Himane Sustainable Designs

Can Kenya break the global fashion industry's low-wage model?

2018-07-02T22:57:00.003-04:00

Catherine Makie, 27, sews bow ties for European and US markets in Nairobi’s Kibera slum. Photograph: Anna Dubuis

The textile industry is the second largest employer in developing countries, but most artisans are trapped in domestic markets with no links to international trade.

At a tailors’ workshop in Kibera, Nairobi’s sprawling slum, business has gone global for a group of women.

After years spent sewing clothes for the local market, the 10 tailors have started on international orders for bow ties.

Their client is Wakuu, a two-year-old business employing Nairobi artisans to create suits and other garments using local fabric, kitenge, which they then sell in Europe and the US.

The women have been hired to create accessories and Wakuu says it will reinvest a portion of its profits into further training, as well as providing support to their families, for instance through improved childcare facilities.

“Fashion can be a major growth driver for African nations,” says Daan Vreeburg, co-founder of Wakuu. “I saw we could build a business and employ people, give them a fair wage and break the poverty chain.”

The Kenyan garments sector remains relatively small, with just 40,000 workers according to a report (pdf) commissioned by development organisation Hivos.

But if the African Development Bank gets its way, this is set to change. In 2015 it launched the Fashionomics initiative, an online business platform designed to boost small businesses in the fashion and textile industry. The bank believes the sector could generate 400,000 jobs in sub-Saharan Africa by 2025.

For these jobs to be sustainable, the region will need to break away from the model the fashion industry has pursued elsewhere in the world and which has already done damage in Kenya, according to Nicola Round, campaigns manager at UK-based Labour Behind the Label.

“In Kenya, like many other African countries, the domestic textile industry has suffered because of the ‘race to the bottom’ by global brands seeking out low-cost labour,” says Round.

Reaching global markets at all is also a challenge. The textile industry is the second largest employer in developing countries, after agriculture, but the majority of artisans are trapped in domestic markets without links to international trade.

Wakuu is part of the steady flow of socially conscious fashion brands trying to challenge this norm by sourcing artisans from marginalised communities to produce their fashion lines.

Others include Artisan.Fashion, which connects Kenyan artisans to luxury brands such as Vivienne Westwood and Stella McCartney in a bid to pull high fashion houses away from mass production factories.

The company involves 22 community groups, recruited from existing networks like self-help and women’s groups, and is able to produce 100,000 units a year, mostly bags and accessories.

Not all such enterprises succeed in scaling up and having a lasting impact, however.

New York brand SUNO, worn by the likes of Michelle Obama and Beyoncé, trained Kenyan tailors as part of efforts to build a sustainable fashion business. But last year it announced it would close after failing to attract sufficient investment to take it to the next stage.

Clare Lissaman, an ethical fashion consultant and co-founder of menswear brand Arthur & Henry, warns that good intentions do not always translate into sustainable businesses, and a robust business model is essential.

Being able to demonstrate the product’s worth is vital, she adds: “Just because it is made in the slums does not mean it is automatically good. You need to show you are doing what you say you are doing.”

The search for profits

Vreeburg, who also works for the Netherlands-African Business Council, and his business partner Nick Searra, are conscious of the potential pitfalls as they attempt to scale up Wakuu.

Although the suits and bow ties have been a hit, Vreeburg says the business could not survive solely on the handmade products created by their small-scale artisans.

Shunning the cheap option of outsourcing production to Asia, however, they have launched a T-shirt line made in a local Kenyan factory to boost profits and in turn support the artisans.

Their website will detail where each product was made and by whom, and they are formalising a partnership with the Kibera workshop to ensure the women have a guaranteed income.

Jewellery brand The Good is Good is planning to take a slightly different tack, enlisting established western designers with an existing client base to come up with designs for traditional artisans in Kenya to produce. The hope is this will ensure a sustainable market.

“We are changing traditional designs a little bit but if we are to create opportunities in the western market it is important to create a product that we can sell,” says Jeff Parry, who is launching the brand this year with wife Anna.

From their home in Sweden it is difficult to monitor working conditions so they have partnered with an existing Fairtrade-certified project employing women in the Maasai Mara.

“For us it is obvious that they should be made fairly and ethically,” says Parry. “It’s really good for us to know the processes are right and that they get paid properly.”

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2017/feb/02/kenya-fashion-industry-low-wage-textiles

'It's about our dignity': Secondhand clothing ban in Rwanda

2018-06-28T07:54:00.000-04:00

In Haiti, my home town, pèpè may refer to secondhand clothes that are commonly worn by its population. These clothes are usually sent from the United States. The Haitian textile industry has suffered due to the widespread popularity of pèpè. There have even been discussions about banning the import of pèpè and until now, nothing.

The import of pèpè began in the 1960's, during the Kennedy administration, leading to the moniker "Kennedy clothes".Since the 1980's, hundreds of tons of pèpè has been imported, usually packaged in huge bales. The clothes are so affordable, that a used boy's t-shirt from the United States could be sold for as little as thirteen to fifty cents in Haiti.

I really like what Rwanda is doing by banning "pèpè" secondhand clothes from their country. I know it will be hard and not easy but I think it is the right thing to do and so wish the Haitian government will do the same. Growing up in Haiti in the 70's we used to have seamstresses, tailors to make our clothes,lots of fabric stores and sewing supplies all that are almost gone, because of the amount of secondhand clothes shipping to the country. As I stated during my documentary interview for The True Cost, secondhand clothes, a disease for third world countries.

Secondhand garments are stifling the country’s fashion industry, officials say, but the ban has dismayed local traders – and reportedly imperils 40,000 US jobs

A busy street in Rwanda’s capital city, Kigali. Photograph: Andy Hall for the Observer

In a dim corner of Biryogo market in Kigali, Rutayisire Ibrahim watches as two traders slap playing cards on to a wooden stool outside his tiny shop, which is crowded with neatly folded stacks of trousers and bunches of colourful ties. The garments are hand-me-downs from men living thousands of miles away.

In the absence of customers, the game has attracted an audience of stallholders.

“You see all of these guys,” Ibrahim says, nodding to the crowd. “They have nothing else to do. The customers have stopped coming.”

Several of the stalls in the market have been permanently padlocked, he says, and one section of Biryogo lies abandoned. It’s been nearly 24 hours since Ibrahim’s last sale – a pair of trousers for the equivalent of $2 (£1.50).

Last year, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Burundi announced their intention to phase out imports of secondhand clothing and shoes from western countries by 2019.

But the decision in Rwanda has divided people and left the tiny landlocked country in a trade dispute with the US.

Rutayisire Ibrahim, a trader at Biryogo market in Kigali, sells secondhand men’s trousers, suits and ties. Photograph: Lauren Gambino for the Guardian

Across Africa, daily shipments of recycled clothing, sent largely from the US, UK and Canada, fuel a multimillion-dollar informal industry that employs thousands of local retailers who turn a profit reselling the items.

Sub-Saharan Africa imports the largest share of used clothing donations. And last year the East African Community (EAC) imported secondhand clothing worth $151m (£115m), according to UN data.

Rwanda has made huge economic progress in the past 25 years. But officials argue that the ubiquity of recycled apparel – known as chagua – has stifled the growth of its nascent textile industry and has dented national pride.

“The objective is to see many more companies produce clothes here in Rwanda,” says Telesphore Mugwiza, an official at Rwanda’s ministry of trade and industry.

“It is also about protecting our people in terms of hygiene. If Rwanda produces its own clothes, our people won’t have to wear T-shirts or jeans used by someone else. People need to shift to [this] kind of mindset.”

Rwanda has moved aggressively to eliminate secondhand clothing, raising the import tariffs on used garments to more than 20 times the previous ratein an attempt to choke the supply and encourage traders to sell local products.

“People will shift from secondhand to new clothes. What will change is just the type of product but not the business,” says Mugwiza.

But traders whose livelihood depends on the castoffs say the higher taxes have already devastated their businesses and new garments are unaffordable.

“To do business in new clothes is very expensive – too expensive for me,” says Ibrahim, whose income provides for a family of six. “But I don’t make enough money selling used clothes any more. It’s complicated now. I don’t know what I will do.”

‘If this ban stays it could set a precedent’

Earlier this year, the Office of the US Trade Representative threatened to withdraw Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda’s membership of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (Agoa), a programme designed to promote economic and political development in sub-Saharan Africa. Under the agreement, countries that meet certain human rights and labour standards are offered duty-free access to US markets on thousands of exports including oil, produce and apparel.The US has also expressed its dismay.

Eliminating barriers to US trade and investment is one of the conditions for membership to Agoa. The White House, which under Trump has championed an American First trade policy, has the authority to repeal a country’s eligibility status if the relationship is no longer favourable to the US.

The Rwandan president, Paul Kagame. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

Rwanda’s president, Paul Kagame, was bullish in his response to the threat. “As far as I am concerned, making the choice is simple,” he told reporters in June. “We might suffer consequences. Even when confronted with difficult choices there is always a way.”

Officials in the region who support the secondhand clothing ban have accused the US of wielding the trade deal as a cudgel.

“Politically, the [East African Community] and the United States have had a long and fruitful trading relationship. Compared with this, secondhand clothing imports is a very insignificant issue,” says Daniel Owoko, the chief of staff to the secretary general of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

“It is wrong to jeopardise good relations between EAC and the US over it.

“Morally, EAC consumers shouldn’t be punished for their changing tastes and growing middle class.”

But the Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles Association (Smart), a US-based trade organization that represents dozens of used clothing exporters, said the ban “imposed significant hardship” on the US used clothing industry in violation of Agoa eligibility rules.

The association lobbied for the US to review the countries’ eligibility, arguingthat the ban imperils 40,000 US jobs.

“We are very concerned if this ban stays that could set a precedent for some of these other countries to say, ‘OK, they’ve banned secondhand clothes – maybe we should ban [them] too,’” says Jackie King, the executive director of Smart.

“It’s not bullying,” she adds. “It’s just getting them to abide by the terms of the agreement.”

Under pressure from the US, Kenya dropped its support for the ban. The country has a high dependency on Agoa – in 2015 east Africa’s biggest economy exported clothing worth $380m (£280m), the vast majority of which went to the US.

A decision on whether the countries will be removed from the trade agreement is expected in the coming weeks.

Struggling to compete

Until the 1980s, east Africa’s garment industries prospered, producing clothing and shoes for both domestic and foreign markets. But trade liberalisation policies, spearheaded by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, opened African economies to cheap new imports, especially from Asian countries. Local factories struggled to compete, and over time, many closed.

The used clothes ban is the latest attempt to revive a flagging industry. But experts and industry leaders say the policy alone is not enough to grow domestic business and increase local demand.

“The biggest problem is that we don’t have the buying capacity,” says Ritesh Patel, the finance manager of Utexrwa, Rwanda’s only major textile manufacturing company. “People don’t have enough money to purchase the new things.”

Without also controlling the influx of new clothing from countries like China, Patel says, there is little incentive to buy local textiles or apparel. And while foreign garments are still expensive, they are markedly less so than “Made in Rwanda” clothes.

