On the 14th January I was kindly invited to the first ‘Sew Good’ Lock In of the New Year by TRAID’s Head of Education, information pillserectile Lyla Patel. Having heard about the workshops some time ago I was keen to pop along to one and find out firsthand if they really do teach you to ‘Sew Good’.
For those not yet in-the-know TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) is a charity working to reduce landfill by collecting and reusing residents of the UK’s unwanted clothes, visit and raising funds to fight global poverty by reselling them in their trademark shops. 2010 is a special year for the charity as it celebrates its 10th birthday so there are sure to be lots of events taking place that you can get involved with throughout the year.
Armed with my SLR digital camera and a notebook I headed to the TRAID flagship store on Camden High Street with a childish excitement at the prospect of being in store after hours. As I entered the store the friendly retail staff were busy tidying up whilst the workshop was in full swing, symptoms with each of the four ladies in attendance talking Lyla (and her assistant Yuqian) through what garments they had brought with them and how they were hoping to re-invent them. With ample supplies of yarn, buttons and every other embellishment you can think of I was transported back to my childhood – feeling very much like the wide-eyed kid in the candy store.
Christiana making a start on her shirt.
Christiana came to the workshop after hearing about TRAID at an Ethical Fashion Forum event last year. She brought along a selection of four shirts with the hopes of combining her favourite elements from each by creating one stellar wardrobe staple using an oversized men’s shirt as the base.
Lyla helping Christiana fit her shirt after removing the sleeves.
Laura cutting out her birds…
Laura came to the workshop looking to rejuvenate an old hoody, with hopes of making it look a bit more quirky. After talking it over with Lyla she decided to use a lace trim to hide the existing logo on the collar coupled with the addition of some bird shapes to decorate the back. Laura heard about the workshop through the website as she originally wanted to bring along her class of 17.
Mojca pinning her lace before sewing.
Mojca brought along a simple black V-neck cardigan that she was hoping to revamp into something a little less basic. Channelling the Victoriana look she chose to add a lace collar to the cardigan in the form of a ruff which looked absolutely stunning.Last but not least I met Michelle who was looking to reinvent a black t-shirt as she didn’t like the V-neckline. To mix things up she added a purple band of fabric inside squaring off the neckline and adding a bright splash of colour.
Lyla overseeing Michelle sew on the machines…
After meeting and talking to Lyla about this great scheme I learned that the ‘Sew Good’ workshops began at the beginning of 2009 and are fast growing in popularity, although TRAID have experienced their fair share of setbacks along the way, most notably with the theft of two sewing machines that had kindly been donated. This means that there are currently not enough sewing machines per student, so if anyone out there has a sewing machine they’d like to find a new home for look no further!!
Lyla Patel, TRAID’s Head of Education said, “We run our workshops in TRAID shops so everyone taking part is surrounded by inspiration from our fantastic pre-loved and vintage stock. The techniques taught make clothes last longer, diverting clothes from landfill and protecting the environment. Its fun, it’s ethical and there is nothing like basking in the glow of something that you have made yourself.”
By running free ‘Sew Good’ events TRAID are aiming to help people take control of their wardrobe and extend the life of their clothes by teaching basic mending, adjusting and remaking skills that will hopefully stay with them for life. With the free workshops open to everyone, regardless of their skill level there’s really no excuse for not popping down and getting into the ‘Make Do and Mend’ Spirit. Did I mention that it’s Free?
With places limited to six per session it is essential to book in advance, which you can do by contacting the lovely Lyla (lyla@traid.org.uk). For those teachers among Amelia’s readership, you may find it useful to know that TRAID also run workshops for schools within the capital. Monthly Saturday Workshops (11am – 3pm) at TRAID Shepherds Bush, 154 Uxbridge Road, W12 8AA
January 30 // February 27 // March 27 //April 24 //May 29 // June 26 // July 31 // August 21 //
September 25 // October 30 // November 27
Quarterly Thursday Workshops (6pm – 9pm) at TRAID Camden, 154 Camden High Street, NW1 0NE
January 14 // April 8 // July 8 // October 7
To mark the 10th anniversary, supermodel Erin O’Connor visited a TRAID funded project in India improving the lives of women textile workers and created a stunning photographic story which is being exhibited next month (1-10 February) at the Richard Young Gallery.
