

“The Sustainability Equation: Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Fashion” 6 p.m. Tuesday, January 26 Pratt Manhattan Gallery 144 West 14th Street, 2nd Floor Regular Gallery Hours: Tuesday – Saturday 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

BBC article on waste

2010-01-20T06:58:00.008-05:00

An interesting read on waste 'trends' in the UK that draws from an EFRA Committee report; kudos to the authors for referring to the 'Primark effect'. Yes, it's a good thing; the more exposure for the term, the more likely some changes are likely to begin taking place. Of course it is a worry that while the overall amount of household waste has decreased, the amount of textile waste has in fact increased. And while recycling is better than landfilling, reducing and reusing are key. Remember? Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. Recycling is third on the list, but seems to be the only one on most people's minds. Here's a suggestion for reducing: instead of buying five whatevers from H&M*, Primark or Zara, pool the money together and buy one good thing from a local business. To those old-fashioned folks overly concerned with economic growth, reducing doesn't necessarily have to mean a reduction in the amount of dosh making the rounds.

The full EFRA Committee report is available here

*I should disclose that I in fact own four H&M whatevers. I have a belt I bought in 2005 (I bought two at the time but the other one broke beyond repair), and three identical black v-neck t-shirts. How very Armani-on-the-cheap of me. About two months ago, a friend was about to donate them; he bought them in May, only to realize afterwards he didn't like them. I love my friend, despite the fact I don't understand the decision-making process leading up to the purchase. At $8 a pop, not much decision-making was required, of course. Anyway, I tried one on, it fit well so I got them. The hems twisted in the first wash but I can live with that. The fabric will last a year at most. This often comes as a surprise to non-Scandinavians but back in the 80s, H&M was still known for quality clothes at a reasonable price. Now... Well, Google them with The New York Times.

Sample sale Friday 29 January 2010 at Tribeca Grand Hotel

2010-01-19T13:49:00.011-05:00

[Updated Monday 25 January- see bottom of post; thank you Deanne of Dream Sequins!]

A group of fashion, jewelry and homewares designers, some of whose design practices are fundamentally informed by sustainability, is having a sample sale at the Tribeca Grand Hotel. The details are:

Date: Friday 29 January 2010
Time: 5-9pm

The designers:

ULURU
Bliss Lau
Doo.ri
H. Fredriksson
Ideeën
Kim Seybert
Mary Meyer
Meg Cohen
Risto
Secta
Study NY by Tara St. James

My thoughts on these things? By finding a treasure or three at sample sales such as this, you generally support small, local businesses; at any time a good thing but even more so at times like these. And treasures they often are; it's not unusual to find a sample that never made it to production - a one-off that nobody else has. Back in the day, this is how I sent my samples and excess stock out into the world. Not by incinerating, because that's, well, insane.

And here's the update, and what makes this even better than it already is: 20% of the proceeds of the sale go towards supporting APEX, a nonprofit that provides educational mentoring to inner city youth And, in case you can't make it to TriBeCa on Friday, Cutdrop is hosting an online pre-sale of select designers starting Wednesday January 27th and ending on Friday January 29th. My thanks to Dream Sequins for the update!

for those in London: MA Fashion & the Environment at SHIFT

2010-01-16T08:40:00.002-05:00

MA_10 /
EXHIBITION
MA FASHION & THE ENVIRONMENT

MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY
PRIVATE VIEW & PRESENTATION TO PRESS, INDUSTRY, TUTORS AND STUDENTS / 13.00 – 16.00

FRIDAY 29 JANUARY – MONDAY 1 FEBRUARY
PUBLIC VIEW / FRIDAY 17.30 – 22.30 / SATURDAY - MONDAY 12.00 – 16.00

You are invited to see, hear and participate in creative provocations by graduates of MA Fashion and the Environment.

Work offers a dialogue around the ecological, social and cultural dilemmas of fashion in our time.
This exhibition is brought to you by the Centre for Sustainable Fashion & London College of Fashion as part of SHIFT – a festival from Cape Farewell.

Included in the exhibition:
highlights from Fashioning the Future 2009, the international student awards for sustainability in fashion.
Local Wisdom by Kate Fletcher, an opportunity for you to share the story of a favourite garment.

QUEEN ELIZABETH HALL FOYER
SOUTHBANK CENTRE
BELVEDERE ROAD
LONDON SE1 8XX

PLEASE RSVP:
EVENTS@FASHION.ARTS.AC.UK

MORE INFORMATION:
WWW.SUSTAINABLE-FASHION.COM/SHIFT

Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion

2010-01-15T12:23:00.006-05:00

Tomorrow I'm checking out Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion at the Pratt Manhattan Gallery at 144 West 14th Street, on the second floor. The exhibition is curated by Francesca Granata and Sarah Scaturro, and features work by Bodkin, Alabama Chanin, Susan Cianciolo, Kelly Cobb, Loomstate, Rogan, Max Osterweis/ Zoë Sheehan Saldaña, SANS, Slow and Steady Wins the Race, Uluru, and Andrea Zittel and Tiprin Follett/Smockshop. (I'm not 100% sure about the accuracy of the links; if I've made a boo-boo, do let me know.)

Related to the exhibition, at 6pm on Tuesday 26th January there is a free panel discussion moderated by the curators. Confirmed speakers include Julie Gilhart, senior vice president, fashion director of Barneys New York; Mary Ping, designer and founder of Slow and Steady Wins the Race, and Caroline Priebe, designer and founder of Uluru. I hope to see you there!

New York Times follow-up

2010-01-13T11:43:00.006-05:00

It turns out Jim Dwyer from the New York Times followed up his earlier story on mutilated new clothes. More on the New York City Clothing Bank on their own website. An inspiring story.

I have an exciting meeting today related to this; when the time is right, I'll post more here.

H&M shame

2010-01-12T07:04:00.003-05:00

For most people this is old news - a week old - but I wasn't paying much attention last week, what with looking for an apartment and getting to know my way around. The New York Times published an article about the practice of companies destroying brand new, out-of-season clothes. The thinking behind the practice, I believe, is that donating unsold garments to charity, for example, would damage the brand. Apparently the best thing to do is to destroy the garments. Funny how the world sometimes works in reverse. The companies in this case were H&M and Wal-Mart but the practice is widespread and not limited to the US. Back in Sydney, more than once I heard of a facility near Tempe Tip, where brands could bury unworn, unsold stock. If you know anything about it, please email me; I've never managed to find out more about this, but have heard the rumour more than once.

H&M responded very quickly, stating this practice would stop. Shame nevertheless that it happened in the first place. This is one of the more sickening examples of waste in the society we've created. I do hope that other brands take note and likewise cease doing this, and donate the clothes to those that need them (no shortage there).

For reasons I won't say just yet, this is a topic I'll likely return to soon, so stay tuned.

Red Carpet Green Dress

2010-01-11T20:20:00.005-05:00

The Red Carpet Green Dress only came to my attention today; moving continents tends to make one not notice stuff. If any aspiring fashion designer out there wants to enter, as long as you're 18 and have $50 to spare, you can. I love that you don't need to be enrolled in a course to enter, so often a condition in competitions, but I do not love the fee. Of course I am completely clueless as to the the financial arrangement between The King of the World and Mrs Cameron (and prefer to remain that way) but let's assume both are comfortable. Millionaire if not billionaire comfortable, at least. Of course most fashion design competitions of this kind incur a fee, part of which goes into the jurying process - convening and reimbursing the panel, that sort of thing. There is only one person on this particular jury, so I am having trouble seeing how one person choosing one dress (as opposed to an extensive panel picking over whole collections, as the case might be with Mittelmoda) requires such a sum. A more cynical person might suggest it goes towards paying for the dress itself, to be realized by Deb Scott. I would urge the organizers to perhaps explain this more on the website.

Amendment: I've just read the rules. The money will go towards MUSE Elementary. Nevertheless, I feel that this sum might deny the next Madeleine Vionnet from entering the competition merely for financial reasons. In an otherwise refreshingly democratic competition, it's the one thing that makes it not so.

