Permaculture your wardrobe

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Permaculture clothing is real; it is what I wear. All my wardrobe selections are natural fibres, made and mended, thrifted and repurposed, adapted to suit current needs. Produce no waste, slow and small solutions, creatively use and respond to change. Permaculture principles to live and dress by for a more permanent culture.

I was invited to present a session on Permaculture your Wardrobe at the 2021 Australasian Permaculture Convergence and delighted to have my work described there by permaculture leader Robin Clayfield as a ‘new edge’. Also delighted to recently chat with global permaculture ambassador Morag Gamble on her podcast Sense-making in a changing world.

Michael Wardle of Savour Soils Permaculture and Jane Milburn at the 2021 Australasian Permaculture Convergence

Dressing is integral to life. Skin is our largest organ and we can think about clothes doing for us on the outside what food does inside. They protect and warm our bodies, and influence the way we feel and present to the world. And dressing is an agricultural act, if we want to wear natural fibres rather than plastic fibres.

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Posted in: leadership, Permaculture, slow clothing \ Tagged: , , , , ,

Wabi sabi time has arrived

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Rethinking the way we live, work and play is happening as we adapt to the uncertainty and profound changes coming down the line with coronavirus. We can calm ourselves by focusing energy on living with creativity, simplicity and integrity, rather than worrying about distant unknowable possibilities.

Wabi sabi is a gentle approach to life embedded within Japanese culture that has its roots in Zen philosophy. As I (Jane Milburn) read more about wabi sabi during lockdown, it struck me as a way of living in tune with nature rather than seeking to control, manage and exploit it.

Jane Milburn wearing garments made from natural fibres coloured by leaves and bark. Photo by Patria Jannides.

At a time when we need to be adaptive and resourceful, wabi sabi is a salve that enables us to find beauty in what is around us, in all its imperfection and impermanence.

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

Sustainable fashion actions

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Small individual actions can, and do, create big changes. About 10 percent of our carbon footprint is embedded in the clothes we wear therefore our choices matter. Since 2013, Jane Milburn has been raising awareness about ways to reduce our material footprint through slow clothing actions: think, choose natural, quality, local, have few, care for what you have, make your own, revive, upcycle and salvage. In this news report, ABC journalist Lucy MacDonald outlined three ways for dress sustainably: buy sustainable fibres, choose pre-loved, and shop your wardrobe. She chatted with Jane about upcycling and reskilling so we can get more life out of what we aready own.

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

Investigating slow clothing culture

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By Robin McConchie

We live in a throwaway society, with an increasing amount of textiles used in the fashion industry made from synthetic fibres and garments produced using underpaid labour. Jane Milburn has a passion for natural fibres and believes behaviour change is needed towards dressing more responsibly, wearing clothes for longer and limiting the amount of textile waste thrown into landfill each year.

Using her campaigning and making skills, Jane created Textile Beat in 2013 and developed a 10-point Slow Clothing Manifesto of ways to reduce our material footprint. During the past six years, Jane has advocated for change across Australia through more than 560 engagements.

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Posted in: consumption issues, leadership, 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: , , , ,

Rural Press Club life member profile

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In 1972, when 23 people paid $3 for lunch at the Pelican Restaurant in Fortitude Valley and listened to a veterinarian criticise the Queensland Government’s policy on restricting artificial insemination centres, the Rural Press Club of Queensland was born.

Almost half a century on, the Club’s events now attract hundreds of guests who still come to hear what’s happening in the bush and network with the people who matter in rural Australia.

While so many have voluntarily contributed countless hours to make the Rural Press Club the success it is today, past-president and Life Member Jane Milburn is one that we owe a debt of gratitude.

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Posted in: leadership \ Tagged: , , ,

Everything old is new again

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I rescue natural fibres. I already have many, yet I bought a $2 wool blanket with holes at an RSPCA op shop recently. It has no label, just remnants of blanket-stitched edges. I know it is wool by the feel of the fibres which glow in the sunlight after I wash it. I admire the texture and beauty of the old woven threads. There is life there. I will upcycle this ‘dog blanket’ into a garment with a story to tell about how it came to be.

Jane Milburn with scissors

All my clothes are handmade or secondhand and they feel good on many levels. My clothes are imprinted with individual spirit, my kansei. I refashion existing garments to suit my body shape, or completely transform discarded resources into something of my own making. I buy almost nothing new, except underwear and shoes.

Even though I have bought secondhand on and off forever, I did not talk about it. There was a stigma of poverty, of less than, in secondhand although vintage was OK if slightly quirky.

That was before I stepped up, before I did leadership study and learned about self-actualisation, before I upcycled my career as a rural advocate and communications manager to found a start-up called Textile Beat in 2013. Now I champion slow clothing, raise awareness of textile waste and the potential for upcycling old natural fibres into new.

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

Revive style for planetary health

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Brisbane is the first city in the world to host a pop-up secondhand fashion festival as a waste minimization strategy, to the best of my knowledge. I (Jane Milburn) checked with New York refashion academic Sass Brown and Sass knows of no other.  Do tell if you know of another.

Stiltwalkers showcase refashion at the 2016 Revive event in the heart of Brisbane. Photo by Brisbane City Council

Stiltwalkers showcase refashion at the 2016 Revive event in the heart of Brisbane. Photo by Brisbane City Council

Revive is in its second year and pops up again on 18 August 2017 at South Bank Forecourt from noon to 9pm. Hats off to Brisbane City Council, Cr Peter Matic and Cr David McLachlan for leadership. With textiles being one of the fastest growing domestic waste streams, fuelled by fast-fashion turnover, I am proud to have been in the room at its conception. Thank you to Cr Matic for acknowledging my contribution.

The advent of Revive followed a 2015 opportunity I had to address a council meeting on a matter of public importance.  Here’s the link to my 2015 address (including Hansard pdf) when I spoke of the need to develop a more sustainable clothing culture. Revive is a huge step in this direction.  Continue Reading →

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

A slow clothing approach

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Jane Milburn at ABC 702

Jane Milburn wears eco-dyed merino at ABC 702 Sydney

A transformational shift during the past two decades in the way we source, use and discard our clothing has major social and environmental implications caused by increasing volumes, changing fibres and loss of repair skills.

These changes in clothing culture brought Jane Milburn of Textile Beat to Ku-Ring-Gai Council in Sydney on Saturday (June 25) to workshop more sustainable approaches, including reviving garments in your wardrobe.  Jane was also interviewed by ABC 702’s Wendy Harmer about slow clothing, audio link below.

“Local councils report that about 4 percent of the household waste is textiles and most people know they can donate unwanted clothing for charitable recycling,” Ms Milburn said.

“Charities says about 15 percent of these donations are on-sold through op shops, 15 percent are ragged, 15 percent go to landfill and 55 percent are exported into the second-hand clothing trade.”

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Timeless styling – Elizabeth Kingston

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There is much evidence that our planet cannot continue to provide the resources for mass manufactured garments and that so much is wasted in oversupply. Textile enthusiast Elizabeth Kingston believes that if people can be educated to shift from being ‘in fashion’ to being ‘in style’ then the concept of what it means to have a new wardrobe every season can move sidewards.

Elizabeth Kingston wears her Frida Kahlo-inspired ensemble handmade and styled from existing resources

Elizabeth Kingston wears her Frida Kahlo-inspired ensemble handmade and styled from existing resources

“For those of us who can make, it is vital that we continue to do so as these skills are becoming a dying art and an example needs to be set that it should be all about quality not quantity. For those who can’t/choose not to learn how to sew, then to support the artist/designer/creator of these handmade/limited creations through purchase is the next best option,” Elizabeth said.

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