Filed under: Nicola's Page...
Tamsin Lejeune
Tamsin Lejeune is the founder of the Ethical Fashion Forum, a network of designers,businesses and organisations focusing upon social and environmental sustainability in the fashion industry.
What do you consider is the biggest issue facing the fashion industry today?
Sustainability! The way the industry is moving is unsustainable, labour conditions and environmental impact are growing concerns. There needs to be a cultural shift away from fast fashion, everyone expects to own large quantities of disposable clothing bought at very low prices.
What first got you interested in the ethics of fashion?
At 18 I spent a year working in Central America, where many indigenous people have amazing skills and are creating beautiful clothes and textiles. They are paid incredibly low wages for their work given the huge amount of time and effort that goes in to production. I also worked in Cambodia in a shanty town that had grown up to house workers in the garment industry. People existed in terrible conditions because of poor wages being paid by major multi national corporations; they didn’t earn enough money to pay rent so they lived in makeshift housing. Eventually the shanty town was bulldozed leaving many homeless. These experiences got me thinking about the whole fashion industry supply chain and the need to consider the people behind the clothes we wear.
Who do you consider to be your greatest inspiration?
Bibi Russell- a designer from Chittagong in Bangladesh. She is a huge inspiration. After raising money to study at the London College of Fashion she became a model, travelling the international cat walks. When she retired from modelling in 1994 she invested the money she’d earned into setting up a fair trade fashion and textiles business in Bangladesh called Fashion for Development. As of 2004 she employed 35,000 rural weavers in Bangladesh and has won numerous awards and international acclaim.
What do you consider is the greatest barrier to success in the ethical fashion industry?
Many designers produce fashion ranges which may be beautiful, but which do not sell well because they are not right for the target market. Fashion design and market understanding need to go hand in hand- designers need to establish who will be buying their clothes, and for how much, from the outset.
How important is innovation and enterprise to designers interested in sustainable fashion?
Critical, even more so as you need to overcome preconceptions of what ethical fashion means;boring, unfashionable, shapeless, hemp are all words that spring to many people’s minds. Marketing , image, and creativity are the keys to success! Be innovative about the process as well as the product.
How did you become involved in the Ethical Fashion Forum and what is the aim of your work?
I did a masters degree in fashion and fair-trade and set up a business sourcing textiles from Bangladesh. I produce high end women’s wear using fair trade and naturally died fabrics. I came across lots of people facing the same barriers as me and many of us were doing the same research. It seemed sensible to set up one body to do the work for everyone. We aim to create a network of businesses and individuals working in the ethical fashion industry and encourage sustainable practices and initiatives to promote these. We also aim to ensure that social and environmental considerations are embedded in fashion education as well as influencing main stream manufacturers, suppliers and retailers.
What skills do you think are required to start and sustain an ethical fashion business?
Education is important but at the same time some of the world’s leading designers – for example Roland Mouret -don’t have formal training. Creative thinking is the key. Understanding your market and having a commercial approach is vital but you must also be aware of the social and environmental issues driving the ethical fashion agenda. Perseverance and staying power are at least as important as creative flair, skills and ability.
Do you think the industry should be considering a shift back to UK manufacturing? And what do you think are the key challenges involved in achieving that shift?
The environmental costs of manufacturing thousands of miles away from where products are sold are high. Therefore manufacturing locally is relevant to the sustainability debate. Manufacturing costs in the UK For example, garment production could support local communities and sustainable livelihoods, provide opportunities to reduce poverty , or preserve or build upon traditional skills. will be higher, however for small scale designers producing small quantities of high quality products it can make very good sense. When deciding where to manufacture, designers should also consider the possible benefits to garment workers and communities.
Do you think major UK retailers are beginning to take on board the social & environmental issues surrounding fashion and act on them?
Yes, although, they could be doing a lot more. Some are taking small steps by working with other businesses or bringing out ethical or organic clothing lines. To make a real difference retailers need to implement sustainable practices throughout the supply chains for their mainstream products.
What would you say to a young person thinking of starting an ethical business?
There has never been a more inspiring time to start a fashion business in the UK. The new generation holds the key to achieving positive change by creating products that are stunning in terms of design and innovative in terms of sustainability.
http://www.makeyourmarkinfashion.org/sustainable_fashion/interviews
Filed under: Izzy's Page...
Red Mutha and team in their Brighton store
Red Mutha’s a design team who would laugh in the face of any assumption being that sustainable fashion is all hemp and neutral colours. The label is run by husband and wife team, Dan and Red Curtis, and specialises in recycling and customising unique, eye-catching clothing for men and women for all ages, shapes and sizes. Think old patches, frills, neon buttons and generally anything else they’ve managed to find whilst rummaging through charity shops and you’ll begin to get the picture! All the designs are one-offs and they’re more than willing to customise on request. Check them out! An interview with Red is coming soon!
