Churchill Fellow finds stitching skills and agency are antidotes to fast fashion

Developing stitching skills and regenerating our own agency in the wardrobe are antidotes to fast fashion, according to Churchill Fellow Jane Milburn who spent two months researching upcycling actions that help reduce textile waste and enhance wellbeing.

Jane’s multidisciplinary project is at the intersection of culture, creativity, science, health and wellbeing in the way we dress. It aims to inspire social change and contribute to climate action and sustainable living across communities by shifting the culture of fast fashion consumption towards slow clothing philosophy and practice.

It highlights citizens, educators, designers, influencers and practitioners who are independent from fast fashion because they have developed their own style, regenerated their own agency and empowered themselves through fit-for-purpose wardrobe solutions that offer diverse entry points.

One of 55 people Jane met on her Churchill Fellowship was Professor Kate Fletcher, co-author of Earth Logic.

This fellowship is about disrupting the fashion system through the power of consumer behaviour and choices because there is no better time for the citizenry to be activated and engaged through everyday practices. It is about taking charge of our clothes, divesting ourselves from dependency on destructive systems by becoming actively engaged in and caring for what we wear rather than passively choosing from the latest offerings. It is grounded in the practices, choices and actions that reduce our material footprint: think, natural, quality, local, few, care, make, revive, adapt and salvage as outlined in The Slow Clothing Manifesto.

It is about regenerating our own agency and being empowered through skills, knowledge and desire to assemble a wardrobe of garments that we want to wear and keep in service for as long as possible. Agency is attained through simple skills to undertake acts of styling, mending, co-designing, and upcycling to appreciate and value the natural resources that go into clothes and manipulating them to fit our needs. Being more engaged with our clothes is a driver for systemic change as well as bringing with it financial, environmental, empowerment and wellbeing benefits. At its simplest, it is being resourceful and using commonsense; neither expensive nor particularly difficult.

“Across the world, I found many individuals, academics, social enterprise and small business change agents envisaging and implementing small and slow solutions that can help people solve problems in their wardrobes,” Jane said.

A summary of ways people are undertaking actions that help in REDUCING TEXTILE WASTE include:

  1. restyling and wearing what is already in the wardrobe
  2. thrifting, mending and dyeing existing clothes
  3. redesigning, co-designing using existing clothing and materials
  4. making their own clothes, some hand-stitching to further slow the process
  5. liberating and sharing dormant and waste textile resources within local supply chains
  6. skill and knowledge sharing within communities
  7. supporting local, regenerative natural fibre and design systems

A summary of ways people are ENHANCING WELLBEING from hands-on actions include:

  1. a sense of empowerment and agency over what they wear
  2. a sense of playfulness, joy and self-expression in having interesting clothes
  3. feelings of calm, relaxation, self-soothing, distraction, resilience and meditation
  4. comfort from slowing down, thinking through making, and being resourceful
  5. a felt sense of meaning and mindful connection to self, clothes and community
  6. a sense of contributing to broader solutions for fashion waste
  7. feelings of interconnection to nature and the natural world

This report includes ways that all citizens with a can-do, will-do, mindset can regenerate their agency when they allocate leisure time to resourceful creativity rather than shopping for quick fixes.

While the ‘making do’ in earlier times was born from lack of resources and most people did it,  nowadays ‘making do’ is more likely to be a response to excess and, ironically, it may be the privileged who are currently most engaged. Modern ‘making do’ is more about choices and actions to be resourceful and sustainable, more likely about saving the planet than specifically needing to save money.

“The people I met have become more self-reliant in various ways by developing skills and insights to make themselves independent of the fashion supply chain. They are reclaiming control of their wardrobe by being more hands-on in creatively making, mending, redesigning or restyling clothes already around them to reduce waste and enhance wellbeing. They are empowered through what they wear and uninterested in slavishly following trends that provide fleeting satisfaction at best.

“Through this Fellowship, I tapped into the citizenry swimming against the all-consuming tide. They are engaging in hands-on processes that enable a consumption pause, taking time for self-reflection and working with what is at hand before making considered decisions in any new purchases.

