Having once been a part of the fashion scene, West Australian maker Jemma Edwards is uniquely placed to comment on contemporary clothing culture which she left behind a decade ago due to the influx of poorly made cheap alternatives.
Jemma Edwards created a jacket embellished with bespoke floral prints for The Slow Clothing Project.
Every day, we eat and we dress. We have become conscious of our food, it is time to become more conscious of our clothing. We believe in slow clothing: dressing for health and wellbeing rather than status and looks. We believe in ethical, sustainable choices that don’t harm people or the planet. We want to know the story about where clothing comes from and we believe in care and repair, refashion and restyle of existing clothing using simple sewing skills.
Jane Milburn established Textile Beat as a purpose-driven business in 2013, at Brisbane Australia, to inspire a creative approach to the way we dress, to embrace natural fibres and upcycling for pleasure, reward and sustainability. She is a sustainability consultant, author of Slow Clothing: finding meaning in what we wear, and a 2019 Churchill Fellow investigating ways that being more hands-on with our clothes can help reduce textile waste and enhance wellbeing. Jane trained as a climate reality leader and her work aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.
Textile Beat philosophy is to slow down, take stock and consider the substance, not just the style, of the clothes you choose to wear. Become conscious of your wardrobe: buy less, choose natural fibres, mend what you have, value story, love second-hand and vintage, refuse cheap fashion, avoid toxic dyes, read labels, restyle what you have, share and swap, or buy ethical brands. If it suits you to do so, be empowered to sew, restyle and refashion clothing already in circulation. The slow clothing philosophy is summarised in a manifesto of actions and choices: think, natural, quality, local, few, care, make, revive, adapt and salvage.
Jane Milburn OAM: Sustainability consultant, Slow Clothing pioneer, TEDx speaker, Churchill Fellow, upcycler, and agricultural scientist.
Introducing Jane Milburn of Textile Beat 2019
Jane Milburn extended CV January 2020
Jane Milburn. Photo by Charmaine Lyons.
Fresh from Australian rural leadership study, Jane embarked on the 365-day Sew it Again campaign throughout 2014 to bring together wide-ranging career and life experiences in a meaningful way. As with the rising interest in home cooking and food growing for health and wellbeing, Jane believes there is a pressing need to rethink our approach to dressing for sustainability. Jane’s model includes empowering individuals to be more engaged and connected to clothing they already own. The Sew it Again project explored ways to reuse existing clothing and textile resources. View the 365 garments on pinterest then search their number on the project website sewitagain.com for details.
Jane is part of the Fashion Revolution bringing awareness to who made our clothes and the fact that loved clothes last.
Textile Beat aims to:
Textile Beat is guided rural leadership colleagues.
Elly Cook: Organic beef producer and community advocate
As an organic beef producer who lives holistically on a property in central western New South Wales, Elly’s journey of life on the land and enterprising business skills in rural communities has led her to forge a pathway for inspiring and motivating positive change. Elly grew up in a large family home full of enterprising women, she feels comfortable wearing secondhand clothes and can appreciate beauty and a bargain. When receiving a compliment on what she is wearing, Elly has a wonderful sense of achievement that it has been re-created or revived. Elly believes nurturing her creative side is a natural part of living and leading true to your values.
Georgie Somerset: beef producer and board member
Georgie is a regional strategist and rural leader with experience in agribusiness, rural tourism and regional development. Her work involves identifying opportunities, resolving issues and creating linkages and networks across rural sectors. Actively involved in the family-owned beef property in Queensland’s South Burnett and mother of three children, Georgie also has a number of board roles including with AgForce Queensland, the ABC and the Royal Flying Doctor Service. She was recognised in the 2014 Westpac Australian Financial Review’s 100 Women of Influence and was awarded Outstanding Contributor to Rural Australia in the inaugural Women in Australian Agribusiness 100. Georgie is a fellow of the Australian Rural Leadership Program (2010) and believes in lifelong learning and education.
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Jane Milburn grew up surrounded by women who knew how to sew, stitch, and live simply on their sheep farm at Owaka in the South Island of New Zealand. With food predominantly home-grown and home-cooked on the farm, clothing was often similarly hand-created, modified or mended by generations of women including Jane’s mother Elizabeth, a university-educated home economics teacher, grandma Garth and great-grandma Mary, traditional homemakers. In this environment, natural resources such as wool, linen, cotton, fur, wood and water were valued and used in accordance with the ‘waste not want not’ philosophy which was the norm for generations past.
In between being named as Little Miss Owaka, studying agricultural science at The University of Queensland, working as a rural reporter and being judged 2010 Queensland runner-up in the RIRDC Rural Women’s Award, Jane lost her mother and grandmother to cancer, and has herself overcome early-stage breast cancer. These experiences led Jane to follow her heart on a creative journey, reconnecting to her past and building a future based on upcycling natural fibres in a way that provides purpose, relaxation, satisfaction and sharing.
Jane sees life through the prism of health and wellbeing. Health is nurtured by eating fresh home-cooked natural food and maintaining an active lifestyle. Wellbeing comes from creatively reusing precious natural fibres, empowering and inspiring others to do likewise in a ways that are good for the soul and the planet. See attached for Jane Milburn extended CV January 2020