Lifelong benefits of creative childhood

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Erin Gafill grew up at remote Big Sur California and had a creative childhood that connected to imagination and materials which has carried her through life. It is worth noting upfront that her uncle is colourful knit legend Kaffe Fassett.  I chatted with Erin online from Monterey California as part of my Churchill  Fellowship investigating ways that being hands-on with clothes can help reduce textile waste and enhance wellbeing.    

“As a child, everything we played with was made from cast offs, that is what our community did. There was the economic aspect and the connection to imagination and materials – that is why we did it.

Erin caption: Me with my sweater with my uncle Kaffe Fassett, textile designer. The sweater is inspired by one of his patterns and made from scrap yarn from my mother’s stash

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Sewing a fresh seam 

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By Jane Milburn *

Sowing or sewing? If you are a gardener or a sewist, you reap what you sow or sew. While there are many gardeners among us growing some food, there are fewer sewists making their own clothes.

In the same way many are sowing seeds to yield nutritious home-grown, local, natural food, it is time to invest energy in sewing local natural clothes.

With global supply chains pumping out 80 billion garments each year, most people have lost sight of where and how things are made, and what from. Slavery combined with increasing use of synthetic/plastic fibres, has led many to buy two to four times what we used to, resulting in waste and pollution, and a loss of skills and knowledge about clothes.

Over the past two decades, globalisation and production efficiencies have meant it is cheaper to buy clothes than make them. We’ve got used to affordable, ever-changing styles. Shopping is addictive and we’re encouraged to buy quantity over quality for the good of the economy. It is only when we stop and think about why clothes are so cheap that we come to understand they are not properly costed, that exploitation of people and resources exists in the system.

Each of us influences the future of the fashion industry through our buying choices. Surely the beginning of a new decade is a great time to turn over a new leaf. Let’s think about fewer clothes of better quality that we wear for longer.

Author Jane Milburn with Julian Roberts from Royal College of Art London at the Fabric subtraction-cutting workshop held at the University of the Sunshine Coast.

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Posted in: consumption issues, Fashion Revolution, leadership, Sew it Again, slow clothing \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Sewing outside the lines

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What part are you playing in the Fashion Revolution?  I am proud to have been on the Fashion Revolution Australia committee from the early days when the world awoke following the devastating Rana Plaza factory collapse in April 2013. Thousands killed, injured and orphaned in pursuit of profits and cheap clothes in distant comfortable countries like ours.

Jane Milburn wears upcycled silk. Photo by Robin McConchie at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens.

I created Textile Beat in 2013 based on a lifetime of making my own clothes so I could influence change by focusing on natural fibres (not plastic), upcycling (less waste) and making in your own style (storyful clothes). I often make my clothes from natural fibres reclaimed from garments that might otherwise become landfill. This one, above, (photographed by Robin McConchie at Mt Coot-tha Botanic Gardens) is silk from five garments that I recreated into two squares and a rectangle, with two small rectangles for sleeves. I used subtraction-cutting techniques pioneered by Julian Roberts to transform these pieces into a dress. The wooden beads were reclaimed from what was a family fruit bowl, silk head scarf from opshop and crochet earrings made at a recent workshop with Jenny King at Braiding in the Wildwood. Creative, disruptive, natural, indie style. That is how I choose to make a difference in the world and I explained why in my book Slow Clothing: finding meaning in what we wear.

As part of our recent fabulous three-day Fashion Revolution Brisbane event, one of several activities I ran was an upcycling masterclass with designer Darin Rose and 15 fabulous participants in the Fabrication Lab at The Edge, where we were sewing outside the lines. Here’s a video which Robin McConchie produced from the workshop.

Posted in: Fashion Revolution, leadership, slow clothing, workshop \ Tagged: , , , ,

On the Textile Beat April enews

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Here’s the link to our On the Textile Beat April enews.  Big shifts are happening as we have lived experience of climate change. Businesses and communities are responding by adapting approaches and behaviours. We are part of the Fashion Revolution and excited about our upcoming three-day event in Brisbane. See below for profiles of my colleagues Julie Hillier and Elizabeth Kingston who will be joining the discussion about localism on Sunday April 28. Also at bottom is the overall program – come join the conversation, workshops and markets from April 26-28.

