New colours for Anglindo Flowflow necklace & Paudrey dress

As these are the most popular Anglindo items to date and the good news is that means more colour options have been added!

A custom order for resulted in the red/black/grey flowflow necklace whereby the red rose is made from salmon leather which is not only a sustainable skin but is a left-over from an (eco) leather clothing designer in Iceland. I like enjoy working with different textures and with this new combo you have the scaly leather complemented by the smooth grey silk and matte black cotton rose.

The reversible Paudrey batik is by far the best-seller of this Summer. Maybe it's due to the fact that you can wear is as a boldly printed fun dress on picnics and then slip into the toilets once the the sun has set to turn it inside out for the post-garden cocktail party in town. Or maybe it's the unique back detail or the rather cute knotted necklace bit. In any case, as stated on the website the batiks are limited stock prints; the original one is already long gone but I have found 4 more stunning batik motifs that suit this dress.

Ethical Fashion presentation at Sekolah Tinggi Desain Indonesia in Bandung presented by Ompei Parental Advisory; Maizir Firebolt and Anja Anglindo. Pop by!

popomomo = post-post-modern-movement

"POPOMOMO stands for post-postmodern movement. Instead of floating in relative perspectives and endlessly reworking the past, Popomomo focuses on the new and true; creating idea — as opposed to trend — based pieces."










A label I came across not while researching eco labels but I just loved their concept and they just happen to follow a sustainable philosophy as well. In love.

It's nice somehow that their ethics aren't used as a marketing strategy but just part of the packet. It would be even nicer to think that one day the reality would be that every company has a code of ethics they make public and adhere to work sustainably. In Europe we might be getting closer to that utopic idea, as evironmental awareness has been present for the last 30 years... but in developing countries like Indonesia the reality is somewhat different. The behaviour of the people has not changed much; however technology, the materials and technology have... suddenly and rapidly. Only 20 years ago most food was served on banana leaves that you could throw into the rivers. Now with the very large presence of plastic, it is still commonly asumed that when plastic bags are thrown into rivers, they are taken care of (some magical rivers huh). In fact it takes 500 years for them to decompose. (Keyword: plastic beach. Also the title of the new Gorillaz album addressing environmental issues. Imho, no where as strong musically than the first album but lyrics to make you think).

While I am preparing for a presentation I am giving at a design school about ethical fashion, I am also wondering just how much of this information will be processed when the basic background knowledge or even interest in our environment and the attached issues...The truth shall be revealed at question time.

Weirdly wonderful.

What we do not know, DOES harm us.

Fffound image here.

We don’t know where many of our purchases, for example our clothes come from. Maybe the label on your new t-shirt claims it’s eco-friendly because it’s made of organic cotton. Do you know why organic cotton is better for the environment? It isn’t what one could call friendly to the environment, being the most water-consuming crop (less when it’s organic though) it is just friendlier, a step in the right direction. But have you thought about how far it’s travelled before it landed in your (plastic?) bag? Was the cotton harvested by a 10-year-old in Uzbekistan? Then sent to China to get knitted into jersey to then sewn in Bangladesh in a sweatshop where people don’t earn enough to live off? … But then, how can we even worry about it if we don’t know? We should know (if it’s anything that is worth marketing and selling, don’t worry, we’ll definitely be informed in that case). Transparency is a key point at Patagonia, a California-based outdoor brand; I am impressed at the effort and thought put into the traceability of their garments online and their HONESTY.

Sorry about that rant, it just kind of burst out of me! The little wheels in my head haven’t stopped turning since starting  Daniel Goleman’s “Ecological Intelligence- How knowing the hidden impacts of what we buy can change everything”. Admittedly a read that also makes me feel helpless, as I DO want to make the perfect garment that is both beautiful and also doesn’t hurt the planet or the people that make it and I WANT to live that way too but it feels like a feat impossible to accomplish one-hundred percent. So I’ll read on, get inspired, learn and do my very best. And then keep on improving.

Many of us in Europe are quite aware of green-washing and are starting to question the impact of our purchases, even or especially the ones labelled as “green”… However, many Indonesians aren’t even aware of environmental and social impacts of the fashion industry, any industry at all in fact or why they shouldn't use lots of plastic bags. Therefore, Anglindo has made it their mission to raise awareness in Indonesia. This is a nation of over 234 million people (4th largest population in the world after China, U.S. and India). Therefore, I have been researching general facts on ethical fashion (Kate Fletcher's "Sustainable Fashion & Textiles is being a huge help but I am frustrated to find some contradictory facts on the www) in preparation for a talk at Sekolah Tinggi Desain Indonesia (a design school in Bandung) on that topic. A talk I am doing with 2 out of the only 3 other eco fashion designers in Bandung* for educators and students alike with the aim of getting some wheels turning also in their heads...