On a weekday afternoon, fashion designer Sonia Mugabo tidies her bright atelier, in a middle-class neighbourhood of Kigali. The showroom is curated from the latest collection of her eponymous Rwandan label, a mix of feminine shapes and bold patterns.

At 27, Sonia Mugabo is a pioneer of Rwanda’s fashion industry and among the young Rwandans eager to create a new, more optimistic narrative for their country.

“It’s not just about wearing nice clothes and fashion,” says Mugabo, who supports the ban on secondhand clothing. “It’s about our dignity. We should be proud to say, ‘Look, I’m not wearing anything from abroad.’”

Mugabo believes ridding the markets of used garments will help change people’s mindset that locally made garments are of poorer quality than new and used foreign imports.

The government has launched a national “Made in Rwanda” campaign to mobilise support for local entrepreneurs, artists and craftsmen as well as encourage companies to improve production quality and standards. TV and radio advertisements urge Rwandans to shop locally and last year Kigali hosted an inaugural Made in Rwanda expo.

Mugabo is encouraged by the campaign but concedes that Rwandan demand is not high enough to sustain her business. To produce her line, she travels to Dubai and India in search of materials and relies on a handful of skilled tailors to make the clothing. Her designs are expensive to create, and Mugabo admits, unaffordable for many Rwandans.

“I’d love to satisfy the Rwandan market but I’d only satisfy 2% because my costs are quite high,” she said. “Right now I need to find places where people can afford my clothes.”

Since the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has grown its economy with remarkable speed, transforming the densely populated nation with few natural resources into a frontier for business. The country has initiated a series of reforms to attract foreign investors, offering a friendly business environment and significant tax incentives. Officials boast that it takes just 24 hours to start a company in Rwanda.

This approach helped lure Chinese manufacturer C&H Garments, which has opened a sprawling, blue glass-panelled factory in the outskirts of Kigali.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/dec/29/vintage-clothing-ban-rwanda-sparks-trade-dispute-with-us-united-states-secondhand-garments

Shop less, mend more: making more sustainable fashion choices

2018-06-26T22:00:00.000-04:00

The fashion industry is one of the world’s most polluting.

Every day, most of us dress ourselves in items churned out by what is arguably the world’s second-most polluting industry.

Reportedly topped only by oil, the fashion industry is contributing to major environmental destruction – mainly because consumers insist on buying so many clothes at such cheap prices.

Water is a significant part of the problem. Textile manufacturing uses huge amounts of water, much of which gets flushed into waterways laden with contaminants such as bleaches, acids, inks and dyes. Horrifyingly, farmers in parts of China and India are reportedly predicting fashion’s next biggest hues by the colour of rivers tainted by textile industry runoff. (Look out for the 2016 documentary River Blue.) Fast fashion has terrible impacts on people, too, with workers in developing nations often paid a pittance to labour in unsafe conditions.

Alternatives do exist. The solution lies in buying less and choosing better quality items that are made as ethically as possible. But how to tell good brands from bad? Our guide to ethical fashion navigates the conundrum.

Buy clothes made locally by ethical labels

Step one is choosing brands that consider the planet and their workers. The desire to wear cheap new looks daily has led to offshore manufacturing in often deplorable circumstances – buying local, well-made pieces can sidestep all that.

Avoid fabrics made using petroleum and chemicals

Think beyond where or how clothing is made, to exactly what each piece is made from. Where possible, skip petroleum-based synthetics such as polyester and nylon, which are actually plastics that take forever to break down once tossed. Each time such fabrics are washed, they shed thousands of microfibres that end up polluting rivers and oceans.

Natural fabrics must also be selected with care. About half the world’s clothes and textiles are made from cotton, usually grown with pesticides and requiring mammoth water inputs. Bamboo has been touted as a more ethical option, but while the plant is farmed sustainably, toxic chemicals are often used to turn bamboo into fabric.

Organic cotton and bamboo linen are better, as is hemp, linen, silk and wool. Lyocell, made from natural cellulose found in wood pulp (harvested from sustainably farmed forest plantations), also rates fairly well. Some brands are even recycling waste into fabric.

“Choosing better fabrics is essential to us transforming this industry for the better,” says Clara Vuletich, a Sydney-based sustainability strategist who works with Australian fashion brands. “If you consciously decide to purchase a garment made using a recycled material or an exciting new fibre, such as cruelty-free leather made in a lab, you are supporting start-up companies creating new markets, and avoiding the toxic impacts associated with conventional textiles.”

Extend your wardrobe’s lifespan by mending

Once clothing becomes tired and hole-ridden, don’t rush straight to the bin: try mending instead. Call a local clothing repairer or, better yet, join the #visiblemending movement, which encourages entirely obvious and colourful hand-sewn repairs.“Most clothing problems are easily mendable: missing buttons and loose stitching, for example. But mending is also an opportunity to make your clothes better than new. Visible mending allows you to be creative and celebrate the life of your clothes,” says Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald, who runs a Visible Mending Project in Melbourne. “One creatively mended garment might not save the planet, but it might inspire three other people to start mending and become more aware.”

Those with more time and skills can join the slow clothing movement and sew garments from scratch. Look out for Sydney’s Sewing With Kate and In The Folds for tips and inspiration, or look at Jane Milburn’s Sew It Again 365-day eco-clothing project.

Reduce your consumption by hitting the op shops

A guaranteed way to reduce the fashion industry’s impact is to avoid buying new stuff in the first place. Secondhand stores are the ultimate clothing recyclers – and thrift shop fashion definitely doesn’t have to be daggy. Hannah Klose is proof; the Brisbane founder of Never Ever Pay Retail has amassed a huge Instagram following through daily style posts featuring entirely op-shopped clothes.

“I’ve found so many amazing pieces, some brand new with the tags still attached, for sometimes less than 5% of the retail value – like a Gucci bag for $6, a Carla Zampatti top for $4.50, which would have retailed for over $400, and a Karen Walker skirt for $5,” Klose says. “Collectively, thrifters are helping to divert 300,000 tonnes of textiles from landfill each year. It’s a step in the right direction.”

Those new to op shopping, or who just want to be led to the best local bargain hunting spots, can jump on a guided tour. Check out You, Us and a Bus in Adelaide and Op Shop ’Til You Get Enough in Melbourne, or team up with eco fashion stylist Alex van Os via her Sydney Op Shop to Runwaytours. In Ballarat, go full-blown sustainable and do it all on foot, with The Wardrobe Green’s tours.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/feb/10/shop-less-mend-more-making-more-sustainable-fashion-choices

CAN RECYCLED PLASTIC CLOTHING DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD?

2018-03-08T09:03:00.000-05:00

By Chere Di Boscio

It seems the oceans have become a new textile hunting ground for many top brands including Adidas, G-Star Raw, Patagonia and others. These companies have been creating clothing from plastics collected from the oceans, which is then recycled into fibres. Adidas, for example, has combined Ocean Plastics with a zero waste 3D-printing technique to manufacture a stylish athletic shoe as part of their partnership with Parley for the Oceans, an initiative that encourages repurposing ocean waste and raising awareness of our increasingly dire plastics problems.

Owner of Bionic Yarn, a textile company that bases its production on reclaimed ocean plastics, Pharrell Williams has launched his third collection with G-Star RAW, which features urban streetwear made from this innovative fabric. The line includes perfectly cut jeans, jackets, T-shirts and hoodies – none of which you would imagine ever existed in plastic form at one point.

Yet another eco-minded fashion label using recycled plastics is Outerknown, launched by surfer legend Kelly Slater, who designed a line of 100% recyclable clothing made from reclaimed fishing nets. His motivation is noble “Single-use plastics all through the ocean, degrading, turning into little bits that are all eaten by the sea life, and they’re dying because their stomachs are full of stuff,” Slater said in an interview with CNN. But little did he know that the very clothing he was creating with the aim of ending such pollution may well be exacerbating it.

Teeny Particles

Researchers have found that these well intended brands may be doing more harm than good by introducing recycled plastic clothing into the wash cycle. Apparently, microfibers — tiny synthetic threads less than 1 mm in size — may actually be the biggest source of plastic in the ocean. And many of them may come from simply washing synthetic clothing.

Earth Island reports that Dr. Mark Browne, an ecologist and postdoctoral fellow at the National Center of Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, California, states that every time a synthetic garment — that is, anything made from non-organic fibres – goes through the spin and rinse cycle in a washing machine, it sheds a large number of plastic fibers. Most washing machines don’t have filters to trap these miniscule microfibers, and neither do sewage plants that are responsible for removing contaminants. So every time the water drains from a washing machine, plastic filaments are swept through the sewers and eventually end up in the ocean.

In 2011, Browne published a paper in Environmental Science & Technology stating that one single synthetic garment can produce more than 1,900 microfibres per wash, with fleeces being the worst offenders – but even smooth synthetics like nylon shed significantly. Compound billions of people washing billions of garments billions of times in a year, and the effects are clearly effects are devastating.

But the news is worse. We all know plastic is toxic in itself, but studies show it can actually absorb other toxins, like pesticides or organic pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls. When microplastics enter the ocean, they work their way up the food chain, being eaten by bottom feeders swallowed by bigger fish…and eventually, they end up back on our plate. We mentioned this issue in the past, but as related to the toxic effects that microbeads in beauty products were having on the ocean. Now it turns out that fashion is having the same effect.

One of the main campaigners against microbeads – Five Gyres – is now also turning their efforts to all microfibres in the oceans. The results of one of their most recent studies concludes that there are over 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the ocean, collectively weighing more than 250,000 tons. With a global population of 7.2 billion people, that means there are about 700 plastic pieces in the ocean for every person on Earth. With an ever growing and wealthier population, Five Gyres predicts that another 33 billion tons of plastic will be added to the environment by 2050.

Despite much evidence pointing to the dangers of producing clothing from synthetics, the head researcher of the study, Dr Mark Browne says he’s had a hard time getting textile companies to listen. He launched a project called Benign by Design, a research project aiming to determine and remove features of textiles that have negative impacts on humans and the environment, but when he asked for support for this worthy cause by the fashion industry, he was stonewalled by all but one – the truly superlative eco-luxury brand Eileen Fisher. Other brands including Patagonia, Polartec, and Nike rejected , and even the ostensibly eco-friendly Patagonia told Browne his extensive research was still ” too preliminary” to justify company funding. But watching this video below may well change their minds!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-oRNLQuWlA

Better Solutions

While pressuring brands to support Browne’s initiative is certainly a step in the right direction, given the fact that most clothing is actually made from synthetics, there have been calls to solve the microfibre problem by introducing screens to washing machines that would filter the plastic particles out, but these would have to be fitted to new machines, and by the time these became widespread, the problem will have become even graver.

Another measure we can take is to recycle ocean plastic into items that needn’t be washed frequently, like furniture. One design house who is doing this to perfection is Studio Swine. Featured recently in an exhibition at London’s Selfridges department store, these innovators are gaining a strong reputation for clever recycling of trash into objects for the home.

What truly matters is that the clothing industry is willing to take the findings of environmental scientific research seriously and apply it to textile sourcing. This is true not only for the ‘eco’ brands based on recycled plastics, but also for any clothing manufacturer that uses acrylic, polyester and other textiles that shed toxic microfibres. And ultimately, it’s up to us to make well informed decisions about our fashion purchases, and to think twice every time we buy something that may end up as ocean plastic in the first place.

