Analogue Chic

Posts Tagged ‘sustainability’

The one who knows / La que sabe.

This weekend I heard a radio program about Winona LaDuke and her work on sustainable, indigenous agriculture and energy in Minnesota. It didn't take very long for me to feel like we could totally be girlfriends.

LaDuke is probably best known by most people as Ralph Nader's Green Party running mate in 1996 and 2000.  In fact, she has a long resume of accomplishments, talents and projects.

To put it very briefly, she is a foremost worldwide activist, speaker, writer, and all-around shit-getting-done-er, particularly in the realms of women's rights, indigenous rights, and the environment, in no particular order.

Hellraiser.

Dangerous old woman.

Badass, beautiful.

Photo by Todd Cooper, via Eugene Weekly.

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A counter-example, if that wasn’t clear. Image via Art in Liverpool. Sorry.

Lots of interesting links in fashion news this week:

The Wall Street Journal tells us about a new cable channel with a Home Shopping Network premise, but featuring handmade housewares and indie designers, and informs us that there is a huge market out there waiting to be tapped.

At the same time, consumers are increasingly hungry for independent designs. In part, brand fatigue is to blame. Big fashion labels sell the same products the world over, diminishing their logos’ cachet. Their designers work on collections a year or more in advance of the clothes’ appearance in stores and rarely—if ever—meet the people who eventually buy them. Moreover, many consumers lost faith in luxury brands after watching prices soar during the boom, then plummet during the crash in the fall of 2008. The slashed sales prices raised questions about the true value of branded goods.

[...]  Now, even the huge brands are striving to establish authenticity—sometimes trying a bit too hard. British authorities recently banned Louis Vuitton ads that showed an artisan laboring on a bag, saying the ads suggested, falsely, that its bags are handmade.

The article gives a shoutout to CT’s own Trish Ginter, co-founder of the indie designer showcase Smashing Darling, and designer at Frock in Chester.

The Business of Fashion had more to add on Louis Vuitton:

A month earlier, Bernard Arnault, chairman and chief executive of LVMH [Louis Vuitton's parent company], told investors at the luxury group’s annual shareholders meeting in Paris of his plan to take a 49 percent stake in Edun, the sustainable clothing label founded by Bono and Ali Hewson. “LVMH shares the vision and ethical values of Edun, a pioneer in ethical apparel, and its founders,” he said later. “LVMH is committed to advancing both the social and environmental aspects of sustainable development, which plays an intrinsic role in the development of our brands.”

The BoF article also discussed the struggle to balance good design, profitability, and sustainability:

Stella McCartney became known as a chic designer label that’s convincingly green, not as a green designer label that is convincingly chic. Speaking to The Business of Fashion, McCartney was clear about her priorities: “Obviously, I don’t use any animals which has a huge impact on the planet. But my first job is to make desirable, luxurious, beautiful clothing for women to want to buy. Then I ask myself: can I do this in a more environmental way without sacrificing design? If I can, then there is no reason not to. I think that women buy my product because they like how it looks, feels, fits and being sustainable is an added extra bonus.”

This emphasis on desirability and design may come as no surprise from a graduate of London fashion college Central St. Martins. But interestingly Ali Hewson, who founded Edun primarily as a means to do good, sees it no differently. She told BoF: “In the fashion business desirability is sustainability! This point has taught us over the years that we must produce quality clothes. Fit must be right, design details correct.”

Julie Gilhart, influential fashion director at Barneys New York, and an early proponent of sustainable fashion, sums it up bluntly: “Consumers respond to good design. Design and desirability must come first.” When deciding whether to spend on fashion, the consumer looks, above all, for good design. Ecological or ethical considerations are still very much secondary.

You can see Julie Gilhart riff on design and sustainability in this video.

You can also read my thoughts on these subjects in two previous posts, here and here.

Great column from the New Statesman, a UK perspective on sustainable fashion.