Filed under: Izzy's Page...
Ethical fashion from stylish Ciel
In our current economic climate a lot of re-evaluation has been put into how we spend money on clothing. Although going to buy a dress from primark is much easier on our moth-ridden wallets, are we wanting to spend our cash on something that will fall apart after a couple of wears rather than invest in higher-priced clothing that will last us? I’ve always associated high prices and designer labels with good quality, perhaps not wholly ethically produced but surely a world apart from the sweatshops we associate with fast, throwaway fashion? It was only when I read a report by Linda Grant that I started to question this general assumption. The report outlines Linda’s new year resolution to stop buying too many clothes, or buying them without thinking who made them, in what circumstance, or where. The journey she goes to discover harsh truths about how the high demand for luxury items is being met is shocking and thought-provoking.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/jan/29/fashion.ethicalliving
Filed under: Charlotte's Page...
From a country that prided itself on the class of old classics, Britain has transformed itself into Europe’s premier fast fashion nation. The grip of the high street and its ultra low-cost clothes, where a dress can cost less than the price of a cappuccino, is a challenge for people who believe that slowing down is the natural way to success.
So it is laudable that Monsoon, considered a boho version of high street style, should have been quick to latch on to an important trend: sustainable fashion.
As sponsors of Estethica, a loose group of “green” suppliers, Monsoon helps small companies display their goods at the Designers’ Exhibition, the British fashion trade show. And through its Accessorize brand, Monsoon has gone one step further. It sponsored in 2007 the Turquoise Mountain project, supporting a workshop for Afghan female embroiderers in the old city of Kabul. Working with the Iranian-American designer Sarah Takesh, Afghan embroidery is entering the fashion universe.
But the most striking thing about the displays at Estethica is that there is so little to suggest the ethnic, the worthy or the overtly ecological. To put it another way: The clothes are stylish and could have come from anywhere.
Or “From Somewhere,” the name that Orsola de Castro, the curator of Estethica, gave to the company that she and her partner founded to use lengths of fabric that manufacturers discard.
“We were bored by the pre-concept that sustainable fashion was hemp sacks and uncomfortable itchy socks,” she says. “We knew that there were more exciting things coming along so we approached the British Fashion Council, saying, ‘let’s do it as fashion.’ ”
“Traditional recycling has more to do with reconstructing old garments,” she says. “We went to the source. We thought how to get the most beautiful fabrics at the cheapest price so we can afford to have a fashion business. Hence we found the best way was to use pre-consumer waste, meaning we use everything everyone abandons after their production.”
Katharine Hamnett of Britain was the founding mother of politicized fashion, using T-shirts in the 1980s as an anti-Margaret Thatcher and ant-war statement.
A hooded sweatshirt with the words “World Peace Now” is a typical example of the Katharine E Hamnett range of organic cotton T-shirts displayed at Estethica. But for many designers, the aim is not political or didactic, but rather practical.
The focus is from head to feet, including the well-known Terra Plana shoe brand that uses vegetable-tanned leather and sustainable construction. Veja’s fair trade sneakers are made from organic cotton and natural latex from the Amazon – a big leap from the sweatshop and child labor situations rife in the sports shoe market.
“Green” fashion also encompasses underwear and high fashion. Elena Garcia wanted to make the most glamorous of garments to show that sustainable clothing can have couture quality. Chosen by Estethica as one of the promising new contributors in the field, Garcia and her partner take the view that people will be prepared to pay a high price not because something is organic nor because it helps women who might otherwise struggle to find work – but because it is beautiful.
“We do silk organic garments and we control every part of the process in the making of these garments,” Garcia says. “We buy them from India and China and they have no pesticides at any stage of the production of silk.”
“We do all the making and embellishment in the U.K.,” she says. “We work with the Hera Women’s project on Brick Lane to do all the kind of cut work where we use all our scraps to apply the satin panels onto the silk chiffon. We embroider and cut around it and we do the whole thing using metal-free, low-impact dyes.”
“People are not just going to spend money on something because it’s organic. With the cheap fashion people have a mental price in their head about how much they’re prepared to pay for a T-shirt,” Garcia added. “We can’t compete with China and the big money factories, so we’ll make something so beautiful that people will want to buy it no matter what.”
Now that the concept of fair trade has been established and taken up by mainstream stores with ethical stands, like Marks & Spencer, the focus from small producers is on vacuuming up the industry’s multitude of waste.