Source: https://eluxemagazine.com/magazine/recycled-plastic-clothing/

Pineapple leaves vs environmentally-friendly clothes and accessories

2016-03-17T09:00:00.000-04:00

Ananas Anam has developed an innovative, natural and sustainable non-woven textile called Piñatex made from pineapple leaf fibres. Piñatex has evolved from seven years of R&D to create a natural textile from waste plant fibres. Piñatex harnesses advanced technologies to create a totally sustainable high performance natural textile. While the initial development work leading to Piñatex originated in the Philippines, significant research & development is now being undertaken between the UK and Spain. Piñatex provides new additional income for farmers while creating a vibrant new industry for pineapple growing countries.

Piñatex fibres are the by-product of the pineapple harvest. No extra land, water, fertilizers or pesticides are required to produce them and No pineapple is harmed in the making of Piñatex!

Pineapple

Pineapple crops

Pineapple crops sorted

Manufacturing process

The fibres that make Piñatex™ come from pineapple leaves. The fibres are extracted from the leaves in a process called decortication, which is done on the plantation by the farming community.

Furthermore, the by-product of decortication is bio-mass, which can be further converted into organic fertilizer or bio-gas. Both the extraction of the fibers and the consequent bio-mass will bring added revenue stream to the farming communities. The fibres then undergo an industrial process to become a non-woven textile, which is the base of our material Piñatex™.

The final step in the making of Pinatex takes place at a textile finishing company in Spain, where our unique finishing process is done before being shipped all over the world.

Key Attributes

OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE
Piñatex™ ORIGINAL is strong, versatile, breathable, soft, light, flexible, and can be easily printed on, stitched and cut.

NATURAL & SUSTAINABLE
Piñatex™ is a by-product of the pineapple harvest, thus no extra water, fertilizers or pesticides are required to produce Piñatex.

PATENTED
Piñatex™ involves a patented technology that protects both the process and the finished material. Piñatex™ is produced on 155cm width textile rolls.

Piñatex™ is tested according to ISO international standards for:

Seam rupture
Tear & tensile strength
Light & colour fastness
Water spotting
Flexing endurance
Abrasion resistance

THE STORY OF PIÑATEX

Piñatex was created by Dr Carmen Hijosa. Carmen’s journey began in Spain, but her career has taken her across the globe, from Ireland to Germany, to the UK and The Philippines. She worked in both the design and manufacture of leather goods for many years before going to the Philippines to carry out further research into the development of products made from natural fibres.

A breakthrough came when she realized that she could make a non-woven textile, a fabric bonded together without knitting or weaving, from the long fibres found in pineapple leaves. The culmination of her work resulted in the creation of Piñatex, a unique natural and sustainable textile made from pineapple leaf fibres, a by-product from the pineapple harvest.

While you are reading these lines, Carmen Hijosa and her team are working in London. On the other side of the globe, the Filipino farmers are extracting the fibres from the pineapple leaves. The fibres are then sent to a textile finishing company in Spain where the transformation from a fiber mesh into Piñatex takes place.

This is the Piñatex magic!

Source: http://www.ananas-anam.com/pinatex/

Pineapple Leaf and The History behind it

2016-03-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Pineapple is perennial herbaceous plant with 1-2 m for height and width belongs to family Bromeliaceae. It is chiefly cultivated in coastal and tropical regions, mainly for its fruits purpose. In India, it is cultivated on about 2250 000 acres of land and is continuously increasing its production. A pineapple plant in the field; it is a short stem with dark green colour. First sprout of leaf looks decorative; later it converts into 3 ft. long, 2 to 3 inch wide sword shaped and numerous spirally arranged fibrous leaves edges as well as curved towards the cross section to maintain the stiffness of the leaf.

Each pineapple fruit has equal number of hexagonal sections on outer shell and does not depend on the size or shape. Now Malaysia is one of large producers in Asia as much as Hawaii. It produces a huge amount of waste material, about 384,673 metric tonnes in year 2008. Productions of Pineapple leaf fibres are plentiful for industrial purpose without any supplementary addition and annually renewable and of easy availability. Pineapple is known as Nanas in Malaysia; basically they use different varieties for different purpose; for commercial purpose they use red pineapple and green pineapple; for edible purpose, they prefer Sarawak pineapple and Morris pineapple. Pineapple fruits contain many major and minor elements. It is source of bioactive compounds, particularly in proteolytic enzymes. Pineapple is very rich source of bromelain and other cysteine proteases are present in different part of pineapple. Commercially, bromelain has been used in many food industries, cosmetics, and dietary supplements.

History

Pineapple is a native plant of America, first seen by Columbus and his companion in November 4, 1493, at an island of West Indies. When the new world was discovered, pineapple has been spread all over South America coastal region as well as in tropical regions. A Spanish government officer, De Oviedo, came to America in 1513; he handed over first written documents of some varieties of pineapple, and he added some Indies varieties also. The plant is called “pineapple” because of its fruit which look like pine cone. The native Tupi word for the fruit was anana, meaning “excellent fruit;” this is the source for words like ananas, common in many languages. The pineapple is an old emblem of welcome and can often be seen in stamped decorations. In 17th century Americans imported pineapple from Caribbean because of its apparently exotic features and rareness; pineapple began to be considered as an icon of wealthy people in America. The Portuguese contributed their important role in introducing the fruit throughout the whole tropical regions and major parts of world like south and east coast of Africa, Madagascar, south India, China, Java, Philippines, and Malaysia. Nowadays, varieties of pineapple plants are available which are used in various applications such as edible, medicinal, and industrial applications. For example, bromelain is an enzyme extracted from its leaves and helps in respiratory ailments. A mixture of pineapple juice and sand is powerful cleaner for boat decks. Dehydrated waste material of pineapple is used as bran feed for cattle, chicken, pigs, and so forth.

Pineapple Leaf Fibre

Every year tonnes of pineapple leaf fibres are being produced, though very small portions are being used in the field of feedstock and energy production. The expansion of biocomposites has amplified industrial usage that would release the possibilities to minimize the wastage of renewable materials. It promotes a non-food-based market for agricultural industry. It is white in colour, smooth, and glossy as silk, medium length fibre with high tensile strength. It has a softer surface than other natural fibres and it absorbs and maintains a good colour.

However, PALF (Pineapple Leaf Fibre) has high specific strength and stiffness; it is hydrophilic in nature due to high cellulose content. Extraction of fibres from pineapple leaf fibre is carried out by mechanical method and retting method.

Fresh leaves yield about 2 to 3% of fibres. Fibrous cell of PALF consists of vascular bundle system in the form of bunches which is obtained after mechanical removal of the entire upper layer after harvesting.

PALF is composed of many chemicals constituents. It is multicellular lignocellulosic fibre containing polysaccharides, lignin in major amount, and some miner chemicals like fat, wax, pectin, uronic acid, anhydride, pentosan, colour pigment, inorganic substance, and so forth. Fibre is collection of thin and small multicellular fibres which appears like a thread. These cells are tightly joined with the help of pectin. PALF constitute cellulose (70–82%) and arrangement of fibres is the same as in cotton (82.7%).

In all the collection, pineapple leaf fibre is more compatible natural fibre resource and constitutes a good chemical composition. PALF has better mechanical strength than the jute when it is used in making of fine yarn. The cellulosic molecules model of PALF is a three-dimensional structure and parallel to crystalline region of the fibre. Remaining parts of molecular structure are supposed to associate within amorphous regions. Pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) is vital natural fibre, which have high specific strength, rigidity, and flexural and torsional rigidity as much as jute fibres. Considering these exclusive properties of PALF, industries can use it as an outstanding alternative raw material in the prospect of reinforcing composite matrixes.

Extraction of Pineapple Leaf Fibres (PALF)

Pineapple natural fibres have excellent mechanical strength but due to lack of knowledge it is still not utilised properly. It can be used in various applications like artificial fibres, as a sound absorber and thermal insulator, and so forth. There are various methods to extract the PALF from leaves of pineapple.

PALF Applications and Future Prospects

PALF is generally used in making threads for textile fabrics from several decades.

A future prospect of diversified application of PALF is presented here.

Present application of PALF for various purposes is textile, sports item, baggage, automobiles, cabinets, mats, and so forth. Surface modified PALF is introduced for making machinery parts like belt cord, conveyor belt cord, transmission cloth, air-bag tying cords, and some cloths for industry uses . PALF is very good for carpet making because of its chemical processing, dyeing behaviour, and aesthetically pleasing fabric. The use of pineapple leaf fibre can be considered relatively as new in the paper manufacturing industry in Malaysia. PALF can be suitable for various other applications such as cosmetics, medicine, and biopolymers coating for chemicals.

Source: From different sites search but you can learn more by visiting this site www.hindawi.com

The Business of Fast Fashion

2016-02-10T14:29:00.000-05:00

‘Fast Fashion’ refers to clothing and accessories that are designed to reflect current industry trends, yet produced using less expensive materials to ensure a low price tag. For the last two decades, clothing retailers like H&M, Zara, and Forever 21 have popularized Fast Fashion among everyday consumers. However, not everyone is a huge fan of the trend.

Many designers, for instance, have complained that Fast Fashion has reduced conceptual originality within the clothing industry in order to produce a higher volume of garments and accessories. Most boutique designers, by comparison, release between 50 and 100 pieces.
The Fast Fashion trend has also led to environmental concerns. Every year, the clothing industry produces 2 million tons of waste, emits 2.1 million tons of carbon dioxide, and uses 70 million tons of water; these figures have significantly risen in the years since Fast Fashion became a retailing standard. To make matters worse, the quality of these garments is typically so low that most are discarded or donated to charity by the wearer within two years of the original purchase.

SCAP seeks to produce and sell clothing without producing undesirable environmental effects; another goal of the group is to exclusively limit international business deals and projects to countries that have established strict labor regulations. What is SCAP? Sustainable Clothing Action Plan (SCAP), it is a collective that aims to reduce wastefulness in the fashion industry.

Source: http://www.onlinemba.com/blog/business-of-fast-fashion/

Are vintage clothes more ethical?

2016-01-27T14:26:00.000-05:00

Ethical and green living with Lucy Siegle

Fashion consumers are choosing vintage as low-impact clothing – but we don't know much about where these garments are from. How green is it to dress vintage?

Nowadays it's not uncommon to find clothing under five years old labelled as "vintage". Unfortunately it's become a catchall term for pre-worn threads. This messes with the ethical credentials of vintage.

If we think of a hierarchy of ethical ways of dressing, vintage should be near the top. It is the antithesis of throwaway fashion, being rare, covetable and tradable. Rewearing old clothes also displaces the need to make new virgin fibres – manufactured with oil-based petroleum or using cotton – both with hulking environmental impacts (also add in dyeing, finishing and the use of factories with dubious ethics).

Buying pre-worn saves clothes from landfill and gives us an ethical way of satisfying a lust for new clothes without embracing fast-fashion culture. It's a relatively easy sell for the consumer, too. The theory is you just pay the shopkeeper without having to worry about provenance and skip off in a 50s cocktail dress.