When it comes to sustainability, I have no doubt the intent is 100% well-meaning but could be thought through better. After all, this is a dress that will get worn for a few hours only. It's a fair chunk of cash, time, effort and flights for one dress. (And yet I can't help hoping someone from Sri Lanka wins, as unlikely as that may be.) The more sustainable option would be to wear something one already has, or if that won't do, have something one already has altered. By Deb Scott or even a non-Academy-Award-winning designer. To most celebrities, it would seem, there is hardly anything more disposable than a red carpet dress, although I acknowledge the very well meant intent here: wider exposure of sustainable fashion design. It's just that materials choice alone doesn't make something automatically a sustainable design. What I'd love to see afterwards is an eBay auction of the dress, and using the proceeds to reimburse all the entrants their fifty bucks. The first choice of material, as reminiscent of Lizzy Gardiner's efforts as it may sound, would of course be broken Titanic DVDs. Remember Titanic? The only time I ever came out of a cinema and the seasons had changed. Thankfully modern technology can provide us with a summary version:

I realize the above comes across quite negative but I do believe lots of room for improvement in the project exists, and I hope the project runs again with some aspects considered in more depth. Most importantly, none of what I've written should take away from MUSE Elementary, a project initiated by Suzy Amis Cameron and her sister Rebecca Amis. The goodwill is definitely there. Best of luck to those entering the comp!

NYC

2010-01-09T19:37:00.004-05:00

So, I managed to change the profile just before I flew out of Sydney: I am indeed in New York now, and started a new job this week. I'd like to pass my heartfelt thanks to colleagues at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), for seven amazing years. I'd also like to pay tribute to Val Horridge, who left at the same time as me, after 22 years at UTS. Val taught me (and most of the Sydney fashion industry, I think) way back when, and it has been a privilege to come back and work with her. I look forward to hearing about her next adventures. Again, thank you, all the lovely people at UTS. I hope our paths continue crossing in the future.

This week I am meeting with Tara St James of Study NY and Caroline Priebe of Uluru; both are involved in 5 in 1, a design collective based in Brooklyn, not far from where I've found my first NYC home. I've been meaning to blog about Tara's work since she emailed me shortly after the last NY fashion week, but as is evident from the blog, I haven't blogged at all since the dust storm. (I clearly survived it; I wish I could say the same about my workload over the past four or five months.) Anyway, I very much look forward to meeting both. In a not-so-unexpected coincidence, Lynda Grose suggested just a few days ago that I get in touch with Caroline, only a few days after Tara had passed her details onto me.

In other news, Fashioning Now will be traveling to the Fremantle Arts Centre later this year, and Alison Gwilt and I are working hard on the book. As publication dates firm up, I'll post them (tentatively) here. If I've learned one thing about how these things work, it's that any dates regarding publication should always be treated with somewhat flexible eyes...

Finally (though there is so much I could write about after such a long break), thanks once again to the Fashion & Textiles program at UTS. My farewell present from the team was two scarves hand-woven by Liz Williamson, which I absolutely love. If you're unfamiliar with her scarves, find them and check them out. You will have them for life. I now have four. Thank you.

More soon. Thank you NYC for the warmest welcome!

dust

2009-09-22T19:56:00.000-04:00

(To non-Sydneysiders, this should explain it all.)

Julien Macdonald's YSL 'homage'

2009-09-21T19:16:00.007-04:00

Browsing through style.com as I usually do during the shows, I noticed something very familiar about Julien Macdonald's use of sequins in a fish scale pattern:

(Above images from style.com)

They reminded me of a 1983 dress by Yves Saint Laurent, sometimes referred to as the sardine dress, in the collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. A dress that looks like this:
(Page 94 from 'Haute Couture' by Richard Martin and Harold Koda, published by The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.)

My educated guess would be that the sequin work would have been done by Lesage, and their archives probably are open to designers - does anyone know more about how that works? I am somewhat torn on this; on one hand, I think any designer championing the haute couture crafts of France deserves a pat on the back, and on the other, as a designer I would never use a source so literally. Not knowingly, anyway. I do recall one instance of pretty much copying the cut of a Miyake jacket in my final year; I realised what I'd done two days before the work was due and wanted to bin it. In the end I didn't after having chatted to my tutor, who probably thought all the tears were a bit of an over-reaction.

This reminds me of another instance of a contemporary designer using a constructed textile design pretty much as is, even if the dress was different. The lace in this dress by Madeleine Vionnet (1938) was constructed from horsehair braid:

(Image from 'Vionnet' by Betty Kirke, 1991, Chronicle Books, San Francisco)

When I saw the following ad for Chanel haute couture in 1997, I did feel a slight sense of déjà vu. But then again, that's not uncommon when it comes to Lagerfeld's work. I know one lecturer who has built an entire lecture on literal use of inspiration around Lagerfeld's work for Chanel in the 80s.

Maybe it's pointless to make any value judgments on this; designer ethics are a very personal thing. I nevertheless feel compelled to point out the similarities, so there you go.

Rachael Cassar at Estethica S/S 2010 at LFW

2009-09-14T14:41:00.009-04:00

Rachael Cassar is a friend and a former student, who is showing at Estethica as part of London Fashion Week for the first time. Rachael won the Media Prize of the Australian final of the 2006 Lancôme Colour Design Awards (another staff member and I did an all-nighter with the students for that - there was definitely something comical about trying to ensure the cleaners wouldn't vacuum the sequins off the floor at 5am...) and she was the overall winner of Mittelmoda in 2007. At Estethica, there are at least two other Aussies listed: Mark Liu, an Estethica veteran, and Bird Textiles. Rachel Bending from Bird Textiles was one of the speakers at the Fashioning Now symposium.

I was fortunate enough to attend the launch of Rachael's latest collection Ruby at the Belvoir St Theatre. Trade shows can be pretty harrowing so best of luck to all three, and Rachael, I reckon it's a good omen the wheel on your suitcase broke at the airport :) Rachael works with secondhand garments and fabrics, reworking them - much of the work is done by hand - into new, beautiful things.

Images from Ruby by Rachael Cassar 2009 (currently waiting on credits).

Sam Formo's zero-waste jacket

2009-09-14T00:57:00.008-04:00

Sam Formo's name has come up here a few times and I was fortunate enough to see the photos of this jacket quite a while ago. I didn't want to post any photos earlier, in case doing so might have compromised Sam's chances of entering any competitions, which I'm glad he did do: the Metropolis Next Generation competition. The results are in, and Sam was commended as one of twelve notables. Congratulations! Feel free to disagree but I think that not too long ago fashion wouldn't have even got a look in, so this is fantastic. The photos came from Metropolis and Sam Formo; the photography is by Shidume Lozada (a CCA graduate) and the model is Drew Kleiner (a fellow fashion student):

From Metropolis, Sam's thoughts on the garments:

How would you describe it?
The no-waste pattern was developed in order to eliminate cutting waste that generally ends up in landfills. By filling in the negative spaces in order to utilize all of the fabric laid out and by sharing cutting lines, a garment emerges leaving behind not a scrap of waste.

How does it pertain to energy?
By eliminating waste and creating timeless designs we decrease the need for consumption, which in turn saves the energy embodied in the cloth, decreases the need to transport it from disposal to landfill and overseas to clothing brokers.

What makes it important?
I realize that my entry is completely non-traditional in terms of what Metropolis magazine puts forth, but I stand by my design because I am a true believer that thinking in these terms, no matter from what standpoint, is crucial in our current quandary. My piece is an accessible concept that is structural, durable and beautiful and much like architecture provides a function that involves the body. The issues that it can possibly address globally reach far beyond what many other forms of design can, such as the poor ethics that are being practiced in the textile and garment manufacturing industries, the amount of energy and waste occurring at alarming rates and the no-end of health risks involved thereof. Clothing is as much part of our lives as the buildings we live and work in and current times are calling for massive change and re-invention. There is no reason that fashion should not be part of that change.

How do the photos or renderings illustrate the concept?
The pattern is laid out exactly as it would on cloth. When laid out properly, especially on something like a wool melton or boiled wool, it can be situated so that; a) it takes up the entire width of a piece of yardage and b) can be laid out so that it utilizes less than one yard. The types of fabrics researched for this project were sought because of the quality and inability to fray, meaning that cut edges do not have to be finished (thus saving the extra energy it would take to run a machine). Each and every part of the pattern is utilized and put into the finished garment, the interlocked puzzle-like pieces on the front are pulled through buttonholes, creating the closure for the jacket and also becoming a unique design feature. The photos tell the story of how those pieces come to life when put on the body.

