Category: Uncategorized

Conclusion – Sustainability as Design

I have always known that history plays a role in every aspect of life, but over the past 10 weeks as I have tracked the evolution of textile crafts, I have found the role that history plays in what we wear to be both alarming and inspiring. What I have found out about the link between issues of environmental concern and textile production has not necessarily been a surprise to me. The “narrative” of modern fashion is one that is rooted in status and profitability, so it is not groundbreaking that the results of that are an incredibly negative impact on the earth – and even more immediately on those who exist outside of the Western consciousness, but who are subject to all of the detrimental effects of our material tastes.

I carried out my research hesitant to state any opinions or draw any serious conclusions because I knew how much I had to learn. Now, after ten weeks of in depth research on the subject, I can say that I know without a shadow of a doubt that the current system we have in place for the global fashion industry is not sustainable. The choices that we as a society have made over history have created a textile chain that impacts the air we breath, the soil we grow in, and the water we drink. It negatively impacts people across the world and demands that they be treated as less than human in order to meet the production requirements of our style palette.

This is an issue that has made its way to Western consciousness lately, but only just. Because there are so many steps to the textile chain, large corporations are able to claim that their practices are sustainable without being held accountable for the actions that are taken by the factories that they are outsourcing to. Many times, a company that puts emphasis on environmentally friendly practices will cut corners and pay low wages to overseas workers. Other companies will tout their ethical labor practices but will cut corners by using non-organic cotton, synthetic dyes, etc. Unfortunately, this shows that though, there is more awareness in the textile world, the methods in which companies are going about being profitable still holds to the traditional model of “pulling the wool over the eyes” (literally) of the consumer who genuinely wants to make conscious decisions.

Other than that, there is truly no one sustainable solution to our current issue. Throughout my research, I found that industrialization and cutting corners was used as the one solution to meet market demands and increase profitability. I believe it would be incredibly damaging to try to reverse that with the same methods. Instead, the only method is to employ multiple methods – upcycling, thrifting, natural fibers growing locally, small scale mills, local artisans, big name designers that are transparent with their business practices – all of these have different levels of accessibility and are all better than the current model in some way, shape, or form.

As a small business owner, the only way to be competitive against these practices is to be as transparent as possible – an educated customer base will be a loyal customer base. The old model of fashion and clothing designs a certain look for status elevation and marketability. I believe that the new model should be a design that is the product of the sustainable methods used to create it.

Spinning from the Beginning Week 3

The drum carder next to the alpaca wool that I used for the blend.

This past week at the spinning class at Arbutus Folk School, we began to dive into carding and picking fibers. We started class by going over the basic tools and equipment used in carding. Emily was kind enough to bring both her drum carder and hand carders with her to class, so we were able to get hands on experience.

The drum carder is just a mechanized version of hand carders – instead of manually brushing the two up against each other, you simply turn the knob that spin circular carders against each other, thus creating the same effect in a much more efficient manner. I also found that the drum carder was easier for keeping the carded fibers together which then makes it a bit more simple to draft from.

Hand carders and pickers.

While experimenting with the carders, I was able to blend alpaca, Jacob’s wool, and linen together and I’m pretty excited to try spinning it. I learned pretty quickly that I much prefer spinning alpaca to sheep’s wool, but the alpaca was a bit elastic and didn’t want to come off the carder – that’s where throwing the Jacob’s wool into the blend helped a lot.

I actually had no idea how versatile and easy it is to blend different materials, and its actually led me to wonder why we don’t do more of that in the modern day fashion industry. Surely utilizing even a little bit of many different kinds of readily available fibers makes much more sense than only using two or three crops for the entire world’s textile market.

I’m really excited to have had the opportunity to have this hands on experience – I’ve come up with ideas that I never would have even begun to dream if I had not gone back to the basics of textile production. Over the course of the next week I will be spinning, plying, and hopefully (if I have the time) dying the alpaca blend that I created.

 

Week 6

This past week, I focused on learning the logistics behind plant fibers and how they are processed into textiles. In order to do this, I read a few scholarly articles, continued reading Cotton Khadi in Indian Economy, watched some educational videos, and consulted with Dave on his extensive knowledge of the conventional cotton industry.

I was really inspired by how similar to wool the process of plant fiber production is and even more inspired by the possibility of blending together various different fibers in order to create textiles out of whatever materials are available in the immediate environment. Because of this, I have become increasingly confused as to why the modern day clothing industry is so dead set on having cotton make up for more than 90% of the natural fibers used.

Image result for Plane spraying Cotton fields
A plane spraying defoliant on cotton crops. Image source here

After speaking with Dave about the topic of conventional cotton vs. organic cotton, I am very skeptical about the possibility of having a cotton industry that makes any sense to continue on a global scale (though that seems to be the theme of my opinions on pretty much any textile industry). It seems to me that cotton is a fiber whose purpose we have exacerbated over time. Perhaps it was an ideal crop to grow in specific regions at one time, but with our declining water availability, increasing pests and pesticide resistance, and depleted soil health, I do believe we are better off leaving cotton in the past.

Nettle fabric. Image source here.

Even with all of the less than positive discoveries, this has been an incredibly inspiring week for me. As I’ve looked into issues of agriculture and how closely tied it is to fiber production, I have become incredibly interested in the idea of pulling resources from your immediate environment and blending them in with fibers best suited for textile production in order to create a garment that is at least partially sourced locally.

Conveniently, the spinning teacher brought her drum carder with her to our class this week. So, I was able to experiment with this concept a little bit during this week’s spinning class and I am hoping to continue to grow this idea throughout the quarter and perhaps even into my next quarters at Evergreen.

Notable Concept: Textile Chain

One of the concept that I think has been the backbone of a lot of the sustainability research I have been doing is that of the textile chain. The textile chain can be defined as the steps that fiber undergoes in order to become a piece of fabric or a garment. There are various different chains associated with different fibers, and even more specific chains associated with those different fibers (take worsted and woolen, for example).

Khadi cotton on the runway by Pallavi Murdia image source here.

Something that I have noticed while looking at various different business models is that mass production = less variety in tasks accomplished. It appears that the bigger the operation, the fewer tasks the operation is actually able to carry out. For instance, a cotton farmer who is growing acres upon acres of cotton and relying on that crop for income is only going to have enough headspace to focus on the act of growing and harvesting. They will not have the time nor energy to worry about processing the cotton into something other than what it is in its organic form. Because of this, they are most likely not going to be specific about who they are selling their product to. So, another large operation is likely going to be the one to purchase the thousands of pounds of cotton (take a ginning factory in Indonesia, for instance), which they will only have the power to see it through the ginning process and nothing else. Thus, the textile chain becomes globalized and you find yourself with a pair of pants that were grown in Texas, processed in India, sewn in Bangladesh, dyed in China, and distributed in Turkey.

Harris tweed on the runway by Brora. Image source here.

This is something that I think the cottage industry model offers a better alternative to. Oftentimes, that small scale production is what allows craftspeople to take part in more than one step of that chain. I do believe that this is a marketing point that small businesses really should be able to use to their advantage. In the case of khadi cotton, I believe it was just that “marketing” strategy (in the form of the Swadeshi movement) that has lead to its endurance over time in a market flooded with cheaper alternatives. In the same way, hand knit jerseys and tweed from the islanders of Scotland & Ireland are not heavily sought after for their pricing or convenience, but for their locality and the traditional narrative and histories associated with them. This allows the wearer to make a statement on their values, which is fashion, in a lot of ways, in its truest form.