Unfortunately we now need to ask a few more questions of vintage sellers. Top-flight vintage merchants – for example William Vintage, which tracks seminal pieces from private collections – are becoming increasingly rare as older pieces are archived in museums. There are far more now who don't give a fig for crystal beading and built-in corsetry. They just buy and sell clothing by the kilo, rebranding them as vintage or retro.

Here the business model begins to resemble fast fashion. It's a global market (as is the second-hand trade in textiles), and we now see outsourcing of collection and supply. There have also been unofficial reports of exploitation in sorting factories. International traders deal in huge quantities – the biggest in the US sorts 35 tonnes every day of printed T-shirts and nearly 8 million kg of "vintage" every year for export. Buyers often buy bales "blind". Vintage becomes about trucks and containers and trading "rag" by the kilo.

The second-hand textile market is, frankly, in a jumble. Charities have lost £50 to £100 a tonne from prices in recent weeks, and this is partly due to a drop in quality of donated clothes. The German organisation FairWertung has monitored the industry extensively and found illegal imports and scams to avoid duty. It says we need greater transparency in what is a rather secretive industry. Vintage needs to be cleaned up.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/mar/17/are-vintage-clothes-more-ethical

Things You Can Make With Old Denim Jeans

2016-01-13T14:23:00.000-05:00

Your old jeans have a story. You gave them life and in return, they gave you years of comfort and experience. Don't let their story just end there. At Himane Sustainable Designs we give your old denim a new life purpose.

Denim fabric is one of the few things in life that actually looks and feels better as it ages and, unlike other textiles, denim never falls out of fashion. As a result of its timeless style, used denim, in the form of old jeans, is an inexpensive and easily available craft supply for just about everyone.

If you don't already have an old pair of jeans languishing in the back of your closet, collect a few pairs from your friends and family for free, or buy a stack of them at a charity shop or garage sale for less than $10. In my case since I am in Haiti for now, I purchased my denims at the second hand clothes market that arriving here by containers. With a little planning and creativity, one pair of jeans can be cannibalized into more than one project. Even the grungiest jeans can be turned into something lovely, as spots and holes can be cut out.

The web is full of idea use it or create your one just like my handbags collection.

Note: The handbags are from my collection and the other items used here are from the internet. Feel free to click on the pics for more info.

Handbags

Himane Sustainable Designs

Rugs and Floor Mats

Outdoor Furniture, Director Chair Covers

What clothes can I wear to help save the planet?

2015-09-17T14:18:00.000-04:00

Fashion has an edgy reputation, but it’s pretty conservative about fabric. Cotton still makes up a third of fibre production. The non-organic variety (only 4% of cotton used in fashion is “sustainable”) has a heavy eco burden, using 11% of all pesticides produced. Plus, it takes 20,000 litres of water to produce just 1kg. But most of our closet space goes to synthetic garments, which are derived from oil.

The industry is huge, producing – by my reckoning – more than 80bn new garments a year. We often dump clothes before the first wash. And while initiatives like Greenpeace’s Detox Fashion try to clean up fashion, in pollution terms the fashion industry still comes second only to the oil and gas industry. That’s some rap sheet.

I’m all for wardrobe biodiversity. Look out for pieces fashioned from “green” fibres like salmon leather or rice husks (food-industry byproducts) – 700m tons of rice are harvested worldwide every year, and the husks are being processed into rubber for shoes (M&S uses it in a new Eco Trainer). Meanwhile spoiled milk can be turned into a super-fine fibre that weighs less than wool or silk, and Econyl, a “regenerated” fibre spun from discarded fishing nets, is a sustainable alternative to the oil-derived Nylon 6.

While pulp from cellulosic fibre can be turned into yarn as an alternative to cotton, be on the alert. Canopy (an NGO focused on forest research) reveals that 100m trees are logged each year to be turned into rich dissolving pulp for clothing, 30% from ancient and endangered forests. (Check Canopy for brands committed to sustainable sourcing.) Also, be careful about brands using “eco” bamboo. Check that it was planted on degraded land, not where forest has been converted to a plantation to make a quick fashion buck.

The giant fashion brands suggest that recycling can neutralise fast fashion and have set up schemes for dropping discards off in-store. If that’s true I’ll eat my corn husk hat (possibly edible in any case). In reality turning your discarded jumpsuit into someone else’s sun dress is a technical headache some way off being fixed. Plus, it would be easier if we stuck to the same old fibres – at the moment 70% of our clothes are a cotton and polyester blend. Recyclers don’t enjoy mixing it up – fish leathers and milk silk will complicate things.

If you’re not going to go down the recycling route, you need to commit to treating “greener” pieces sustainably – that means wearing them for the long term and not being addicted to the latest micro trend. So be honest about what sort of consumer you are, and cut your cloth accordingly.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/apr/05/what-clothes-can-help-save-the-planet-lucy-siegle

Hormone disrupting chemicals found in imported clothing.

2015-08-06T08:30:00.000-04:00

EU member states have agreed to ban a toxic substance widely found in clothing because it poses an “unacceptable risk” to the environment.

Countries unanimously voted in favour of extending existing restrictions on nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) to imports of clothing and other textile products.

The measure is intended to protect aquatic species. Use of NPE in textile manufacture in Europe was banned over 10 years ago but the substance is still released into the aquatic environment through imported textiles being washed.

The proposal was brought forward by Sweden in 2013 and backed by scientists at the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA).

NPE degrades in the environment into substances including nonylphenol (NP), which accumulates in the bodies of fish and disrupts their hormones, harming fertility, growth and sexual development.

NPE is used in textile manufacture as a cleaning, dyeing and rinsing agent. The draft EU decision notes that several studies have found NPE to be present in textile items.

A 2011 study by Greenpeace found NPE in two-thirds of clothes tested, including items sold by big-name brands such as Adidas, H&M, Lacoste, and Ralph Lauren. The NGO argued that although concentrations of NPE found in the clothes were low, the chemical’s ubiquity in the environment posed a risk.

The new ban on textiles containing NPE in concentrations equal to or greater than 0.01% will enter into force five years after it is adopted by the European Commission, which is likely to happen in the next month or so.

In comments submitted to ECHA, clothing and textile firms have warned that complying with the restriction will be difficult because NPE is ubiquitous in the supply chain and has numerous uses.

The new restriction will not apply to second-hand goods or recycled textiles because it is assumed these will already have been washed several times so will contain negligible amounts of NPE.

EU countries must eliminate pollution of water bodies by NP as it is a priority substance under the Water Framework Directive.

A 2013 study by the UK environment agency warned that emissions from textiles could hamper progress towards this objective. It found 29% of imported cotton underwear contained NPE, which was released during the first two washes by the consumer.

A study by the Danish environment agency concluded that the concentrations of NPE in clothing did not pose a risk to human health. Brightly coloured and Chinese clothing contained the highest concentrations of NPE, the agency found.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/environment

Potentially toxic chemicals are ubiquitous in the textile industry and children may be most at risk.

2015-08-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

Burberry has committed to start disclosing chemical discharges of its suppliers in the global south by the end of June 2014. Photograph: Victor Virgile/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

No parent would want toxic materials in their children's clothing. Yet according to a new Greenpeace study a range of hazardous chemicals is being used in the production of kids' wear from top fashion brands.

A frequent question about producing toxin-free clothing is whether it is economically feasible for textile companies to replace hazardous chemicals with safer alternatives. The answer is resoundingly yes; doing so is essential if companies want to keep their business sustainable.

The global textile industry is notorious for using potentially hazardous chemicals.According to research, more than 550 types of dyes and over 3,000 chemicals of auxiliaries containing carcinogenic chemicals, hormone disruptors, or heavy metals, are restricted for use in textile products under the laws of different countries.

Research published by Greenpeace found that some of the chemicals widely used in the textile industry are toxic to reproductive development in mammals or interfere with the hormone system. And children may be more sensitive to the effects of these hazardous chemicals than adults. A recent UNEP and WHO report supported the proposition that the timing of some impacts caused by hormone disruptors can be critical, particularly for growing children.

There is global concern over this issue (half a million people signed up to the GreenpeaceDETOX campaign within days of its launch in 2012) and it has created far-reaching impacts within the global textile industry. Some leading players within the industry such as Benetton have moved to address the problem with a policy of implementing strict controls over its supply chain. Other companies have worked closely with their suppliers, often located in developing countries, to understand what is being used in the production of their products and what safer substitutes might be.

Entire groups of toxic chemicals, previously ubiquitous in the supply chain, have been phased out by such companies within a short period of time – for example, biodegradable biopolymer and fluorocarbon-free water repellent materials are used as safer alternatives. More importantly, these companies have created incentives for "upstream" players in the textile supply chain, those who provide dyes and detergents, to weigh-in and start vying for a share in the market for safer alternatives.

High-end British brand Burberry this week committed to start disclosing the chemical discharges of its suppliers in the global south by the end of June 2014. And by 1 July 2016, the fashion house says it will eliminate all per- and poly-fluorinated chemicals from its supply-chain. This opens a new chapter in the story of toxic-free fashion and raises the bar for the luxury sector. Brands such as Gucci, Versace and Louis Vuitton now risk getting left behind.

Textile industry meetings in Beijing or Shanghai are now filled with energetic chemical engineers showing greener product lines to their potential customers in the textile business. Companies such as Mango have even produced detailed timelines about when their safer substitutes will be available in the next few years. This kind of market dynamic will almost certainly make safer alternatives more available and accessible for textile industry players who are aiming at providing toxic-free products for their customers.

Early birds have an advantage. Across the globe regulations are kicking in that will force the textile industry to shift to toxin-free mode. More stringent regulation will be the reason that brands will eventually have to change to safer alternatives.

In 2013, the textile industry was listed for the first time under China's national five-year plan for prevention and control of environmental risk of chemicals as a "key industry for regulatory control". The signal sent by regulators in the world's largest textile producing country is very clear: no more toxic clothing in our backyard.

The central government of China is also expected this year to release a blacklist of toxic chemicals that will be subject to strict regulatory control. Some of them are major chemicals used by the textile industry.

These developments indicate that textile brands should move fast to catch up not only with consumer preferences but also regulatory intentions. The earlier the brands catch the trend, the more "first mover advantage" they can enjoy.

Chih Ann Lee is the Detox campaigner for Greenpeace East Asia office.

• This article was amended on 7 February 2014 to clarify that 550 types of dyes and over 3,000 chemicals are restricted by laws of various countries, not solely China as originally stated.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion-blog/toxic

Forget about Cotton, we could be making Textiles from Banana and Pineapple!

2015-07-28T09:00:00.000-04:00

A byproduct of the pineapple harvest can be turned into a material with a similar appearance to canvas. Photograph: Macduff Everton/ Macduff Everton/Corbis

When I came across this article, I said " whoah it is something we in Haiti could have done and focus on". During the rainy season around Savane du Bois, Marigot a small community in Jacmel in the south east, the planters lost every year tons and tons of banana plantation. This is for that reason I was sent there to teach a group of 60 women on what to do with the banana bark and how to recycle it into usefull items. We have many different localities with the same problem here. Finding this article my head is spinning with ideas regarding the banana stems, pineapple leaves and the coconut husk. But where to go and who to approach for something so great, that can be so helpful for the country and the people???