Written by Rachael Oku on Monday January 25th, 2010 5:46 pm
Putting the words Sustainable Fashion together can appear to produce an oxymoron, maladydoctor how can an industry synonymous with the fast free consumerism mimicked in high fashion magazines pages that helped herald the economic crash become sustainable? Its very structure relies on the twin polluters of shipping and flying to deliver clothes across the world. Furthermore, tadalafil how can fashion be sustainable considering the volume of water and cotton required to make a single t-shirt, buy information pills a subject Amelia’s Magazine broached when reporting on the London School of Fashion Centre for Sustainability competition. Whilst the majority of the fashion industry has a long way to go with regards to production being ethically and sustainable, the recent collaboration between Fashion-Conscious and TRAIDremade is one example of the possibilities open to commerce. Continuing along the vein of Junky Styling TRAIDremade produces new clothes out of the old with beautiful results, proving it is more than possible to create fashionable items with your own hands. Amelia’s Magazine spoke to the director of Fashion Conscious.
What do you think are the most important concerns for the fashion world at the moment?
For me, sustainability is key. The Fairtrade message seems to be getting through to a lot of people already but the vast amount of waste we produce which is being dumped into landfill is frightening. The rise of fast-fashion culture has increased the rate and amount of discarded clothes in landfill too. I think sustainability needs to be pushed to the forefront of eco-fashion now and I am hoping some projects we have coming up in the near future will do just that. The idea of being able to utilise what most would consider rubbish, literally turn waste in something new, fun and most of all fashionable is so exciting. Fashion recycles styles and trends so why shouldn’t the actual act of producing those clothes reflect that? It’s the future of fashion.
Vegan fashion is also a hot topic at the moment and controversy surrounding the use of leather from the Amazon has appeared in the press recently. We have an incredibly stylish collection of shoes by Olsenhaus on the site at the moment. Finding the most ethical materials and production processes is their paramount philosophy.
What’s in store for Fashion Conscience in the future?
So much! We are currently preparing to launch TRAIDremade Boutique, a project we are incredibly excited about. Fashion-conscience has collaborated with the charity TRAID to come up with a new concept for sustainable fast and affordable fashion. The mini-collections will be much more trend focused than TRAID’s typical pieces and be made up of just a few of each design. New lines will be added every few weeks and as creative director, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the catwalk trends to really keep in touch with high-end fashion. The collection will be available exclusively for fashion-conscience customers. We are also launching an exclusive line of printed tees in the near future- they’re being designed and produced as we speak!
How successful has the store been so far? Were you surprised by its success?
Surprised? Yes and no! I’m ambitious and I always hoped the site would be successful so in a way I wasn’t surprised that the site has seen a success. We started trading as the recession began so keeping in mind the tough trading conditions we’ve seen in the last year we’re growing rapidly. But where we’ve made real impact is within the industry itself. In terms of the fact that most people in ethical fashion industry see us as the number one site for style and new talent. We’ve showcased some fantastic new labels on fashion-conscience and I am always on the look out for more. We have attracted good press, and more than larger companies in the same arena as us. Good exposure is essential and we will always attract attention if we continue pushing boundaries.?
Who are your favourite designers on the site? Which would you particularly like recommend?
Camilla Norrbeck sells her beautiful and timeless pieces exclusively on fashion-conscience. She’s a Swedish designer and uses almost entirely ecological or environmentally certified, natural fabrics
We will soon be stocking a little label called Betty Bridge. Born in Paris then studied in London, the designer sources vintage fabric to transform into gorgeous modern pieces. She brings practical, wearable and femininity to her clothes, mixing French chic with London flair.
Fin is a Norwegian label. Its very elegant, luxurios and sophisticated. I’m looking forward to receiving the AW collection. They use organic and environmentally friendly fabrics.
