survivor

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...

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.

a few good distractions

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?

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.

more fabrics! and two milestones

The fabrics from KimoYES arrived on Friday and I'm very pleased and excited: they're simply divine. What's even better, Jill from KimoYES emailed me with as much background to each one as she could. I'm not alone in thinking that designers and manufacturers have a power to encourage a stronger consumer engagement with a garment, which in turn might get consumers to want to hang on to their garments for longer, caring for them better, maintaining and repairing them (or having them repaired). My talk on Thursday, based on the paper I presented at Dressing Rooms, was about designing garments for repair and alteration, arguing that decisions by the fashion designer and patternmaker can facilitate and enable future transformative practices (repair and alteration) in a garment. I also think we can help steer consumers towards less environmentally damaging laundering practices. I used my Viktor & Rolf jacket as an example. The care label says: "Do not wash in water, do not dry clean." And I haven't for the two years I've had it. Instead, my dry cleaner sponges (with what, I don't know) the cuffs and neck which tend to get dirty quickly, given the light colour of the jacket and the fact I rarely wear collared, long-sleeved shirts. Presumably the washing instructions stem from the high metal content of the fabric (19%, with 81% cotton). I love, too, that pressing the jacket is pointless. I just pull it back into shape when I put it away. The thought that has gone into the buttoning and buttonholes is nice, too: the top hole is a regular keyhole, the middle is set into the waist seam and the bottom one is fake.


































But back to the vintage kimono fabrics. Below are my photos with Jill's comments. Wherever I end up using them, the garment will come with all of this information, too. A bit like the Dutch project Made-By, where you can enter the garment code on the website and get its entire production history. What a fantastic idea; let's hope for lots of companies signing up. As for Jill's fabrics, they come from old, damaged kimono; she salvages what she can for sale as well as her quilting work. She also mentioned an artist who often gets the bits that are too damaged for sale; he happily uses them. The condition of the fabrics is excellent, despite their age.

Left to right, top row:
#3254 (black/white). 70s
#3518 (fine navy wool with pink) is from a woolen kimono - I'd say from the 70s
#3856 (grey and black) is an ikat meisen silk where the threads are dyed before the weaving process (hence the irregular pattern). This fabric would be from the 70s
#4167 Ikat wool. This is from a roll of kimono fabric that is old stock. 70/80s

Left to right, bottom row:
#2747 (pink with black/white/red) 50s/60s
#3282 (red/pink) 80s
#2785 (black/grey/white) - can't tell you much about this one. Suspect that there may be some hemp in this fabric. What do you think? I don't know how to test for it. [I'm not sure either; I know the smell of burning cellulosic fibre, cotton/linen/hemp/etc. but not sure how to go from there.]
#3159 (red shibori) Red rinzu silk which has been patterned using shibori. This is probably machined rather than done by hand. Typical 70s

Oh, the milestones? My younger brother turns 31 today; Happy Birthday! There is no card in the mail but once my PhD is dead and buried, I will get into that habit again, or at least try. And I checked the receipt for the jeans again: six months today. Perhaps I'll wash them next weekend.

fabrics!

Last night two fabrics from Hemp Gallery were waiting for me when I got home:

Denim, of 55% hemp, 45% cotton (not organic or otherwise less damaging; just plain old naughty cotton, I presume):

Satin, of 60% hemp, 40% silk (of the type where the worms die, unfortunately):

Both are a very nice quality, with selvedges that I can easily incorporate into the garments externally. The denim has what some would regard weaving faults all through it, namely discontinuous warp yarns, with the ends hanging loose all through the fabric. I don't mind them, though, and may leave them as they are. The satin is fantastic; it's almost plastic-like on the shiny side, like in the photo, and completely matt on reverse. Oh, and have I said it before that I'm not a big believer in fabrics having a 'right' and a 'wrong' side? Fabrics have two sides (or faces), as far as I'm concerned. So to have two very contrasting but equally usable faces is very exciting, and creates more scope for design.