I really think you'll be hearing and seeing a lot more of Sam and his excellent work. I'd also like to mention a person 'behind the scenes' who doesn't get credited enough. Lynda Grose, one of Sam's professors at the California College of the Arts, has been a pioneer in the field of fashion design and sustainability and worked with Sam on this project. To my horror, I recently read one 'history' or review of sustainable fashion to date, and it made no mention of Lynda (nor Kate Fletcher, or Becky Earley, and so it went) or the ecollection she helped develop for Esprit, what, almost two decades ago. That's kind of like writing a history of Western fashion and not mentioning France. Lynda also worked with Andrew Hague, whose no-waste shirt Fletcher featured in her book (Andrew features it on his website).

Back to the point of the post, some huge congratulations to Sam. If you have a look at the winner, the runners-up and the other notables like Sam, you'll notice that apart from one PhD candidate, none are students. (Please correct me if I'm wrong there; I am somewhat tired and slightly incoherent as I type this.) They are practicing architects, designers, engineers and the like. Congratulations!

the hoodie - an attempt to explain

2009-09-13T02:59:00.009-04:00

I feel very humbled by and grateful for having been featured on three prominent blogs over the last few days. Kathleen Fasanella from Fashion Incubator (you need her book!) posted the hoodie as a Pattern Puzzle, Danielle Meder from Final Fashion posted her very good go at it, and Outi of Outsapop wrote a post on zero-waste fashion. Thank you, and more importantly, thank you each for your blogs!

I realise that the pattern diagram for the hoodie isn't particularly helpful - even when you see the photo. Had I included a couple of crucial notches in the diagram (they are on the actual pattern, obviously), it would be much easier to 'read'. For example, the CB seam isn't joined all the way through to the top of the 'triangle'; the hood triangle gets inserted into the 'split' that results:

There is a partially stitched inverted pleat at the CF edge of the hood. I had a set length measurement available for the facing that faces the entire CF and hood edge (see the diagram), and I used the pleat to make the edge match the facing. Although cut perfectly to match, I fumbled the stripes whilst sewing; they are out by about 2mm. If any of my students are reading this, this is where you stop, unpick and resew. At the time I was probably too buggered to even notice:

The hood triangle, perhaps counter-intuitively, goes around the triangle point where the CF and CB of the body meet rather than match to it. The hood keeper controls the area and creates a look that's more hat- than hood-like when the hood is on the head:

About the sleeves and 'armholes'. The slash at the top back (the one that does have a notch marked) is the armhole; the sleeve is inserted from the notch to the end of the slash. I am realising quickly that I am not very good at explaining this verbally or with photographs, but in the photo below you can see the CB and parts of the sleeves inserted into the slashes:
The sleeves are cut on the straight grain but hang on bias, with the one seam spiraling around the arm, Vionnet-style. The mismatched grains at CF and CB were the intention from the word go, creating all sorts of havoc throughout the fittings. I think I made three toiles (or muslins) and even now, the final garment doesn't fit quite as well as I'd like it to.

The back waist has an internal elastic casing inserted into the lower slash. The hems are quite deep (4" or 10cm). I mitred the corners by simply folding and hiding the folds inside the hem:

Although there are lots of large eyelets available now, thanks to Givenchy (I predicted it here), I decided to get mine made by a very capable jewellery designer, George Plionis. In fine silver, these are thus far the most expensive eyelets I've ever worked with.
There are a number of things that would need addressing before this could be taken to manufacture, primarily to do with the hood and the facing. As for (hypothetical) sales (this garment, and all others, was made purely for research and exhibition), most guys I spoke with liked the front but not the heavily gathered back waist. I also debated whether to put tucks into the shoulder area which would have prevented the garment falling off the shoulders so much. The tucks were marked on the original pattern but in the end I left them out. Back in 1982, Vivienne Westwood said about the Buffalo collection: "There's more to clothes than just comfort. Even if they're not quite comfortable and slip and have to be readjusted now and again, I don't mind, because that's some sort of display and gesture that belongs with the clothes." Reflecting on that at whatever hour I might have been sewing the hoodie, I decided to leave the tucks out.

Any questions about the hoodie, don't hesitate to ask. I do find it quite difficult to explain the cut, and it's not a particularly complex garment.

a weekend writing retreat...

2009-08-24T22:06:00.011-04:00

...that was somewhat railroaded by food poisoning. I nevertheless managed a solid start on the edits as mentioned in the last post, and a two-hour walk around the Cape Byron Lighthouse on Sunday morning.

The view north, from the forest walk from Byron Bay proper to the lighthouse:

The view south:

Another northerly view across the Bay from the lighthouse:

Two humpback whales making their way north - when they should have been going south - between two kayaks:

A closer view:

Whilst these two kayakers were taken somewhat by surprise (the whales simply swam straight for them), about ten minutes earlier an idiot from a larger group of kayaks made a beeline for the whales, despite clear regulations to stay away. Anyway, there were another two whales further out to sea, as well as a pod of about fifty dolphins that went majestically past the lighthouse.

A somewhat fearless Laughing Kookaburra also watching the whales and dolphins:

An Australian Brush-Turkey at the car park; these guys were everywhere:

A Masked Lapwing at the beach; their calls were incessant, night and day:

It's spring for everyone, including these Greater Crested Terns:

A farewell message I stumbled upon yesterday morning:

no-waste and less-waste fashion designers

2009-08-20T04:08:00.005-04:00

The aim of this post is to provide a bit of a list for anyone interested; please do email me about anyone I've missed. I'm more than happy to update.

Holly McQuillan emailed me yesterday; her recent zero-waste garments are now online. I actually saw the process work when Holly was here for Fashioning Now and was completely blown away by it - truly inspiring! Have a look:
Precarious Cut
Wolf/Sheep

I actually saw this mentioned on Clara Vuletich's blog last year but somehow didn't check it out until this week: Flora2. Download the book, it is well worth a read. I think Dorothy Burnham would be delighted with the work, too.

Siddhartha Upadhyaya first emailed me last October and thankfully again this week about his work. In particular, the idea of fabric getting woven for a specific garment resonates with me, as a complete contrast to how things generally occur. Have a thorough look at August.

At the Fashioning Now symposium (we'll be uploading all of the speakers' audio on the website in the next few weeks) Susan Dimasi spoke of the system Materialbyproduct (the other half is Chantal Kirby) use to cut their no-waste garments. Of particular interest was their approach to sizes; unlike conventional manufacture, each size of a Materialbyproduct garment is not a replica of the sample size in terms of design. This has been a hunch of mine for a while - what is wrong with making each size slightly different - and I admire Susan and Chantal for doing away with that rule. One could say that each size is designed rather than graded. Sure it may slow things down, but on the upside, arguably each size of a style receives an equal amount of love from the maker.

At this point I should note that all of the above will require some rewriting of a thesis chapter, but I am quite excited about it. Each designer is addressing waste and each designer's handwriting is completely unique; no-waste isn't limited to a particular aesthetic.

And here's a list of people I've mentioned in the past:

The pioneers of no-waste and less waste:
Zandra Rhodes
Yeohlee Teng
Julian Roberts - not strictly a no-waste designer but his method of designing and cutting (is it possible to separate the two?) lends itself beautifully for considering fabric waste.

The more recent forays into same:
Sam Formo, a student of Lynda Grose at the California College of the Arts
Andrew Hague, also a former student of Lynda Grose; Kate Fletcher featured his no-waste shirt in her book
Mark Liu

Oh and me. Here are two garments from Bad Dogs last year:

I'm sure I've forgotten a designer or two; do let me know.

journal writing: how-to and then, not

2009-08-16T06:14:00.005-04:00

The Ideal:
Drawing from Owain Pedgley, what is on my office wall:

The Ugly Reality:
What the last two pages of my journal looked like before Bad Dogs opened, now more than a year ago:

Analyse that.

a friend in need

2009-08-16T04:50:00.014-04:00

Over the past year I've been blessed with post-it after post-it from Zoe. I don't want this to sound like a whinge because it isn't, but since the beginning of April, I've had three weekends. I passionately love what I do but Fashioning Now has been a time-consuming project - time well spent, nevertheless! In particular, it was a delight to hear Kate Fletcher speak, ditto for Susan Dimasi (one half of Materialbyproduct), and it was really inspiring to meet Holly McQuillan (more on Holly soon). But rest has been scarce - and I'm writing this on a Sunday night at the office. My last real holiday of more than four days was in 2005. I don't think last October in Finland counts; a month I spent first watching mum slowly lose the battle, and then burying her with my siblings.

