Rising to resilience

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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.

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Posted in: consumption issues, leadership, slow clothing, slow fashion \ Tagged: , , , ,

Jane Milburn awarded Churchill Fellowship 2019

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Jane Milburn of Textile Beat has been awarded a 2019 Churchill Fellowship to investigate ways that hands-on upcycling actions can reduce textile waste and enhance wellbeing.

The fellowship will enable Jane to undertake research across three continents to further her work inspiring social change and contributing to sustainable living across communities through slow clothing practice.

“I feel deeply honoured to be awarded a Churchill Fellowship and I believe this recognition will elevate the slow clothing work I’ve undertaken since observing fashion excess in 2011,” Ms Milburn said.

Jane Milburn: Churchill Fellow 2019, Slow Clothing author, Textile Beat founder, agricultural scientist and Fashion Revolution Australia committee member.

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Posted in: clothing waste, leadership, lifestyle, slow clothing \ Tagged: ,

Authenticity for the win

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‘Show up as your natural, authentic self – anything else is contrived’ – Jane Milburn

The clothes we choose make a statement of who we are. They are a big part of our lives because we dress at least once a day. Clothes can cause us stress, clutter our space and soak up time.

Slow Clothing emerged as a narrative for we – the wearers – about how we can think, choose and wear clothes to ensure they bring meaning, value and joy to every day. This is not about fashion values, more about ethics, sustainability and our own creativity.

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A commonsense approach

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The simplest way to reduce our material footprint is wear clothes that already exist and wear them for longer. Less shopping and washing makes economic and ecological sense.

At no time in history have there been so many clothes in the world. In the four years to 2016, global production of new clothes rose 25 percent as did the export of cast-offs from Australia to the third world.

Define ethics as ‘the right thing to do’ and it becomes common sense to shop second-hand first, and re-wear what we own. These are the actions of thinking people.

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Posted in: clothing waste, consumption issues, leadership, lifestyle, reuse, slow clothing \ Tagged: , , ,

Sustainability in fashion

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Long before sustainability became fashionable, HRH Prince Charles was urging people to consider the environment when choosing what to wear and patron of the campaign promoting wool as a renewable and biodegradable resource.

In The Australian Financial Review Magazine April cover story, Marion Hume reported Prince Charles has long suspected synthetics would impact the environment and ‘minds deeply about the poisoned legacy we are leaving our children and grandchildren’. He also ‘hates throwing away things without finding another use for them or mending them’.

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Posted in: clothing waste, consumption issues, leadership, slow clothing \ Tagged: , , , , ,

Textile Beat leads change

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Few people sew their own clothes these days because factory-made options are cheap and plentiful, yet this trend creates a clothing surplus that requires creative solutions to keep it out of landfill.

Textile Beat is celebrating four years of upcycling and helping influence a more sustainable clothing culture based on using natural fibres and applying traditional skills in innovative ways.

Jane Milburn of Textile Beat

Sustainability consultant Jane Milburn of Textile Beat

Textile Beat founder Jane Milburn said the Slow Clothing Manifesto identifies 10 actions we can take to thrive in a material world: think, natural, quality, local, care, few, make, adapt, revive and salvage.

“Clothes do for us on the outside what food does inside – nourish and warm our body and soul. Fast and processed industrial food has had a dramatic impact on health in recent years and similarly the shift to industrial clothing has social and environmental impacts we are only now learning,” Jane said.

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Posted in: clothing waste, consumption issues, leadership, slow clothing \ Tagged: ,

Aussies send 85% of textiles to landfill

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Australians buy an average of 27 kilograms of new textiles each year and then discard about 23 kilograms* into landfill  – and two-thirds of those discards are manmade synthetic/plastic fibres that may never breakdown.

Sustainability consultant Jane Milburn said Australians are the second-largest consumers of new textiles after north Americans who annually buy 37kg each, and ahead of Western Europeans at 22kg while consumption in Africa, the Middle East and India averages just 5 kg per person. These figures are sourced from north American magazine Textile World.

Textile World graphic of per capita consumption

“There’s been a transformational shift in the way we source, use and discard our clothing which has major social and environmental implications. Fast fashion produced from global supply chains is driving purchasing of excessive new clothing, often discarded after a few wears,” Ms Milburn said.

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Mending time has arrived: Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald

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The timing could not have been better for Erin Lewis-Fitzgerald to publish her book Modern Mending and open an online shop for mending supplies as the coronavirus pandemic sent the population into lockdown, with time to mend.

As a Melbourne-based former journalist, editor and photo journalist who’s been teaching mending at workshops for six years, Erin had the skill set to produce this book she knew was needed to address modern-day mending for items such as jeans and t-shirts.

Mending has three magic factors happening at the moment:

  • The rise of visible mending started on Instagram and pinterest about 10 years ago and Tom of Holland coined the hashtag #visiblemending. Invisible mending is skilled work and hard for those who didn’t learn to sew at school so they are not going to take the time to get to that point. Visible mending has made it more contemporary and accessible.
  • The second factor is the environment because people are starting to care more about sustainability when it comes to their clothing. They are realising they buy too many clothes and can start fixing up the holes and rips in things they have already got.
  • The third thing is coronoavirus. Mending is a really good project to do when stuck at home and staring at your wardrobe – you are not going to go out shopping. This third factor is driven by the first two factors – now is the time to begin mending.

Listen to our ARISING from Disruption #12 conversation, or read the notes at bottom.

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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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Living lightly in everyday practice

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Clothes do not fall from the sky and meals do not gush out of the earth. Our food and clothing must come from our own labour: Master Zi Bai, Ming Dynasty.

This 14th century philosophy is far removed from the 21st century when many people order a look or a meal with the click of a finger on a phone. Global supply chains have become so efficient at meeting our food and clothing needs for a handful of dollars that we’ve lost touch with their source.

Fast food and fast fashion is convenient but ultimately unsatisfying. We’re concerned about the ethics and waste. There is growing hunger for something more substantial, something real, something crafted with our own hands and effort.

Jane Milburn at Lantau Blue studio and wearing handmade in Hong Kong

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