Yesterday I also placed an order for a whole heap of vintage kimono fabrics from KimoYES (above and below). Most are silk, and I'll mostly use them as linings, I think; I loathe ugly linings in otherwise nice garments! The very narrow widths, typical of kimono fabrics, will create some interesting challenges for design and patternmaking and likely I'll be combining several fabrics in one garment. And yes, the aim is for zero waste in the linings and interlinings just as much as in the outer fabrics. Being menswear, I stuck to the more abstract, geometric prints; I also wanted to avoid an overtly Japanese feel within the fabrics. But, given the zero waste nature of the kimono, these fabrics create nice links to the long history of zero fabric waste fashion (yes, I use 'fashion' differently to some writers; all will be explained in the thesis).


Overall the fabrication is coming together quite well. I'm still debating bamboo; it's just doesn't seem as environmentally sound as some claim (it's viscose, essentially) and the anti-bacterial claims seem a tad fishy, too (it's viscose). But we'll see.

On a less positive note, I had the samples from another supplier laid out last week when a friend came over. His response: "Did you buy new tea towels?" I laughed; that pretty much summed up my feelings of the strange checks and stripes that still feature heavily on some 'green' fabric suppliers' collections. But it's bound to change, slowly.

deep immersion

The past couple of weeks have seen me writing more intensely than at any other point during the project, except for a couple of isolated periods where I was working on the book chapter or one of the conference papers. And it's been great, as nerdy as that sounds. Hard work - incredibly hard work! - but there is also a sense of accomplishment that comes with that hard work. While all the chapters are on their way in one way or another (and how excellent it is to have a chapter outline that is unlikely to change dramatically now), I've been concentrating on the contextual review of the project, or Chapter 2 (Chapter 1 is the Introduction, well on its way, too). Chapter 2 looks something like this (I've left out the lower level subheadings here):

Chapter 2: Designerly Fashion, Fashion Creation, Sustainability and Fabric Waste
2.1 Designerly fashion, fashion creation and fashion design practice
2.2 Fashion design and sustainability, fabric waste
2.3 Zero fabric waste fashion creation

So, the chapter is a contextualisation of the project and I also attempt to define 'designerly fashion' and 'fashion creation' (see Nigel Cross and his usage of 'designerly''). During the project I've discovered that 'fashion' has been defined and discussed by sociologists extensively (Yuniya Kawamura's Fashionology from 2005 is a good start) but rarely has anyone asked fashion designers or other fashion industry practitioners what fashion might mean to them (or that it might be something different in a design context). I find most sociological explanations insufficient (though useful) for an investigation into sustainability and fashion design, hence my attempt at formulating a designerly understanding of fashion. Mieke Leppens in her 2000 PhD thesis actually noted the same problem with the sociological investigations of fashion, and I've since uncovered a series of studies that remedy the situation somewhat.

Sustainability - I don't know what I would have done if Kate Fletcher's book hadn't come out this year. Well, of course I do - I would have been referencing her website extensively. And if you are new to sustainability, be sure to check out lifetimes and 5 ways. These get discussed in the book, too, but the websites are informative as well. As for that last post, I did grossly simplify, in (an emotional) response to a scathing review of a paper I wrote nearly two years ago but only just got the feedback for. (For the record, the other reviewer was very positive overall.) I might post the reviews here later...

So, Chapter 2 is fast nearing completion (pending me getting my hands on the Fairchild book), and the exhibition for the collection is nearing fast. Next in line is Chapter 3, which is very much about the practice-led methodology in the project. I'm not as nervous about the methodology chapter as I might have been some months ago; I think the rationale for the method is getting set up quite well in Chapter 2. As for the collection, there will be some controversial pieces, I think at this point, which I'll blog about closer to the exhibition. The exhibition will not be merely that; I see it as an opportunity to have the work 'audited' by experts from within research as well as practice.