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Bring on the fashion revolution

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Brisbane slow fashion practitioners bring on the revolution

It is time for a Fashion Revolution – and Brisbane slow fashion practitioners are bringing together an immersive experience on April 26-28 to celebrate all that is local, sustainable and creative.

Brisbane makers and menders, movers and shakers – led by Naomi Huntsman, Jane Milburn, Leah Musch and Kim Bailey – are bringing you a three-day event exploring ways we can revolutionise the fashion system through our choices.

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Wear a good story

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FRD_logo_blueWhen you dressed this morning, did you spare a thought for how your clothes came into the world? Do you know what country they were made in, from what type of material or who stitched them together?

Most likely not – too busy rushing breakfast, timelines, meetings, commitments, social media, what’s for dinner, first-world problems, shopping for more, weekend planning …

The disconnection between ourselves and our clothing has grown in direct proportion to the amount of affordable, ever-changing garments on offer through global supply chains. The majority is sewn in third-world factories then presented in all sizes and shapes in a store near you.

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Our clothing stories – Jane Milburn

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Jane Milburn

Jane Milburn in eco-dyed t-shirt dress. Photo by Darcy Milburn at South Mossman River in north Queensland

Clothing is as essential as food for our health and wellbeing because clothes do for us on the outside what food does inside – they nourish, warm, and engage body and soul. What we choose to wear impacts how we feel and how we present to the world.

As conscious eaters are now aware of sourcing fresh whole food and returning to the kitchen – conscious dressers are engaging in the process of learning where and how their clothes are made. Our choices have profound influence – yet sometimes we are too busy to think much about them.

Fast, processed food has had a dramatic impact on health across the population in recent decades and similarly the transformational shift to fast, manufactured clothing is having impacts we are only now coming to understand.

Without doubt there are thousands of wonderful designers and billions of beautiful clothes available for purchase through the trillion dollar global garment industry.  Yet this industry flourishes through the hard work of garment workers in developing countries who may, or may not, be paid appropriately for their efforts. Read about the global garment industry here from Clean Clothes Campaign.

Meanwhile in Australia and other developed nations, two generations have largely missed the opportunity to learn to sew and 70% of millennials don’t even know how to sew on a button.  Continue Reading →

Posted in: consumption issues, Fashion Revolution, lifestyle, reuse, slow clothing \ Tagged: , ,

Clothing in a material world

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Never at any time in our history have there been so many clothes in the world, and another 69.7m tonnes added every year. Some clothing is now so cheap it is considered disposable. The fact we don’t make time to value or care for clothes like we did in past generations is leading to textile waste on a massive scale, with millions of tonnes of clothing going prematurely to landfill.

The fastest-growing household waste in Australia is clothing, according to a Council of Textile and Fashion Industries of Australia which said Australians sent $500 million of fashion clothing to the tip in 2013. It suggested this waste could be reduced if we removed spills quickly using baby wipes or sloshing with water to stop stains setting. And it said if we are like other Western countries, we only recycle 18 per cent of clothing compared to 55 per cent of paper and 63 per cent of metal.  Continue Reading →

Posted in: clothing waste \ Tagged: , , , , ,

Leadership study sparks sew change

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Jane Milburn 7 photo by Patria Jannides webMost of us are materialistic by nature. We like stuff that is useful, pretty, holds memories, provides comfort, brings status, or appeals in some other way.

It is the ability to imagine how new things might change our lives that drives us to acquire them. New Scientist magazine’s March 29 feature The Meaning of Stuff described this as transformation expectation, imagining how it may enhance and somehow make things better.

But being more mindful about consumption – of food, energy, clothing, technology, sweet stuff – leads to better outcomes for ourselves and the planet. For example, use of apparel fibre has increased by 80 percent in the past two decades, three times the rate of population growth, according to the table below from a 2013 FAO World Apparel Fibre Consumption Survey. The report is written from a consumption perspective on recession impacts but can be interpreted as an overall warning because per capita consumption between 1992 and 2010 ballooned from 7kgs up to 11kgs of fibre per person per year.  This is unsustainable.  Continue Reading →

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