THE VIRTUOUS CIRCLE THAT IS UPCYCLING

We've all heard of recycling but we hear less (unfortunately) about 'upcycling'. Whats the difference? Well, 'upcycling' --coined by McDonough and Braungart in their seminal (2002) book 'Cradle to Cradle: Remaking the Way We Make Things' --means transforming used things into other usable things of great (or greater) value. Intrinsic to the concept of upcycling is the notion that there is embedded value in things that allows them to be remade into further usable things again and again so that eventual waste is minimized massively AND this is all done without further damage to the planet and/or energy usage.

And herein lies the rub: recycling is, according to the book, an example of 'downcycling' because the re-made items are often not related at all to the original thing so that in the re-creation excessive energy/resources are used AND in recycling, recreated items lose value with each 'life' a and are thus likely to end up eventually as waste. So upcycling is a more mindful and authentic way than recycling to reuse what we consume (but don't be spooked and give up all recycling attempts you may be currently involved with. Just think it through and if you need ideas there are great ones here and here.

The whole issue of re-use is B-I-G in fashion - as it well should be...without serious thought about how to deal with the byproducts from the fashion industry, our consumptive behaviour being what it is, we'd charge the earth costs it simply cannot meet (these charges are being levied as I type....not in some distant future).

But what aspects of fashion are amenable to upcycling? How does upcycling sit with the desire to be 'fashionable', ie, wear well-made, attractive clothing as defined by 'mainstream' fashion society? With all the current interest in eco/ethical/green fashion what is authentic re-use and what is lip-service? What prospects does upcycling have for fashion at different points in the process - textile creation vs finished product? These are all very good questions and are all likely to get very good answers from the group assembled on July 18 at the Chelsea College of Art & Design.

The College's Textile Environment Design (TED) program is holding a 1-day symposium on (basically everything you want/need to know about) upcycling and textiles. Following on from last year's Ever & Again: Experimental Recycled Textiles exhibition, they've gathered the best practitioners from this space, including upcycled fashion's grande dame and founder of From Somewhere label Orsola De Castro; Kerry Seager of Junky Styling fame, Emmeline4Re's Emmeline Child and several others, and put together a fantastic program of talks, audience interface, theory and practice.

It is through efforts like this that sustainability in fashion can become an everyday reality and TED gives us the chance to meet those who daily live and work to bring us closer to this reality. Great opportunity not to be missed.

Other details you need to know --
Ticket price (£35 or £15 for students) includes organic picnic lunch and early evening drinks reception.
The symposium will be held at the Millibank campus.

DOES ETHICAL FASHION REALLY MATTER?

Readers of this blog will be well aware by now that this is a question, the treatment of which at the hands of general press, vexes me. Not the question, you understand, rather the absence of sensible or helpful or not wildly biased (to put it mildly) answers to it. Not sure what I mean? Here's an example.

Not to say there isn't more positive press...rather to say that this type of questioning is now archaic and needs to be switched off and replaced with some actually helpful advice on how to go about the business of being more ethical in our fashion/lifestyle choices.

But, you know, my insistence alone isn't all that and so I decided to put the matter to other, better known people, in the space. Fertile, informed debate - who can resist it? Here's the question I asked:

"Given the reputation of fashion as a 'dirty' business, a 'shallow' business and as creating false needs, ethical fashion is often written off as hypocritical/unrealistic/fashion piggybacking on wider awareness of eco-issues without adding any real value; a 'rich people' syndrome -- from organic food to organic cotton tops simply for the sake of seeming 'in' -- is derided as the symbol of what ethical fashion really is all about. And so the question is often asked: does ethical fashion really amount to any real good for anyone/the planet?
What are your thoughts on this kind of thinking and can you offer a counter-opinion about ethical fashion?"

