"zero waste designers"

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.

reviewing the reviews

[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.

rank in three parts

I know I said I'd wait till next weekend with washing the jeans. I buckled. One pair came out of the freezer only on Friday and yet today smelled like the Devil's afterbirth, left in a warm room for a month. Mind you, only if you stuck your nose close to it, but still. So in they went, with a whole lot of other dark stuff, minimal detergent and softener (half doses of whatever the instructions ask for) and cold water, of course. They are now drying on hangers around the place. I did take photos and will post later. But what now as far as washing goes? Next laundry date for the jeans: October 20. Gross, isn't it? But let it be known that I haven't got any weird skin infections from the waist down in the past six months and frankly, that's good enough for me.

Reading the Sunday newspapers (a bad habit that has to go), I was glad to see Melissa Hoyer of the Sunday Telegraph pointing out ten or so successful Australian women fashion designers. In response to Nicholas Huxley's ill-advised comments earlier (in the same publication!), of course, which in a way was odd, given the glowing column miles the Fashion Design Studio usually gets in the Terror. The Sun Herald didn't go there at all.

Also in ST was a story about 4 Inch Heels Only, an anonymous blog from within the small, blow-dried and tandoori-hued Sydney fashion magazine community. Apparently some of the larger publishers are hell-bent on uncovering the blogger's identity - but not as hell-bent on putting out a decent fashion magazine, I presume. I haven't bought Oz Vogue since the nineties when it was full of articles I'd read in US Vogue months earlier. Mind you, I haven't bought US Vogue since the nineties, either. A chopstick in the ear is a much quicker way to self-lobotomy than flicking through all those ads. Anyway, the fuss MagHag has caused reminds me of a party years ago, where my friends and I were one table away from the Cosmo girls. One friend, a popular designer at the time, knew them all, and whispered to me at one point: "Just look at them all, single alcoholics with coke habits, and they are the ones writing those tragic articles about how to get a man." Of course it was a gross exaggeration on my friend's part; not all of them were writers, I'm sure. (And should anyone get upset by what I just wrote, let me assure you this took place when pod shoes were in: no current staff implied.)
(Photo by David LaChapelle. The one at top, inexplicably from Webster's Online Dictionary.)

But back to real writing.

misc.

Today, Cotton USA gets into trouble for claims about cotton and sustainability - please, go after Jag Apparel next. Their 'blog' qualifies as advertising, doesn't it? On a positive note, just after the 29th International Cotton Conference in Bremen, Germany, the Organic Exchange will organise a two-day seminar for business (courtesy of Ecotextile News).

Why I avoid interviews with fashion designers written by fashion journalists (from The Toronto Star, via this blog):

"Using raw silk in jewel tones, organic wools, organic cotton-bamboo blends and organic denim, Biddell has created coats with grand architectural collars, extreme wide-leg jeans and dramatic eveningwear with long trailing trains and full skirts.

“A lot of the silhouettes I am using are egotistical,” Biddell says of the high volume shapes in his collection. “I haven’t seen a lot of really interesting, unique organic clothes … there is a lot of casual wear in organic fabrics but there are only a few luxury designers, like Stella McCartney and Marc Jacobs, who are starting to go sustainable."

There is a video of the collection inspired by eco-warriors and animé here. I have to say, the only thing that caught my eye on that page was the advertisement for Earth Hour. A year ago, Sydney was leading the way with it; now it's global. It's easy to be cynical about it, but as a visualisation tool it was pretty powerful as I recall. My neighbours and I were sitting outside in the darkness; at least 80% of the neighbourhood, normally all lit up, was dark. As for my cynicism regarding the article about the Project Runway Canada winner; it is great he's chosen to use the fabrics he has. I'm just a little bit impatient for there to be more widespread intellectual dialogue on fashion design that goes beyond designers talking about their inspirations.

As a short distraction, the following video from Issey Miyake (from last year) is powerful, too:

the crisis of fashion journalism in australia

This sorry piece in the Sydney Morning Herald pretty such sums up the state of 95% of fashion reporting in this country (100% of TV reporting, in fact). Only last week I was bemoaning to a colleague how the reports from the shows tend to be along the lines of, 'Oh, look at this funny hat', and there it is. I long for the days when Jane de Teliga, Maggie Alderson and Patty Huntington used to report for the Herald. I could go on and on - what about that 20-something socialite that 'wrote' the fashion section for the Sunday Telegraph while the wonderful Melissa Hoyer was on leave? The poor love confused the Australian designer Collette Dinnigan with Colette, the store in Paris. 'Nuff said.