So, amid all the hard work the post-its from Zoe have been such welcome little breaks from the grind. Usually I find one on my door after a meeting or a long day of teaching. Zoe is well aware of my passion for birds (see first photo) and recently she added the interweb to the gift-giving (that's how I regard this). The site is odosketch; I love how the sketch appears on screen:
And another finch:As a charming anomaly, the following finch emerges through (traditional) collage:

The following two return to the traditional format. The brain is her latest blog post, but I am proud to declare myself the guardian of the original post-it.

I should note, too, that Zoe contributed to Fashioning Now through Alison's project. If I could draw well, I would draw Zoe a wall full of giraffes. If I was rich, I'd buy her a trip to Tanzania.

(As well as engaging Zoe as an illustrator, Alison's work highlights the screenprinting skills of Steve Woods and embroidery by Helen Parsons.)

Thank you, Zoe.

some more photos from Fashioning Now

2009-08-11T04:30:00.007-04:00

The three pattern diagrams for my garments:

We commissioned Silversalt Photographic Services to photograph the exhibition and the following photographs were part of that commission:

Q: What does it take to be a real man?

2009-08-07T03:54:00.003-04:00

A: Put animals in a cage and shoot at them. I mean, just look at Bob McComb:

Off-topic, sure, but I just wanted to clear that one up.
(Image from The Sydney Morning Herald)

pinhead

2009-08-03T22:52:00.005-04:00

I love a bad photo of me and this should make the all-time top five:

My head on my no-waste shirt. A thesis cover, perhaps?

The photo is by Aram Dulyan, and I should point out his photography of the event is outstanding; much of it will be on the Fashioning Now site soon. I suspect this one was very much intentional...

Installing Fashioning Now

2009-07-27T19:48:00.008-04:00

Some photos from installing the exhibition yesterday:

From front (right) to back (left): Dr Gene Sherman's Issey Miyake Spider skirt, Alex Martin's Little Brown Dress (with the pattern on the wall) and mine at the back:

Romance Was Born:

My pattern diagrams:

From left to right: Three bespoke jackets at various stages of construction from Bijan Sheikhlary (thank you Bijan and clients!), Dr Gene Sherman's skirt, Alex Martin's Little Brown Dress and mine.

Now for the symposium...

Fashioning Now

2009-07-16T06:29:00.002-04:00

Our website for Fashioning Now is now live, and it will be added to once the symposium has concluded and the exhibition is open. The symposium is filling up fast so be sure to book in by emailing info_fashioningnow@uts.edu.au We will be publishing the symposium program next week. The UTS DAB website has dates and a bit more on the workshops. Elsewhere on the net there is information suggesting that the two student workshops are different; they are not. Due to high demand, we simply want to offer as many students as possible the opportunity to participate in one.

interesting report

2009-03-22T19:52:00.002-04:00

An interesting research report commissioned by Defra from Nottingham Trent University and Sheffield Hallam University is available for download from here. I have only managed a brief glance through it as yet, but in particular, the section on repair seems like a fascinating read.

busy busy busy

2009-03-17T01:44:00.004-04:00

The short of it: I spent January writing, started the job at the start of February, writing stopped. It's about to start again this week; over the weekend I read much of what I'd written, and it wasn't nearly as bad as I'd feared.

As well as teaching, I've been busy (an understatement) with an exciting project, more on which later. But there is a little bit about it here.

No promises about whether this blog will ever get back to speed again (I'd like it to) but here are a few lines, courtesy of Zoe, that gave me a laugh. And that probably tells us that doing a PhD is not so good for one's sense of humour.

Q: What is your ontological position in regards to your research?
A: Um, I can't afford to go to the gynecologist at the moment...

if only it were a joke

2008-12-20T04:27:00.003-05:00

Inexplicably Conservapedia, "The Trustworthy Encyclopedia", has an entry titled "Fashion industry values", clearly written by a passionate but misguided (understatement of 2008?) teenager. On the one hand, it has had me in hysterics, on the other, it makes me cranky. I probably shouldn't give it another thought.

The entry on dinosaurs is worth a read, too. The thing I have trouble with in regards to all these (presumably land) animals squishing on board Noah's ark is geography (and in case you had trouble with that leap from dinosaurs to Noah, read the entry on dinosaurs). Admittedly I haven't read the Bible on this, but was the flood global? And how much of a sea level rise are we talking here? Because if it was substantial, how the hell did them potoroos from Australia and vicuñas from South America cross oceans to get to the Middle East? And how come the two T-Rex didn't gobble them up? I tried to find out on Conservapedia, only to find in one entry that we all "must be" Noah's descendants, and in another that a whole heap of other folks made it, too. I know which level of inbreeding I'm more comfortable with...

This entry wouldn't be complete without a message from Mrs Betty Bowers, America's best Christian; message that is as informative as any entry on Conservapedia. Enjoy:

still 'ere

2008-12-17T05:32:00.002-05:00

Just a quick note to pull this blog from the depths of obscurity (hell, I've even forgotten how to ping at Technorati, not that I know what pinging means) and to thank Sandra, Sam, Lynda and Holly for the emails, and Mike for the comment (some time ago, I know). To possible lurkers, I am alive, lucid even.

I just read the last post. Deary me. If Mr Kane ever visits this blog (ha!), let it be known that I am a fan of his work but not the three looks I picked on. And I really didn't mean to turn this blog into a semi-permanent Kane-hate site. Come February, or whenever it is that these women are made to walk funny again, I will make up for it, promise.

I also read that August was cursed and September was blessed. Well, October was cursed in a way that made August seem like month in Club Med if one is into one of those. I'm not, even if the trip to Finland had a definite theme running through it. This has been the worst year of my life to date. Period. All thanks to October. And I shall leave it that.

In coming weeks this blog will return to form (if it ever had any) - so many exciting news, so many exciting people that have contacted me. I will quickly mention Sam Formo, who, like Andrew Hague*, has under the guidance of Lynda Grose created something quite beautiful that deserves a blog post of its own. Soon, hopefully; I just don't want to exclude Sam from certain possibilities by blogging about the work just yet.

*Yes, I have turned into one of those academiacs who refer to self endlessly. And talk. Andrew actually has a fantastic website of his own.

So here we are, another 5000 years into my unfinished PhD, another year nearly over. But the writing is picking up speed and I sort of dare to be optimistic again. (A word I forgot in October.) The thesis is starting to have balls and they are meaty!

On the likely off-chance this is my last post for the year, happy holidays, thank you, and bring on 2009! (And let's never mention 2008 again, ok?)

bulk (or hips full of fashion)

2008-09-17T16:04:00.011-04:00

As a brief respite from writing writing writing, I popped over at style.com to ogle at whatever we're meant to believe is what "women will be wearing" in the northern spring next year. Christopher Kane caught my eye, for better and for worse. This is how big he made two of his models' hips look:
Flaps. Jessica Stam may not be tallest model on the block (and this is good - I'm all for diversity of all kinds - and she may well have the sexiest walk out there); or should that be blocks? Even with those phonebook soles this makes her look 4'4. And as tragic as it may be, I now look at everything in terms of wastage; the entire collection is a nightmare in that respect. But, when Kane works the circles in sheer, the results are much more exciting:

Even this works works for me:

For this particular skirt, I think the inspiration was the reproductive organs of women AND men (look closely and try and convince me otherwise). On the other hand, I wasn't nearly as taken with Kane's use of marabou or whatever fluff edges this:

It has the sophistication of a Mardi Gras outfit cobbled together in the hour before the parade but at least the shoes match, I guess.

But, going back to the dinosauresque (bugger off, spell check) cut-outs, they remind me of Zandra Rhodes' Dinosaur Coat from 1971, in technique if not in look:

As for the writing, it's going well-ish. Admittedly the fear is building; as much as I pretend to ignore the elephant in the room (or on the screen, rather), questioning and challenging how we view and teach fashion design and patternmaking is a frightening affair.

In other exciting news, as of February 2009 I will be employed full-time. The interview, it turns out, went very well. And there are other exciting things in the pipeline, too. Cursed as August may have been, September has been blessed.

[NB: I just checked; Jessica Stam apparently is 5'10 so not as short as I thought. And according to this hilarious piece, she is known for "her trademark eyes" and "personality". I think she should sue whoever wrote the entry.]

