Mother, daughter create prom dress of maps, Dr. Seuss books | BrainerdDispatch.com | Brainerd, Minnesota

Mother, daughter create prom dress of maps, Dr. Seuss books | BrainerdDispatch.com | Brainerd, Minnesota. It is creative re-purposing of materials. It reminded me of St. Kate’s Apparel Design students and Terracycle collaboration.

Shop local and sustain community

Nicole Crosbie suggests top 6 local boutiques: Cliche, Primp, Karma, Design Collective, Grethen House, June.

http://blogs.citypages.com/dressingroom/2013/04/top_6_boutiques_in_the_twin_cities.php

Definition of sustainability by Steve Jesseph, Chief Operating Officer at ICG Group of Companies

“Sustainability is:

• In the context of a societal unit (individual, family, tribe, village, town, city, county, state, country), the capacity to survive and thrive for the short and long term including, but not limited to, its ability to provide for the basic human needs of food, clothing, shelter and medical care, and;
• In the context of an organizational unit (business, non-profit or government), the capacity to meet its objectives of providing goods and/or services to its customers or constituents in the short and long term, and;
• For both societal and organizational units, their capacity to achieve their objectives but not by compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Thus, for companies in the apparel industry, a sustainable business is one that can source and/or manufacture clothing (apparel, textiles, footwear, accessories, etc.) that meets the needs of their customers and consumers now and into the future. While this might sound like a simple term, I suggest that a truly sustainable business is one that:

• Uses only renewable raw materials: cotton, wool, flax, linen, silk and certain plant-derived polyesters, acetate and rayon.
• Uses only renewable energy sources such as plant and garbage waste, wind, solar, wave and hydroelectric in securing, processing and transporting raw materials and finished products.
• Uses only renewable and/or recyclable buildings and machinery built from stone, wood, natural fibers, rubber and steel.
• Only purchases raw materials, packaging, transportation and advertising services — in short, all goods and services that support the product and brands — from companies that use only renewable energy and raw materials.”

I really like the detailed explanation as sustainability is a complex concept and needs to be understood well.

Sustainability leaders

Women Fashion Leaders and Change Makers

A perfect followup to my previous posts. I feel blessed to find this published the day after we had the lecture on role of women in sustainability. http://www.fashioncompassion.co.uk/blog/10-women-who-changed-the-face-of-fashion#comment-2248

I salute these fashion icons.

Women’s Work: The Role of Women in Sustainability by Simran Sethi

 On March 13, 2013 in her Keynote address at St. Catherine University, Environmentalist Journalist Simran Sethi defined sustainability from different lenses:

“In design terms, sustainability is defined as a shift from a linear take-make-waste production model to a circular borrow-use-return approach.”

In another one Simran said “,,,,it is an integrated, holistic approach that encourages compromise and tradeoffs.”

Simran’s favorite definition was from sociologist Denise Lack, “sustainability is like love and democracy-multiple meanings not perfectly realized but always struggling for.”

Using Simran’s definition/s as a starting point, develop your own definition of sustainable design in production. Create an accompanying visual that illustrates your definition.

 

 

Sustainable fashion

Thank you to Rebecca McDonald (www.bfreshphotography.com) for writing about the fashion program at St. Catherine University and highlighting the accomplishments (St. Catherine University brings sustainable fashions to the runway ). I reiterate, the industry is moving toward sustainability in leaps and Sustainable Apparel Coalition (http://www.apparelcoalition.org/) membership is an evidence to that.