Cotton makes up a third of fibre consumption in the textile industry, according to a global apparel fibre consumption report (pdf) published in 2013. The cotton production industry is labour intensive and involves a lot of sweat, chemicals and fresh water.

Could a number of innovations from natural sources and raw materials compete with the unsustainable product of the cotton plant?

Banana stems

Photograph: Offset Warehouse

Around a billion tonnes of banana plant stems are wasted each year, despiteresearch indicating that it would only take 37kg of stems to produce a kilogram of fibre. In 2012, the Philippine Textile Research Institute concluded that banana plantations in the Philippines alone can generate over 300,000 tonnes of fibre.

Eco-textile company Offset Warehouse recognises the banana’s potential and currently partners with an NGO in Nepal to ensure banana fabric production supports the artisan sector by relying on local skills, and that workers are paid fairly and operate in safe conditions.

The fabric is claimed to be nearly carbon neutral and its soft texture has been likened to hemp and bamboo. Offset Warehouse’s founder Charlie Ross says the material is perfect for jackets, skirts and trousers.

Pineapple leaves

Photograph: Ananas Anam

Frustrated by the heavy use of chemicals in the leather tanning process, Carmen Hijosa, founder of Ananas Anam, developed Piñatex as an alternative to it and petroleum-based textiles.

“The greatest thing about Piñatex is probably that it’s made of leaf fibres … a byproduct of the pineapple harvest,” says Jaume Granja, a member of the Ananas Anam team, referring to the fact leaves are usually left to rot in the ground. “Our leaves do not need any additional land, water or fertilisers to grow.”

Making the material also brings benefits to the farming communities. The industrial process used to create Piñatex produces biomass, which can be converted into a fertiliser that farmers can spread into their soil to grow the next pineapple harvest. The material, which has similar appearance to canvas, is also biodegradable; Hijosa and her colleagues are working on a way to ensure that the coating is sustainable and toxic-free.

It’s likely to be some time before the material (note: Piñatex is different from piña, where fibres are combined with silk or polyester) will be found in shops, but initial prototypes show that, just like leather, it can be used to manufacture goods including shoes and handbags. The wait might be worth it – at £18 per metre, it would be roughly 40% cheaper than good quality leather, which can be priced at around £30.

Coconut husks

The humble coconut palm is often referred to as the ‘tree of life’, but its value goes beyond its meat, milk and water. The fruit’s husks have fibrous qualities. A thousand coconuts can produce 10kg of fibre, and there’s usually a harvest every 30-45 days.

Outdoor clothing companies Tog 24 and North Face are two brands adopting cocona – a textile operating under the name 37.5 Technology that is produced from a combination of coconut shells and volcanic materials – and becoming less reliant on synthetic materials as a result. For instance, Tog 24 jacket, Siren, is 55% polyester and 45% cocona. A spokesperson for 37.5 Technology says that the material is a particularly good choice for sportswear as it’s designed to improve performance.

Fibres from husks can also be turned into biowaste-based charcoal to be used by farmers as an organic fertiliser, as has previously happened in the Maldives. This could help improve soil quality, reduce pesticides and ensure that any coconut inspired fashion supply chain is circular.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion

Can big Brands Catch up on Sustainable Fashion?

2015-07-21T09:00:00.000-04:00

F-ABRIC will biodegrade completely if thrown on the compost. Photograph: Oliver Nanzig/Freitag

Imagine a pair of trousers you could throw on the compost. After years of use, they could decompose among the eggshells and tea bags to leave behind nothing but some fertile soil to help grow new raw materials. It takes the circular economy to a whole new level.

This is the idea behind F-ABRIC, a range of materials developed by Swiss company Freitag. Until recently, Freitag’s only line of business was making bags out of old truck tarpaulins.

While natural fibres like cotton will compost over time, synthetic fibres like polyester won’t, and natural fibres are often blended with synthetic. Looking for sustainable workwear for its 150-strong workforce, Freitag’s owners were disappointed by the fabrics on offer, so they developed their own. The company now has a range of sustainably produced and compostable material made in Europe, from broken twill to make trousers, to a jersey fabric for t-shirts. It has also patented the design for buttons that can be screwed off and reused.

Freitag Broken Twill in industrial green. Photograph: Lukas Wassmann/Freitag

The fact that it is biodegradable does not make the fabric any less hard-wearing, says one of the founders, Daniel Freitag. “There is a misunderstanding over what biodegradability means. The whole biodegradation process needs certain conditions. So it won’t disappear while you are wearing it; it won’t disappear in your washing machine.” There are industrial composting facilities, but Freitag tested its material in a household compost bin and the workwear was broken down completely within three months.

Freitag is not the only company looking to microorganisms for inspiration. German design studio, Blond & Bieber is using microalgae as a sustainable fabric dye. The pair have dubbed their project Algaemy, a textile printer that produces its own, fast-growing pigment.

Essi Johanna Glomb, head of design at Blond & Bieber, says: “The colours for dyes are extremely toxic and really harm the people working with them and also nature. The pigments that we are using are made of microalgae, so that means it’s a totally natural resource. It doesn’t harm nature; we can grow it ourselves, so you don’t have any over-production; and this material is already there and is unused.”

Perhaps most intriguingly, the colours change dramatically over time, from pink to bright orange, for example, or green to blue.

The Algaemy collection uses algae-based fabric dye. Photograph: Lukas Olfe/Blond & Bieber

Algaemy is still in development, with large-scale commercial production some way off. Innovations in sustainable fabric production and processing are entering the mainstream, however, with more and more mills developing sustainable methods.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion

NATURAL DYES vs. SYNTHETIC: Which is more Sustainable?

2015-07-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

Colours derived from plants may appear more planet-friendly than man-made dyes, but the case isn’t clear-cut.

Discovered in the mid-19th century by English chemist William Henry Perkin, mauveine, the first man-made colour, transformed textile manufacturing. These synthetic colours allowed manufacturers and dye houses to operate in large quantities, and offer vivid, rich colours. They became the go-to option; they stick to fabrics easily, don’t lose pigmentation, and offer a limitless palette of colour options.

Natural dyes have an older, more romantic heritage. Indigo, the most commonly known natural dye, is traced back to the days of the ancient India’s Indus river valley civilisation.

“The use of natural dyes on cotton was India’s unique gift to the world,” says Simran Lal, CEO of GoodEarth, a luxury home and clothing brand in Delhi.

But natural dyes lack the vibrancy of synthetic dyes and rely on arable land to produce the base material, such as cotton, the easiest fabric for natural dyes to adhere to. Conventional cotton, though, requires farms to spend heavily on water.

“I have workers in my factory who spend two to four hours everyday going to collect water, with no guarantees they’ll even find it,” says Sonal Baid, founder ofAura Herbal Wear, who blames synthetic dye factories for polluting local water sources.

Baid and her husband, Arun, have figured out how to use natural dyes at scale at their factory in Ahmedabad, India. Now, they want to convert India’s textile manufacturers, taking them back to natural dyes on natural fabrics, a tradition that Baid said was commonplace in the country until 40 years ago, when synthetic dyes took off.

That’s why the Baids turned to organic cotton, which uses less water, pesticides, and is easier on the soil. The Baids live in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, which is known as the ‘Manchester of the east’, a massive textile hub that’s seen its freshwater sources polluted by the runoff of synthetic dyes, and wanted to find a natural solution for the dyes and fabrics used in India’s textile centres.

While the country’s mills have made progress andwork is under way to reduce their chemical footprint, rinse water from the dying process is still blamed for contaminating many of India’s rivers.

Last year, the Delhi-based advocacy group, The Centre for Science and Environment did a study(pdf) in Tirupur, another textile city in south India. The results indicated that the river Noyyal, which runs near the dye houses and manufacturing plants in Tirupur, had significantly more chemicals than other rivers in the area.

Before starting Aura Herbal Wear in 2000, Arun worked for an industrial waste recycling firm, where he saw that water discharged by textile mills contained chemicals including formaldehyde, chlorine, lead, and mercury.

According to Sonal, the rinse water at Aura’s facility is almost drinkable. “The water that comes out of our process is purer than the underground water we start our production with. That’s our trophy.”

Sonal discovered natural dyes in a painting class. “I didn’t know you could paint with natural colors.” She went home and started experimenting on small swatches of fabric with kitchen staples such as turmeric, coffee and tea.

The challenge, she says, was scaling that process to long yards of fabric. After 14 years, the duo have mastered the art of natural dyes and are now selling not only ready-to-wear garments but the dyes themselves to other dye houses.

What started in the kitchen has grown exponentially. Their facility can produce more than 10,000 pieces a day and Aura now has a staff of 80 people, supplying 500 clients worldwide, including India’s luxury Taj Hotel spas.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion

Sustainable material pioneers: what does the future hold?

2015-07-10T09:00:00.000-04:00

Alternatives to cotton are grown in small volumes, so they’re more likely to reduce dependency on cotton than replace it. Photograph: Bloomberg via Getty Images

What’s wrong with the materials I’m wearing now?

It’s likely that you’re wearing cotton or polyester, two of the fashion industry’s most popular fibres. Cotton depends on large amounts of water to grow, and polyester depends on now-declining reserves of oil and gas. The idea behind sustainable materials is that they are less damaging to the environment to produce, consuming fewer natural resources and creating less pollution.

Erin Smith, artist in residence at Microsoft Research explains:

We are living in a time when our growing population and consumption habits are no longer going to be supportable at our present escalating rate. We will need to find ways to make better use of our raw materials, including water and farmable lands.

But what would we use instead of cotton?

Bamboo, linen, hemp, sisal and even nettles are being looked into as alternatives to cotton, says Susan MacDonald, business development director atCottonConnect. Bamboo is quick to grow and easily renewable, and linen, hemp and sisal use less water and pesticides than cotton.

However, these alternatives are grown in small volumes, so they’re more likely to reduce dependency on cotton than replace it. These fibres also have different properties compared to cotton and MacDonald suggests their success is linked with the spinner industry and spinning technology.

Flax, (a stalky plant) also has potential, requiring far less water than cotton crops demand. According to Christian Wieth of Novozymes, the biotechnology company is part of research initiatives on making flax more cotton like but “it remains several years before it becomes commercially relevant in larger scale”.

Nevertheless, with cotton prices at a high, hitting $2 a pound for the first time in 2011, the economic driver for investments in alternatives is there.

Are there sustainable alternatives to leather?

Brooklyn-based Modern Meadow is developing slaughter-free, lab-grown leather in a process that could dramatically reduce methane emissions and water and land use.

In the case of fish leather, Heidi Carneau, director of eco-exotic leather brand, Heidi & Adele, says that for a young technology, there has been tremendous innovation in the area with a variety of new finishes and colours to show for it.

She admits though, that price is a hurdle.:“In our case we use salmon and eel skin, both byproducts of the food industry to make our handbags.

Salmon leather is actually more expensive than python skin. This cost is directly linked to the high expertise required to work the skin and the fact that this fish is farmed in countries such as Iceland where labour costs are much higher.”

Wait, lab-grown leather? So we can grow clothes in the lab?