"zero waste designers"

2008-09-08T21:32:00.005-04:00

From White Apricot, by Laurel House.

Great to see this written about but once again, the pioneering works of Zandra Rhodes, Yeohlee Teng or Julian Roberts do not get mentioned. This amnesia by fashion writers* is a continuing concern; there is so much to learn from all three. (In a similar fashion, the current Australian issue of Marie Claire is "the green issue" which probably means that they've now ticked that box and who knows what next month brings. I hope, but not much.) Furthermore, the seminal Cut My Coteby Dorothy Burnham is once again left out. Reading it was one of those moving fashion moments for me, kind of like seeing the books by Janet Arnold for the first time way back in 1994.

On Roberts and his Subtraction Cutting Tour, the dates and places are listed here. To be on the other hemisphere...

Interview less than two hours away. My toes need liberating and a thinner neck would be good, too.

*If the author of that article reads this, rest assured this is not intended as an attack on you. Rather, it's an outburst of accumulated frustration about the fact that most 'green' fashion journalism has inherited some undesirable aspects of traditional fashion journalism unnecessarily. I do acknowledge that we are all here to learn but I do get at times frustrated at the pace of that learning. Apologies for any offense caused.

limits

2008-09-08T04:21:00.004-04:00

One of the comments that mainly other fashion designers have made over the years about fabric waste elimination through design is, 'Isn't it very limiting for design?' I won't give my view on that just yet (but of course I have one), but the statement itself is something I can't back up with literature - there is virtually no literature (except maybe things I've written but I have done no research into other designers' perceptions of this kind of designing and making).

So, even if you're not a fashion designer or patternmaker (evidently to many the two are completely separate things), I'd love to hear your views on this - whether or not you think designing without fabric waste is limiting to design. There is no right or wrong answer here so no stress. I may use your comments in the thesis, without permission but anonymously. Tough titties.

as i prepare for my first real job interview in seven years...

2008-09-08T02:08:00.004-04:00

...I am also writing up findings from my project. I've drawn a diagram that looks benign enough - for a moment even I thought, 'Is that it?', after four years* - but when you really start thinking about it, it completely challenges what we conventionally perceive fashion design and patternmaking to be. Mostly patternmaking, though. But enough of that for now - no, I won't post the diagram and no, I won't elaborate just yet. Having seen others present my thoughts and ideas as their own a lot this year, I don't feel safe sharing just yet. Once the thesis is in and all avenues for publication have been exhausted, I will share as much as I can. But here is something to think about; what we say about how we teach patternmaking at UTS:

In first semester first year:

"This subject introduces students to the basic technical skills essential to begin interpreting design into a three dimensional form. Students participate in workshops that incorporate flat pattern-making and garment construction where they learn the various techniques, finishes and specifications required to generate fashion design and concepts into realised outcomes."

In second semester first year:

"This subject aims to further develop understanding and technical abilities in flat pattern making and garment construction. This allows students to gain a critical understanding of block construction and the possibilities of producing more complex design solutions through pattern development. The content preempts the design subject in the following semester."

As for those exhibition photos, soon I hope. I don't have any problem posting them, and it is my full intention to share all the patterns here, too, but I do need to clear a few things up before then. No insecurities as far as plagiarism goes; all the garments have too much of my handwriting to be of much use to any creatively challenged company out there, and like one of the posters in the exhibition stated, I'm more than happy for anyone to copy as long as they waste as little fabric as me in the process. On the posters, I thought they made rather clear what my project was about so I was somewhat baffled when someone commented on my exhibition "of trims and notions" (buttons, zips, etc). Please. When I informed the person that fabric waste elimination through design has been my topic of inquiry for the past four years, the person doubted this was even possible. Yes, the walls were covered in no-waste patterns and yes, the person visited that space. Ok, like this:

For the record, the bit of pattern is from a square-cut pair of pants, not unlike Thayaht's tuta:

(Thayaht's tuta from Museo di arte moderna e contemporanea di Trento e Rovereto)

But in principle only - I'd like to think I was a little more creative when it came to some of the leg shapes (seven different versions, of which I used three in the final garments). And I couldn't get the fit how I wanted with a triangular gusset, hence the curves in it. But more on that later.

After August 2008 turned out to be the crappiest month ever, here's hoping for a fantastic September and rest of the year. And fingers crossed for Kim who is likely to be released from hospital next Tuesday; by then she'll have been there for more than five weeks.

*Yep, four years since I put my PhD application in. And unlike some, my topic has not changed from what is at the top of this page. It's a long time to think about one thing.

i like my style and wordle

2008-09-02T20:07:00.004-04:00

It's highly narcisistic and a huge procrastination-enabler, but I can't stop obsessing about ilikemystyle.net

My favourites include MKNYC, Peterkempe and koeque.

Totally addictive.

And thanks to Zoe, another time-waster: Wordle. Here is my blog as a word cloud:

is this a test?

2008-08-19T07:45:00.003-04:00

(Off-topic and too personal but it's my blog so there)

I wrote this in an email to a friend today:

"And being on the edge of a breakdown of some flavour or another doesn't help in that respect, either. Fortunately I've yet to flush my underpants, something a friend of a friend did at a late stage of her PhD; she realised her mistake just as the panties disappeared from view. But it can't be far off for me, either. Once recently I put the coffee grounds in the cup rather than the coffee maker, and stared at it all for nearly a minute knowing something was wrong but couldn't work out what. "

Maybe it's selfish, but when at the final stages of a PhD, one does not expect to have to deal with a friend's near-fatal accident and recovery that will take months, possibly years (but that she will recover is a small, happy miracle that we didn't dare dream of just over a week ago), and then, the death yesterday of another friend from advanced, inoperable, terminal cancer that even she didn't know she had less than three weeks ago, when I saw her on the day of the opening (and was too busy to talk to as she came early to say she couldn't make the opening as she was not feeling well). The exhibition comes down on Friday and I can't wait, simply because I associate most of its duration with so much sadness it's almost suffocating. The past fortnight has felt like some cruel endurance test thrown at my friends and me by the universe.

Pat: love'n'quacks - I miss you so much already and so do the ducks of this world. Thank you for letting me into yours.

(It seems banal to even mention it now but in reference to an earlier goal, I shaved off nine minutes from my time last year in City2Surf. I didn't quite meet my fund-raising goal but $900+ is still pretty damn good, don't you think? Thank you, everyone!)

survivor

2008-08-03T04:20:00.003-04:00

So, I've survived my first ever exhibition. I will post some photos within the next week or two, and am happy to report that the response was quite positive on the night. More importantly, having made the garments, I've got an entirely new sense of this kind of making. It's empowering: I now know I can design everything from now on like this.

A number of people (including many women) on the night asked as to whether I'd be selling the work. I will, I think, produce on a made-to-order and -measure basis, but not until the thesis is out of the way. Being a winter collection, I think February would be an appropriate time to begin taking orders. Some further thinking and planning is required in this respect but if you are interested, shoot me an email. As for getting into wholesale, I'm not interested, at least not for now. Been there, done that, got burned, etc. And I think made-to-order discourages impulse buying, something we are all sometimes prone to. Having to fork out cash for something you won't see for some weeks hopefully makes you think about whether you actually need it a bit more. I only want to make and sell something if the wearer absolutely loves it, and will keep loving and wearing it for a considerable period of time.

Now for the five kilos I lost in two weeks...

bad dogs: exhibition invite

2008-06-29T20:30:00.002-04:00

exhibition!

2008-06-05T01:58:00.003-04:00

The date of my exhibition opening will be Thursday July 31. Put it in your diary. I have. I won't get into how that makes me feel (except to say it's not all bad). I do hope to see you there.

The City2Surf fundraising has got off to a really good start. Thank you everyone!

turtle run

2008-06-01T06:31:00.006-04:00

The project is keeping me from posting, and this is even more off-topic than usual, but definitely worth a post.

August 10 will see my fourth City2Surf, a 14 km run from the city to Bondi Beach. This year I'm doing two things differently: I'll start training before August (I've already started) and I'll be running for charity. The Australian Conservation Foundation is my charity of choice, and perhaps unrealistically, I'm hoping to raise $100 for every painful but fun kilometre. You can donate at my Everyday Hero (not my choice of name) page here; please do. The Mary River Turtle is just one of the many species benefiting from the work the ACF does, and who could say no to a turtle with this haircut:

(Photo: Chris Van Wyk)

Other aim: to cut 2 minutes from my time last year. I was that much over from qualifying for the fastest start group this year: peeps who finished in 75 minutes or less last year. I spent longer in the portaloo queue along the way so that's one thing to avoid. Quite possibly I was the only male not to use the large trees in Rose Bay, but let's see...

