images via abundance
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Beautiful things..
I have this habit of surfing the net for hours at a time and gathering images. There are so many beautiful things out there, that sometimes i wonder if its really necessary for me to be creating more. Oh well thats a topic to be discussed at another point of time. For now i just wanted to share some nice things with you :)
images via abundance
images via abundance
Tuesday, September 21, 2010
Embroidery styles
Some images of styles of embroidery that im thinking of applying to my garments:
Yes i love embroidered type :)
images via weheartit
Yes i love embroidered type :)
images via weheartit
Monday, September 20, 2010
Give farmers a break – treat cotton as a luxury
The Guardian regularly posts interesting articles regarding fashion and sustainability. I've posted one below that is directly related to my project:
By: Lucy Siegle
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 September 2010 00.09 BST
In the run-up to London Fashion Week, it has been amazing to see how cotton, the most humble of fibres, has jostled even the size-zero debate from the front pages. This is a major achievement, given most designers know or care very little about where fibres are grown or in what conditions.
Naturally, it is the spectre of a global shortage of cheap cotton, and the fact that this threatens to end the age of T-shirts sold for £2, that has caught the headlines. Four countries – China, the US, India and Pakistan – supply 70% of the world's cotton. China has been hit by drought, Pakistan by the floods and in many Indian states, cotton that should be drying in the sun is still soaking after a protracted monsoon season. Retailers, including Primark, have said they will need to put up their prices.
It would be naive to suggest that cheap cotton has been the only factor in the on-trend pieces sold for the price of a sandwich. Campaign groups would point to the fact that third world garment workers frequently absorb much of the real cost. But it has played a big role. Cotton is the "pig of all botany", according to French economist Erik Orsenna. He does not mean this pejoratively. Like the whole of the pig, the whole of the cotton plant can be used. Grown properly in a sustainable system, cotton should be a really useful crop. But international respect for cotton has plummeted. It is traded as a cheap commodity in an international market where millions of third world growers in debt to pesticide traders must compete with subsidised growers from the US and where evidence suggests the Uzbek cotton harvest is still picked by enforced child labour. Meanwhile, first world consumers discard cotton garments quicker than ever.
Labels predicated on fairly traded organic cotton do not seem to have been taken quite so unawares. Abigail Petit, sustainable cotton expert and founder of fair trade brand Gossypium, factored in a spike in cotton prices at the beginning of 2010, when she put the price of her bestselling pyjamas up from £32 to £39. She knows that weather patterns are changing for cotton producers in Asia because she works with them directly.
Petit's brand deals with Indian organic co-operative Agrocel and everything begins with a cotton price that ensures a living wage is paid to the grower. Only then will Petit add on design and marketing costs. This is the reverse of the conventional industry, where buyers are charged with sourcing the cheapest fibre and production.
Rather than buying the cheapest anonymous fibre at international market, Safia Minney of People Tree invests 10% of her label's annual turnover in "capacity building" to ensure future supplies of sustainable fibre and production. Working with cotton farmers in India, she has installed drip-feed irrigation. Once it was established that this meant the producers could grow high-quality, long-staple cotton she was able to design the fibre into her new collection, as a series of cotton dresses.
A quality cotton garment will contain 500-600g of cotton compared with just 50g for a low-quality T-shirt where the rest of the fibre is bulked out by chemical dyes and finishes. It is worth paying for quality. You get more cotton for your money and a product designed to last more than a couple of washes. This fashion week, treat cotton as a luxury.
By: Lucy Siegle
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 September 2010 00.09 BST
In the run-up to London Fashion Week, it has been amazing to see how cotton, the most humble of fibres, has jostled even the size-zero debate from the front pages. This is a major achievement, given most designers know or care very little about where fibres are grown or in what conditions.
Naturally, it is the spectre of a global shortage of cheap cotton, and the fact that this threatens to end the age of T-shirts sold for £2, that has caught the headlines. Four countries – China, the US, India and Pakistan – supply 70% of the world's cotton. China has been hit by drought, Pakistan by the floods and in many Indian states, cotton that should be drying in the sun is still soaking after a protracted monsoon season. Retailers, including Primark, have said they will need to put up their prices.
