photo: some of the amazing work by the artisans of Madres & Artesanas (not brains!)
Local vs. Artisanal
I love sweaters. I love wearing them, I love designing them and I love working with sweater factories. In part because creating a fully fashioned sweater is for the most part a no-waste process, and in part because with sweaters I get to create the fabric from scratch. I can change the texture, pattern and weight of the knit panels from one sweater to the next using the same yarn. And yarns are SO much fun to source. Don’t ask me why, they just are.
When I moved the bulk of my production to New York, I had resigned myself to giving up making sweaters because there just aren’t any sweater factories in the US. But I was wrong, there are! And I’m going to be working with one in New Jersey for the Fall 11 collection. I think it’s important to support local production, in particular because the garment industry is suffering in the US. But I’m also going to be working with Madres & Artesanas, a women’s artisan knitwear cooperative in La Paz, Bolivia. Started 6 years ago by Yelka Maric who left her finance career to organize a workshop to enable the Aymaran women of her city to earn a livelihood by utilizing their ancient traditional handwork skills of knitting, macrame, crochet and weaving. Right up my alley!
So here’s my next topic of conversation, for you, my lovely readers. How do you weigh the benefits of producing locally in NY – which benefits the US economy and creates a demand for an industry that is suffering - versus producing in a co-op whose main goal is to empower women in an impoverished nation? How do you weigh the footprint of shipping from Bolivia (rather than from New Jersey) when there is such a social benefit involved? I’m not saying one is better than the other. In fact I fully intend to work with both factories because I believe they have equal importance in the future of sustainable design. But I want to know what YOU think. Have you been faced with these decisions?
A little press love from this month’s issue of Ozon magazine. I won’t pretend that I’m not incredibly excited to be on the same page as Henrik Vibskov, one of my design heroes! And check out the houndstooth pleated skirt which made the cover, yay!
I start every new season by sourcing and developing fabrics first. The textiles I choose are the most important part of my collection, as far as I’m concerned. It took me a while this season, as it always does, to find the fabrics that would unlock the inspiration I needed to start designing the collection. On a recent trip to a fabric rep in the city, Julianne found a check fabric that did just that. On subsequent trips to other reps I filled in the blanks and now have more than enough fabrics to complete the collection.
Hand woven silks and wools from Moral Fiber in India.
And a couple other gems from Pickering in California.
So here’s a sneak peek at the earliest stages of conception of my Fall 2011 collection. If I can just get some of these natural knits dyed into a warm mustard clr, I’ll be a very happy little designer! If anyone wants to share fabrics, let me know soon so we can order together!
I’m going to use this TreeHugger article by Emma Grady as the launching point for a series of conversations I’d like to have (on this blog) about sustainable production. I attended the first Source4Style Atelier earlier this week, we discussed measuring the environmental footprint of our products. This harps back to many issues I’ve brought up before: the guilt of producing a new product, no matter how sustainable it is, the debate over local production vs. fair trade imports, fast fashion vs. slow fashion, etc…
One of the topics that came up during the evening, and the first topic I’d like to discuss here, is the end of life of products. This is becoming more and more important in the sustainable design community. Is your product recyclable? Do you offer an end of life option to your customers (via take-back programs, fabric recycling, etc…)? Is your product made to last a lifetime? This brought up some personal conflict for me. While I’d love to design all my products to be recyclable, I also want to make products that can be kept for longer than the consumer’s lifetime. This is where the importance of craft and quality workmanship come in. So here’s my question to you, my lovely readers (ie. mom, Jordan and Timo):
What percentage of your closet is made up of clothing you plan to keep forever? And do you make purchases based on how long you plan to keep a garment? What do you do with your clothes when you no longer want to wear them?
