Category: Artisans

Herderin Begins with the Body and Soul

“What if garment consideration began with asking: Where would you like to be held? Where would you like to have some more support? Feel some weight around your shoulders, or something snug around your low back or abdomen? Could a garment play a role in healing you? Could it feel like wearing a parent’s clothes? What can clothing do for us, emotionally?”

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Mills Bring Fiber and Opportunities to Life

This article highlights a critical part of the fiber supply chain: the fiber processors that operate mills. Situated between the producers growing raw natural fibers and the artisans and designers crafting textiles, fiber mills add life to a product. As an intermediary, mill owners and operators get to experience numerous aspects of the life cycle of fibers and textiles. A true labor of love, their work requires a deep understanding of natural fibers’ properties — from sheep’s wool to alpaca to cotton and flax — to create customized products of the highest quality.

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Degrowth: An Economic Framework that Values Ecosystem Capacity, Human Dignity, and Self Sufficiency

The mainstream fashion industry’s supply chains are not linear but operate in an economy with a take, make, and waste production model. This model takes mass amounts of raw materials and releases carbon emissions into the atmosphere; uses exploited labor to make these materials into products; then those products are wasted and “thrown away,” usually to a landfill in a low-income community of color. The driving force for this production model is to create infinite amounts of profit by producing as many things as possible for as cheaply as possible. This necessitates destroying the earth and simultaneously exploiting low-wage workers, who are mostly women of color. This belief in endlessly growing the economy is one of the main reasons why the fashion industry has to be completely transformed. Luckily, alternatives exist and are being built at this very moment.

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