It would be naive to suggest that cheap cotton has been the only factor in the on-trend pieces sold for the price of a sandwich. Campaign groups would point to the fact that third world garment workers frequently absorb much of the real cost. But it has played a big role. Cotton is the "pig of all botany", according to French economist Erik Orsenna. He does not mean this pejoratively. Like the whole of the pig, the whole of the cotton plant can be used. Grown properly in a sustainable system, cotton should be a really useful crop. But international respect for cotton has plummeted. It is traded as a cheap commodity in an international market where millions of third world growers in debt to pesticide traders must compete with subsidised growers from the US and where evidence suggests the Uzbek cotton harvest is still picked by enforced child labour. Meanwhile, first world consumers discard cotton garments quicker than ever.
Labels predicated on fairly traded organic cotton do not seem to have been taken quite so unawares. Abigail Petit, sustainable cotton expert and founder of fair trade brand Gossypium, factored in a spike in cotton prices at the beginning of 2010, when she put the price of her bestselling pyjamas up from £32 to £39. She knows that weather patterns are changing for cotton producers in Asia because she works with them directly.
Petit's brand deals with Indian organic co-operative Agrocel and everything begins with a cotton price that ensures a living wage is paid to the grower. Only then will Petit add on design and marketing costs. This is the reverse of the conventional industry, where buyers are charged with sourcing the cheapest fibre and production.
Rather than buying the cheapest anonymous fibre at international market, Safia Minney of People Tree invests 10% of her label's annual turnover in "capacity building" to ensure future supplies of sustainable fibre and production. Working with cotton farmers in India, she has installed drip-feed irrigation. Once it was established that this meant the producers could grow high-quality, long-staple cotton she was able to design the fibre into her new collection, as a series of cotton dresses.
A quality cotton garment will contain 500-600g of cotton compared with just 50g for a low-quality T-shirt where the rest of the fibre is bulked out by chemical dyes and finishes. It is worth paying for quality. You get more cotton for your money and a product designed to last more than a couple of washes. This fashion week, treat cotton as a luxury.
The Play fair game
Play the Playfair Game!
What is life really like for workers making sportswear and merchandise for the London 2012 Olympics? Could you face the dilemmas and pressures of work in a factory, trying to make ends meet and provide for your children?
Take a peek at the 'What's the Story?' function for background facts about workers' rights, and 'contact the union' to try to claim your rights. Players can also use the game to take action and contact CEOs of major sports brands, asking them to improve conditions for workers.
I just gave this a shot..and its quite the challenge. why dont you give it a try?!
Via : Social Alterations
What is life really like for workers making sportswear and merchandise for the London 2012 Olympics? Could you face the dilemmas and pressures of work in a factory, trying to make ends meet and provide for your children?
Take a peek at the 'What's the Story?' function for background facts about workers' rights, and 'contact the union' to try to claim your rights. Players can also use the game to take action and contact CEOs of major sports brands, asking them to improve conditions for workers.
I just gave this a shot..and its quite the challenge. why dont you give it a try?!
Via : Social Alterations
Sunday, September 19, 2010
A Letter from Japan
A member of my panel sent me the link to this article, I think it's quite interesting and i'd like to share it with you:
LETTER FROM JAPAN
Japanese consumers are reportedly staying away from buying goods and are choosing spiritual richness over material abundance. Junko Edahiro explains why.
Whenever I have a chance to speak with high school or university students, I ask them about wanting to own a car. Few answer that they do, while an increasing number are saying that owning a car is “not cool”. And I find quite a few young people saying, “All I need is my mobile phone.” These responses echo new data showing that it’s true – a decreasing number of consumers now want to own an automobile, once a must-have social status symbol.
If people are sitting on their wallets simply because the economy is slow, then the problems will be solved after the economy recovers. However, there are many writers who think that some changes are happening at much deeper structural and psychological levels. In fact, numerous books focusing on this point have been published in Japan recently.