But, please donate. The turtles won't thank you but I will. And do consider walking or running on the day. If you'd told me five years ago I'd be describing a run as fun, I'd have laughed. But it is.

on plastic bottles and water

2008-05-24T18:09:00.004-04:00

Operation Migration's blog is part of my daily routine. A May 24 entry is a reprint of an article by Dr David Suzuki and Dr Faisal Moola:

The water that comes out of most city taps in Canada is pretty clean. Yet many people prefer to spend money on bottled water, believing that it is somehow safer. Now we’re learning that the stuff in plastic water bottles may be more harmful than anything in our tap water.

'Bisphenol A' is just one chemical that’s been in the news recently – and in many plastic bottles. This compound mimics estrogens (human female hormones) and has been linked to breast and ovarian cancers and childhood developmental problems. It is found in clear, hard polycarbonate plastic commonly used in household and commercial water coolers and some reusable bottles, and it’s just one potentially harmful substance associated with plastic containers.

The presence of chemicals isn’t the only reason we should try to wean ourselves from the bottle, though. For one thing, bottled water is expensive, costing more than a comparable amount of gasoline.

Unlike most nations on Earth, Canada has vast quantities of fresh water. Have we so polluted our water that we feel compelled to pay a lot for it? And from beginning to end (and for plastics, that end is a long time away), plastic bottles contribute to environmental problems.

To start, the manufacturing process is a factor in global warming and depletion of energy resources. It takes close to 17 million barrels of oil to produce the 30 billion water bottles that U.S. citizens go through every year. Or, as the National Geographic website illustrates it: "Imagine a water bottle filled a quarter of the way up with oil. That’s about how much oil was needed to produce the bottle."

It also takes more water to produce a bottle than the bottle itself will hold. Canadians consume more than two billion litres of bottled water a year, and globally, we consume about 50 billion US gallons a year. Unfortunately, most of those bottles – more than 85 per cent, in fact – get tossed into the trash rather than the recycling bin.

The pollution from plastics affects our air, land, and water. Many plastic bottles end up in landfills or get incinerated, and burning plastic releases toxic chemicals into the air. Plastic that stays on land or that is buried can take hundreds of years to break down, and even then, it doesn’t completely biodegrade.

One of the most disturbing things is what happens to plastic that ends up in the oceans – which is about 10 per cent of all plastic produced, according to Greenpeace. About 550 miles off the coast of California, a massive, expanding island of plastic debris 100 feet deep and bigger than the province of Quebec, swirls in what is known as the North Pacific Gyre. In a recent column for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s website, writer Heather Mallick described it as "a hideous chyme [semi-fluid mass] stretching and pulsing in the sea like an underwater gob of spiky phlegm."

Plastic doesn’t biodegrade; rather, it photodegrades, which means that, under sunlight, it just keeps breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces. The tiniest bits of plastic, called nurdles, enter the food chain when they are eaten by marine animals and birds. Nurdles also soak up toxins, adding to the poisons consumed by animals and every creature up the food chain. More than a million birds and marine animals die every year from eating plastic waste or from becoming entangled in plastics.

If the environmental damage caused by plastic bottles or the existence of potentially toxic chemicals in the bottles isn't enough to make you avoid them, how about some reasons that hit closer to home?

First there’s the fact that many bottlers get their water from municipal supplies. Coca Cola filters and bottles water from municipal sources in Calgary, Alberta and Brampton, Ontario for its Dasani brand. Pepsi's Aquafina comes mostly from Vancouver, British Columbia and Mississauga, Ontario. That's right: they're taking your tap water and selling it back to you at a markup that can be as high as 3,000 times the price you pay for it through your taxes.

There's also a danger that governments may use the growing reliance on bottled water as an excuse to avoid their responsibility to ensure we have access to safe drinking water. The federal government must address any existing concerns about drinking-water quality with enforceable standards designed to protect human health.

If you're worried about chlorine in your drinking water, put it in a pitcher and let it stand overnight to allow the chlorine to evaporate – or consider buying a carbon activated filter for your tap. To carry water with you, fill up your stainless steel or glass bottle from the tap, and enjoy.

Water is a precious resource that belongs to all of us. Let’s not take it for granted. And let’s not put it in plastic.
Reprinted from “Science Matters” a column by Dr. David Suzuki, PhD and Dr. Faisal Moola.

Dr. David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and chair of the David Suzuki Foundation which he founded. He is Companion to the Order of Canada and a recipient of UNESCO's Kalinga Prize for science, the United Nations Environment Program medal, and Global 500. Dr. Suzuki is Professor Emeritus at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and holds 22 honorary degrees from universities around the world. He is familiar to television audiences as host of the long-running CBC television program 'The Nature of Things', and to radio audiences as the original host of CBC Radio's Quirks and Quarks, as well as the acclaimed series It's a Matter of Survival, and From Naked Ape to Superspecies. His written work includes more than 43 books.

Dr. Faisal Moola is the Director of Science at the David Suzuki Foundation. He is a practicing scientist and has published widely in scientific journals on many topics in the areas of wildlife biology, conservation, and environmental policy. He has conducted research in some of Canada’s most significant wilderness areas, such as the great northern Boreal Forest, the old-growth rainforests of British Columbia, and the Acadian woodlands of Atlantic Canada. He has also been a university lecturer.

I'd heard of the floating mass of plastic in the Pacific before, and understand it's not the only one of its kind, either. The BBC has reported on the risks posed by invisible, broken down bits of plastic in oceans for a few years now.

it's here!

2008-05-22T20:04:00.004-04:00

I met Janet Hethorn nearly three years ago in Denmark, where she asked me if I'd be interested in contributing a chapter to a book she was planning with an associate, Connie Ulasewicz. It was around this time last year that the final drafts went in. Waiting for me at my desk today:

(Finally, an excuse to use the built-in webcam at work. The book is available here.)

feel my pain

2008-05-21T22:29:00.003-04:00

This is how I'm feeling about the literature on practice-led research in design at the moment:

And to describe how my methodology chapter is coming along:

Katherine Hamnett sample sale

2008-05-14T16:09:00.002-04:00

From today through the weekend. The email directed to her website and HerSpace for more details but I couldn't find any, so here they are:

Dates: 15 - 18th May 2008
Times: Thursday 15th 6-9pm Saturday 17th 11am-7pm
Friday 16th 11am-8pm Sunday 18th 11am-5pm

Entrance: £1 - includes prize draw

Venue: The Boiler House (Near 93 Feet East)
Old Truman Brewery
Brick Lane
Whitechapel
London E1

polyester recycling and plastic bottles

2008-05-13T16:16:00.006-04:00

Before I got a permanent bottle for water, I was averaging buying one or two bottles of water a month. It wasn't too bad considering I drink between one and three litres a day, depending if it's a gym day. I bought a water filter last year which made tap water heaps more drinkable. Recycling is all well and good but when you think about the non-renewable raw material and the amount of energy that goes into one plastic bottle, for it to contain half or so a litre of water for not very long, well, it's just not a very efficient use of a very durable material, is it? So, I tried to make the most of each bottle that I bought. But no more. Mine is aluminium, and I wash it once a day - by hand. I do have a dishwasher but hardly ever use it. Earlier, another council in Sydney announced they'll ban bottled water to reduce waste. Of course there was a reaction from the bottled water industry, one that didn't acknowledge the problematic nature of recycling.

From Ecotextile News, more worrying news about the issue. Apparently the demand for fabrics made from recycled bottles is so high now that some manufacturers of recycled polyester textiles have resorted to buying new, unused bottles directly from bottle manufacturers. As the article points out, this has implications for companies using these textiles that don't have full knowledge of their supply chains. It probably is easier to keep things transparent the shorter those chains are.

On a lighter note, if you're still not convinced that the era of the plastic bottle is coming to a close (like mobile phones, we didn't carry water bottles in the eighties), this (#76) might help.

misc.

