Textiles, Thank You Tracy

Facts...

I found an article on the BBC about the fashion world and its sustainability and some facts and figures that are news to me...

The government has launched a campaign to tackle the environmental impact of a "fast fashion" culture.

About two million tonnes of clothing end up in landfill every year.

More than 300 retailers, producers and designers are part of the "sustainable clothing action plan", launched at the start of London Fashion Week.

Ministers say customers should be sure clothing is made, sold and disposed of "without damaging the environment or using poor labour practices".

The initiative outlines commitments to make fashion more sustainable throughout its lifecycle: from design and manufacture to retail and disposal.

It hopes to draw attention to the environmental impact of cheap, throwaway clothes, which have become hugely popular on the High Street but are adding to the UK's landfill.

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) says the clothing and textiles sector in the UK produces around 3.1m tonnes of carbon dioxide, 2m tonnes of waste and 70m tonnes of waste water per year.

Gases such as CO2, emitted by fossil fuel burning, and methane, released from landfill sites, are widely believed to be contributing to global warming.

As part of the action plan:

• Marks and Spencer, Tesco and Sainsbury's have pledged to increase their ranges of Fairtrade and organic clothing, and support fabrics which can be recycled more easily
• Tesco is banning cotton from countries known to use child labour
• Charities such as Oxfam and the Salvation Army will open more sustainable clothing boutiques featuring high quality second-hand clothing and new designs made from recycled garments
• The Centre for Sustainable Fashion at the London College of Fashion will be resourced to provide practical support to the clothing sector
• The Fairtrade Foundation will aim for at least 10% of cotton clothing in the UK to be Fairtrade material by 2012.

The Minister for Sustainability, Lord Hunt, announced the plan at the launch of the sixth season of estethica, the world's leading showcase of ethical designer fashion, at London Fashion Week.

He said climate change was a bigger problem than the economy, and the clothing industry was "responsible for lots and lots of greenhouse gas emissions".

Launching the action plan, he said: "It's going to be great for the fashion industry, great for the climate and for anyone who's in the supply industry in developing countries to those working in retail.

"We believe customers want sustainable clothing and we want to give them as much as possible."

Complex challenges

Jane Milne, business environment director of the British Retail Consortium, said retailers should be "applauded, not criticised, for providing customers with affordable clothing, particularly during these tough economic times".

"They're raising standards for overseas workers, offering clothes made from organic and Fairtrade cotton and encouraging the re-use and recycling of unwanted clothes," she added.

The ASBCI, the forum for clothing and textiles, said the industry was "very cognisant" of the environmental issues it faced and "highly motivated" to find solutions.

Chairman Malcolm Ball said the challenges facing the industry and the consumer were "complex".

Taking cotton as an example, he said organic cotton was highly desirable but represented only a fraction of world production, adding that growing it "requires vast amounts of the most precious resource on earth - water".

"There are many voices who argue the current Western model of fast and cheap fashion is totally unsustainable in the medium to long term," he said.

"The challenge is to reduce the amount of damage we are doing now, while a revised, sustainable model of consumption is created."

Allana McAspurn, of ethical fashion campaign body Made-By, said change would be gradual: "It's about continuous improvement - a step-by-step approach.

"We've created a situation where we've got really cheap clothes and that's not going to re-addressed overnight."

natalie chanin.

melanie bowles.

Sustainable Show s/s11 Vogue

BY royal appointment, we piled into the courtyard of Clarence House this afternoon having practiced our curtseys – not an easy feat in serious Jil Sander heels – but in fact there was no sign of HRH The Prince of Wales upon whose summons we were there.
Mayor Boris Johnson arrived though, so we were assured that this wasn’t just a fashion show and there was a greater cause at work. In the highest profile sustainable fashion event to make it on to the London Fashion Schedule to date, established designers including Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney had provided clothing that ticks all the ethical boxes, to be shown alongside the work of new eco-conscious star labels including Christopher Raeburn, Kate Halfpenny, Made and People Tree.
The result? A show that was about superstar models – Erin O’Connor, Audrey Marnay and Jacquetta Wheeler for starters - nicely styled outfits and a spectacular setting, all of which successfully put sustainability into the limelight and proved it’s a campaign worth taking notice of.
Raeburn’s parachute silk hoodies are unmistakeable and have a cult-worthy desirability already, and teamed with billowing multicoloured capes made for great fashion statements. Meanwhile sharply tailored shirt dresses, high waisted trousers and silky vests were elegant and chic, and had not a sniff of the old eco stereotype about them.
Held to celebrate HRH’s new charity initiative STARTS – A Garden Party To Make A Difference – a series of events dedicated to educate people about sustainable living – this was a brilliant way to add glamour to the cause. 

VandR

I love this image of a stand alone collar, made me instantly think to use this as inspiration in a design or a few anyways, Using more than one, overlapping one another, to create my own neck piece to show a similarity to the brass coils of the burmese women, 

we shall see how it goes...

greenfinder.

a sustainable clothing company that i suspect aren't doing well. unlike h&m there prices are very expensive hense why they have sales on some items of clothing as they can't sell them.

pugh!

a little inspiration for cuffs & collars..

also, the ribbed effect on the bottom of the trousers and on the wribs etc remind me of the look we were going for so instead of using pipe cleaners we could pleat it really carefully?