The F Factory – LIMITED EDITION experiences

Fendi will be playing quite a role in the event this year, introducing the F Factory, a limited-edition retail project in the Miami Design District’s Moore Building (home to Zaha Hadid’s “Elastica” permanent exhibition), starting November 30 2009 and running until Christmas.

 

The shop will feature the brand’s most coveted bags, complete with Fendi’s Roman craftsmen on-site to personalize each one. But in true Basel form, art and culture will infuse the retail. Graffiti artist Andre is creating three needlepoint panels live in three 60-minute “performances” in the space, which will then be stitched into a unique Fendi bag.

You can buy your own Fendi Baguette Needlepoint Stitch Kit, designed by Silvia Venturini Fendi for $995!

Other collaborations include Moritz Waldemeyer’s collaboration with Fendi to create six custom-made Gibson guitars with Silvia Venturini Fendi, which will project lights on the walls when played by American band OK Go.

The Limited Edition Experiences program in the Miami Design District. Launched by Dacra, a real estate company that owns 80% of the 18-block area that constitutes the Miami Design District, Miami’s Limited Edition Experiences program brings together designers like Cynthia Rowley,Duncan Quinn, Christopher Ross, Maison Martin Margiela, and Marni, all of whom engage consumers with a series of initiatives ranging from pop-up stores to limited-edition wares, in-store events, documentary screenings, and more.

Luxury fashion engaging in experiential goods and services… could this be the new Eco Luxury market of the future? I can’t wait to see how these pop up projects proceed!

For more info visit website

Rags to Riches to Rags

Marc Levin’s HBO documentary Schmatta: Rags to Riches to Rags  was backed by, supporters of NYC’s shrinking Garment District who gathered  for a Save the Garment Center rally. T

here was a sizable turnout for the event at the corner of 39th Street and Seventh Avenue, which was organized by a mix of cit

y officials and led by designers Nanette Lepore and Yeohlee Teng . The crowd spanned the entire northeast side of the block reaching to 40th Street. “The Garment Center is the lifeblood of New York City…and we need to preserve it,” said Lepore, standing on a small stage, to the assembled fashion students, designers, and Garment District workers.

 

“The city has already lost enough of what keeps us unique,” she added.

Designer and CFDA president Diane von Furstenberg turned up to lend her considerable support, as did Michael Kors, Victoria Bartlett, Maria Cornejo, Rag & Bone’s Marcus Wa

inwright and Chris Benz. “I produce my entire collection here,” said Benz. “For a young designer, the quantities for production lots overseas are enormous. They ask for 1,000 pieces at a time.” Erin Fetherston, who was part of the cause but was out of tow

n filming a broadcast for her line with QVC, had similar thoughts. “The Garment District is so important to New York and New York fashion,” said Fetherston, before the rally. “Big American brands and young designers alike all have access to the same gre

at resources for making clothing.” Or as one of the posters cheekily but effectively summarized, “It’s Sew N.Y.”
—Bee-Shyuan Chang via Style.com

Documentary Preview

Cherish Your Wardrobe (Event Report)

“Image source my fast fashion diet article”

I attended the ‘Cherish your Wardrobe’ event at Central Saint Martins yesterday, an event hosting a range of speakers who tackle sustainability from different angles. 

Designers from Gieves and Hawkes, From Somewhere, Pachacuti and TRAID presented their work and design journey. Their ‘sustainable stories’ connected them and really animated the cause. It was inspiring that every designer began with a limitation and designed this into their process and practice.

If innovation can be inspired from limitation: how can we push the boundaries and challenge the fashion industry? Over consumption is a huge problem and how do we make sense of an industry that has somehow lost control?

The designers urged the audience and consumers to emotionally engage with their clothing, to invest in fashion that will be cherished and loved. Quality was also an important issue, for clothing to be durable and with stand the test of time it needs to be well crafted and really beautiful. But are we as consumers willing to pay more?

Over consumption was addressed and TRAID stated that the average fashion consumer buys 35 garments per year. But if we explore fast fashion culture that teenagers are buying into, the number of annual garments consumed is significantly more. They asked the audience to think about how much they consume per year… how much do you consume?

So where do the answers lie? 

The Q & A session was really animated and the audience challenged sustainable fashion from their perspective. 

    * How do you convince consumers to buy into ethical fashion if it costs more?

    * How do we influence the fashion industry at mass?

    * Are trends important? Should we be buying into trend-less fashion?

    * Is fast fashion necessarily a bad thing? It’s democratic and allows everyone to participate…

    * Do the answers lie in current sustainable business models… can we explore, reflect and expand upon?