Among them are Rebellion of the Simple Lifestyle Clan, No Brand Japan: The End of Twentieth-Century Consumer Society, The Young Generation That Doesn’t Want Much, and The Lifestyle and Consumption Behaviour of the Young Generation: Are Young People Really Not Spending Money? On the cover of a book with the title Study of the Anti-Consumption Generation: The Young Generation That Doesn’t Want Much Shakes the Economy, a sentence in big, bold letters, “Aren’t you being stupid to want to buy a car?” jumped off the page at me. (All English titles are my translations.)
I believe that behind these trends is a conscious and/or unconscious awareness of the absolute ceiling for resources, energy and ecological carrying capacity including carbon dioxide absorption. As it becomes more apparent that the world is going beyond the limits of the Earth, people’s sense of values is changing, especially in their deep psyche.
It is certain that the parameters of consumerism are decreasing as Japanese society experiences a declining birth rate and ageing population ahead of the rest of the world. In addition, as public opinion surveys on people’s lifestyle conducted by the Cabinet Office of the Government show, a growing number of Japanese now value spiritual richness more than material abundance (and this applies particularly to people in urban areas, and more to women than to men). It is this fact, I think, that lies behind the major structural change. Would people who regard spiritual richness as more important than material abundance be willing to buy new products launched every few months?
The younger generation is particularly seen as having little desire for material ownership. They simply say, “When I have to go from point A to point B, I will drive a car if that’s the only option, but the car does not have to be mine. I can rent a car or use a car-sharing service, since that’s now available, or maybe I can catch a ride with somebody. Or I will go by bicycle if possible.”
In my opinion, people’s value systems can change rather easily. Let me give an example. In 2000, when car-sharing services started to become popular in Europe and the United States, I introduced the movement to Japanese people in my email magazine covering environmental topics. At the time, the majority of Japanese subscribers reacted adversely, saying: “We like things clean and tend not to want to use things when we don’t know who used them before us. So a car-sharing service will never be popular in Japan.”
But things have changed. People can now find a car-sharing service near any station along the Yamanote Line, a main railway loop in Tokyo. And similar car-sharing services in other areas of Japan become available almost every day.
“Japanese people like cleanliness.” “A car is a necessary item for any young adult.” “To be considered an adult, you must have your own house.” These are examples of conventional assumptions, or a mental model that dictates that things “should be this way”. The ability to identify and loosen up these types of mental model would, I believe, be indispensable for the future success of society and businesses.
I see three new trends that are changing people’s conventional assumptions. The first one is ‘de-ownership’, as described above. Another example: young people buy new books, but after reading them they usually sell them to Bookoff, a nationwide used-bookstore chain, or to other secondhand bookshops. They most often purchase a book based on the premise that they will sell it after reading it. In that sense, secondhand bookstores are the modern version of the book-lending shops that were very popular in the old days in Japan. As for music, the industry is going through a tough time, since far fewer people now buy CDs. More people are downloading music, or borrowing CDs from rental shops. House-share has become very popular, especially among young people, and even has its own real-estate market, and fashion-swap events known as ‘xChange’ are held in many places in Japan.
The second major trend is ‘de-materialism’ of happiness. Conventionally, buying and owning material goods is considered the best way to be happy. But now an increasing number of people define happiness as coming from personal relationships and from engagement with Nature. More and more Japanese say they are interested in agriculture, enjoy candle-lit events with their friends and families, and participate in Neighbours’ Day, an annual event that started in Europe to enhance relationships among neighbours. The xChange events are designed to exchange not only fashion items but also information and sentiments from the owners of the clothes, using what is called an ‘episode tag’. Participants put a tag on each of the items they bring and write on it their name and a brief note such as “I loved this item but it doesn’t fit me any more. I hope someone who loves red can wear it.” Participants love reading the episode tags because they make people aware of the human connection – something that can’t be measured in monetary terms – and also promote the exchange of feelings and communication by exchanging goods.