And here's who I asked (if you're reading this because of even a modicum of interest in ethical fashion issues, you'll know at least one of them) --

Margaret Teich: Associate Producer on The Lazy Environmentalist radio show and curator extraordinaire of the Directory of Eco-Fashion Retailers on the influential Lazy Environmentalist blog. Margaret's job requires her to be somewhat of a knowledge bank and have her eye on lots and lots of different goings-on in the world of modern-day eco/sustainable/ethical living.



Starre Vartan: founder of must-read, in the know, particularly inspiring for (but by no means only) women , blog Eco-Chick. Starre writes for other publications too and she's on our panel because there is very very little going on in the eco living world that she is not aware of. She is quite simply, in the know.

Jocelyn Whipple - far left

Jocelyn Whipple: Jocelyn's agency, Element23, represents leading ethical fashion brands in the UK and Europe. She also separately designs and supplies sustainable textiles as well as being a personal stylist. This is a person who lives and breathes the commerce of ethical fashion -- its creation, marketing and distribution.

Interestingly, all 3 of them had the same key arguments:

GET REAL!

Women will shop, fashion will be important-it always has been. To question the interest in/place of fashion is to be, at best, naive and at worst, part of the problem, not the solution. Starre puts it aptly "Human beings have been decorating themselves and their clothes for as long as there has been civilization, so assuming that we're going to stop for any reason (even the poorest people in the world add color to fabrics they create themselves, or patch clothing in ways that show creativity and flair) is just ridiculous." and Margaret is even more direct "So here is the reality: women love to shop. We love the idea that the interior can be expressed by what is worn on the exterior."

BEING ETHICAL AND FASHIONABLE IS TO RETHINK OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH CLOTHES.

Jocelyn goes straight to the heart of the matter "Buy better, less often". We should understand where clothes come from and what happens before they arrive in front of us (just like you think about battery chickens and automatically buy free-range eggs). We should also revert to previous ways of thinking, according to Starre, so that clothes are not "...disposable items, but investments...". Then, we'll more naturally, make better choices whether these are to eschew disposable fashion, ask for accountability or, as Margaret emphasizes "...(support) designers and their artistic craft, green sourcing and ethical manufacturing processes...".

AS CONSUMERS WE REALLY CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

Forget all the cynical nay-saying about ethical fashion being the purview of only the select few blah blah blah; no, it affects and can be affected by everyone at some level. Starre sets it out simply "We can make a lot of positive change, as consumers, in all these areas.(...)These problems need to be solved, not ignored. This is not just an issue for "yummy mummys". We all need to wear clothes.". How? you ask - well, by building your awareness, looking behind the label and, as Jocelyn emphasizes "...be sure the brands and concepts you are buying into are upholding their part of the deal, by giving you real information and support around the complexities of the ‘eco /ethical’ fashion industry. Ask questions. Ask for accountability."

Of course, these ladies had more to say and I'll publish their full comments later. Here I wanted to just point out that there are substantial issues which everyone in the field, regardless of specific involvement, recognizes. And, even more crucially, these are issues which pertain to you and me....not just celebs or deep green vegans. As Margaret reminds us, there is 'modern environmental revolution' afoot (by they way, you're ALREADY part of it with all your organic food choices, washing machine at 30c, switching off lights, buying white goods with optimal energy ratings....) and 'touting green fashion' is part of that revolution.'

Yes, these are extraordinary issues relevant to ordinary people.

DEVIDOLL STYLE FILE I

FINALLY SAFE TO SPRING INTO SPRING

Another week, another trend. 'The' weekly glossy says neutrals are 'in' and neons are 'out' but flip a few pages on and you're shown a clutch of 'must-have' dresses bright, neon flowered dresses. And so it goes. The treacherous weather of the last few weeks hasn't helped...what sort of trend can cover hail, rain, sunshine and everything in between?

Here's the thing about trends -- there are only a few that really mark a season...everything else is built on that or recycled from the same time last year (not least because, global warming notwithstanding, the weather tends to require
similar stuff) or just made up as the fashion-world goes along. Nothing wrong with any of this, say we. Its just good to know.