Although I am wary of any kind of ethical consumption that encourages you simply to buy differently rather than less, it’s pointless to expect people to stop shopping. Even in the thick of economic gloom, we will restock our wardrobes. So, to rescue our planet from further degradation, we need innovative ethical retailers on the high street.

We can no longer ignore the fashion industry’s track record. The UK market alone produces two million tonnes of waste each year, 3.1 million tonnes of CO2 and 70 million tonnes of waste water, according to Defra. In the battle for land to grow more food, there is concern that crops such as cotton are taking up valuable space. UN figures show that we need to increase food production by 70 per cent by 2050. On top of this, scandals about conditions for textile workers occur regularly, exposed by NGOs such as Labour Behind the Label.

[...] we must not forget the importance of desirable clothes. For smaller ethical retailers to gain a presence on the high street, they will need to leave behind clichéd staples such as shapeless hemp tunics and make clothes that people want to wear.

Links mine.

Also read my rant on a similar thread here.

Via the News-Times, Danbury’s crack information team (who can’t even get the name of the store correct in the headline).

DANBURY — After more than four years as an empty shell, the former Filene’s store at Danbury Fair mall will have an occupant.

Forever 21, a national clothing retailer with a smaller store at the mall, has submitted plans with the city to take over more than 77,000 square feet of space.

The company is expected to spend more than $2.3 million to renovate the space, according to documents submitted to Danbury’s building department. The store now occupies about 5,000 square feet elsewhere in the mall.

Filtering past the middle school name-calling and bickering in the comments on the web site, I was appalled to find someone actually thanking Forever 21 for "bringing much needed jobs to the area", as well as some other truly misguided economic analysis.

I was compelled to write a letter to the editors, which I usually refrain from doing with newspapers of such low caliber.

I’m reproducing it here, in a slightly expanded form, and with links.

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Photo (c) Rinze van Brug; via LinhardtDesign.com/blog

Meet Summer Rayne Oakes [...] fashion model, eco activist, environmental scholar, host of Discovery Network’s Planet Green, and author of Style, Naturally. Oakes will speak about her passionate support for sustainable development, sustainable design, and environmental activism. Following the talk, her book will be available for purchase and signing. In addition, Lisa Linhardt will be on hand to host a trunk show of her latest eco-friendly jewelry, as well as the jewelry and home décor designs of a.d. schwarz. Both designers are in the forefront of the sustainable design movement.

via AldrichArt.org; links added.

The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum
258 Main Street, Ridgefield, CT 06877
Tel 203.438.4519

www.aldrichart.org

Sunday, May 2
3 to 5 pm

member · FREE
non-member · $10.00
cornell alumni · $5.00

I’ve recently found a couple of very good blog posts relating craft to environmental and social sustainability.  I think anyone who thinks about it long enough would agree that "green" living, or whatever you want to call it, is both about the natural, non-human environment, as well as the global social environment.  From the first day of craft (which was probably the first day of human existence), it has been inextricably involved with using and re-using resources efficiently to improve one’s standard of living, whether through basic needs, like warmth and protection from the elements, or aesthetic needs (and I’m not assigning a higher or lower value to either). 

I have many more thoughts on this, but not the time at the moment to elucidate them.  I don’t think I have anything to add to what the following posts are saying, so I’ll just recommend that you follow the links.

Craft in the New Economy

The mass-produced clothing and craft supply chain, etc. – this article is really fermenting in my brain right now and pushing me in a more resolute direction…

And that article reminded me of a reader’s letter I saw in Vogue, September 2008, commenting on this article about fashionistas slumming in Mali.  Mind you, I have no problem with slumming in Mali– I’ve been dying to go to the Festival in the Desert for at least 5 years (I can afford it now even less than I could have 5 years ago).  What bothers me is the wide-eyed, "oh isn’t that wonderfully ethnic!" fashion commentary devoid of the context of reality as referenced in the article above…