But, back to deep immersion. The unfortunate side effect is that I'm back in a Central Pacific time zone, waking up just before 3am. But, I will finish! (Pep talks to self - first sign of madness?)

manufacturing without creating fabric waste

Yesterday I came across the blog for the Queen's Business Forum on the Fashion Industry and a post (scroll down for that beautiful image of Mark's work) that referred to Kathleen's posts about me and Mark Liu at Fashion Incubator. The comment, "This technique is hardly practical for commercial production (at least right away)", is most interesting to me. Throughout the project 'manufacturability' has been a consideration for me; I want the collection to be production-ready, rather than a series of one-off, craft/art garments. There will be a lot of hand-done embellishments, for sure, but I've never thought these are an impediment for small-scale 'mass'-production (though they increase the prices, of course). When I had my label, a few pieces always incorporated hand embroidery, for example. But, with the collection, I am looking at a lot of texts on manufacturing as my guide while I'm designing and making, such as Kathleen's book (I wish everyone in fashion owned this), and texts by Gerry Cooklin, David J. Tyler and many more. I've just been invited to talk about my research to the R&D team of a large Australian manufacturer, and it'll be interesting to see the reactions there. It should prove quite helpful in addressing issues of manufacturing in the discussion part of my thesis.

But, thanks to Amanda at the Q'BFFI blog for the heads up!

something good

Trying to stay on top of things, and up-to-date with EVERYTHING (ha!), I now get daily Google alerts on 20, 30, 40 topics a day; most on things relating to my thesis and, ahem, a few relating to birds. (Have you seen my del.icio.us? Nerd.) You can specify News, Web, Blogs, Video or Comprehensive. I get Comprehensive, daily, for each search term (e.g. "green fashion", "eco-fashion", "sustainable fashion", "green clothing", "green apparel" and so it goes...) Thanks mainly to blogging, my inbox fills with more crap every morning than those portaloos along the City2Surf route (I had to go during last year's run so know what I'm talking about). That's how that stupid "cotton is great (if it's Jag Apparel)" post came to annoy me. Today, an absolute gem: Reflections of an Angry Shopgirl. The post is brilliant. And I love the cranky writing. Through friends I'm aware what a nightmare to spare time running a shop can be, but I hope she can keep the blog going even intermittently.

The Angry Shopgirl's attention to detail reminded me of something that I've been thinking about ever since I started this project: what the hell am I going to sew everything with? Polyester/cotton threads are generally much stronger than cotton or threads from other natural fibres; the durability argument. But cradle-to-cradle and "monstrous hybrids" as McDonough and Braungart put it; I don't know. Though of course, IF I do some 100% polyester things, they'll be sewn with 100% polyester threads, and when they are all over and done with after many, many years of loving wear and care, Patagonia or Kate Goldsworthy can upcycle them into new beautiful things. But say, for example, organic cotton thread: where will I get the range of colours (hundreds) that something like Rasant, from Ackermann, offers? I think I'll ask Ackermann. If there is no demand, there will be no supply.

Speaking of, I expect to hear back for my inquiry regarding the recycled textiles from The Smith Family in the next few days; I'd like to use some in the collection, with those monstrous hybrids whispering in my ears about downcycling. Report to come.

synergies: yeohlee teng and andrew hague

During the shows in New York, London, Milan and Paris I was annoyed with style.com for omitting so many worthy designers from their coverage, for whatever reason. With some of the labels they bother to write a runway review for... Anyway, one established designer style.com ignores season after season is Yeohlee Teng, whose approach is beautifully showcased in Yeohlee: Work
 - visually better than in some of the essays, if I may say so. As I've complained before, describing a designer's practice as an artistic and/or art practice can unintentionally keep hidden the nitty-gritties of the practice itself - and I'm sure I'm not the only one who wants to know about it. The book is somewhat vague as to how Teng went about resolving some of her ideas. It's not that the creative facets of practice aren't important - I passionately believe they are, but they shouldn't overwhelm the more mundane, practical aspects of practice. (Actually, I'm not convinced the two should or can be treated separately from each other in a critical account of practice; it's just that much of the literature shies away from the bits that get hands dirty.) And please, let met clarify; I may be critical of certain decisions regarding the scope of the book, but I am very much a fan of Teng, one of the less-waste pioneers. And very jealous of Mark Liu who recently got to meet her. But, without further ado, some images from Teng's latest collection are here. I hope so in any case - after six foreheads had loaded the page froze on my computer.