And vegan label Olsenhaus.
Are there any other sites or shops like yours that you would recommend or that have inspired you?
For pure professionalism and selling good fashion, net-a-porter is great. They’ve managed to expand the designer market and made it more accessible to the general public. Eco blog ‘style will save us‘ has won design awards and simply picks the best of eco, we’re often featured on there too which is obviously always good! BeingContent is an excellent eco beauty and wellbeing site. They have everything from skincare to haircare and men’s beauty too
The possibilities are endless.
See Fashion-Conscious for links to other ethical design initiatives including the designer Rani Jones whose collection is made entirely in London and Fin, a Norwegian company who describe themselves as 100% carbon neutral.
Putting the words Sustainable Fashion together can appear to produce an oxymoron, maladydoctor how can an industry synonymous with the fast free consumerism mimicked in high fashion magazines pages that helped herald the economic crash become sustainable? Its very structure relies on the twin polluters of shipping and flying to deliver clothes across the world. Furthermore, tadalafil how can fashion be sustainable considering the volume of water and cotton required to make a single t-shirt, buy information pills a subject Amelia’s Magazine broached when reporting on the London School of Fashion Centre for Sustainability competition. Whilst the majority of the fashion industry has a long way to go with regards to production being ethically and sustainable, the recent collaboration between Fashion-Conscious and TRAIDremade is one example of the possibilities open to commerce. Continuing along the vein of Junky Styling TRAIDremade produces new clothes out of the old with beautiful results, proving it is more than possible to create fashionable items with your own hands. Amelia’s Magazine spoke to the director of Fashion Conscious.
What do you think are the most important concerns for the fashion world at the moment?
For me, sustainability is key. The Fairtrade message seems to be getting through to a lot of people already but the vast amount of waste we produce which is being dumped into landfill is frightening. The rise of fast-fashion culture has increased the rate and amount of discarded clothes in landfill too. I think sustainability needs to be pushed to the forefront of eco-fashion now and I am hoping some projects we have coming up in the near future will do just that. The idea of being able to utilise what most would consider rubbish, literally turn waste in something new, fun and most of all fashionable is so exciting. Fashion recycles styles and trends so why shouldn’t the actual act of producing those clothes reflect that? It’s the future of fashion.
Vegan fashion is also a hot topic at the moment and controversy surrounding the use of leather from the Amazon has appeared in the press recently. We have an incredibly stylish collection of shoes by Olsenhaus on the site at the moment. Finding the most ethical materials and production processes is their paramount philosophy.
What’s in store for Fashion Conscience in the future?
So much! We are currently preparing to launch TRAIDremade Boutique, a project we are incredibly excited about. Fashion-conscience has collaborated with the charity TRAID to come up with a new concept for sustainable fast and affordable fashion. The mini-collections will be much more trend focused than TRAID’s typical pieces and be made up of just a few of each design. New lines will be added every few weeks and as creative director, I’ll be keeping a close eye on the catwalk trends to really keep in touch with high-end fashion. The collection will be available exclusively for fashion-conscience customers. We are also launching an exclusive line of printed tees in the near future- they’re being designed and produced as we speak!
How successful has the store been so far? Were you surprised by its success?
Surprised? Yes and no! I’m ambitious and I always hoped the site would be successful so in a way I wasn’t surprised that the site has seen a success. We started trading as the recession began so keeping in mind the tough trading conditions we’ve seen in the last year we’re growing rapidly. But where we’ve made real impact is within the industry itself. In terms of the fact that most people in ethical fashion industry see us as the number one site for style and new talent. We’ve showcased some fantastic new labels on fashion-conscience and I am always on the look out for more. We have attracted good press, and more than larger companies in the same arena as us. Good exposure is essential and we will always attract attention if we continue pushing boundaries.?
Who are your favourite designers on the site? Which would you particularly like recommend?