The third major trend is ‘de-monetisation’. In Japan, it used to be common for people to plan their lives around the amount of money they earned by devoting much of their time to their businesses. But now an increasing number of people are choosing a new lifestyle, such as being “half-farmer, half-X”. The idea is that people spend half their time growing food for their own family, and the other half on something else. I know a “half-farmer, half-writer” and a “half-farmer, half-NGO member”. The basic thinking behind this lifestyle is that it may not be necessary to spend all your time earning money.
Continued growth of these three trends could turn the tables on companies that persist in an over-reliance on business models of seeking profit simply by selling increasing numbers of products. This is because a growing number of people are feeling less need for material goods and are refraining from buying them.
In the light of this, I personally have high expectations and am paying attention to the three trends of de-ownership, de-monetisation and de-materialism, which are quietly progressing at the grassroots level deep in people’s minds and changing their sense of values, although articles about such trends rarely hit the headlines in economic newspapers.
For further information visit www.japanfs.org/en/
Junko Edahiro is an environmental activist based in Tokyo.
LETTER FROM JAPAN
Japanese consumers are reportedly staying away from buying goods and are choosing spiritual richness over material abundance. Junko Edahiro explains why.
Whenever I have a chance to speak with high school or university students, I ask them about wanting to own a car. Few answer that they do, while an increasing number are saying that owning a car is “not cool”. And I find quite a few young people saying, “All I need is my mobile phone.” These responses echo new data showing that it’s true – a decreasing number of consumers now want to own an automobile, once a must-have social status symbol.
If people are sitting on their wallets simply because the economy is slow, then the problems will be solved after the economy recovers. However, there are many writers who think that some changes are happening at much deeper structural and psychological levels. In fact, numerous books focusing on this point have been published in Japan recently.
Among them are Rebellion of the Simple Lifestyle Clan, No Brand Japan: The End of Twentieth-Century Consumer Society, The Young Generation That Doesn’t Want Much, and The Lifestyle and Consumption Behaviour of the Young Generation: Are Young People Really Not Spending Money? On the cover of a book with the title Study of the Anti-Consumption Generation: The Young Generation That Doesn’t Want Much Shakes the Economy, a sentence in big, bold letters, “Aren’t you being stupid to want to buy a car?” jumped off the page at me. (All English titles are my translations.)
I believe that behind these trends is a conscious and/or unconscious awareness of the absolute ceiling for resources, energy and ecological carrying capacity including carbon dioxide absorption. As it becomes more apparent that the world is going beyond the limits of the Earth, people’s sense of values is changing, especially in their deep psyche.
It is certain that the parameters of consumerism are decreasing as Japanese society experiences a declining birth rate and ageing population ahead of the rest of the world. In addition, as public opinion surveys on people’s lifestyle conducted by the Cabinet Office of the Government show, a growing number of Japanese now value spiritual richness more than material abundance (and this applies particularly to people in urban areas, and more to women than to men). It is this fact, I think, that lies behind the major structural change. Would people who regard spiritual richness as more important than material abundance be willing to buy new products launched every few months?
The younger generation is particularly seen as having little desire for material ownership. They simply say, “When I have to go from point A to point B, I will drive a car if that’s the only option, but the car does not have to be mine. I can rent a car or use a car-sharing service, since that’s now available, or maybe I can catch a ride with somebody. Or I will go by bicycle if possible.”
In my opinion, people’s value systems can change rather easily. Let me give an example. In 2000, when car-sharing services started to become popular in Europe and the United States, I introduced the movement to Japanese people in my email magazine covering environmental topics. At the time, the majority of Japanese subscribers reacted adversely, saying: “We like things clean and tend not to want to use things when we don’t know who used them before us. So a car-sharing service will never be popular in Japan.”
But things have changed. People can now find a car-sharing service near any station along the Yamanote Line, a main railway loop in Tokyo. And similar car-sharing services in other areas of Japan become available almost every day.