And here is the beauty of the message I got from Andrew Hague earlier today: a clear, concise description of what he did to arrive at the shirt in Fletcher's book (p. 153 - for copyright reasons I won't post the image here). I am posting Andrew's description here unedited - practice-led researchers every where, sit up and listen:

"The project was given as a class assignment by my instructor, Lynda Grose, and she was so impressed with it that she sent it along to her colleague, Kate.

The idea was germinated years ago when I saw an exhibit by Yeohlee Teng at the museum at FIT, where they had copies of her actual patterns on the wall. Her interest in fabric conservation was admittedly financially motivated, but I guess the idea stuck. I wanted to reassess traditional design protocol in service to "green design," instead of simply replacing one carbon intensive product with one with a smaller eco-footprint, if you will.

So I found an image of a traditional shirt pattern on the web and pulled it into a vector-based platform (Illustrator, but almost any will work). From there, I manipulated the pattern almost arbitrarily to fill out all the holes which would leave wastage. I paid special attention to the armholes, but that's about it. I let the shirt become what it wanted to be. Most importantly, I neither added, nor subtracted pattern pieces, so when I sat down to the sewing machine, I sewed the shirt the way I had been trained as a tailor's apprentice.

The result is a decidedly Kawakubo effect, but the purpose and rationale are what makes it special."

I see similarities in Andrew's approach (for example, the parameters; "I neither added, nor subtracted pattern pieces") to some of my own experiment briefs. One reads as follows:

"Use the sketch and pattern of an existing design, and test various ways of placing the pattern pieces on a particular fabric width. When the least wasteful way of cutting the garment has been discovered, look at the gaps between the pattern pieces (fabric waste) and begin to redesign the garment by incorporating these gaps into it. Use sketching, informed by what is happening on pattern, to explore different possibilities of incorporating the wasted fabric into the design. Modify the patterns until waste has been eliminated. "

Confession time. At this point, 67945 years into my PhD, this is one of very few of the experiments I've yet to do, and for the others there are good logistical reasons for not having done them yet. But, the collection is lacking 'good' jackets (=any I'm happy with) and there is a jacket I did for my label back in 2003 that has much potential; it will most likely provide me with the existing design.

I would like to thank Andrew for sharing, and I dare you to try it out. It's how it can begin. Andrew's account hopefully shows that no-waste can be as creative as you allow it to be. Finally, if you are unfamiliar with Lynda Grose, she's as pioneering and inspiring (I think) as Kate Fletcher.

collection fabrication

For a long time, I've been torn in regards to the fabrics for the collection. Of course I would like to use solely 'sustainable' fabrics, whether they be organically grown, recycled/reclaimed, local, etc. There are two problems I need to deal with: lack of diversity and lack of money. For example, if I were to use only locally produced (Australian) fabrics, my choices as a designer would be very limited, also posing problems for the quality of the research (see below). Even if I expanded beyond local, the emphasis in hemp and organic cotton fabrics tends to be on basic canvasses, lawns, poplins and jersey. And the quality is often... well, not as high as I'd like; the coffee sack look is still worryingly popular. And don't get me started on the strange woven plaids and stripes that I regularly come across. As for the latter (finance), I think it's a disadvantage that can be turned into an opportunity; lack of money is only as restrictive as you allow it to be, I think.

I do believe that bought, old, fabrics already in existence are better used than not. So, I will use some of the fabrics I've had lying around for four or more years, since I walked away from the label (including some 100 metres of cotton jersey). If I were to mass produce the garments, I would substitute the conventional cotton jersey with an organic alternative, if I were able to find one of the same quality. Two weeks ago a friend donated ten metres of a double wool she'd had for ten years, with good intentions but no outcomes. Anyway, arguably the fabric to date has been passively wasted, and so for me to use it is to make the most of the effort and resources that went into producing it, just like with the fabrics I've had collecting dust.