2008-05-12T15:33:00.007-04:00

Another "eco-fashion" blog and I can't not link, nor shut up about it: "Evergreen Effect". I get immediately suspicious now when I see a plant motif at the top of the page. And with good reason:

"I wouldn’t want to be caught alive sporting the same outfit within a month."
"So to satisfy my curiosity, I launched a web search on eco-fashion. After a couple of hours of surfing the Internet, I’ve actually placed a number of orders on the various shopping web sites that market such products. I haven’t received the package yet, but I have high hopes about it."

I don't know; maybe it's meant to be a joke and I'm not getting it - the writing really is that silly and uninformed, and every cliche is recycled (excuse the pun) ad nauseam. Mind you, in the above post, the anonymous author admits to hearing about "eco-fashion" "a couple of weeks ago" but still, missing the point that badly... I know I shouldn't care, but I do.

An exhibition you should go and see if in Sydney:
I did, and there was much beauty to enjoy.

From New Zealand, Untouched World, who now also have a UK site. They offer clothes rather than fashion, sort of like Patagonia and Kathmandu's enact®. I got the catalogue for the latter yesterday and was impressed that most of the zips and buttons use reclaimed materials. Or perhaps rather, I was impressed that they thought to mention that in the catalogue, as well as be clear which styles didn't have those components.

A promising-looking blog for all things DIY: DIY City Blog. The most recent post when I visited was on Katharina Ludwig; her intentionally temporary jewellery makes some pretty strong statements about where we are at, don't you think? Ditto her ice jewellery. Oh, and the organ bottles - they remind me that I finally got a permanent water bottle, an aluminium one from Kathmandu, saying goodbye to plastic bottles for good yesterday.

Oh, and my fabrics, lace and threads arrived yesterday from NearSea Naturals. I got two different colour-grown cotton ginghams, two organic cotton laces (the manufacturer is Eurolaces and an Australian company, Ecoyarns, also stocks them) and organic cotton sewing threads. I've worked out a plan as far as sewing threads are concerned for the collection and will blog about it shortly. Perhaps not the most exciting topic but needs to be done. Like fusible interlinings. Anyway, I'm very pleased with everything and after a go with the threads on my overlocker, I happily report no problems whatsoever.

Finally, Mike at Cultures In Between has the new site up and running. Go and visit.

future of fashion?

2008-05-11T16:28:00.004-04:00

A Google alert (a glert?) took me to Andrea, upset her design was not a finalist in Seventeen's Design Contest. While I sympathise, I do need to state my view that being competent at sketching is not a prerequisite for a successful career in fashion design. Madeleine Vionnet. Case closed.

But, let's have a quick look at the finalists. Most make claims of originality, creativity, uniqueness, etc. Little is evident in any of drawings. Most could come from the same store - any store, in fact, on the high street or in a mall. Now, not in the future. The finalists, I believe, have drawn what they know, not what they could imagine (I hope). I find one of the more difficult aspects of teaching fashion design is to try and push a student into the unknown, the unsafe, the uncomfortable. To save a teacher somewhere the trouble, I'd recommend none of the finalists choose a career in fashion design. This may sound mean, but I think giving such advice is kind (and justified). It reminds me of the audition episodes for Idol, where people who really can't sing are told so.

Maybe I am being mean. Seeing those drawings, I must admit, does make me a bit angry. Not at the contestants but the state of things - that the creators of such generic outputs would think they are being original. I don't think the finalists are to blame, for they are only a symptom.

terrorisms

2008-05-10T16:13:00.004-04:00

Browsing through the Environment section at the Sydney Morning Herald, I came across Miranda Devine's terrifying account of the horrors that (presumably) she suffered at Bunnings:

Without plastic bags we would all buy less, goes the thinking. But, of course, we won't. Hence you have the ludicrous situation at Bunnings where a customer buys a small, but nonetheless unwieldy bag of potting mix (in dirty plastic wrapping), a tape measure, a paint-sample pot, marker pens, pest oil and a bottle of Thrive, and is expected to carry it all out of the store in her arms, thus making filthy her white shirt, because Bunnings is a good environmental citizen and no longer provides plastic bags, or only reluctantly and for 10 cents a piece.

10 cents? Plastic bags cost that in Finland in the early nineties. But, don't let that stop us sympathising with Devine's filthy suffering, while feeling "paranoid" about malaria(*) and mourning the loss of mood lighting. It's all just terrifying, isn't it? And here I was worrying, after doing a quick count yesterday after seeing a local road in complete gridlock on a Saturday. More than 80% of the cars had one person in them.

To ease our terror, some happier finds on the net. Alchemy Goods is another company making things from waste. Of particular interest to me, of course, is this statement about the bags made from old billboards (mine is from a different company):

We then created a new bag design that minimizes waste material in the pattern.

Based on my experience, bags would lend themselves well to a zero-waste approach. And there is something nice about making things from waste and not wasting any of the waste.

'Fashion Conscious' opens this week at the Design Museum at the University of California Davis. I can't remember if I've mentioned the associated blog - worth a read, even if somewhat product-focused. And a reminder that the symposium is next Sunday.

------

(*) I assigned this article as a reading to my students a couple of years ago for a tutorial discussion. Of course it's easy for me to say now, but I was careful not to colour any student's opinion about it prior; just read it and we'll talk about it in class. My, was I unprepared for the response. The hostility (towards the author) was almost frightening, but in the end we agreed it was a good example of a selective use of stats to push a particular political agenda. I look forward to reading what she has to say about flame retardants, found in high concentrations in Peregrine Falcons in California. The reason I bring up the Peregrine? Its global population plummeted in the 1960s and 1970s because of DDT. Since recovering, the falcons have adapted to city life, nesting in skyscrapers worldwide. They may be one of the more efficient means we have of keeping pigeon populations under control. I do remember an article about upset locals somewhere in England complaining that children had been subjected to the sight of a Peregrine killing a pigeon (can't find it now) but it's not really a discussion worth entering into, is it? Happy Sundays.

clarifying the terminology: research involving (design) practice

2008-05-05T15:54:00.004-04:00

After a meeting on Friday, my focus at the moment is the methodology chapter and in particular the issue of rigour in practice-led research. It's not something I'm too concerned about but I do need to articulate very clearly the sources of rigour in my project. Over the weekend I was updating my readings on the area and came across this very helpful paper by Kristina Niedderer and Seymour Roworth-Stokes: 'The role and use of creative practice in research and its contribution to knowledge'. The table on page 10 is particularly helpful in clarifying the terminology, much of which is currently used interchangeably, perhaps erroneously. The timing of reading the paper was somewhat serendipitous as only on Thursday I had a minor epiphany in regards to my project, while reading about someone else's.

I don't know that practice-led is the correct term to describe my project. On Thursday I actually wrote at the beginning of the chapter: "My project: not practice-led research but rather, a project that includes research-led practice". This realisation came about whilst reading about Maarit Mäkelä's project in the book she co-edited with Sara Routarinne: The Art of Research. Research Practices in Art and Design. (The website has the subheading different to the book I'm looking at right now.) The chapters covering various projects, including Mäkelä's, focus mainly on art rather than design, although the closing chapters by Stephen Scrivener and Michael Biggs do bring the book back to design somewhat. Anyway, Mäkelä's project to me reads very much as 'practice-led' but as a result, my project does not. For a start, my project includes an exhaustive (and exhausting) literature survey of garments that waste little or no fabric, both historical and contemporary. As the literature survey both precedes and informs the practice, I'm not sure 'practice-led research' is the correct term for my project - the practice does not lead the research but does contribute to it significantly.

Going back to Table 2 in Niedderer and Roworth-Stokes's paper, and the first category, 'Research Involving Practice', I do identify with the context and purpose. In my project, "practice plays a lead role in the investigative process", and "informs theory building within research to gain new insights, knowledge or understanding". (And this reminds me why it was so easy to embark on a misadventure to the world of Grounded Theory more than two years ago... It made sense, even if inappropriate.)

Next, using objectivity, reliability and validity as the criteria, identifying the sources of rigour in the project should be a breeze. Or so I always (optimistically) believe.