Mark Liu has created a new way of pattern cutting to eliminate the usual wasteful process of fitting arms, collar, back and front on to one flat piece of cloth.
“I basically turned the whole of tailoring upside-down to make garment that fit together like a jigsaw pieces – nothing is wasted in the end,” Liu says. “There is about 15 percent waste created in every garment made if you think about industrial production where they are making thousands of garments.”
In its fourth season, Estethica has achieved its ambition of making the products look streamlined, modern and a fit with the rest of the fashion fair – rather than garments that scream “vegan” or “worthy” – and de Castro thinks that is just how things should be.
“We basically felt that the time was right to present sustainability as it could be – rather that what it has been,” she says. “As a major design force within the industry rather than camping gear. What we showcase here aren’t just brands that are here to save the planet. We are here to sell clothes. We aim at the same wardrobes as other traditional designers.”
Suzy Menkes, February 14th 2008, International Herald Tribune
Filed under: Jinnie's Page...
I’ve been doing lots of research into charity shops and second clothing and was interested to find that more and more celebrities are enjoying this kind of ‘Vintage Clothing.’
From the research i have been doing for my cultural and historical lessons, i can link the findings to this research. I’ve been researching into the idea of ‘Kitsch’ and that ‘One persons meat is another mans poison.’ This means that what one person might really love another person will think is awful, and it also looks at how a persons taste changes so the idea of through away and fast fashion becomes apparent.
This article is taken from RTE Entertainment:
Peaches Geldof cast off her couture yesterday for second-hand clothes, after a makeover from a group of grannies who work in charity shops.
Label lover Geldof, who normally steps out in expensive designer gear, was styled on a shoestring by the pensioners and fashion expert Mary Portas.
They chose a vintage, fifties-style red dress for the socialite, which had been donated to one of the charity shops Portas has been working with for a new BBC2 TV show.
Portas fronted two series of Mary Queen Of Shops, where she attempted to turn around struggling fashion boutiques, but will focus on charity shops in the forthcoming series.
She has spent the past six months revamping Save the Children, MIND, Barnardo’s and North London Hospice, and believes charity shops are the key to dressing during the recession.
Portas said: “I brought my style volunteers up to London Fashion Week to give a message to the fashion world that charity shopping is not just great for the environment and for a good cause. These are places where you can get unique, fashionable outfits that are on trend and look great.”
The pensioners also gave charity shop makeovers to supermodel Erin O’Connor, actress Natalie Press and DJ Jodie Harsh at their stall, backstage at London Fashion Week in the Science Museum
These photo’s were taken upon a trip to Hall Place Tropical Conservatory on the 26th of February 2009. These are to aid the work of those looking into the natural environment and the Amazon rainforest.
Richard wearing the sweater he's never washed and shares with his wife. Photograph: Fiona Bailey
-
- Metal Cages
-
- Metal Cages
-
- Metal Cages
-
- Metal Cages
-
- Metal Vents
-
- Metal Gate
-
- Metal Shutters
-
- Metal Decoration used on a Building
-
- Metal Grate
-
- Metal Railings
-
- Metal Gate
12 Degrees, an ethical fashion 'pop-up shop' in London Photograph: PR
After browsing Google for most of the evening, I came across this article about the launch of 12 pop up (temporary) shops that showcase the best of ETHICAL FASHION. This initiative has been created by 12 DEGREE’S who’s aim is to reinvent fashion retail as we know it and make us crave sustainable denim, real cashmere that reinstates sustainable luxury and pieces designed to last a lifetime!So how does it all work?? Each pop-up shop stays for one month and hosts a series of events such as masterclasses in getting the right fit in organic denim, workshops on how to extend the lifespan of your favourite items and how to sew using pineapple and silk moth fibres?!? At the moment the home of 12 Degree’s remains in the UK using the store Eco Age in Chiswick (which specialises in sustainable design)
The minds behind 12 DEGREE’S have expressed their concerns about what the current state of the economy will do to up and coming independent ethical brands. They believe there are 3 schools of thought in relation to fashion during recession: 1) Everyone will flee to Primark and other such retailers! 2) Consumers won’t buy anything (although this seems a little unlikely!) and 3) Consumers will want pieces that will last and that they can invest in, that have been made with good quality fibres so that they can be treasured and kept.
It will come as no shock as to what school 12 DEGREE’S falls into, and it is their strong belief that ethical fashion has a lot of answers to the environmental and social justice mayhem created by cheap, fast fashion.
12 DEGREE’S creates an outlet for you to feel, touch and try on the clothes. The fashion is edgy through to beautifully feminine, made of superior fibres with a counter intuitively small footprint but definitely not sweated labour and they want YOU to see it.
Cmoore11's Blog 