I shall be documenting some of my findings on this blog. My mum read watched the vid on organic cotton and told be how shocked she was; she had no idea, in fact she thought by buying a natural fibre such as cotton, she was doing the environment a favour. A common misconception and to be honest what I thought when starting my collection until I started researching and opened that tin of worms...

* Maizir from Firebolt stocks a range of organic cotton tees with prints to raise environmental awareness. I bought some organic jersey cut-offs from him actually, to be used in the Anglindo Winter collection; they are knitted here in Bandung

And with Phae from Parental Advisory. He owns a 'distro' (independent streetwear shop) selling punk-inspired kid's clothing (well cute!) with a skate ramp in the back yard for his intiative called "Adikaka' for low-income kids, providing them with toys, skating&printing workshops to encourage them to finish their school education (amazing, will do another seperate post on that!). 

National Museum Jakarta

The national museum (or Museum Gajah) in Jakarta I visited after the fashion show is definitely worth a visit to catch up on background information of the many cultures inhabiting Indonesia or for an overview of the many ethnicites on these islands. The spacious but dark museum houses a large variety of artifacts with explanations in English (if quite vague but not so badly translated to distort the meaning which cannot be taken for granted). I appreciated being able to examine the of the different cultures of Indonesia under one roof, looking at different techniques and materials and mentalities and comparing them to one another. After my first Indonesian fashion show, it made me think about from which backgrounds these students came from and which aspect of their unique culture influenced them in their designs.

What made me giggle to myself as well as shake my head in doubt was the photograph of a native Sulawesi lady with her bare breasts that had been censored. That photograph, I noticed afterwards, is the only one of a bare-breasted woman, although the traditional costume on many islands only covers the lower part of the body for both female and male; exhibiting these photographs has obviously been avoided although they are only documenting historical facts. History is being censored or avoided due t the ‘pornography legislation’, I assume. Also the grounds upon which a famous local singer of a boy band here has been send to jail for making private sex videos; him and his partner in crime have been banned from Bandung, the city where I live. A screaming reminder of living in a country with a different culture than my own; a reminder also of not taking the rights in Europe for granted. I also wonder if that photograph would have been censored in Sumatra or Bali.

Aaaaanywaaayy, back to the positive aspects of living in Indonesia, which DO outweigh the bad, by a ton of human teeth on a necklace.

Wood fibre cloth “serat kayu” was worn in many areas before cotton was imported. I was ignorant to the significance of this fibre, as the current batik trend seems to flooding textiles over all other traditional textiles. Below some piccies and also one of an ikat weaving device.

 

And please, ladies and gentlemen, would you take not of these hats! It made me want to get into the art of millinery! Is that an idea light bulb on that red hat? 

By the way that woven pig one IS a hat, but only special occasions of course. And the last picture shows adornment to be worn in your ear lobe.

 

And just for good luck, as it is this object's task....

 

Anglindo custom order

Some beautiful piccies sent from Josephine in Germany who has ordered a custom Anglindo Pins dress. She needed the dress is a different colour to white to wear to a wedding and I think this pale turquoise looks just lovely on her!

Why Anglindo's next collection will be using 100% ORGANIC cotton...

Europe buys 1/3 of Uzbek cotton.

Cotton - environmental disaster & lethal pesticides from Environmental Justice Foundation on Vimeo.

Cotton - child labour & human rights abuses from Environmental Justice Foundation on Vimeo.

p.s. why should INDONESIAN designers care about the effect of cotton far far away in UZBEKISTAN?? 

... Indonesia does not grow cotton. that means all the tons and TONS of cotton jerseys and wovens knitted and woven in factories in Bandung are from imported cotton. mostly unorganic cotton from Uzbekistan for example but also form India... loaded with pesticides.

It causes illness and even death for their farmers and their (our!) eco-system. By buying organic cotton you are supporting a heathly and enviromentally friendly fibre. If you are looking for suppliers please join the Indonesian Ethical Fashion Forum on Facebook, LinkedIn, Yahoo or NING (ethical fashion forum).

:)