As an unrelated aside, I haven't entertained the thought of designing within the Australian industry for some years now - not much or seriously anyway. Yesterday, a friend asked if could bring in my portfolio to the company she's working for, as there are signs of imminent expansion. I could, I replied, if I had one. The closest equivalent I have is my press book. I had my first look in about three years last night (I should have taken a photo of the dust) and it was almost as if I was reading about someone else. And how things change. Exactly 18 months after this was written, I was applying to do a PhD and got on the road I'm on now. No regrets, of course, but it's strange to even think of myself as a potential designer again. Sure, I am designing as part of the project but it's in my little academic ivory tower, not in the real world where things actually have to sell. Not in the real world where designers have to churn out hundreds of styles every year. Not in the real world where what always seem to ultimately matter, at the expense of everything else, is profit. Anyway, I'm taking the book in; if nothing else, my friend and I can have a giggle at how young I looked. Oh, and I'm still exhausted.

reviewing the reviews

2008-04-30T18:27:00.004-04:00

[Amended later, with big thanks to Helen from Sassybella: Patty Huntington is blogging over here. Thank goodness.]

Well, not really [this was in ref to title, not Patty], but I do wonder what's going on at the Sydney Morning Herald. More than 30 shows took place from Monday through Wednesday, and yet now, on Thursday morning, only seven shows have been covered in any detail. What's more, only the established labels seem to attract the reporters (and same goes for UK Vogue). The young'uns are invisible. And while the index, in the 'Life & Style' section, is a good thing at the SMH, I found one article about RAFW under 'Entertainment'. Of course what I'd really like is to see it all covered under 'Business'. I am not holding my breath. Style.com has managed a couple of blog posts, here and here. Perhaps the best thing out there is Australian Vogue, but with local mags one always wonders about advertising revenue and objective reporting...

To end another short post with a positive, Treehugger has reviewed Kate Fletcher's book here.

a few good distractions

2008-04-29T16:49:00.004-04:00

Then it gets sillier. No comment - I won't pick on this any further.

The Sydney Morning Herald's coverage of RAFW is indexed here. I had grand plans to stay informed but it just couldn't sustain my interest for more than ten minutes. Is that bad? (Under other circumstances it might have but at the moment writing and making are bigger priorities.) And where the hell is Patty Huntington? I'm probably hopelessly out of the loop; who does she write for now? None of the SMH reviews I read were by her.

As she had a sale on (I was meant to advertise and forgot), I bought more fabrics from Jill at KimoYES last week. They arrived yesterday, and there are some true beauties. Photos to come. Maybe. I've got a backlog of stuff to get from the camera to the computer to my journal, of things happening in the studio.

I've reread much of the literature on practice-led research in art and design in the past few weeks; my notes on many texts weren't satisfactory to work with for the methodology chapter. It's a fuzzy picture, but some clarity is starting to emerge. Namely that consensus is scarce in the field. But that's ok. I'm still pondering the common practice of lumping art and design under the same roof but perhaps there is value in trying to see the common elements rather than get stuck on the differences.

I do have a growing list of real topics to blog about, but later in the week is likely. A few good things beckon in the studio.

lazy?

2008-04-26T20:21:00.007-04:00

This sums up the past four days as far as the thesis goes:

What was I doing? Like that saint whosiwhatsit, I was summoning the birds, of course:

Yep, still organising photos and feeling guilty I haven't written a single word on a Sunday. I managed about a thousand yesterday. The Rainbow Lorikeets were down south, but the same birds frequent the tree next to my studio window. I doubt their colours will ever cease to amaze me.

To my own detriment I once again bought the Sunday papers, only to be faced with images of Dannii Minogue looking like Joan Collins (two weeks after an image of Kylie Minogue looking like Joan Rivers) and Amy Winehouse looking like... Amy Winehouse. Anyway, Mia Freedman responded to that blog about fashion magazines and a claim that she allegedly once sent the work experience to buy her son a banana. High drama, indeed. As for Rosemount Australian Fashion Week, there were some sounds of discontent from some. Each to their own. I worry about the young designers who enter, expecting naively (but understandably) that buyers will flock to them. Many aren't aware that the established labels have been selling summer for the past four to eight weeks, and the show is more of a PR exercise than an active selling tool. But, good luck to all.

I was playing with one of the kimono panels yesterday and pinned it to a year-old shirt toile. I liked what I saw. Most of the small piece will become the back panel (the side seams are displaced to the back in this particular shirt) and the rest will become an applique on the front and the sleeves. I photocopied the fabric, cut up the copy and started pinning to work it all out. As Japanese as the fabric looks (it's red and white shibori), the way I cut it up strangely echoes this:

It's a bat my nephew cut out of paper in December, but I saw a face in it, and it will be a recurring motif in the collection. (To see the bat, you need to rotate it 90 degrees clockwise.)

Happy Sundays, the aim is for 500 words today.

things that made me laugh while in melbourne

2008-04-24T16:16:00.008-04:00

Yeah, I know, I was there almost two months ago, but I was tidying up my albums now so here they are.

Seen on the street when I caught up with Di for breakfast:

The following two were in a toilet cubicle at RMIT. Now, you may wonder why I had a camera with me in the toilet. Keep wondering.

And finally, not funny but nice. Sunset at St Kilda. I was staying with my friend Mari and we rode bikes from Port Melbourne to St Kilda purely for this. Riding a bike for the first time in 15 years was pretty funny at first - you might not forget but you do get scared! Anyway, only later I discovered through Emu that St Kilda has one of the few mainland colonies of Little Penguins, like the one in Manly in Sydney. Damn, I would have kept a closer eye on the water.

(I've since paid closer attention to toilet walls and will try to keep a camera with me more.)

Earth Pledge FutureFashion revisited

2008-04-23T16:01:00.006-04:00

Just linking to an excellent post by Jill Danyelle (she of fiftyRX3 fame and of danyelle.org) about the show, quite passionately pointing out its shortcomings which I alluded to in three sentences. Jill later elaborates further here. After reading another lot of moronic blog entries about guilt-free (their claim) sustainable shopping and cute (their claim) eco-chic bits of crap these posts have restored my energy and faith. Eco-hating - I like it.

She also questions the press-fluffy statements from Loomstate regarding their recycling of tees with Barneys. "A fresh take"? Wasn't it in 2000/2001 that Walter Van Beirendonck, under the Aestheticterrorists brand, was selling old promo tees, with his own prints simply printed on top of the sponsor's logos? The website has them down as from 2002 but I know I bought three from the collection just after I'd been retrenched in October 2001 (they weren't cheap so the package helped!), and wore one on a flight to Peru in December 2001, and being three months after 9/11, the airport officials in Lima were somewhat concerned about the word 'terrorist' on my chest. Ill-advised on my part, sure, although I've yet to hear of a terrorist group that uses fashion as an identifying element, not counting concealing scarfs in menacing videos. But I digress. Anita made a good point the other day about the current fad for all things eco (too often their claim); it's almost as if everything that has gone on before has been forgotten and every press release erases any history that existed.

For the record, one of the three tees went to charity after it stretched out of existence, one I still wear (the same as Walter is wearing above) - on optimistic thin days - and one is filed away for posterity. It has more holes than cotton jersey in it now, but there are too many memories attached for me to let go of it.

while reading a manual for aspiring fashion designers...

2008-04-23T00:15:00.004-04:00

...I feel compelled to point out that a garment will rarely contain one of these:

It might include a yoke, however:

(If you do know of a decent fashion design manual out there, do let me know.)

long leg panty girdle

2008-04-22T20:52:00.006-04:00

When I first heard of Mara Havinoviski's 'Patterns for Fabric Economy' (1969), I got very excited. A trawl through the websites of various Sydney libraries came to nada, and in the end I organised an interlibrary loan. Not sure why but I always feel guilty when I do, like I'm bothering the librarians, although it's all done impersonally through the library website.

The book arrived last week, from the Washington State University library. It smells of old book, or Santa Claus's armpit, to the extent that I have to keep it at arm's length at all times. At most I can only read it for five minutes at a time. More worryingly, I can't seem to understand half of it. The tables, the diagrams - it's all gobbledegook to me. The images of pattern pieces, which should have been self-explanatory, baffled me to no end, until I saw on another page that they were in fact the pieces of a 'long leg panty girdle'. Whatever that is, I think my collection needs one. We all need one.

But, I will persevere. The book is essentially about fabric inspection and usage, and tackling fabric waste in the traditional way, and I think Tyler's book probably covers most of this in a more user-friendly manner. I do like Havinoviski's writing style with its own idiosyncracies like the frequent CAPITALISATION OF SIGNIFICANT STATEMENTS. And thanks to Havinoviski, I'm now aware of 'Parkinson's Law', which just about explains the universe to me at the moment.