Camilla Norrbeck sells her beautiful and timeless pieces exclusively on fashion-conscience. She’s a Swedish designer and uses almost entirely ecological or environmentally certified, natural fabrics
We will soon be stocking a little label called Betty Bridge. Born in Paris then studied in London, the designer sources vintage fabric to transform into gorgeous modern pieces. She brings practical, wearable and femininity to her clothes, mixing French chic with London flair.
Fin is a Norwegian label. Its very elegant, luxurios and sophisticated. I’m looking forward to receiving the AW collection. They use organic and environmentally friendly fabrics.
And vegan label Olsenhaus.
Are there any other sites or shops like yours that you would recommend or that have inspired you?
For pure professionalism and selling good fashion, net-a-porter is great. They’ve managed to expand the designer market and made it more accessible to the general public. Eco blog ‘style will save us‘ has won design awards and simply picks the best of eco, we’re often featured on there too which is obviously always good! BeingContent is an excellent eco beauty and wellbeing site. They have everything from skincare to haircare and men’s beauty too
The possibilities are endless.
See Fashion-Conscious for links to other ethical design initiatives including the designer Rani Jones whose collection is made entirely in London and Fin, a Norwegian company who describe themselves as 100% carbon neutral.
A couple of weeks ago, information pills while playing around on twitter, I saw a link posted by Thereza Rowe for a site called www.colourfulcoffins.com. Intrigued (colourful and coffin not usually being words which go together) I took a look. The site featured eco-friendly coffins which had been customized using stock images and Thereza had discovered it when her husband – driving back from Oxford – had spotted a sign saying ‘colourful coffins’ and requested that she google it to see what it was all about.
A conversation between Thereza, Lesley Barnes and myself then followed which turned into a far more serious discussion about how we would go about creating our own designs. With just a few tweets and a few more emails, the Happy Journey Collective was born. Other artists were invited to participate, given a ‘final destination’ box template to work around and their submissions have been added to the Happy Journey website which was set up by Thereza and features a banner design by Simon Wild. Excitingly, the website launches today!
The great thing about the work submitted to the project so far is that all the contributing artists have created colourful & idiosyncratic pieces. Choosing an appropriate casket is a difficult task for anyone and the aim of the project is to provide a positive and eco-friendly alternative to the more traditional options.
For further information about the project, please contact happyjourneycollective@googlemail.com. This is an ongoing project and new work will be uploaded regularly; to view participating artists work, please check the website.
Colourful Coffins from Lesley Barnes, approvedThereza Rowe and Abigail Daker.
A couple of weeks ago, advice while playing around on twitter, I saw a link posted by Thereza Rowe for a site called www.colourfulcoffins.com. Intrigued (colourful and coffin not usually being words which go together) I took a look. The site featured eco-friendly coffins which had been customized using stock images and Thereza had discovered it when her husband – driving back from Oxford – had spotted a sign saying ‘colourful coffins’ and requested that she google it to see what it was all about.
A conversation between Thereza, Lesley Barnes and myself then followed which turned into a far more serious discussion about how we would go about creating our own designs. With just a few tweets and a few more emails, the Happy Journey Collective was born. Other artists were invited to participate, given a ‘final destination’ box template to work around and their submissions have been added to the Happy Journey website which was set up by Thereza and features a banner design by Simon Wild. Excitingly, the website launches today!
The great thing about the work submitted to the project so far is that all the contributing artists have created colourful & idiosyncratic pieces. Choosing an appropriate casket is a difficult task for anyone and the aim of the project is to provide a positive and eco-friendly alternative to the more traditional options.
For further information about the project, please contact happyjourneycollective@googlemail.com. This is an ongoing project and new work will be uploaded regularly; to view participating artists work, please check the website.
Colourful Coffins from Lesley Barnes, hospitalThereza Rowe and Abigail Daker.
A couple of weeks ago, try while playing around on twitter, cost I saw a link posted by Thereza Rowe for a site called www.colourfulcoffins.com. Intrigued (colourful and coffin not usually being words which go together) I took a look. The site featured eco-friendly coffins which had been customized using stock images and Thereza had discovered it when her husband – driving back from Oxford – had spotted a sign saying ‘colourful coffins’ and requested that she google it to see what it was all about.
