EVENT: sustainable fashion - from awareness to action

My amazing coursemates have organized it and it sounds like an event not to miss! Looking forward to hearing the speakers myself tomorrow.

Inspiring thinkers

We are lucky enough to have some lectures with some great thinkers of sustainability and design. Kate Fletcher is a researcher at LCF and regularly has sessions with us. On the first one she asked us to read this article in preparation for it. It's on the state of the ecology today and really puts things into perspective. Her book is definitely my bible when it comes to sustainable fashion. Been reading loads around the topic and hope to post about some but the book club on ethical fashion forum for reviews!

   

Only yesterday we there was an inspiring talk (marathon) located at St. Martins and part of our Uni-wide green week. Jonathan Chapman was a keynote speaker; I soaked up his book emotionally durable design, so seeing him in flesh was quite something. Glad to be able to say that he's a good speaker. He recently did some consulting for Puma who seem to be addressing sustainability recently... might write a post later on what I think about quantifying and managing sustainability (read: not too keen on that idea).  Carole Collet was also there, who I'd heard at the interweave event at the Victoria and Albert museum; she helped set up the MA textile futures at CSM and in researching into biological structures for textiles. Amazing really. Some other PhD students spoke & I was hugely inspired (kind of made me want to do one?! we'll see).

I recently discovered, pretty much by chance, openwear. It was after visiting this website that I made myself a pair of slippers for the chilly winter days. Have a browse and you'll see why. This initiative seems to be set up partly at least by Becky Earley, who was also at the talk and set up TEDs Ten. This is something that will really help me with my current essay actually and for which I will be interviewing Tim Parsons on Friday which I am excited about. Talking about essays... ciao for now

details - melting tags

These clothes tags were created to reduce the volume of waste - tags made if soap instead of paper, so when you send you new item of clothing throught he wash, your tag will be dissolved with it. Clever clever. Well, quite clever anyway! Different websites suggest however that this idea is only halfbaked as mention of its carbon footprint or whether the soap is made of environmentally friendly materials is lacking. Ah yes, it's never that that simple is it. However, my opinion lies somewere between that of the blind enthusiasts and the supercritical: I think it is important to consider all the details around clothing manufacture to be addressed  in innovative ways, but don't forget to question. Hopefully people's knowledge and curiosity will help distiguish between ideas with true potential and ones created for a gimmic to jump onto the green bandwagon.

... Speaking of innovations. How amazing is this biomimetic concept taken from snakes shedding their skins to fabrics shedding layers to reduce their laundering impact. Check out the vid on her website or the London College of Fashion website I found this on.

Press

Slightly belated entry due having to entertain some guests- my boyfriend's family came to visit us here in Indonesia and we went to Bali/Lombok&Gili Islands for a week! Internet-abstinence did me good but there's a backlog now I am still catching up on almost a week later.

Sunset at Gili Meno, Lombok
paradise desert island 

It was also during this week off that Anja Anglindo was featured in the national Indonesian newspaper "Kompas". The journalist interviewed me at the STDI ethical fashion event. The article is a well-rounded piece (apart from not mentioning STDI which isn't quite fair) including a definition of ethical fashion (I had given him a translation in Indonesian). So I hope it has raised some awareness in a country where the knowledge  of the environmental and social impact of fashion is practically non-existent.
A big *Makasih* goes to Phae form Parental Advisory for his enthusiasm and translating my presentation; it was so challenging doing it in bahasa (my language skills seemed to decrease with increasing exhaustion)!

Anglindo in Kompas newspaper

Here's the article although it's a really bad shot of me, ugh! Was seriously tempted to pixelate my visage. Will add some more pics as soon as I find my camera cable, promise. Have some inspiring detail shots and some pics form my visit to Threads of Life in Bali.

Batik workshop at STDI : Hand-batik ("canting")
 It's much more difficult than it looks! 

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.

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!). 

Behind the scenes... Anglindo photo shoot...

Scenery behind the warung where the first half of the photo shoot took place.

This week has been very exciting indeed. The collection was complete after months of hard work and the photo shoot followed. The theme was Tea Creatures with a dazed, summery feel, 2 girls chasing, dancing, teasing, dreaming in the plantations.

We left the city at 6AM for clear air and blue skies on our quest to find the perfect spot in the tea plantations of Ciater, about an hour away from Bandung. Theo and Amanda were to be my creatures for the day, Sapta was in charge of the click-flash-focus, and Anya and Iyey backcombed hair and powdered noses.

Sapta photographing the beautiful creatures.

Amanda with make-up artists Anya and Iyey.

The rolling hills covered in the thick-stumped short tee trees with the long wispy trees poking out, peppered on the plantation gave us a stunning backdrop . We stopped at a warung (kiosk) to have a strong sugary coffee or Bandrek (local all-healing-drink with ginger, cardamon, coconut shavings, brown sugar and magic spices) and voila!, out the back door we found our shooting venue. It all went pretty smoothly, despite bloodthirsty-mozzies and we even managed to get in the car and head home 10 mins before a tropical rainstorm crashed down on us.

Anja-Anglindo herself with the pretty ladies.

And most importantly, of course... the photos... well, see for yourself...

For all pics, have a peek on the website.

Studio Anglindo

Lovely people,

I would like to introduce you all to Studio Anglindo.

Studio Anglindo is a fashion label by

Anja Crabb. Anglindo is based in

Bandung, Indonesia and

offers uniquely

beautiful

clothing

which

is

made with

sustainability

in mind. That

means no sweatshops,

a zero waste policy and it

even has an organic cotton range.

To celebrate Anglindo's launch, we have a promotional offer

... to see what this offer is, check out the voucher below

and

please forward it to anybody who may be interested...

Please visit our website & online boutique :

www.studio-anglindo.com

Connecting People : Ethical Fashion Indonesia

Image courtesy of May Cortazzi

Because it's literally impossible to find any information on the internet on ethical fashion in Indonesia.

Because being here shows me that people living in the same city interested in the same thing need don't know of each others existence.

Because promoting ethical fashion will support ethical businesses and allow them to grow.

Because people are ignorant of the environmental and social impact of the garment industry.

Because THERE IS SO MUCH POTENTIAL.

Oh my, I am getting very emotional about this topic. From meeting new people I am talking to eco fashion about almost every month, it seems to have accelerated to every week ... if people are not already involved, I am getting a response of interest,of curiosity.

Together with May Cortazzi of Regenerate, with whom I have been brooding about these forums and groups since we met a couple of weeks ago, we have finally done it. May is a fantastically motivated and engaged designer and owner of an ethical casual-wear brand based in Nottingham. I met her when she was in Indonesia with other finalists of the UK young entrepreneurs award.

Here they are:

Ethical Fashion Indonesia on NING
Ethical Fashion Forum an International network of ethical designers.
http://ethicalfashionforum.ning.com/group/ethicalfashionindonesia

Ethical Fashion Indonesia on Linkedin

Ethical Fashion Indonesia on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=106918886021994&ref=ts

and Yahoo group coming soon.

Just for an example: today I met with a supplier of natural dyed, organic cotton from Bali, they also have organic cotton jersey. How long have I been searching to find just that! Do they have a website? Nooooo. Does she have facebook? Well, of course, she has the facebook application on her blackberry! So, join the group, young lady and get some orders in. Fantastic.