I will use some fabrics and trims that I've bought in second-hand stores. This would pose a challenge if I were to mass produce but I have no plans to do so; nevertheless, I will discuss later how I would tackle the particular challenges - various options do exist.

Finally, some fabrics will be bought new, and it's here I will make the effort to find the most sustainable option, as long as the compromise to quality isn't too great. So, denim will most likely come in a hemp/cotton mix (organic cotton if possible) and hemp canvas may provide the canvas for some hand-painted pieces. (Painted how? Let me read Fletcher's book, fresh out of the box, and I will get back on that.) I've also seen a hemp-silk mix that might work for some of the shirts.

But, I do aim for the collection to be at the high-end of things in terms of quality and level of finish and some painful compromises may come my way. And of course, I will try to educate myself as thoroughly as possible, every step of the way. For example, in her book Fletcher questions the antibacterial claims made about bamboo fabrics (ppp. 32-34) although TreeHugger has discussed some studies done in the area. There are also some research requirements for the fabrics that I need to meet, for example, using stripes and/or checks, and one-way prints, to see the implications for a no-waste approach. At the end of the day, my project is about not wasting fabric, and to keep it firmly focussed within the time frame I have, some high ideals may need temporary ignoring.

Synthetics: some still take a zero-tolerance approach to anything synthetic (a verbal attack against a carpet manufacturer by an audience member at one of the d factory talks on sustainability last year comes to mind), but to me the infinite recyclability appeals. Kate Goldsworthy's research in particular is worth looking into. To me, the problem with synthetics is more to do with comfort and wearability - I wear them little myself (an old nylon Miyake jacket notwithstanding) so I do have trouble proposing others to wear them.

Then there are the trims and notions... Many will be reclaimed (e.g. buttons from second-hand shops) and I will avoid creating natural/synthetic mixes with trims - for example, applying a polyester braid to a hemp pant. Overall, I find this a problematic area and will discuss further as things progress.

A short post on a complex topic but life beckons. I will return to this, no doubt.

Oh and next week I'll be attending the IFFTI conference in Melbourne. Some very interesting papers though not much on sustainability.

print repeats

In a zero-waste approach to fashion creation, fabric poses significant considerations for design that one might not otherwise think about. Recently, in my industry job, I did, however, need to think in a no-waste approach, sort of. We were using a print that was essentially a very large check - a 55cm repeat - to make a full-length bias-cut dress. Because the same print placement was desired for all the dresses about to be produced, the yield (or yardage, meterage, etc.) was going to be a multiple of 55cm. I then needed to work out the smallest multiple of 55cm that we could get the dress out of. I think in the end it was seven repeats, or 3.85 metres.

The amount of waste? HUGE, much bigger than the figures put forward by Cooklin and others. I work as a patternmaker, making patterns according to the designer's sketch. These generally aren't negotiable. Yes, I feel awful about it, but at the moment working is about keeping me fed to the end of my PhD, and I still don't know how most companies would go from a conventional, wasteful approach to wasting little or none. Anyway, unlike many of the awful cheap fabrics (result of people demanding ever more awful and cheap clothes, I think) I've had to work with over the years, this was quite beautiful and the print was begging for a creative no-waste approach. It wasn't to be, but I will be using some conventionally repeating prints or patterns (e.g. checks) in the collection to see what the implications are. I may also use -gasp- digital printing although 99% of the time it looks too much like, well, digital printing. It seems that anyone capable of operating a scanner and/or Photoshop is a textile designer these days. But there I go digressing again. (Need to discuss collection fabrication in detail here soon, too. Very problematic, if a holistic approach is to be adopted in terms of sustainability.)

The collection... The working title is 'Bad Dogs', for reasons I'll explain another time. A lively conversation about related stuff today produced 'Do Not Iron the Poof', which might just work as a title. But time for sleep now.