A conversation between Thereza, Lesley Barnes and myself then followed which turned into a far more serious discussion about how we would go about creating our own designs. With just a few tweets and a few more emails, the Happy Journey Collective was born. Other artists were invited to participate, given a ‘final destination’ box template to work around and their submissions have been added to the Happy Journey website which was set up by Thereza and features a banner design by Simon Wild. Excitingly, the website launches today!
The great thing about the work submitted to the project so far is that all the contributing artists have created colourful & idiosyncratic pieces. Choosing an appropriate casket is a difficult task for anyone and the aim of the project is to provide a positive and eco-friendly alternative to the more traditional options.
For further information about the project, please contact happyjourneycollective@googlemail.com. This is an ongoing project and new work will be uploaded regularly; to view participating artists work, please check the website.
Illustration by Abigail Daker.
I’ve always been a huge fan of Robin Hood. When I was younger I had a great cassette tape of all his stories and escapades. These generally seemed to involve taking from the rich and giving to the poor whilst seemingly having absolutely as much fun as possible of course.
I’d all but forgotten about him however, information pills until recently when I heard about the Robin Hood Tax campaign. It aims to put a tiny tax on banks to raise loads of money – billions in fact – to tackle poverty and green issues locally and abroad. What’s great about this idea is that it’s really simple – a small tax of around 0.05% per transaction between banks – but that the difference it could make is enormous. It can help stop cuts in crucial public services in the UK, side effects AND aid the fight against global poverty and climate change. Keeping the Robin Hood spirit alive in this day and age.
There’s a momentum that’s been building for quite a while now… there are lots of people that agree with my view and think this tax is a great idea – including Sienna Miller, store Jaime Winstone and Bill Nighy – he appeared in a great ad being pounced on by “Robin Hood hoodies” – Check it out! But I know that in order for this campaign to be a success we need to spread the word as much as we can, get all our friends and family on board and campaigning together to make this a reality. Robin Hood never got anywhere without his band of merry men supporting him all the way.
One way I’m getting involved is by taking part in an activity Oxfam are organizing this Sunday 2nd May to raise awareness – the Robin Hood Tax treasure Hunt. Treasure hunts are always a huge amount of fun – I remember around Easter as a kid my older cousins used to set up egg hunts for my sister and me. I loved following the clues, the adventure and the excitement of the unknown. Who says I can’t enjoy a treasure hunt now I’m a little older though – especially when it’s made all the more enjoyable knowing that I’m spreading the word about such as great cause AND an excuse to dress up as the great Robin Hood himself.
I’m going to join a group of bandits and merry makers tweeting, blogging, videoing and taking pictures around east London spreading the word and with the opportunity to win tickets to top summer festivals including the fabulous Winterwell Festival, a secret boutique festival in the beautiful rolling hills of Gloucestershire with great music and fancy dress. Oxfam held a similar event in Brighton last week with teams of merry men and women scampering around the city braving challenges such as busking with tambourines and dressing up as a bankers in the Oxfam shop.
If you’re interested in the campaign, a big Robin Hood fan and up for a fun day out, join me and other wannabe Robin Hood’s to take part in the treasure hunt on Sunday. You need to snap up a £2 ticket from Robin Hood game website. All money raised goes directly as a donation to Oxfam and the campaign effort. Just check out the details below of when where and what and I look forward to seeing you there.
The East London treasure hunt is on Sunday 2nd May, from 1-6pm
Start & finish at Richmix, 35-47 Bethnal Green Road, London E1 6LA
Estethica gives the fashion industry another showcase where ethical fashion is the focus; it undoubtedly changes the way we perceive this glittering industry. Their latest press day, about it hosted at Somerset House and coinciding with Earth Day on 22 April, viagra was no mistake.
Arriving at Somerset House, medical you’d be forgiven for thinking that this group of eco fashion designers think and move together as one collective – their goals and ethics are so similar. Their collections, however, are entirely different, and it’s a testament to how rapidly ethical fashion has progressed. Estethica takes fashion and sustainability, as one entity, very seriously.