One audience member flagged up that she loves how everyone can express themselves through fast fashion… She felt that DIY fashion puts pressure on woman to return to the sewing machine and the whole stitch and bitch concept is possibly a step backwards? 

There was also a lot of discussion about the onus being put onto the consumer… the speakers responded that is because the power of the purse has a significant impact! Do retailers supply to meet demand? The urge for Government support for local production was also stressed as an important issue… new legislation and initiatives are required to urge designers, suppliers and businesses to work towards sustainable standards.

I think consideration needs to be applied to all viewpoints… its a complicated area and there is no complete solution or answer which will resolve everything. But lots of work has already been done and this can be expanded upon… 

The stereo-type of sustainable fashion is changing, new materials and process are delivering a better aesthetic and this could enable us to work towards challenging preconceptions. 

Cherish Your Wardrobe

Global Sourcing

 

THE ANNUAL INDUSTRY MARKETPLACE FOR SUPPLIERS OF SUSTAINABLE FABRICS, COMPONENTS AND MANUFACTURERS TO THE FASHION INDUSTRY

20th-21st NOVEMBER, CHELSEA COLLEGE, LONDON

As a culmination of 2009’s Spotlight on Sourcing event series, the Ethical Fashion Forum (EFF) will be holding a two-day Ethical Sourcing Marketplace in London. The marketplace will bring together representatives of brands and retailers with manufacturers, suppliers and cooperatives working to high ethical standards.

At the event you can:

Meet a range of suppliers, see and feel products and discuss your needs face to face

Gain access to detailed information on exhibitors through the Supplier Directory -quickly identify exhibitors compatible with your work

Attend the series of short seminars during both days, introducing new products and exemplary supply systems

Access one to one advice from leading ethical fashion support organisations and initiatives

Network with other visitors and learn from others experience, share ideas and make key contacts

Tickets are available on site and student discount is available for £10 access saturday 21st between 1030 – 1300 … bring your student ID with you.

visitor information

 

North Circular

 

The North Circular is a knitting company who’s products are supported by supermodels and knitted by grannies. All of their products are produced using rescued Wensleydale wool which is dyed and spun locally (within 120 miles of North Circular route of Yorkshire).

A brand to emerge from an idea shared between friends (Katherine and Lilly) has sustainability as it’s core. The knitwear is handmade by skilled artisans (a team of highly skilled grannies), the materials are sourced from local sheep rescued from slaughter, the locality of their production process is kinder to the environment and the products are beautifully made to last…

5% of every sale and all of Lily Cole’s profits are forwarded to the Ethical Justice Foundation.

Visit their website for further information…

 

 

Co-Everything

I have uploaded a snippet from my presentation last Friday… Thank you so much to everyone who came along. It was a valuable exercise and I feel it really pushed me forward. 

Thank you for the questions and feedback… it gave me lots to think about and was a great opportunity to see my research from the viewpoint of others. I have lots to consider and look forward to developing the workshops and moving forward.

I will doing a series of presentations as the research develops… I will post updates and also advertise the workshops as they come into practice.

The Ethical Fashion Show

 

A few weekends ago I visited the annual Ethical Fashion Show, an event hosted in the heart of Paris at the Tapis Rouge (one of Paris’ oldest department stores). Whilst there I attended a workshop facilitated by Fashioning an Ethical Industry.

The workshop invited a series of speakers to explore ethics within fashion, the presentations alternated between French and English (headsets were given out to tune into translations). The workshop was action packed and covered a range of topics for example:

Social responsibility  – highlighting the role of the consumer and what alternatives are available. How do we engage with industry to promote ethical production strategies? 

Student awareness – what is the role of Universities and students? 

The workshop was designed to promote ethical literacy and practice and the audience was comprised of students, tutors, designers and industry. The speakers introduced a variety of past and present projects tailored to address these issues. 

The Univeristy of Delamore ran a practical workshop connecting their students directly to industry. Their objective was to demonstrate considerations for the design and development of “sustainable garments”. The students were divided into groups focusing on different areas such as social, use and concept. The students were linked directly to IPC, a Factory School in Honduras and worked collaboratively to deliver end outputs which was a series of garments. Visit their blog for further information. Ethicalfashionproject.wordpress.com

I liked that their project was a tangible example of design interventions that were both functional and deliverable… there was also end outputs so the theories were met with practice.

IFM in Paris were also working directly with industry through a global collaboration project linking Paris, FIT New York and China. This live one year project allowed the students to meet at each location once and work to experience every aspect of the supply chain. This offers the students a real time perspective through a hands on learning strategy. It looked like this really informed their decision making process and promoted a sustainable actions.
Fashioning an Ethical Industry delivered an inspirational presentation with an introduction to what they do and their resources . Visit FEI website to access these resources there is an educational handbook available and lots of papers and pod casts available to download.