“These citizens are showing that culture change is possible when we inform ourselves and learn skills of independence and resourcefulness, and invest time in the process. “

RECOMMENDATIONS from Jane’s Fellowship are:

  1. More education around hand-sewing skills for mending, tinkering and mindfulness
  2. More opportunities to engage and share clothing resources, skills and creativity
  3. Wellbeing services based around regenerating agency in the wardrobe
  4. Redesign services that enable engagement and co-design
  5. More engagement through opportunities to practice permaculture and citizen science
  6. More awareness-raising of unsustainable consumer culture and greenwashing
  7. Localisation to promote and enable place-based fibre systems and culture

This Fellowship is a step towards changing the consumer culture of dependence on global fast fashion supply chains to one of independent flourishing of local creativity, engagement and connection through what we choose to wear.

It brings focus to the concept of dressing for health and wellbeing rather than status and looks, and outlines how engaged citizens can gain wellbeing benefits by regenerating their own agency using what is around them and, in so doing, contribute to reducing the textile waste burden.

“We can’t change the world, but what we can do is change the way we live through our everyday practices. Those small decisions and choices for living simply are within our means, they are the steps to leading a modest yet fulfilling life in harmony with the natural world.”

Read the summary Jane Milburn Churchill Fellowship Project Summary September 2022 online

Read the full report Jane Milburn Churchill Fellowship Report 28 September 2022 online

Download Jane Milburn’s full report from the Churchill Trust website here.

Churchill fellow investigates ways to reduce our material footprint

Hot on the heels of Earth Day (April 22) and Fashion Revolution Week (April 18-24), Churchill fellow Jane Milburn departed on April 28 to undertake fellowship study investigating ways that being more aware and hands-on with clothes can help reduce our material footprint.

Clothing accounts for up to 10 percent of our environmental footprint and everyday practices that extend the lifespan of clothes – caring, repairing, rewearing, restyling, upcycling – can reduce its ecological impact and create independence from fast-fashion cycles.

Since 2012, Jane has advocated for living simply through sustainable practices with a particular focus on how we choose, care for and dispose of clothing. Jane won a Churchill Fellowship in 2019 to “investigate ways that hands-on upcycling can help reduce textile waste and enhance wellbeing” but her 2020 trip was postponed due to the pandemic. This week Jane begins eight weeks’ travel in New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan to meet with slow fashion practitioners, academics and sustainability leaders.

Jane Milburn interviewed by ABC Mornings Presenter Rebecca Levingston before leaving on her fellowship.

Continue Reading →

Cotton: case study in misinformation

Sifting fake news from reality in the social media age is a challenge for us all. Misinformation, untruths and conspiracy theories spreading through social media are disrupting society as we’ve seen in the US election, vaccine roll-outs and the war in Ukraine.

Sorting facts from gossip and innuendo was traditionally the role of journalists but erosion of conventional news outlets means journalists are thin on the ground and being substituted by spin doctors, social media influencers and activists.

I’ve always wondered about figures attributing large amounts of water and chemicals to the production of cotton, and my scientific training made me wary of sharing these in my slow clothing advocacy work. I know the Australian industry has introduced water efficiency measures and some regions grow dryland (non-irrigated) cotton. Additionally, Australian growers use integrated pest management along with seed that has been genetically modified to resist insect attack.

The fashion industry is full of misinformation. People are fed the latest trends and treated like mushrooms, there’s endless greenwashing and a lack of transparency exacerbated by data kept behind paywalls. There’s even a ratings systems which ranks synthetic fibres like polyester that sheds microplastic particles as being more sustainable than natural fibres. How can that be? Polyester is plastic. It might use less water that cotton but is created from fossil fuel and its full polluting impact needs to be factored in.

It is helpful to see a new report Cotton: a case study in misinformation developed by the Transformers Foundation which represent the denim supply chain with the stated goal to help suppliers share their expertise and opinion on industry threats and solutions, brands and retailers to transform their jeans from a commodity into unique and valuable fashion, and consumers to choose the most environmentally-sound denim products and avoid greenwashing. You can download the report at this link https://www.transformersfoundation.org/cotton-report-2021 or read some direct quotes below.