Orsola De Castro, together with her partner Filippo Ricci, started Estethica in September 2006 as a showcase for labels with ethical and environmental policies. It’s the only sustainable area at London Fashion Week’s vast seasonal exhibition, which De Castro curates and organises with the British Fashion Council. She told me: “Estethica is growing. It’s had positive responses from both the market and the media as well as all the designers hoarded here today. This is our third press day and we will continue to propose initiatives like this which are really important for all the Estethica ethical brands.”
From Somewhere
From Somewhere is De Castro’s own ethical clothing brand, starting with humble beginnings in 1997 and developing into a renowned label over the last ten or so years. “Our last collection made for Tesco has been a great success with all the pieces sold out after the first few weeks,” De Castro revealed.
In the early afternoon I took part in a round table to discuss the promotion and marketing of ethical fashion, with fashion luminaries Baroness Lola Young, Charity Durrant, Laura Bailey, Livia Firth, Vera Budimlija, Yasmin Sewell and Orsola De Castro herself.
The main topic was the future of ethical fashion: how it is evolving, its perspectives for the years to come, and how it deals with a fashion system which still depends so heavily on its seasonality – in many cases up to four collections a year.
Ethical fashion has quality and creativity as its core values more then rapidity, and everybody will readily admit that there’s still a long way to go. Considering fashion’s incredible power and influence, if the values we communicate (as designers) support ethical living, fashion really has the chance to influence consumers’ choices and their sustainable behaviours. In the future experts predict that we will revel in an increase of hybrid brands that more and more embrace ethical causes and processes.
Each designer at Estethica has individual ethical processes and policies. For Ivana Basilotta and her poetic glamour punk dresses, it’s organic peace-silk, aka vegetarian silk, manufactured in a process where silkworms are not killed. This silk is famous for its warmth, therapeutic use and its rareness.
Christopher Raeburn
For Christopher Raeburn, it’s about recycling. He makes use of original fabrics from British army jackets, camouflage ponchos, Swedish snow cotton and battered Italian leather military jackets, creating an original fusion between high-performative fabrics and urban culture.
Maxjenny
When you see Maxjenny’s collection you would never imagine these garments are made from recycled PET bottles, fabric painted with waterbased colour. They are breathable, rainproof and iron-free.
The Estethica press day closed with a performance by Sarah Sarhandi. The sounds of her violin delighted the fashion pack as they tucked into delicious Estethica cupcakes.
Written by Nicola Machetti on Friday April 30th, 2010 4:58 pm
If you try to describe this to someone (which you shouldn’t, this websales don’t give anything away), doctormedications you will sound like you are conjuring from memory a nonsensical and fantastical dream; not something remotely tangible that actually happened in a 25-minute journey through a Shorditch warehouse.
Enter the ride and find yourself wheeled through 15 distinct scenarios with over 70 artists acting out micro-performances. “Designed to mentally and visually astound”, check; “leaving you overwhelmed and exhilarated’, check and check; and finishing the ride “in a totally different emotional state from the one you were in when you embarked on the journey”, most definitely true: utterly elated, mesmerised, and psychologically discombobulated.
The You Me Bum Bum train represents a new branch of experimental live art where the line between performer and audience is not just blurred, but utterly turned on it’s head; interaction is integral to the experience, and how far you take this is up to you. It’s creators Kate Bond and Morgan Lloyd, intend to strip individuals of decision-making, giving passengers the would-be ordinary experience of somebody else’s shoes. You are left with fleeting slices of alternate realities, one moment you might be a drummer, the next a translator (I really don’t want to say much!). It’s real human experience through the prism of the utterly surreal, and it will take you some time to reclaim your grasp on the two, a most marvellous and novel experience.
The venue is essential to the experience, and they describe Cordy House as their dream venue, lending itself to the most ambitious event they’ve held yet.
