Eco-Design Christmas Fair – this weekend!

I’ll be visiting this Eco-Design fair this weekend: http://ecodesignfair.co.uk/ which is incidentally in the Truman Breweries as well! Hopefully this will be a great opportunity to pick up some great eco christmas gifts!!

Fashion-Conscience-Stall-2

War on Want

Recently The Guardian wrote that “the war of words between anti-poverty campaigners and high-street fashion chain Primark has moved up a gear.”

It’s true. We’ve raised the stakes, calling out Primark for profiting off their exploitation of sweatshop labourers. And we’re not going to quit until Primark takes steps to ensure a living wage for the men and women overseas who stitch the skirts, tops and trousers sold on the retailer’s shelves.

You can help make Primark change its ways. Sign the War on Want’s letter to CEO Paul Marchant to demand an end to the exploitation. They will present all of our signatures to the company’s leaders when they meet at the AGM of Associated British Foods, Primark’s parent company, on 4 December:

You can sign it here: http://lovefashionhatesweatshops.org/page/s/primarkletter

Exhibition Invitation!

Bringing Method to the Madness

Bringing Method to the Madness

Quotes:

“In this new epoch in which the needy are without income and the well heeled are without needs, radical inequality is simply assumed…”

Benjamin R Barber (2007)

“The more he identifies with the dominant images of need, the less he understands his own life and his own desires.”

Guy Debord, p16 The Society of the Spectacle

Of course you don’t ‘need’ another dress”

House of Fraser, ‘temptation on every level’ advertising campaign


Wordle//My Book

Buy Now. Pay Later

Buy Now. Pay Later

I came across this fun site which you can dump your text into to create a beautifully designed word map! I used the text from my book Buy Now. Pay Later – today’s treasure is tomorrow’s trash. I am working on a series of shorter bite-sized learning materials now on the following:

  • Fibres and Fabrics – taking the microscope to our clothes
  • The hands that touch our fashion – a journey into the histories of our garments
  • Fast Fashion – the issues
  • Recycling/Reuse – what to do with your clothes when they are worn out

Watch this space – I will upload Buy Now. Pay Later soon!

EVENT: GLOBAL SOURCING MARKETPLACE

Title: EVENT: GLOBAL SOURCING MARKETPLACE
Location: CHELSEA COLLEGE OF ART & DESIGN, LONDON
Link out: Click here
Description: As a culmination of 2009’s Spotlight on Sourcing event series, the Ethical Fashion Forum (EFF) will be holding a two-day Ethical Sourcing Marketplace in London. The marketplace will bring together representatives of brands and retailers with manufacturers, suppliers and cooperatives working to high ethical standards. Invitations to attend and exhibit are extended internationally. The event will include a series of short seminars during the day introducing specific suppliers and products.
Start Time: 10:00
Date: 2009-11-21
End Time: 13:00

What if clothes could speak

A fellow CSM student on my course has been getting creative with some old shoes! What a great way to inspire new ideas for how to use your old, unwanted shoes – by turning them into art! http://www.jotta.com/magazine/outabout/415/-what-if-art-could-walk-what-if-clothes-could-speak-#c000156

The social impact for ethical fashion

http://bibico-fashionablyfair.blogspot.com/2009/10/how-many-of-us-are-opening-our-closets.html

“The creative talents and fashionable designs of such brands still seem to fall on deaf ears. Granted, the importance of ethical fashion has risen in the last two or three years, but there still seems to be a struggle to convince the general public that ethics can be beautiful. In fact, the items of ethical clothing most commonly purchased tend to be organic t-shirts and small items, which don’t necessarily fall into the category of high fashion. Clothes are a luxury and, unfortunately, become an exception to our ethical standards. Less than 50% of people believe that ethical clothing can be fashionable.”

FAST FASHION – Cheap, addictive and dangerous

From the rise of supermarket fashion to the growth of a national addiction

Fast Fashion gathered pace from the end of the 1990’s when brands began to look for new ways to increase profits. Globalisation had grown rapidly in the 80’s and 90’s and paved the way for value and mid price brands to shift the bulk of their production to the developing world where labour and overheads cost a fraction of those in Europe. Read more

EVENT: The Big Swish

Title: The Big Swish
Location: London
Link out: Click here Read more