“Fashion has a major misinformation problem. Half-truths, out-of-date information and shocking statistics stripped of context are widely circulated, from the notion that fashion is the second-most polluting industry to the idea that cotton is thirsty or that it consumes 25 percent of the world’s insecticides. While there have been attempts to debunk fashion misinformation, we have not taken the problem seriously enough. Fashion misinformation is part of the same society-wide information disorder destabilising democracies and undermining public trust.

“This report aims to take a new approach, using the cotton industry as a lens through which to tackle misinformation. Most of the common claims about the cotton industry are inaccurate or highly misleading (from the idea that cotton is water-thirsty to the notion that it takes 20,000 litres of water to make a T-shirt and a pair of jeans). It is an ideal place to begin to unpack how misinformation operates.

“Fashion misinformation is complicit in the same systems of misinformation breaking down public trust in our institutions and our trust in one another. Misinformation’s impacts are becoming more catastrophic, linked to public inaction around climate change, the questioning of the 2020 US election results, the rise of authoritarianism, and the threat to democracy worldwide. Sharing half-truths about how much water cotton consumes or the fashion industry pollutes might seem innocent by comparison, but it is all part of the same information disorder with troubling shared consequences.

“The stakes couldn’t be higher. The $2.5 trillion fashion industry’s environmental impact grows every year, with only a temporary slowdown during the pandemic. It is crucial for industries and society to understand the best available data and context on the environmental, social and economic impact of different fibres and systems within fashion, so that best practices can be developed and implemented, industries can make informed choices, and farmers and other suppliers and makers can be rewarded for and incentivised to operate using more responsible practices that drive more positive impacts.”

“Digital tools and social media networks make it possible to instantaneously share information that can quickly travel across the Internet. Social media and more precisely the amplification of fake news stories on social networks are picked up and released through mainstream media. This pipeline has overpowered newspapers as a main way that new stories are discovered, and much of this information is moving too quickly to be vetted. Exaggerated claims and sensationalism (and algorithms that prioritise them) drive more likes, garner more followers, and reward users for spreading misinformation. But it’s not just social media that’s to blame.

“Misinformation is also spread by private actors, namely companies who use deceptive marketing to describe their products or services as more sustainable than the competition or compared to an earlier iteration of their own business. This is known as greenwashing, and it’s a massive problem in fashion. In 2020, the European Commission analyzed 344 consumer product claims made online about sustainability, a quarter of which were made about clothing, fabric, and shoes. Almost half of all claims analyzed were flagged as possibly deceptive.”

The report indicates fashion as an industry has not been taken seriously and does not have independent or non-corporate groups scrutinising and analysing the sector. It has historically been dominated by creatives, and needs to build technical and scientific expertise.

In the end, there is no single definitive figure for water usage due to the wide range of growing countries and situations. This comment, from page 72 of the report, explains the place of water in our ecosystem: Water is borrowed from the global water cycle. It can be moved, polluted, change forms, or returned from where it came, but it can’t be ‘used up.’

The key to sustainability is wearing clothes until they wear out. When we extend the life of our clothes, we minimize the impact of the original inputs used to produce them.

On the Textile Beat enews

Our enews update, On the Textile Beat November 2021, includes this graphic, below, summarising circular textile approaches: practical, mechanical, chemical, microbial and by design which I shared at a recent Circular Economy Futures event in Brisbane.

Everyone can enact the practical approach through everyday actions and choices as per the Slow Clothing Manifesto: think, natural, quality, local, few, care, make, revive, adapt and salvage.

 

Upcycling Challenge brings dormant textiles to life

Due to the Omicron outbreak, Eco Fashion Week Australia and the associated Upcycling Challenge (outlined in the post below) has been postponed until 2023.

Garments with meaning and story fit for A Closet of the Anthropocene will form the Upcycling Challenge collection at the upcoming Eco Fashion Week Australia in 2022.

Participating designers are asked to choose a ‘’hero’’ textile lying dormant in its current form and build on that to create a uniquely meaningful garment with a great story to tell about how it came to be in the world.

The hero textile might be Granny’s embroidered tablecloth, Mum’s outdated wedding dress, Dad’s old uniform, a favourite childhood dress or jumper, something painted in art school, or a beautiful but damaged treasure discovered in an op shop. This textile can be repurposed along with other materials of choice into a storyful creation with the hero at heart.

