Sawang Boran is a social community business in the Thailand. They use traditional skills to produce high-quality hand-woven silk ikat fabric made of golden Isan silk.
In a recent trip to Italy, I encountered many a beautiful leather product.
Yet - all of them seemed to too cheap. Cheaper than sustainable - or not?
“The voice of a poor man does not carry very far” they say in Laos. But TAMMACHAT - a Canadian social business - is collaborating with Laotian women weaver communities to change that.
On March 3rd, 2011, ethical fashion was discussed in a Question session of the UK's House of Lords. Much focus was on human rights & the environment. But fashion is driven by SMEs ...
This article has originally been published online by ‘Japan for Sustainability’ (JFS) on May 30, 2005. It is the 1st...
Laces have been a firm part of haute-couture since the medieval, and the fabric still is, and always has been, a luxury product. The StGall exhibition in Switzerland pays tribute to 800 years of lace work featuring the best of European textile artisanry and technology.
Animanà is a calling to give the world an alternative production model that connects the market with the artisans who live in marginal areas of the Andean region. A portrait.
Natural Dyes in large scale industrial processes sounds like a complete 'No Go'. Tintoreria Clerici - one of the oldest and biggest in the business - is going back to their roots, and proving us all wrong.
One by one European manufacturers go out of business, and with them a vast quantity of skills and knowledge is lost. The most recent example is Switzerland's Weisbrod silk weavery. Yet: it seems the tide is changing, for good reason.
'Africa' & 'Fashion' in one sentence, usually evokes the picture of the cliché matron wearing an attire in recognisable prints. To prove that these may indeed just be nothing but clichés, and that there is much much more to African Fashion, is this book's mission
Looking at the sales figures of luxury brands a single conclusion can be drawn: The luxury sector is doing well.
The structure of its customers, and the brands' efforts to maintain expert craftsmanship suggests that the luxury sector is where ethical brands really can start changing the world.
Cotton as an attractive alternative in tsunami regions. Leading textile manufacturers promoting the cultivation of organic cotton. New technologies and methods for natural dyeing processes and recycling. And five categories of Green Fashion in Japan.
Itchiku Kubota is possibly the Japanese Kimono artist par excellence. None of his contemporaries have created such a body of work. At the same time, the artist brings the value of craftsmanship, today often ignored or under-rated, to our attention.
Bryan Whitehead is one of the few remaining textile craftsmen in Japan who not only rears his own silk, but masters the whole textile process. Just as he as learned from seasoned crafts people, he now hands his knowledge on to his students. A plea to best of craftsmen and women cherish their expertise by teaching.
Connecting the present and the past, learning and drawing conclusions from either, is and will remain key to creating a more sustainable fashion industry. So far, learning from the past in particular - in the good and in the bad - has been chiefly neglected. A series of thoughts.
“The raison d'être of Lilou is my desire to connect people with 'their' colour.
I wanted to take the opportunity and expose people to their colour, the ones that make them feel relaxed, energized, happy, motivated..." says Ingrid Vercruyssen, the textile designer behind Lilou.
Report by Jacqueline Shaw from Africa Fashion Guide, on a recent visit to The Gambia and the textile history and techniques she encountered during her stay.
'Make it British', or the equivalent: French, Italian, German, Spanish ..., is often talked of as the ultimate panacea to address the lack of sustainability in the fashion industry. A few reasons why it all is slightly more complicated than it sounds.
Julius Walters of Stephen Walters & Sons is a ninth generation weaver of a family business founded 1720. This is the company that wove the silk for the Queen’s coronation robes and for Princess Diana’s wedding dress.
The reaping (black market) trade in reptile skins for the luxury fashion and accessories market is an openly talked about, albeit ugly, reality of the present.
The recently published UNCTAD BioTrade report and toolkit provides useful and pragmatic info for designers.
