Realization

Back in the mid-nineties, when the plain old internet became the WWW, I had a link on my plain, gray home page to "What's New on the Web". It was cool because every day there would be a few dozen new sites, and they were all either science sites or creative arts, at least until one day there was a REAL ESTATE web site. Now the very idea of "What's New on the Web" is impossible to fathom.

The good news is that the same thing has happened to sustainable fashion, eco-fashion, green fashion, call it what you will. Every day my news alerts bring me another trunkload of announcements from various blogs, PR flacks and fashionista newsies about this or that designer or manufacturer who has joined the movement. So it is clearly time to re-think the keywords for those news alerts in order to stay on the edge of the trend. It's real, folks.

Whose energy?

CBS' The Early Show featured Plenty Magazine's Jessica Tzerman and a green fashion show on Thursday. It's good news that the main stream media is really picking up the emerging story of ethical fashion. What stopped in my tracks was this line "Eco-friendly because it's hand-woven and hand-twisted, meaning no energy use. $180". Whoa. As a student of the industrial revolution, I find that glib assurance pretty hard to swallow. It's not my hands or Ms. Tzerman's, but it's somebody's hands weaving and twisting the silk fiber for Indigo Handloom's Organic Wild Silk Shawl. Human labor also requires energy, though of a different kind than an electric loom. I would be very upset if "ethical fashion" meant denying textile and clothing workers in developing countries the right to use labor-saving machinery.

I knit. It takes me a long time to make a pair of socks (longer if I break a finger mid-project, but that's another story). But I choose to take the time because I enjoy the process and it gives me pleasure to wear things that are handmade. But the maker must enjoy the making. I remember "The Song of the Shirt":



With fingers weary and worn,

With eyelids heavy and red,

A woman sat in unwomanly rags,

Plying her needle and thread —
Stitch! stitch! stitch!

In poverty, hunger, and dirt,

And still with a voice of dolorous pitch, —

Would that its tone could reach the Rich! —

She sang this "Song of the Shirt!"

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, it's not just what we consume, it's how and how much. A few people buying $180 shawls and $255 shoes will make a modest impact on the environment, but it does not solve the riddle of how to ethically clothe the millions of less-affluent people, especially if the pace of fashion change continues at its current level.

Garanimals reborn

When I talk to people about unisex children's clothing in the 1970s and early 80s, I get wistful reminiscing about Garanimals, the mix and match clothing line for little kids. They never really went away, but it seemed that way if you didn't shop at Wal*Mart. But they have now resurfaced with a new ad campaign. I can say for a fact, from the very genderizedwebsite that they have not retained their unisex vibe, but they have one thing right -- rejection of adult sensibilities (and sexuality). My favorite quote, from adman Gardner Nelson:

"How do you make a brand contemporary in the '70s and '80s
contemporary today? Everyone's saying three is the new five. What
we did was say let kids be kids."

Amen to that! Now if they could add a unisex line that recognizes that gender stereotypes are not innate, that would be peachy.

Might the U.S. finally catch up with Canada?

It's not fashion, but it's good news to me, anyway. About twenty-three years ago, we visited my brother in Ontario and marveled at the milk bags that had replaced plastic bottles and cartons. They fit in a special holder and use MUCH less material than the jugs so common in the U.S. Now I have seen about six articles about the wonders of milk bags and how they might actually be adopted in the States.

It's about frickin' time!

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Fashion Week watch #1

“Sustainable fashion has all the makings of a trend...but we know now it’s a movement.”

That's Julie Gilhart, fashion direct of Barneys, talking about the stampede of top designers to participate in the Earth Pledge fashion show on the eve of New York Fashion Week. In what is becoming a predictable tone, the NY Times article is alternatively informative and snarky:

"Jessica Stam, the leonine fashion model with honey-colored hair and outstanding high arches, tried on a very short ivory dress by the label Rodarte. It was described as being made of hemp silk and a “Piña cobweb,” which sounded as if it might be a drink order for Elvira."

Heaven forbid a reporter should explain that piña is a cellulosic fiber made from pineapple leaf fibers that has a long history of use in Philippine traditional dress. Or help consumers make informed decisions about its sustainability or the ethics of its manufacture. So here's my bit (with help from various internet site, especially AKLAN forum journal and Barongs R Us:

Piña is similar chemically and physically to linen; its production nearly died out in the second half of the twentieth century, as traditional Philippine dress declined in use. Even with a revival of interest in piña over the last twenty years, it is still far from being a mainstream fiber. Is it eco-friendly? Sustainable? Ethically produced? Right now piña is produced on a small, local scale, and the fiber comes from native varieties of pineapple. I didn't find a whole lot of scientific information on piña cultivation, but it seems to be better than regular cotton (which requires lots of pesticides to produce) and slower than bamboo (pineapple leaves take 18 months to grow to a usable size, compared with bamboo which grows like Jack's beanstalk.) Production is small-scale, labor-intensive and time-consuming, which means it's not likely to be industrialized. It would be nice to be able to verify that the fiber producers and weavers are fairly paid, but -- again -- it's not clear. As always, the manufacturers who can make those claims and know their value will let buyers know, but lack of information doesn't tell you much. The main drawback for the average consumer -- green or not -- is that piña cloth remains a VERY expensive material. Don't expect it in your local Target any time soon. Even the high fashion versions are often blends with silk; when using silk brings DOWN the price, you know your wallet is in jeopardy!

Examples of piña and piña-blend fashions advertised as environmentally friendly and/or fair trade:

La Herminia (Philippines)
Patistestoro (Philippines)

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