Winter 2011, D3: TheKey.to, Berlin.About dynastic companies launching ethical brands, and my personal 'Best Of' list taken from the attending brands.
The Higg Index is an apparel and footwear industry self-assessment standard for assessing environmental and social sustainability throughout the supply chain.
The Higg Index 1.0 was released on June 26, 2012.
J&R Designs in Homerton is a small factory in London's East End, the only remaining of its kind, run by the Persaud family, and which specialises in hand crafted quality leather handbags manufacturing. A portrait.
After 10 years in the make, CETI, the European Centre for Innovative Textiles, was finally inaugurated in October 2012. The aim of the research centre is to give the textile industry a platform to research and prototype innovative textiles that can be used in sectors like: Medical, Sport & Leisure, Hygiene, and Protection sectors representing 25% of technical textile manufacturing industry; building and civil engineering that account for 10% of the production; transport making 26% of the market volume (and 15% of the market value) of technical textiles.
The Guardian Sustainable Business & Observer Ethical Awards 2012 edition in fashion terms. Cradle to Cradle is becoming popular in the nitty gritty of the carpet industry, Puma's Profit and Loss Accounts get credit, and Kids imitate Katherin Hamnett's 1980's slogan T-shirts to raise awareness.
The RSA brought together a group of thinkers and practitioners who have each been exploring ways to bring the principles of 'slow' to their life and work – whether in finance, culture or fashion. A brief summary, and some key insights.
Cork is one of the most sustainable natural materials extant. Portugal supplies about two thirds of the world's cork, but the increased use of plastic bottle stoppers for wine, instead of cork, poses a threat to the country's industry. This post presents some data around cork and describes the bigger picture. The follow up post will look at how innovative uses of cork find application in fashion.
The most recent event in the 'Perspectives on Future Sustainable Design' series highlighted the progress made in developing sustainable design approaches. Both, from a theoretical as well as from a systemic point of view. A summary.
"Salaula" tells us the whole story of second-hand clothing. It brings together 2 complementary aspects: Cultural & Economic analysis, and the voice of the real people.
North Italian fabric manufacturer Bonotto is returning to their roots and at the same time giving luxury fashion fabrics a new lease of authenticity and craftsmanship.
For their ‘Fabbrica Lenta‘ (the slow factory) range, they have unearthed the looms as well as dye techniques their district made its name with in the early 20th century.
Grom is an Italian, organic and ethical ice cream brand. But beyond this achievement, all their consumables are biodegradable and compostable. At no extra price to the consumer.
Wanting to buy hobby knitting yarn more ethically is a difficult undertaking. Read what why it can be problematic, and 'do good by doing better'.
This free introductory, extensively researched guide to ethically sourcing fashion from India, aims at small(er) ethical designers during the first stage of their efforts.
“Innovatively combining new British and sustainable fabrics with reclaimed textiles” – this is Goodone’s raison d’etre in their own words. Their most recent initiative: A proper upcycling factory that can cope with both, pre- and post-consumer waste, and is the first ‘streamlined’ upcycling facility equipped and ready to work with designers on something more than one-offs.
Fashion Futures has analysed the fashion industry and come up with 4 scenarios for 2025. Opnuu, a UK start up, plans to commercialise clothing rental - outlined already in the Community Couture scenario.
We need new business models that are not predicated on selling more stuff to more people.
And because in the 'Here and Now', there is truly not much more to say, I could finish with the above quote.
Except that: Those ‘new business models’ are not reality. Far from it.
About the Role of the Board in the 'Why'.
Circular economy is the antonym of linear economy. Linear economy has been the dominant industrial model in our history and postulates production is followed by consumption that then ends up with the disposal of used products. As opposed to this, circular economy seeks to rebuild capital, whether this is financial, manufactured, human, social or natural and sees products having a longer or a never-ending life that are either re-used as new inputs to create new products or shared and co-owned by different consumers.
This article has originally been published online by ‘Japan for Sustainability’ (JFS) on May 30, 2005. It is the 1st...
The 'Everything must go' exhibition, that took place from January 20 to 22, 2012, introduced the wider public to the details of the global value chain for discarded clothing. Drawing from the results of 5 years of research, the numbers and facts are staggering, and intriguing at the same time.
The story of London Cloth is a rather engaging one. It all boils down to a rather single minded fascination for looms, mechanical ones specifically. 2 years on, the hobby has become a proper weaving shed with both mechanical and power looms, and clients such as Ben Sherman.