Smith - who grew her own wedding dress - believes bio-materials could make a huge sustainability impact in the future, particularly as they relate to questions of limited availability materials. She says, “there are some companies like Pembient, who are working to develop lab grown ivory, who will be creating a luxury product in a sustainable way, and helping to combat other ecological problems such as illegal poaching”.

What’s best for fast fashion - materials from food byproducts or recycled cotton?

Both will offer very different finished products but have a place in sustainable fashion. Recycled cotton can be integrated immediately while food related fibres and materials are currently more conceptual.

For H&M, recycled cotton is a more useful fibre, explains Cia Sohlman, who is responsible for the high street brand’s sustainable materials strategy and development. “We have used recycled cotton in denim [and] we are trying to expand the use into other products like jersey and heavy knit, but since recycled cotton has shorter fibres it is a quality issue to find the right blends.”

How can designers weigh up the pros and cons of different materials?

The Sustainable Apparel Coalition is developing the Higg Index as a tool to gauge the environmental sustainability performance of materials, which Sohlman thinks could help in the future. While not-for-profit, Made-By, has made its own sustainability classification of materials.

For Carneau, it simply comes down to research. “You must immerse yourself … It took us a year to ascertain we were in line with the ethics and methods of our suppliers and manufacturers.”

Wieth of Novozymes would like to see designers focus more on the durability of their garments. “Specifying a high garment quality in terms of having no fuzz and pilling (bobbles) is one critical element … and [the] use of biopolishing is the most sustainable manner to do this,” he writes.

People still associate sustainability with beige ugly fashion, don’t they?

MacDonald thinks “the ugly beige era has passed (thankfully).” However, she adds that sustainability must be better communicated so it’s not considered a compromise. “Two major European retailers are both the top two users of organic cotton globally (pdf) and still produce desirable and wearable collections for their consumers, but do not shout loudly about this.”

Carneau also believes sustainability is making a more fashionable name for itself thanks to people such as Livia Firth and Stella McCartney. But, she says that for new smaller brands, communication is a problem. She explains that new sustainable brands don’t have the marketing and advertising power that big luxury brands do, which makes it difficult to create the same “aura” as luxury brands.

So, what next for sustainable materials?

CottonConnect’s MacDonald says, “when we look back 10 years ago, there were no smart phones, so technology moves at an alarming pace. For clothing, by 2025, sustainable cotton options will no longer be discussed, as they will be a major part of the cotton market, and [simply] business as usual.”

For Giusy Bettoni, CEO and founder of Class, sustainable materials have yet to “take off” but their introduction into the market has definitely started. In the years to come she says we will finally have a new material portfolio that will not be only natural, organic, synthetic and artificial, but include re-generated, re-engineered and upcycled fashions.

Isn’t our rate of consumption the problem? How will sustainable materials help that?

Smith observes that we’re already seeing certain consumer groups move towards a less throwaway relationship with fashion and that buying patterns will change in time, but we must first address the sustainability of the materials we use.

Taking consumption rates into consideration and finding post-consumer recycling solutions will be hugely important for the sustainability of the fashion industry. Sohlman says that with research and innovation, it’s H&M’s hope that it will eventually be possible to close the loop on material waste.

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion

What is the future for Sustainable Materials in Fashion?

2015-07-08T09:00:00.000-04:00

What are the sustainable alternatives to conventional cotton? Photograph: Phil Coale/AP

For an industry that revolves around seasons, two fibres are popular all year round. The first is cotton, a natural fibre with links to forced labour that is as thirsty as it is in demand, taking up to 2,700 litres of water to make one shirt. The second is polyester, a key driver of the man made fibre market, that depends on now-declining reserves of oil and gas.

The increasingly obvious environmental impacts of both are leading entrepreneurs, designers and businesses to look to more sustainable alternatives like organic cotton and recycled polyester, but some are venturing even further out of the box.

Erin Smith, an artist focused on biomaterials, grew her own wedding dress, while fruits that feature in your five a day are also creeping into fashion, along with soy foods, salmon and sleeping bags.

However, can sustainable innovations in material really rival the commercial viability and performance of current materials in the market, and can consumers be persuaded that sustainable materials aren’t just beige and scratchy?

Source: http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-fashion

Mode éthique: comment s'habiller durable?

2015-06-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

Mode et éthique ne sont plus antinomiques. S'habiller avec style en respectant l'homme et la planète, c'est possible. Nos conseils pour y voir plus clair et consommer moins, mais mieux.

Consommer de manière éthique est devenu une vraie préoccupation: certains souhaiteraient ainsi être mieux informés des conditions de production des produits qu'ils achètent, notamment des vêtements et accessoires de mode. Pour autant, il n'est pas toujours simple de décoder les étiquettes et les labels. Nos conseils pour s'y retrouver dans la mode éthique.

Se renseigner sur l'origine des vêtements

Pour Lionel Astruc, auteur de Voyages aux sources de la mode éthique, "on parle souvent de l'étiquette mais une fois que l'on est dans les rayons, c'est déjà trop tard. Il vaut mieux si possible se renseigner en amont avant tout achat. La marque que je souhaite acheter est-elle transparente sur son processus de fabrication, détails à l'appui? Est-elle soucieuse de sa responsabilité sociale et environnementale?".

Une fois en magasin, pas simple malgré tout de décoder les étiquettes déplore Catherine Dauriac, journaliste et directrice artistique du salon Green Orange Fashion: "Le consommateur se perd dans les méandres du 'made in'. Les industriels chinois délocalisent désormais dans les autres pays asiatiques et le problème se déplace. Le Made in China n'est pas toujours synonyme d'esclavagisme, mais il reste un souci pour l'environnement, notamment au sujet des teintures. Ce n'est hélas pas le cas du Made in Bangladesh, malheureusement porté à l'attention du grand public par la catastrophe du Rana Plaza. Le commerce équitable apporte une réponse claire: conditions de fabrication humainement soutenables, matières et teintures certifiées sans danger pour l'homme et la planète, efforts réels des marques pour un monde plus juste souvent au prix de Des marques ont fait de la traçabilité leur cheval de bataille, à l'image d'Ekyog. "De la culture à la filature, en passant par la teinture, nous sommes capables d'identifier toutes les personnes qui sont intervenues sur un modèle", explique Sabrina Cherubini, directrice marketing de la marque. "Les flashcodes présents sur certains modèles permettent même au consommateur d'accéder à l'histoire du vêtement, racontée sous forme d'anecdotes".

Même souci de lisibilité chez Veja, raconte Sébastien Kopp, co-fondateur de la marque: "Le coeur de notre projet c'est la transparence et la traçabilité des produits. Nous sommes partis des matières premières, le coton, le caoutchouc et le cuir, en raccourcissant la chaine de production et en y ajoutant une plus value sociale, économique et environnementale. Avec Centre commercial, notre concept-store, nous avons choisi de fédérer sous un même drapeau des marques qui, sans rien sacrifier au style, font preuve d'un engagement particulier dans leur production."

Veja, la première basket étiquetée équitable

Privilégier les matières naturelles

Au coton conventionnel, dont la culture est la plus polluante au monde, on préfèrera le coton biologique, le lin ou le chanvre. "Savez-vous que 80% du lin mondial pousse en Europe?", questionne Catherine Dauriac. "Zéro irrigation, zéro déchets, c'est une fibre qui se plie à tous les besoins". Attention néanmoins aux idées reçues: "Le bambou est une hérésie écologique. Il s'agit d'une viscose, donc un fil synthétique, qui demande beaucoup de chimie pour sa transformation. Pour le cuir, il faut privilégier les tannages végétaux et surtout sans chrome, encore pratiqué en Asie, malgré les interdictions européennes".

Un mode de production choisi par Veja, dont les cuirs sont tannés avec des écorces d'acacia. Certaines baskets sont même fabriquées à partir de peaux de poissons teintes et cousues. Sabrina Cherubini conseille quant à elle de prêter attention à la composition en privilég

Pratiquer le slow-wear

A la mode jetable et à la surconsommation, on préfèrera le "Buy less, Choose well, Make it last" ("Achetez moins, Choisir mieux, Faire durer") de la créatrice britannique Vivienne Westwood. "Bien consommer, cela commence d'abord par ne pas acheter n'importe quoi", explique Pin-up Bio. "Quand on sait qu'une femme ne porte en moyenne que 30% de sa garde-robe, on a une idée de l'ampleur du gaspillage", déplore-t-elle.

Lionel Astruc recommande de privilégier les marques qui ne démultiplient pas les collections et n'ont pas (ou ont peu) recours à la publicité. Un modèle économique revendiqué par Ekyog: "Nous travaillons sur un style intemporel revisité, et nous limitons à deux collections par an, contrairement aux marques de fast fashion. Notre gamme de produits transformables "Métamorphose" permet de faire d'une robe un snood ou un gilet: un achat emblématique du slow-wear."

Et contrairement aux idées reçues, ça ne coûte pas forcément plus cher. Faire le choix d'un produit qui va durer au fil des lavages est un bon investissement. "Nos baskets coûtent sept fois plus cher à produire que nos concurrents car nous préférons mieux payer les gens qui travaillent pour nous", explique le co-fondateur de Veja. "Pour autant, nous arrivons aux mêmes prix que les grandes marques car nous n'avons aucun frais de publicité ou d'égérie".

Merci a l'equipe de : http://www.lexpress.fr/ et Ekyog

La Mode Ethique Durable: Pourquoi Et Comment?

2015-06-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

Mode éthique, Mode équitable quelle différence ?

2015-06-22T09:00:00.000-04:00

Mode éthique, Mode équitable quelle différence ?

La mode éthique, comme dans d’autres secteurs se définit par rapport à l’équitabilité et au développement durable. Les termesmode éthique et mode équitable véhiculent des notions différentes qu’il est important de souligner.

Sur les principes du commerce équitable, la mode équitable a pour ambition d’instaurer des relations commerciales justes, fondées sur la transparence et le respect. Son objectif principal est de faire travailler, sur la base d’une rémunération décente, des artisans et des coopératives dans les pays en développement pour les aider à se développer sur le long terme.

La mode éthique, quant à elle, insiste sur le respect des droits de l’Homme sur son lieu de travail. Elle s’appuie sur la notion de qualité sociale : interdiction du travail forcé et du travail des enfants, absence de discrimination raciale ou sexuelle, liberté syndicale ; conditions d’hygiène et sécurité respectées.

Les deux notions de mode équitable et de mode éthique, d’essence différentes sont néanmoins complémentaires : elles entrent dans le cadre de la démarche de développement durable qui prend en compte les trois aspects d’équité sociale, d’efficacité économique et de qualité de l’environnement.