The EFWA Upcycling Challenge coordinator is Jane Milburn who has been personally upcycling since 2013 as a way to spark action in response to fashion excess and textile waste. Her upcycled wardrobe includes history skirts, denim tunics and geometric dresses made from dormant materials.

Continue Reading →

A closet fit for the Anthropocene

The global fashion industry has faced a reckoning in recent years as wearers awaken to the exploitation, waste and pollution created by the unsustainable pursuit of fashionability in the 21st century.

There are alternatives emerging and those at the leading edge will be showcased in the welcome return of Eco Fashion Week Australia (EFWA) on runways and exhibitions across Western Australia in 2022.

EFWA founder and designer Zuhal Kuvan-Mills said art shows and avant-garde design exhibitions will present the work of fashion artists and designers across the world and challenge conventional notions of fashionability.

A Closet of the Anthropocene, named for the current geological age in which human impacts have predominantly influenced climate and the environment, is the central theme for the third EFWA.

Continue Reading →

Spinning the dream

Grow, harvest, clean, spin, weave, dye, design, sew and market. All these stages in the creation of clothes are largely outsourced to industrial processes that have cotton garments appear almost by magic for 21st century wearers buying on demand. JANE MILBURN reports.

About 90 percent of clothes bought in Australia are made overseas yet spinning is the only one of these processes that Australia can’t do right here, right now, today.

If we were to reintroduce onshore spinning capacity, this would enable local processing as well as recycling capacity to create a closed-loop fibre economy saving textiles from landfill.

Glenn Rogan in his Australian Super Cotton field at St George.

Until recently, most wearers were not thinking about the missing stages of repair and recycle that can help make the journey of clothes more circular and reduce their ecological impact. Now we are asking more questions, taking actions and seeking solutions.

With increasing concerns about climate change and pollution, the circular economy is poised to grow and Australia needs to be part of it. Manufacturing has been migrating offshore for decades, but pandemic disruption of supply chains may herald a turning of the tide.

Continue Reading →

Rising to resilience

Disruption arising from the pandemic reminds us of the need to live thoughtfully in tune with nature, as Jane Milburn reports.

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

Sewing arose as a survival skill during the COVID-19 pandemic when global supply chains fractured and locally-made cloth face masks became valuable personal protection equipment. Even New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern made her own face covering to help stop the spread of the coronavirus when masks became mandatory on public transport during the Auckland breakout.

Continue Reading →

Influencing behaviour change

Fashion is responsible for up to 10 percent of carbon emissions and about  70 percent of the clothes in our wardrobes are not worn. These are some of the reasons to choose ways of dressing that are more circular and regenerative.

Changing our behaviour is the biggest thing we can do to reduce our energy and resource consumption. Great to see reloving options expanding, with UNTAGGED Sustainable Fashion Exchange a new option for keeping wardrobes fresh whilst being kinder to our wallets, each other, and the planet.

They’ve been sharing quotes through their Instagram platform, including words from Cate Blanchett, Jane Goodall, Emma Watson, Livia Firth, Vivienne Westwood, Carry Somers, Elizabeth Cline,  Celine Semaan, and Jane Milburn (that’s me).

Supporting local food systems

The coronavirus pandemic was a wake-up call about many things we take for granted in life, including where our food comes from.  As the lockdown began in late March, uncertainty took hold and people began hoarding and scrambling for whatever food stocks they could find.

The National Farmers Federation was moved to reassure people that Australia produces enough food to feed 75 million people, more than three times our population, and that 89 percent of the food Australians eat is Aussie-grown.

With many global supply chains fractured through the pandemic, local production and manufacturing is arising to be more strongly grounded and appreciated in regional communities.

Earlier this year on February 15, Pine Rivers Heritage Museum had hosted a conversation to highlight how we can support local farmers in the Moreton Bay region which is home to a plethora of agricultural industries including berries, pineapple, avocado, macadamia nut, other specialty crop businesses as well as livestock production. (There’s a follow-up session planned for September 12, so put that in your diary if you are in the region.)

Continue Reading →