Eco Chic - Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion (part 2)

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)

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.

Lifecycles at UTS

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

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.

Voices in American Fashion at Cooper-Hewitt

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

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

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

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!

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

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.

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

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

interesting report

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.

it's here!

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.)

misc.

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.

Earth Pledge FutureFashion revisited

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.

sustainable fashion

The idea that fashion is transient and all about change and therefore cannot ever be sustainable seems to fascinate some pseudo-intellectual academics to no end. The problem is that pondering on it ad nauseam is of little help to the industry or the planet, and to me seems like the coward's way out of tackling real problems. But, as a mere designer (lost in academia), what would I know?

(For the record, I believe it's the pace of change that's unsustainable, not the change itself.)

misc.

Some great news from Hong Kong that will hopefully have a considerable impact in China, too, over time.

Still from Ecotextile News, more great news, about hemp getting the green light, finally, in New South Wales. The Sydney Morning Herald article from yesterday is here. I can personally attest to the high quality of some of the hemp fabrics out there, and look forward to one day of being able to use locally grown hemp.

On local, a friend works for Hedrena Textiles, an Australian company using Australian wool. As I understand, some fabrics are manufactured offshore, but a substantial amount is made here - something rarely seen these days.

misc.

An interesting business concept: one owned by consumers, nvohk. (Having run -badly- a brand called USVSU once upon a time, I can say from experience that creative brand name spellings can be a blessing and a curse.) There seems to be little information as to what the eventual product line will be like but I hope against hope this is not another venture pushing god-awful organic cotton t-shirts. I won't name names but too many of them produce what is essentially compost, from an aesthetic point of view.

I found nvohk through Ecoshopper.net, where there are some interesting posts, though posting doesn't seem too regular. But, pot calling the kettle... green? Speaking of green, the header bugs me for its touting of another 'eco-cliche', a photo of a forest. My original supervisor, Dr Cameron Tonkinwise, actually ran a project once where the undergrad students had to design a logo for a sustainability initiative that didn't use the colour green, the globe or sphere in any form nor any type of plant. Think about it, eh?

Finally, an article on sustainable fashion by Tiffany Choy, that provides some background to FutureFashion, which I was going to pick on here at the time but never got around to (timber catwalk - see previous paragraph). I guess my worry was that because of the show, and based on one dress per brand, consumers might somehow misconstrue companies like Versace, Givenchy or Yves Saint Laurent as 'eco-friendly'. I don't doubt the desire to be so exists within the companies that took part but most still have a long, long way to go.

open your diaries, and educators, look up!

At the moment the amount of writing is making my fingers and brain bleed, hence the lack of posting. I'd be lying if I said this year, with the exhibition(s), thesis submission, the possible show in December and the rest weren't making me nervous. At times it's terrifying. But enough whine and onto business:

UC Davis is hosting a free (good on them!) symposium: “Designing with Conscience: A Sustainable Fashion Symposium” on Sunday, May 18. The list of confirmed speakers certainly looks promising: Lynda Grose is part of the line-up.

And this from Fashioning an Ethical Industry, a Labour Behind the Label project, which couldn't be timelier: Teaching Resources "that will provide educators on fashion-related courses with a variety of ideas to enable them to teach corporate social and environmental responsibility issues." As I noted then, there was a general desire at the IFFTI08 conference for more knowledge among fashion design and technology educators on issues of sustainability, and this looks like a great start.

if in South Australia in July 2009...

...consider attending Winterworks, an "international ecologically sustainable bush textiles symposium". The symposium will take place in the Mount Lofty Ranges in SA between July 12 and 17, 2009. India Flint, an Australian textile artist known for her works using Australian Merino wool and plants, has more information here. The setting certainly looks stunning; let's keep an eye out for the call for papers.

if in San Francisco...

...go to this (click to enlarge):



Dr Connie Ulasewicz co-edited the book I contributed the chapter to, and she will have a pretty rich understanding of the issues. (From here.)