La mode éthique couvre un spectre relativement large:

Vêtements utilisant des matières premières cultivées selon la réglementation de l’agriculture biologique: parmi ces matières premières ont trouve: le coton biologique majoritairement mais aussi, le chanvre, la soie, la fibre de pin.
Vêtements utilisant du coton équitable: c’est à dire du coton pour lequel la filière de production respecte les critères ducommerce équitable.
Vêtements utilisant des matières premières recyclées: cette approche est apparentée à la mode éthique car elle agît pour le développement durable et le respect de l’environnement.
Vêtements réalisés dans des filières de fabrication respectant les critères du commerce équitable. Ces filières sont pour la plupart auditées par les marques de mode éthique elles-mêmes.
Vêtements réduisant l’impact écologique notamment au niveau des teintures : utilisation très largement du label Öko-Tex Standard 100 (www.oko-tex.net)

Les entreprises qui s’engagent dans la mode éthique ont toutes vocation à promouvoir un modèle commercial et industrielsocialement responsable. Dans ce contexte, leurs outils de confection sont souvent le support à une action sociale dans des pays en développement tels que le Brésil, le Pérou, l’Inde, etc...

Les engagements des créateurs de mode éthique

La démarche des créateurs de mode éthique se décline autour des engagements suivants :

ENGAGEMENT POUR UNE CRÉATION PRODUITE DANS DES CONDITIONS RESPECTUEUSES DE L’HOMME :

Respect des conditions des travailleurs conformément aux conventions de l’Organisation Internationale du Travail.
Contribution au développement des communautés par des investissements durables.
Respect de la propriété intellectuelle.

ENGAGEMENT POUR UNE CRÉATION QUI MINIMISE L’IMPACT ENVIRONNEMENTAL DES FILIÈRES DE FABRICATION, DEPUIS LA CRÉATION EN PASSANT PAR LA RÉALISATION, LA LIVRAISON JUSQU’Ã€ LA FIN DE VIE DU PRODUIT :

Privilégier l’utilisation de matières premières et de substances engendrant un minimum d’impact sur l’environnement.

ENGAGEMENT POUR UNE CRÉATION QUI PÉRENNISE LES SAVOIR-FAIRE LOCAUX :

Collaboration avec les artisans locaux, la création éthique permet la lisibilité, la pérennité et la sauvegarde de savoir-faire spécifiques.

Made in Haiti, Dumped in Haiti

2015-06-17T09:30:00.000-04:00

This is an article I posted a couple of years ago when I first made it back to Haiti.

Since this past month the focus have been on The True Cost Documentary so I am re-posting this which I think is a great article on the impact of used clothes in Haiti.

Port-au-Prince’s largest and grimiest meat, vegetable, and clothing market, Croix-des-Bossales, located downtown by the seaport, receives unregulated weekly cargoes of used clothing.

In Haiti, people wear T-shirts bearing unlikely English messages: “We’re the 2% who don’t care,” says one; a respectable-looking grandmother dons a T-shirt emblazoned with “Crack is Whack!”; a little boy without shoes or pants wears a “Save Darfur” T-shirt; while training an illegal militia, a tough former army lieutenant sports a “Varsity Cheerleader” T-shirt.
The absurd messages on these garments—by-products of globalization—are often lost in translation for Haitians, but the crueler irony is that decades of neo-liberal measures have pushed Haiti to expand its apparel industry to export T-shirts to US markets.

Garments are then branded with various designs, sold, consumed, discarded, and shipped back to Haiti, along with other used clothes, for resale in local markets, undercutting and decimating Haitian tailors and their trade in traditional-style clothing.

These days, demand for Haitian-style clothing designs has been reduced to uniforms, church clothes or cultural dresses/shirts for those practicing Vodou.
“Professional tailors who do haute couture are disappearing from the country,” says Daomed Daniel, a tailor who has run his own shop in Cité Soleil for 30 years. Daniel says he used to have full-time work, but the expansion of the used-clothing market, locally known as pepe or contrebande because it is often smuggled and dumped illegally, has forced him to live mainly on commissions earned by making children’s school uniforms.

Members of the Association des Tailleurs et Couturiers de Port-au-Prince (ATCP), a network of independent tailors operating out of houses around Carrefour, complain they can’t compete with the excess of garments made in China, Honduras, and Bangladesh that are then dumped, second-hand, in Haiti. But tailors willing to work in the export garment-assembly sector have to do just that.
In a 2009 report, Oxford economist Paul Collier argued that Haiti’s poverty and deregulated labour market made it “fully competitive with China, which is the global benchmark.” Haiti’s poverty and low minimum wage make it an appealing competitor in the global commodity chain, and it is also conveniently located at the doorstep of North America.

After the devastating earthquake in Haiti in 2010, the international community pledged an unprecedented $5 billion—at the time, the largest pot of post-disaster reconstruction money ever pledged. However, the centerpiece of this post-earthquake reconstruction fund was not the creation of jobs, rebuilding of houses, nor the construction of water and sanitation infrastructure to prevent the spread of and death from the worst cholera epidemic in modern history, but rather to build a giant, Korean-run, $300 million industrial park for apparel manufacture in Caracol, far away from the earthquake-affected area and at the heart of an environmentally protected region, which is also home to some of the most fertile agricultural land in Haiti.

In a market driven by the profit-making of multinationals, the garment sector isn’t about creating jobs for Haitians so much as displacing jobs from one poor country to another, poorer one, making Haiti’s poverty its “comparative advantage.” The Korean clothing giant Sae-A, which produces for Walmart, Target, and Gap, has been accused of anti-union repression, including “acts of violence and intimidation” in Guatemala and, more recently, in Nicaragua. It closed its operations in Guatemala due to union disputes, before setting up shop in Caracol, Haiti. Richard Lavallée, Better Work Haiti’s program manager, says Better Work managers in Nicaragua hear from their producers that “Haiti is a real threat….When we speak to producers in Haiti, it’s El Salvador, it’s Nicaragua that poses a threat. So, there’s no doubt they watch each other and are in competition.”
In early February 2013, a Haitian workers’ union, Batay Ouvriye, reported that Leo Vedél, a worker at the Premium Apparel assembly plant in Port-au-Prince, which subcontracts exclusively to Montreal apparel company Gildan, was assaulted and then fired when he demanded he be paid the legal minimum wage.
Gildan is the leading producer of blank T-shirts for the North American market and has subcontracted to manufacturers in Haiti for a decade. Geneviève Gosselin, Gildan’s corporate communications director, told The Dominion she hadn’t heard of the new minimum-wage law, nor of Better Work’s latest findings. “Our company is committed to respecting labour rights and international labour standards,” she said, but “the way the law is drafted creates confusion locally [and has] never been clarified by the appropriate authorities.”
When the Haitian labour minister’s assistant director, Marie-France Mondesire, was asked by The Dominion why so few companies in the export garment sector respect the new minimum-wage law, she replied, “That’s your interpretation of the law,” and hung up the phone.
In contrast, speaking at a press conference on April 29, Haitian Labour Minister Charles Jean Jacques said, “Significant strides have been made in the implementation of the law on the minimum wage,” citing Better Work’s finding that 16 per cent of workers in the outsourcing sector now earn the minimum wage.
“The minister has either not understood the report or is not telling the truth,” said Yannick Etienne, Batay Ouvriye’s lead national coordinator, speaking with The Dominion from a May Day march in Ouanaminthe, the free-trade assembly zone in northern Haiti.
“It’s a regression,” said Etienne, pointing out that 90 per cent of workers should be earning the new minimum wage. In a country with an unemployment rate estimated between 40 and 80 per cent, Etienne says that workers are so desperate that they tolerate the breach of minimum-wage law.

Sources:
Isabeau Doucet is a freelance journalist, TV producer and anthropology MA
http://www.globalresearch.ca/made-in-haiti-dumped-in-haiti-slave-labor-and-the-garment-industry/5342396
http://www.haitian-truth.org/made-in-haiti-dumped-in-haiti-slave-labor-and-the-garment-industry/

Pèpè, Secondhand clothes and the unforeseen consequences

2015-06-16T09:30:00.000-04:00

In the light of The True Cost documentary, here an article I shared with you 2 years ago when I first made it back to Haiti.

The foreign "Pèpè" has put thousands of Haitian tailors out of work. The solution to the guilt that comes with our over-reliance on cheap, unsustainable clothing isn't to donate it once we tire of a garment, but to consume less and own less in the first place.

In Haiti, pèpè may refer to secondhand clothes that are commonly worn by its population. These clothes are usually sent from the United States. The Haitian textile industry has suffered due to the widespread popularity of pèpè. There have even been discussions about banning the import of pepe.
The import of pèpè began in the 1960s, during the Kennedy administration, leading to the moniker "Kennedy clothes". Since the 1980s, hundreds of tons of pèpè has been imported, usually packaged in huge bales. The clothes are so affordable, that a used boy's t-shirt from the United States could be sold for as little as thirteen cents in Haiti.

How do Haitians end up wearing American T-shirts with crude slogans? It's a complicated story of capitalism, consumption, and "charity."

Two Haiti-based photojournalists, Ben Depp and Paolo Woods, set about documenting the phenomenon. The resulting portraits of ordinary Haitians, most of whom do not speak or read English, wearing t-shirts with rude humor, political references, or other inappropriate or a contextual content. You can see the photos here.

The artist statement about the project explains how the international trade in used clothes has impacted the local community:

Port au Prince’s Fifth Avenue is a waterfront road, just off the harbor, where mountains of second hand clothes bake in the tropical sun. The market, Croix-des-Bossales, is where the slaves used to be sold. Now it is not strong men from Africa that the merchants receive, but containers loaded with skirts, pants and shirts from the US. These second-hand garments are called “Pèpè” and it is increasingly difficult to see a Haitian wearing something that has not been previously worn by an American.
A t-shirt produced for Wal-Mart in the sweatshops of Port au Prince will be sported by a Texan and then returned to the sender, who, at last, will be able to wear it. This back and forth gives us a peek into the workings of the globalization of the textile industry.
The majority of “Pèpè” that arrive on the island have been donated by Americans to charities and collection centers, rejected by Thrift shops, and have gone through the sorting warehouses run by Haitians in Miami that discard the winter clothes and other unmarketable items from the lot. But the worst T-shirts, those that would barely be sold in the cheap gift shops of Times Square, those with the dumbest slogans, reappear, thanks to a free-market miracle, in remote provinces of Haiti where nobody has taken the effort of translating such poetry into Creole.

Apparel manufacturing has traditionally been Haiti's biggest industry. And even though the country's export volume has fallen in recent years, a victim of competition with other low-wage economies after the global system of trade quotas that was allowed to expire in 2005, and then of the devastating earthquake in 2010, many of the T-shirts that return to Haiti as donations originated there as products.

When you buy a piece of clothing, you may think of that as a discrete action. But it's really just a link in a long chain: preceding us are the circumstances under which our clothes are made, and by whom, and the environmental, trade, and labor-rights issues raised by that manufacture. And following us, all too often, is the landfill, or the donation box. As we've written many times before, donating clothes feels like a good solution to over-consumption, but it often has unforeseen consequences. Most clothing is not needed or wanted in the community where it is donated, and recipient organizations become responsible for its storage and transportation (and associated costs). Bulk handlers of second-hand clothing who pay pennies per pound are therefore an attractive option. Lots of donated clothing ends up getting shredded and turned into things like carpet padding. And when donated clothing ends up dumped in developing nations — like all aid — it can have unforeseen negative effects on the local economy. You can't compete with free.
The foreign "Pèpè" has put thousands of Haitian tailors out of work. The solution to the guilt that comes with our over-reliance on cheap, unsustainable clothing isn't to donate it once we tire of a garment, but to consume less and own less in the first place.

