Category: On Fashion and sustainability
Consu-More to Consu-Less (Consu-Meren naar Consu-Minderen)
A lot of people are saying that things have to change, that the current way of capitalist economy is literally draining the earth from its resources and 170 years ago Carl Marx recognized that capitalism in its current form would never close the gap between rich and poor, but would keep enlarging this gap. How I wish I could say he was wrong about this, but it is safe to say that 170 years after the publication of his Manifesto, that he was right on that topic. I am not saying that everything in there should be treated like the Holy Bible. And after a close reading of Spinoza’s work I am not so sure that that story needs to be left alone either – there is most certainly room for interpretation and critique on either of those books. But only one of those tells us something about the slave-labor…
Club Circulair 2019
On the 10th of January 2019 I visited Club Circulair at Blue City Rotterdam. Blue City is a former tropical swimming pool. It closed over 10 years ago, because it didn’t make enough money to keep it running or guarantee the safety of its visitors. Now it facilitates research centers for making food out of waste, a circular restaurant and several spaces to organize conferences (mostly on topics about circular economy). I came here to build a network: to meet like-minded people and bundle our ideas, talents and efforts and share our knowledge. Circularity has nothing to do with keeping ones knowledge to oneself, but being open-source, sharing research and places where to find materials for our small businesses. When I arrived I soon found our that the majority of the people present worked for the Department Sustainability of the city Rotterdam. This was a public event, but also the…
The latest fashion: the concept of re-fashioning and upcycling
It seems to be the latest trend in fashion, and on many more fields: re-fashioning and upcycling. The concept of making new items from old, worn-down materials (whether or not in combination with new materials). A whole identity is even build on these concepts: the hipsters, and on a granter scale: gentrification. This re-introduces not only old materials, but also classic craftsmanship into the estranged and overly modernized society, where most things are commercialized into the most cost-efficient course, which also means cheap off-shore labor to manufacture our everyday products. I also follow this “new” trend with my own company – Fabula Vestimenta- , but how “modern” are these ideas actually? In 2013 I visited a exhibition of Jean-Paul Goutier in the Kunsthal, Rotterdam (the Netherlands). There I watched this documentary where J.P. Goutier mentions that at the very start of his carrier (in 1977) he didn’t have the money…
Who are my (potential) customers
Who are my (potential) customers? Before, when my company was called Faerytale Fashion, this question was easy to answer. I was present in the gothic-scène, my nightlife, day-life and social life all existed within the gothic-scène. I dressed according to the guidelines of the subculture, not because I thought this uniform was obligatory, but because I really liked the dress-code. I liked looking like a gothic princess (or queen at some times) and I loved the way this look made me feel. My company reflected my own style: gothic, but a bit more colorful than just 50 shades of black. I had a boot at gothic/fantasy fairs, and even at some concerts, next to a website that I promoted on these events. My main problem was that I always loved colors. I have tried to limit my color-scheme to that of the gothic world: wine-red, dark violet, moss-green and midnight…
Endurable Designing in Energy-Saving Designing
What does energy-saving designing mean? Family-resemblance in collections My former post was about using and re-using endurable materials, but energy-saving is not only a process that helps the environment or the local economy. It is also an aspect that the couturier has to perform on his or her own designs. I think most couturiers made the same mistakes when they started-out: having the freedom to design whatever they liked, throwing all of their creativity into their new brand. All of this is very well understandable, but is costs an incredible amount of energy on the past of the designer itself. Every single design has to be figured out into patterns, finding the wright fabrics and finding ways to finishing the product off. I certainly made this starters-mistake too, being too enthusiastic about all the ideas in my head that wanted to come out. This starters-mistake had the consequence that I…
Sustainability and Sustainable Fashion
A lot of blogs give attention to the looks of fashion, how to wear fashion and how to combine fashion items with other (fashion)items. When these items fall out of fashion, there are many websites that can tell or show you how to refashion or upcycle these discarded items. When you are not a creative person however, you can make sure these products get re-used elsewhere (through a thrift-shop or donating them to the salvation army) or get recycled in a more industrial way. Off-course we do not want the mountain of garbage to pile up unnecessarily… There is no question on earth that I discourage these creative outbursts of re-fashioning and upcycling! As long as the materials are still good, usable and sturdy, there is no point whatsoever in wasting them. Every step to industrially process these materials (as garbage or as recyclable materials) it will ALWAYS have an…