But what's truly handy is knowing what marks a season definitively and incorporating that into one's wardrobe. And this, happily, is exactly what our first (ever) style file brings you. Now you can dive even more joyfully into the 'thank-God-its-finally-arrived' spring that is all around us:

1) THINK FLORAL -- Prada, always one to set the mark, many months ago set the catwalks abloom. And so it has remained. With good reason....nothing says 'Spring' like flowers. Just look around you.

2) THINK GEOMETRY -- Stripes, triangles, circles, all of them together. The non-floral equivalent of channelling spring in all its bustling, busy glory.

3) SHOW SOME SKIN -- You know its the only time you really can...at least if you want to avoid the 'clubbing-in-short-skirts-and-bare (red) legs-in-freezing temps' chav look. Plus you know you've been buffing, exfoliating, sloughing, depilating, and tan-spraying just for this weather since March.

4) BE A COLOURFUL PERSONALITY -- All across the globe spring is celebrated with colour....in usually dreary climes like ours, this calls for double the effort. Not too much, you understand - just a single splash of arresting colour. If you want to go with a neutral/pastel shade then combine with white and add colourful accessories.

So there you have it - nothing standing between you and springing into spring now (except the weather, perhaps, but we like to focus on the positive at DeviDoll).

'THREAD' - THE BBC GETS INTO ETHICAL FASHION

The BBC has launched an online fashion magazine - Thread, Fashion without Victim, wholly dedicated to eco/ethical fashion. Its about style but also substance - various terms used in ethical fashion are explained, the true cost of cheap clothes is revealed, whats out there to purchase is well catalogued, and we're told which organisations are actively involved in ethical fashion.

And thats the tip of the iceberg -- there's a gorgeous style-file full of fabulous clothes (including Mociun's Judas tee!) and key trends for the season. Jewel in the crown has to be the associated programme, "Blood, Sweat and T-shirts", about a group of twenty-somethings -- very into fashion from different angles -- who experience life as factory workers in India, making clothes for the UK high street. Needless to say it deeply affects their views on fashion and the cost of fast fashion.

So this is a 'go-to' url to the say least. And happily its got many relevant issues woven through it, so that we can understand the dilemmas as well as victories of ethical fashion in an intelligent way. At DeviDoll its always been about how and why to curate your consumption -- the BBC Thread magazine is a welcome addition to this project.

Photograph courtesy Thread-BBC site

DEBORAH LINDQUIST ON SOPHIE ULIANO ON OPRAH

Deborah Lindquist, LA's celebrated 'Green Queen' dresses many celebrities and her emails are full of 'firsts'. Recently she sent me a really special one -- Sophie Uliano, founder of the lifestyle site 'Gorgeously Green' and author of 'Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life' will be wearing one of Deborah's signature sweaters on Oprah which airs in the US on April 22 (browse the book here). We've had a recent spate of 'how to be more green' books in the UK fashion world by Matilda Lee, Tamsin Blanchard, Sandy Black and Kate Fletcher but none have the breadth of this book nor the unique (American) quality of breaking things into 'easy' steps that cover 'everything'.

But I digress; at DeviDoll we are thrilled for Deborah and, to be honest, a bit for ourselves too. I once saw Jane Fonda on Letterman talking about her eco fashion look but having one of the original DeviDoll favourite labels on Oprah is a real treat.

It gets better - Sophie will be joined by her friend and perhaps most enthusiastic supporter of her book (at least so far) - Julia Roberts. Al Gore will be there too. Just missing Leonardo and Cameron (Diaz) I guess. Anyway, here is an excerpt from what Julia, who wrote the forward for the book, has to say about it:

"I am absolutely altered. This Gorgeously Green book has provided my household with a bible of hope and help (not to mention a good cleansing mask and source for eco-cashmere).
So where to start?
Congratulations - you are already there".

Pretty glowing. The book is widely on sale now. And, as for Deborah Lindquist....well you already know where to get your hands on some of that.