“Japanese people like cleanliness.” “A car is a necessary item for any young adult.” “To be considered an adult, you must have your own house.” These are examples of conventional assumptions, or a mental model that dictates that things “should be this way”. The ability to identify and loosen up these types of mental model would, I believe, be indispensable for the future success of society and businesses.
I see three new trends that are changing people’s conventional assumptions. The first one is ‘de-ownership’, as described above. Another example: young people buy new books, but after reading them they usually sell them to Bookoff, a nationwide used-bookstore chain, or to other secondhand bookshops. They most often purchase a book based on the premise that they will sell it after reading it. In that sense, secondhand bookstores are the modern version of the book-lending shops that were very popular in the old days in Japan. As for music, the industry is going through a tough time, since far fewer people now buy CDs. More people are downloading music, or borrowing CDs from rental shops. House-share has become very popular, especially among young people, and even has its own real-estate market, and fashion-swap events known as ‘xChange’ are held in many places in Japan.
The second major trend is ‘de-materialism’ of happiness. Conventionally, buying and owning material goods is considered the best way to be happy. But now an increasing number of people define happiness as coming from personal relationships and from engagement with Nature. More and more Japanese say they are interested in agriculture, enjoy candle-lit events with their friends and families, and participate in Neighbours’ Day, an annual event that started in Europe to enhance relationships among neighbours. The xChange events are designed to exchange not only fashion items but also information and sentiments from the owners of the clothes, using what is called an ‘episode tag’. Participants put a tag on each of the items they bring and write on it their name and a brief note such as “I loved this item but it doesn’t fit me any more. I hope someone who loves red can wear it.” Participants love reading the episode tags because they make people aware of the human connection – something that can’t be measured in monetary terms – and also promote the exchange of feelings and communication by exchanging goods.
The third major trend is ‘de-monetisation’. In Japan, it used to be common for people to plan their lives around the amount of money they earned by devoting much of their time to their businesses. But now an increasing number of people are choosing a new lifestyle, such as being “half-farmer, half-X”. The idea is that people spend half their time growing food for their own family, and the other half on something else. I know a “half-farmer, half-writer” and a “half-farmer, half-NGO member”. The basic thinking behind this lifestyle is that it may not be necessary to spend all your time earning money.
Continued growth of these three trends could turn the tables on companies that persist in an over-reliance on business models of seeking profit simply by selling increasing numbers of products. This is because a growing number of people are feeling less need for material goods and are refraining from buying them.
In the light of this, I personally have high expectations and am paying attention to the three trends of de-ownership, de-monetisation and de-materialism, which are quietly progressing at the grassroots level deep in people’s minds and changing their sense of values, although articles about such trends rarely hit the headlines in economic newspapers.
For further information visit www.japanfs.org/en/
Junko Edahiro is an environmental activist based in Tokyo.
Friday, September 17, 2010
Traveling Denim
A short documentary film by japanese artist Takayuki Akachi which chronicles two years in the life of a beloved pair of blue jeans. She wore them in 50 countries, documenting every rip and faded fiber. It’s a powerful testament to how your wardrobe — the longer you keep it — becomes a part of your history. Watch and learn.
via Ethical Style
" Traveling Denim " Recording color fade for two years from Takayuki Akachi on Vimeo.
via Ethical Style
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Figuring out the patterns
I have been working on the patterns for my clothing all week and i've been trying to keep them as simple as possible, keeping minimum waste in mind. Yesterday I was trying to figure out how i was going to get my one size fits all dress to work and I suddenly thought of my first textile project where i made a dress with some sort of a bustle at the back. The pattern of that dress was quite simple, just a couple of semi circles put together.
I decided to use that idea but instead of using circles I used rectangles and played around with different fastenings. There are still some glitches and I need to figure out if my idea for one size fits all is actually going to work. But I kind of like the way it looks!
I decided to use that idea but instead of using circles I used rectangles and played around with different fastenings. There are still some glitches and I need to figure out if my idea for one size fits all is actually going to work. But I kind of like the way it looks!
Friday, September 10, 2010
Swap Dont Shop!