They advised delegates to engage with others via social networks this can help build a dialogue around “sustainable fashion” but also link up institutions, students, designers and industry. I think identifying opportunities to connect and promote global conversations which can lead to exciting collaborations through thinking and practice.
The Ethical Fashion show itself was a fantastic showcase of ethical fashion that was both functional and desirable. The designers were on hand to introduce the thinking behind their collections, explain the production process and answer any questions. 

 

The EVER Manifesto & Cittadellarte Fashion: Bio Ethical Sustainable Trend

During Milan Fashion Week at the Cittadellarte Fashion: Bio Ethical Sustainable Trend event Princess Charlotte Casiraghi, daughter of Prince Caroline of Monaco, introduced the Ever Manifesto. A new publication she is producing which aims to explore sustainability through fashion, art, education, politics and ecology.

Ms Casiraghi describes the publication as a “communications think tank” inviting designers, artists and experts to come together to focus on the idea of sustainability and how they can combine skills to transform society. The publication will be distributed free at Corso Como, Milan Fashion week and will then available from Colette in Paris.

The Cittadellarte Fashion Event invited eleven designers (selected by Italian Vogue) to explore ecological materials and processes within their work. The designers included Marco de Vincenzo, Silvio Betterelli, and Marta Forghieri, all from Italy; Osman Yousefzada and Mark Fast, Britain; Siri Johansen, Norway; Mary Katrantzou, Greece; José M. Nunes da Silva Giralt, Spain, Matthew Ames, United States; and Sandra Backlund, Sweden.

Event organiser Mr Pistoletto, 76 said he organised the event because he felt fashion needed an Eco boost as it was under explored within the Milan fashion industry. He claimed it was about “unifying aesthetics with ethics…” I think the relationship between the ethics and aesthetics is an interesting and valid point, for sustainable fashion to be truly desirable and demanded for by consumers it needs to be really beautiful and functional as well as ecological. There has been huge developments of late and as more designers explore ecological materials and processes it pushes the boundaries creating new and exciting outputs for the fashion industry. The Cittadellarte Fashion: Bio Ethical Sustainable Trend will be showcased in Milan from 23 September 2009- Feb 2010.

Sandra Backlund – Slow Stitches in Time

I have been observing and admiring the work of fashion knitwear designer Sandra Backlund for some time and I think its a good representation of what it means to combine the words ‘slow’ and ‘fashion’ together in the same sentence. I have been thinking a lot lately about about the word ‘slow’ and its relationship to fashion.

Sandra Backlund studied at Beckmans College of Design, Stockholm and she formed her own label in 2004 immediately after graduating. Her knits are all produced by hand and she constructs the sculptural forms as she works, allowing herself the freedom to improvise as and when she likes. She begins her process with the same patterns blocks and then builds upon this structure to create new 3-Dimensional forms. Each piece takes hours upon hours of hand knitting skills, she is said to spend up to 20 hours per day locked away in her studio knitting and produces two amazing ten piece collections per year!

Her work is constantly changing, shifting and re-forming and I am truly inspired that each piece is crafted by hand. She stated in an interview with BLEND that she was taught to knit as a child by her grandmother and often gets her mother to help out when pressed towards deadlines.

I love the idea of skills being handed down between generations and re-interpreted. Backlund says “my work is very personal to me… I am fascinated by all the ways you can highlight, distort and transform the natural silhouette of the body with clothes and accessories… The handicraft process and the handmade feeling is also significant. I do experiment a lot with different materials and techniques… but its through my heavy wool collage knitting that I have found the ultimate way to express myself. ” The time, precision and quality invested in each piece can make it very difficult to categories her collections – are they truly fashion wearables or art forms? And how do you market or put a price tag on such a high level of innovation and craftsmanship? She could be labeled as a knitting visionary as she pushes the boundaries between traditional hand craft by creating fashion forward garments that are truly iconic and cutting edge. When asked to explain her thought process she explains there is no formula to it… she just experiments through the stitches. Once the panels are formed she pins and constructs them in front of a mirror to shape and form. It’s an interesting discussions as sometimes designers find it difficult to explain their method behind the process, it is an intrinsic part of the design process that is unexplainable and can not be taught.

I think investing lots of time and energy allows us to perfect and reflect a technique but I think there is also a little magic behind the new thoughts or concepts that emerge. I love Sandra’s work. I have linked to her website to view the 2009 collections. If only we could all use hand knitting in such an inspiring way we would have the answers to slow fashion at our fingertips!