Source:http://jezebel.com/why-poor-haitians-end-up-wearing-obnoxious-american-t-s-734992182

WHY NOT ALL FASHION DOCUMENTARIES SHOULD BE PRETTY!

2015-06-08T12:07:00.001-04:00

Haiti and the valley of second hand clothes. Film still from The True Cost. Photograph: PR

by Lucy Siegle

Lucy Siegle, a journalist who writes about ethical living, had that to say about The True Cost documentary in THE GUARDIAN.

Film still from 2015 documentary The True Cost. Photograph: PR

The True Cost, is a fashion documentary that goes there and then some – it unravels the grim, gritty, global supply chain of fast fashion: a system that has injected the type of speed, disposability and price deflation that has directly led to the worst casualties in the industrial age. On our watch.
To be fair, the bulk of the reviews were extraordinarily appreciative of Morgan’s brilliant film. Harvey Weinstein announced at the first LA screening: “This movie’s going to shock the fashion world” – and it will. Reviewing The True cost, the New York Times said: “Under the gentle, humane investigations of its director, what emerges most strongly is a portrait of exploitation that ought to make us more nauseated than elated over those $20 jeans.”

Some I have spoken to in the fashion industry found the impact of watching The True Cost overwhelming, and they reported experiencing a type of moral whiplash. Then there was that defensive whaddaya-want-me-to-do-about-it? reaction, coming from the fact that solving the problem has no straightforward answers, and Morgan purposefully does not present any. “I’m probably most proud that we avoided easy answers and instead chose to trust people to both feel and think deeply about the issues raised,” he says.

Morgan is actually much more charitable than me about the genre he’s ended up involved with. “I’m actually fascinated by those [fashion] films that follow one person,” he tells me from his home in LA. “The best that have been made recently tap into that fascination and give us a glimpse behind the curtain.”

Director Andrew Morgan and model and actress Amber Valletta attend the film’s Los Angeles premiere. Photograph: Vincent Sandoval/Getty Images

But the director is also a fashion outsider. A father of four, Morgan was moved to investigate fashion’s dark heart when he glimpsed a newspaper photograph of two young boys – the same age as his sons – searching futilely for their mother after the Rana Plaza catastrophe, in April 2013. He was astonished to find out that his non-remarkable clothes could be a product of this fashion system.

Morgan says making The True Cost has changed his life – not least because of the terrifying moments when he and his producer, Michael Ross, were held at gun point and cornered by riot police in some of the 13 countries they travelled through to get the story. It has also made a difference to the pair because they have joined the dots between fashion, consumerism, capitalism and structural poverty and oppression, and will never shop in the same way again.

So, how should you handle a film such as The True Cost? Here, I actually think traditional fashion films have taught us something. We should watch as we’d watch those same reverent biographies: let the story absorb you, transport you and take you under. Engaging with the ugly side of fashion will lead to changing it.

The True Cost is available globally online, via truecostmovie.com, iTunes and Amazon, and in select theatres.

Credit link: http://www.theguardian.com/fashion/2015/jun/04/true-cost-film-grim-gritty-world-fashion-documentaries-rana-plaza

THE TRUE COST

2015-06-06T23:02:00.000-04:00

Have you seen the film yet? NO? What have you been waiting for.

The True Cost Shines A Light On The Human Price Of Your Bargain Shopping.

I was pleased and very honored to have been one of the Sustainable designer contributing to the making of this documentary.

with The True Cost Crew in Haiti

Last year August I got an email from someone in LA looking to interview me in my Brooklyn studio, it was the director Andrew Morgan. Since I was in Haiti at that time still, he told me he would like to come there to do the interview and at the same time looking at the country and the impact of second hands clothes, will also interview factory workers. I had no idea that this documentary was going to be so big and full of awareness.

A question for you dear readers; How many times have you hit up a store last-minute to pick up a new dress for a date or the weekend just because you felt like it? When was the last time you thumbed through a clearance rack just to see if there was something there you might want to buy? Have you ever left a store with something you might not have gone in for because it was ’Buy One, Get One Free’? If these shopping scenarios are familiar to you, you should definitely watch “The True Cost.” Maybe even before you finish reading this.
“The True Cost” is a documentary about the current state of the fast fashion industry and the very human expense attached to those cheap clothes. It follows the supply chain that makes the clothes in so many of our closets—ever heard of Forever 21, Zara, H&M, Topshop, Gap, or Uniqlo? It shines a light on the human faces and human problems at each step, from the cotton farmers in Texas and India developing brain tumors and other health complications from the liberal use of pesticides on their crops to the textile factory workers in Bangladesh risking their lives in unsafe working conditions.

Amidst these heart-breaking stories, the documentary confronts you with horrifying facts. Did you know that the fashion industry is the No. 2 most polluting industry in the world, second to the oil industry? Or that the average American creates 82 lbs. of textile waste a year? Did you know that only a small percentage of the clothes you donate actually get sold in thrift stores and the rest are packed and shipped to places like Port-au-Prince, Haiti where they pollute the land and water because most of it isn’t biodegradable? Well, yes I can tell you a lot more on that. Since I have been in Haiti I have been purchasing most of those unwanted jeans, bags and reclaimed them into new items. More on that later, because I want you to focus on THE TRUE COST Documentary now as it is very important for you to understand what is going on.

A former tannery worker in Kanpur, India, is in the film. The leather tanning process exposes workers to highly toxic chemicals.

("The True Cost")

The film, which opens May 29 in theaters, on video on demand and iTunes, was shot in 13 countries, from the slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh, to the cotton fields near Lubbock, Texas. It includes interviews with fashion designers, factory workers and owners, cotton farmers, labor activists, academic experts on consumption, sustainability and more, to shine a light on the "perfectly engineered nightmare" that feeds shoppers' insatiable appetites for cheap chic.

"The day I read about the [collapse], I looked down and realized I had never thought about where clothes come from," says Andrew Morgan, who lives in Sherman Oaks. "When you grow up looking only at a store window and only thinking about your side of the equation, it leads to a very dangerous set of effects."

80 billion pieces of clothing are purchased worldwide each year, which is 400% more than a decade ago. Three out of four of the worst garment factory disasters in history happened in 2012 and 2013. And as the death toll increased, so did the profits. The year after the Rana Plaza disaster was the fast-fashion industry's most profitable yet, and the world's top four fast-fashion brands — Zara, H&M, Fast Retailing (which owns Uniqlo) and Gap — had sales in 2014 of more than $72 billion, compared with $48 billion in 2013.

Watch the trailer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaGp5_Sfbss

Some other must see videos

The Rana Plaza Crash4s: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Fkhzdc4ybw

The full story of the Rana Plaza: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEbFnAMHHps

Would You Still Buy That Dress:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_mA9L1DSr8

Bangladesh Clothing Apparel Trade Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OHu9Y9gC4o

(Credits: The True Cost LA News, MTV News)

Thank you for reading.

Still Here and Moving Forward.

2015-06-03T01:54:00.000-04:00

Hello everyone, I have not posted anything on my blog for almost two years and I am deeply sorry.
So much had happened in my life since. I was blessed with a beautiful baby boy, who is lovely, charming, cute and amazing for his young age.
I know you guys will say: ' All mothers do say the same thing about their child", seriously, believe me he is an amazing child. The other day he came back from daycare and after giving me my usual wet kiss and hug he told me "mommy am big boy in house" I laughed so hard that I cried. Mind you this is a child who is not 3 years yet and his father is not in our lives. Isn't he amazing or what?
I have been in Haiti for a while now traveling back and forth as my son was born here just like me.

What have I been doing since I am here? A lot!!!
I worked with people who have nothing or was injured during the earth quake, young kids/teenager, adults on recycling program around the country and I am pleased with the results mostly with the kids.

I wont be posting anything about my work now, but wanted to show you another face of my beautiful country, Haiti.

Some different pictures around Haiti from the West side, South East and the North.

South East, Jacmel

Moulin sur Mer, North

Miragoane, South side

From My garden, West

From my garden, West

Leogane, Region des Palmes

South road

Moulin sur mer, North

Jacmel, South East

Marigot in Jacmel, South East

Jacmel, South East

See you later! Thank you for reading.

Himane Sustainable Designs

Can Kenya break the global fashion industry's low-wage model?

The search for profits

'It's about our dignity': Secondhand clothing ban in Rwanda

‘If this ban stays it could set a precedent’

Struggling to compete

Shop less, mend more: making more sustainable fashion choices

The fashion industry is one of the world’s most polluting.

Buy clothes made locally by ethical labels

Avoid fabrics made using petroleum and chemicals

Extend your wardrobe’s lifespan by mending

CAN RECYCLED PLASTIC CLOTHING DO MORE HARM THAN GOOD?

Teeny Particles

Better Solutions

Pineapple leaves vs environmentally-friendly clothes and accessories

Manufacturing process

Key Attributes

THE STORY OF PIÑATEX

Pineapple Leaf and The History behind it

History

Pineapple Leaf Fibre

Extraction of Pineapple Leaf Fibres (PALF)

PALF Applications and Future Prospects

The Business of Fast Fashion

Are vintage clothes more ethical?

Things You Can Make With Old Denim Jeans

Handbags

Rugs and Floor Mats

Outdoor Furniture, Director Chair Covers

What clothes can I wear to help save the planet?

Hormone disrupting chemicals found in imported clothing.

Potentially toxic chemicals are ubiquitous in the textile industry and children may be most at risk.

Forget about Cotton, we could be making Textiles from Banana and Pineapple!

Pineapple leaves

Coconut husks

Can big Brands Catch up on Sustainable Fashion?

NATURAL DYES vs. SYNTHETIC: Which is more Sustainable?

Sustainable material pioneers: what does the future hold?

What’s wrong with the materials I’m wearing now?

But what would we use instead of cotton?

Are there sustainable alternatives to leather?

Wait, lab-grown leather? So we can grow clothes in the lab?

What’s best for fast fashion - materials from food byproducts or recycled cotton?

How can designers weigh up the pros and cons of different materials?

People still associate sustainability with beige ugly fashion, don’t they?

So, what next for sustainable materials?

Isn’t our rate of consumption the problem? How will sustainable materials help that?

What is the future for Sustainable Materials in Fashion?

Mode éthique: comment s'habiller durable?

Mode et éthique ne sont plus antinomiques. S'habiller avec style en respectant l'homme et la planète, c'est possible. Nos conseils pour y voir plus clair et consommer moins, mais mieux.

Veja, la première basket étiquetée équitable

Pratiquer le slow-wear

La Mode Ethique Durable: Pourquoi Et Comment?

PUBLIÉ PAR EKYOG

Mode éthique, Mode équitable quelle différence ?

Mode éthique, Mode équitable quelle différence ?

Les engagements des créateurs de mode éthique

Made in Haiti, Dumped in Haiti

Pèpè, Secondhand clothes and the unforeseen consequences

WHY NOT ALL FASHION DOCUMENTARIES SHOULD BE PRETTY!

by Lucy Siegle

THE TRUE COST

Bangladesh Clothing Apparel Trade Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OHu9Y9gC4o

Still Here and Moving Forward.