Local cotton, with provenance

\ by

A huge opportunity is emerging for Australia to develop a local textile industry with quality natural ethical products, transparency in the supply chain and less waste. Jane Milburn reports.

As conscious wearers awaken to the wicked secrets within the world’s fast fashion chains producing most of our clothes, demand for ethical and natural material is outstripping supply.

Radical transparency is also in demand. Products that carry hallmarks of quality and provenance, are highly sought-after. This is creating niche opportunities for innovative startups such as Full Circle Fibres, which is transforming cotton bolls from St George paddocks into fabrics of known origin.

Meriel Chamberlin of Full Circle Fibres, left, and Glenn Rogan of Australian Super Cotton

Continue Reading →

Posted in: fibres, leadership \ Tagged: , , ,

Individual stewardship matters

\ by

The question to ask ourselves is where is it going after it leaves me? Being conscious consumers means leaving the planet a better place.

We consume 1.7 planets of natural resources every year and can’t sustain that, Queensland’s chief entrepreneur Leanne Kemp told a recent Game Changers event at State Library of Queensland.

Ray Weekes with Queensland’s chief entrepreneur Leanne Kemp at SLQ Game Changers event

Continue Reading →

Posted in: consumption issues, leadership, reuse \ Tagged: , , ,

Creating, not consuming

\ by

Waste is now visible in our lives. Throwing away our unwanted stuff is an act of power. We move it to the edge of the kitchen, then to the edge of the curb where it is taken to landfill on the edge of the city or to the ocean on the edge of the land. Recycling and upcycling are only shuffling the problem.

The waste solution lies in relearning skills we have forgotten like reusing, cooking, sewing, composting and creating for ourselves. Making everyday choices for health and wellbeing.

These insights are from a recent Circular Economy Futures meetup where speakers Jacq Driscoll from Biome and Dr Manuela Taboada from QUT’s Institute for Future Environments discussed waste solutions in our crazy convenient throwaway society.

Jacq Driscoll and Dr Manuela Taboada with Yasmin Grigaliunas at Circular Economy Futures Brisbane

Continue Reading →

Posted in: consumption issues, leadership, lifestyle, reuse \ Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Creating a climate for change

\ by

Climate change is everybody’s business.  We have lived experience of it, with extreme weather events now taking a physical, monetary and emotional toll on society. We have a profound obligation to act. If we don’t, future generations would be justified to look back and say ‘what were those people thinking – consuming and amusing themselves without thought for the future’.

We are in a climate emergency. It is not hyperbole. World scientists are ratcheting up their pleas for politicians to act and Mother Nature is speaking loudly with record heat waves (most recently in Europe), bushfires, storms and floods, and coral bleaching.

The frequency of extreme weather events has increased and global economic losses from these events in the past two years is estimated at $653 billion, according to insurance giant Aon. The UN estimates the world could see 1 billion climate migrants as their food and water supplies are impacted. This is not someone else’s problem, it will affect us all.

We know that climate change is real, because we have seen it and felt it. Of the hottest locations on Earth on January 24 this year, 91 were in Australia. Rain dumps in north Queensland led to massive flooding in Townsville and the loss of 600,000 cattle. There were catastrophic fires in central Queensland rainforest.

Continue Reading →

Posted in: consumption issues, leadership, lifestyle, reuse \ Tagged: , , ,

Memories in cloth

\ by

Do you carry an old-fashioned cloth handkerchief in your pocket or purse? Tissues and packaged wipes might be more convenient but we are becoming aware of their cumulative waste and moving back to reusable products.

There are memories in cloth. Favourite pieces may be mended and patched to extend their lifetime. Special garments may hang in wardrobes, even if they no longer fit, because they hold moments in time. The glimpse of an old favourite floral shirt, down-cycled to cleaning rag, evocatively sparks remembered joy of wearing. I am thrilled with my fabric-painted hanky squares that once were my little kids t-shirts (they’re now aged 24, 29 and 30) now upcycled as all-purpose cloths in my handbag.

These words first published in QCWA’s Ruth Magazine Winter edition 2019

Continue Reading →

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

Composting clothes into nutrients

\ by

There is simply no precedent for the volume of clothes in society today and we need to experiment with other ways of keeping material in circulation locally. When you’ve exhausted options for swapping/reselling clothes or donating them to charities, recycling in your backyard is a valid option. When something is biodegradable, it is capable of decomposing into raw materials and cycling back through the ecosystem without pollution. All natural-fibre clothing is in this category and therefore biodegradable, although the time taken will vary.

Composting your natural-fibre clothing works in exactly the same way as putting vegetable scraps and spoilt food into the compost. They decompose and becomes food for new plants. The composting process cycles four of life’s building blocks – carbon, oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen – back into the soil so that it can support new growth. The clothing fibres need to be moistened to encourage and speed the decomposition process. The fibre becomes food for microbes, bacteria, fungi, moulds, worms, beetles, snails, mites, cockroaches and other critters, which are all part of the process.

I confirmed this in my backyard science experiment when I buried synthetic and natural fibre swatches in my garden during 2018. Almost all the natural fibres decayed while the synthetic remained untouched. Synthetics are derived from petroleum, do not absorb water, and are effectively plastic. In May 2019, we set up a compost experiment at Bulimba Creek Catchment Sustainability Centre at Carindale with which we will revisit at the end of August.

Jane Milburn and nursery manager Leigh Weakley at Bulimba Creek Catchment Sustainability Centre.

Continue Reading →

Posted in: clothing waste, fibres, reuse, slow clothing \ Tagged: , , , , ,

Wear change, do clothing slow

\ by

One million species are at risk and we humans are largely to blame, according to the latest UN biodiversity report.  Governments, business and individuals need to act because we are eroding the very foundations of our economies, livelihoods, food security, health and quality of life worldwide, said Sir Robert Watson, chair of the UN’s Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services.

We can agitate for governments and business to take action – AND take action ourselves through the everyday choices in what we eat and what we wear. I wrote this Slow Clothing Manifesto back in 2015 to summarise the actions and choices we can take to reduce our material footprint: think, natural, local, quality, few, care, make, revive, adapt, salvage.

It becomes more relevant each year, with each new report on the need for transformative change. The power is in everyone, through everyday choices, to change the culture of consumption to one of conservation. Use what already exists, don’t feel pressured to buy more new, think bigger than yourself.

Posted in: leadership, slow clothing \ Tagged: ,

Sewing outside the lines

\ by

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

\ by

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.

Continue Reading →

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