Here are some pictures of the swapshop which i held over the past two days. Even though the turn up might have not been as good as i had hoped, i think it was quite successful. I was a great feeling to see all the excitement and smiling faces.
People were so happy that they kept asking me when I would be doing this again. It was good to hear that people were so enthousiastic about it, and i told them that i hoped that they would be the ones initiating it in the future. They said they would..and i really hope they do. If that happens then i will actually feel that my swap shop mission has been accomplished.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Jane Schoufen
A friend of mine sent me a link to Jane Schoufen's work because she felt it was my kind of thing, and it so is! She has used old blankets and re-cycled materials and done some embroidery and applique on them and used the materials to upholster chairs. Love them!
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Strawberry Earth Wonderland
I keep receiving mails of these amazing sounding fair fashion events that are happening around Europe. I really wish there were things like these happening here. Strawberry Earth organises some fantastic events, like the Dutch Environmental Film Festival that happened earlier this year. In october they are organising Strawberry Earth Wonderland
Almost every major capital city has an ordinary fashion fair. But knowing just how polluting the fashion industry can be, Strawberry Earth decided it was time to put eco and fair fashion in the limelight! they want to support the true fashion pioneers and trendsetters out there.
They've selected over 30 wonderful eco fashion and art exhibitors, including their favourite labels from Amsterdam, Arnhem, London and Berlin. But that's not all... There'll be fashion shows, fashion and beauty workshops, a 'fashion blogger camp' and live music.
Almost every major capital city has an ordinary fashion fair. But knowing just how polluting the fashion industry can be, Strawberry Earth decided it was time to put eco and fair fashion in the limelight! they want to support the true fashion pioneers and trendsetters out there.
They've selected over 30 wonderful eco fashion and art exhibitors, including their favourite labels from Amsterdam, Arnhem, London and Berlin. But that's not all... There'll be fashion shows, fashion and beauty workshops, a 'fashion blogger camp' and live music.
This sounds great, wish I could be there! Next time, and till then i hope some of my dutch counterparts experience it for me.
Monday, September 6, 2010
oh how i love open source websites!
I think the internet is a great thing! i love how you can find out how to do just about anything with just a click of the mouse. a few years ago, when we did a course on off loom techniques i tried you tube tutorials for the first time. We had been taught how to crochet, but i just didn't seem to understand how to do it, so when i got home i decided to look it up on you tube and a success it was. I ended up finding some really good tutorials and got the hang of it pretty easily. So this time while thinking of techniques to use for my project, i definitely didn't feel limited to the techniques that we have learnt in college.
Like i said in my previous post, i always thought there was something about lace. Not the over done kind, but i think with the right amount of lace a piece of clothing or an accessory could be really beautiful. So i did some research and decided to zero in on two techniques: Tatting and Needle point lace. Over the past week i've been experimenting a bit and i must say i'm starting to get the hang of it. I still have to take some pictures that i will put up in my next post but i will share with you some of the videos that i learnt from:
It definitely wasn't an easy task to learn this, but i've done it. And if i can, then i'm sure a lot of other people can. This is the great thing about open source websites, it puts a stop to the one way stream of information that flows from companies to consumers, and instead gives us access to new things that we probably thought we were never capable of. It allows us to be the producer instead of just a consumer.
Like i said in my previous post, i always thought there was something about lace. Not the over done kind, but i think with the right amount of lace a piece of clothing or an accessory could be really beautiful. So i did some research and decided to zero in on two techniques: Tatting and Needle point lace. Over the past week i've been experimenting a bit and i must say i'm starting to get the hang of it. I still have to take some pictures that i will put up in my next post but i will share with you some of the videos that i learnt from:
It definitely wasn't an easy task to learn this, but i've done it. And if i can, then i'm sure a lot of other people can. This is the great thing about open source websites, it puts a stop to the one way stream of information that flows from companies to consumers, and instead gives us access to new things that we probably thought we were never capable of. It allows us to be the producer instead of just a consumer.
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