Bangladesh: Fashion Revolution

Yesterday was April 24th, the one year anniversary of the Savar building's collapse in Bangladesh. This building was showing clear signs that it was extremely unsafe to work in, and the employers told the workers to continue working as they were, ignoring the signs. This resulted in more than 1,000 deaths. Fashionrevolution.org created a day we can acknowledge that factory workers around the world are not getting the proper care and attention they need and deserve. It gave us a day we can spread awareness about the unfair conditions of the fashion industry, world-wide. 

Here is a New York Times article that you can read for more information.

The dedication of this organization is amazing, and the response was overwhelming. To anyone who participated: you are awesome.

Pictures are from the new york times, wiki and fashionrevolution.org.

Where was your clothing made? Who made it? What's it made out of?

Levi's Waste < Less

 

Levi's new Waste < Less line includes parachute-made jackets and plastic bottle and food tray-made jeans. According to this article, "Levis will work with its partners to collect polyethylene terephthalate (PET) materials—including brown beer bottles, green soda bottles, clear water bottles, and black food trays—through municipal recycling programs across the United States. The bottles and food trays are sorted by color, crushed into flakes, and spun into polyester. The polyester fiber is finally woven with conventional cotton yarn by Cone Denim, which runs one of the nation’s oldest denim mills in North Carolina. " I love the idea, and I the jacket is definitely something I would wear.

On the Levi's website they also have a similar new line called Water < Less in which they focus specifically on conserving water in the making of their jeans, and personally I like that collection a little better, aesthetically. But I didn't see these collections available on the women's section of the website? I hope it's just me, cause it'd be a shame to not offer women the same sustainable clothing. 

I thought

It would be a good idea to visit the Vaute Couture (mentioned in one of my earlier posts here) store in Brooklyn yesterday and Kelsey, the lovely girl working behind the desk, convinced me to try something on. So, of course, I tried on my favorite dress possibly ever, at this point. 

It was a perfect fit, and the best part: it has pockets! The pockets are so convenient yet subtle that I accidentally left my phone in one of them, because I couldn't even tell it was in there. 

I was so glad I decided to visit the store. They made NYFW last season and I couldn't be happier that a company like this one was the first vegan clothing brand at fashion week, ever. I went in there and the energy was awesome. Everyone was extremely friendly, even the little doggy, Pepper! I would love, love to work for a company like this. 

Last two photos from bkmag and enforcedarch. 

Who made your clothes?

An organization called Fashion Revolution created an event this month (April 24th) dedicated to showing people that the power of awareness, knowing where your clothing comes from and who made it, makes a difference. In their words,

"On 24th April last year, 1133 people were killed and over 2500 were injured when the Rana Plaza factory complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Social and environmental catastrophes in our fashion supply chains continue.

Fashion Revolution Day says enough is enough."

An excuse to wear my clothing inside out, and it's for a good cause? Count me in.

Onion Skin

At FIT's (Fashion Institute of Technology) sustainability conference yesterday, there was an abundance of really cool fabrics and clothing pieces made out of sustainable (and some animal-free) fibers and dyes. One of them being onion skin, who knew! (I didn't)

After doing a little more research, according to this article, onion skin is an amazing natural fabric dye that anyone can implement at home. 

If you're a textile lover, check out an article about this recently published book by the Textile Arts Center, in which natural dyes and solar-powered farms are discussed. 

Here are some of my favorite pieces from the conference:

Give me all the off-the-shoulder, gray, drapeable sustainable sweaters.