There isn’t much time to go, and I whole-heartedly recommend it as an unforgettable experience. It runs every Saturday from now until the 20th of December between 7pm and 11pm.
Hip Parisian fahion and electro label, buy Kitsuné, what is ed are fast becoming as well known for their associated music as they are for their fashion. In fact, there is a clear cut three-way divide at Heaven tonight: scenesters, dressed for the fashion blog photographers collide en masse with those who know Kitsuné for the music and are quite unprepared for the additional rooms full of said scenesters, and with the regular Heaven clubbers, used to G-A-Y Camp Attack on Friday nights and probably the most bemused of everyone here.
Within the four rooms there’s a frustrating mix of real djs and acts like Autokratz, whose Pet Shop Boys go big beat set was a joy to behold and left me humming ‘Stay The Same’ for the rest of the night. Hearts Revolution, Punks Jump Up and Kitsuné house band Digitalism all turned out in force to impress and did so, although at times the acts felt a little repetitive. Alas, alongside these quality acts, we also got a number of vanity djs, including various models and boutique owners, which all blurred into the same set as the night progressed and seemed to play to rooms full of people aiming to get to the bar and move on.
It transpired that the ‘Don’t Panic’ room was the place to be. Inspired by K-Tron, blasting bass heavy No-Wave, they held me and the room in near divine rapture. The highlight of the night however, was Matthew Stone who dragged us back to 1985 via The KLF, his effortlessly sublime musical compass taking us on a seemingly random adventure, fitting perfectly with the tone of the night. There were some true high points tonight, but Kitsuné are probably best enjoyed via one of their compilations than live, based on tonight’s evidence.
Global Day of Action
6th December 2008
This will be the Saturday midway through the next round of UN Climate Talks and our best chance to influence the decisions of delegates ahead of the critical UN talks in 2009 at which a post-Kyoto treaty agreement will be decided.
LONDON
Climate Bike Ride 2008
Assemble 10.30 am Lincolns Inn Fields for a mass bike ride around Central London joining up with the National Climate March at Grosvenor Square (see next listing for National Climate March info)
The three stops on the route are:
-Outside Greenergy, 198 High Holborn – for an agrofuels protest organised by Biofuelswatch
-Outside E.On 100 Pall Mall – for a speaker on NO NEW COAL
-Outside the Department of Transport – for a speaker on sustainable transport
Everyone welcome; decorate your bikes, bring whistles, bring music!
Want to help out for this action? Contact Jeremy Hill on 07816 839883 or jeremy.hill1@btopenworld.com
National Climate March and Global Day of Action on Climate
The march starts at 12noon at Grosvenor Square and will move via Carlos Place and Mount Street to Berkley Square and Berkley street to Picacadily, Picadilly Circus, Lower Regent street, Pall Mall and Cockspur street to Trafalgar Square and Whitehall to Parliament Square.
We will bring the UK issues of Aviation, New coal and Biofuels to the streets of London, along with a call for more investment in renewable energy, more energy efficiency and more green jobs.
Speakers will include Nick Clegg (leader Liberal Democrat Party), Caroline Lucas (leader, Green party), Michael Meacher (ex-Environment Minister) and George Monbiot (Honorary President, Campaign against Climate Change).
Contact: 020 7833 9311 www.campaigncc.org
There will also be an After-Party in the Synergy Centre from 5.00 pm till late.
The March on Parliament has four main themes –
1) NO to a 3rd runway at Heathrow and the runaway expansion in aviation expansion.
2) NO new coal – no new coal-fired power stations as planned at eg Kingsnorth in Kent
3) NO to the expansion of agrofuels – with negative impacts on forests, the climate and world food supply.
4) YES to a renewable energy revolution and green jobs – a “Green new Deal”
Come with your own banners, costumes on one of these themes and join up with others pushing that theme……
The March on Parliament for the Climate marks the Saturday midway through the UN Climate Talks in Poznan, Poland and we make our demands on the UK government in solidarity with the world’s poorest and most vulnerable communities that will suffer worst and most immediately from climate change caused overwhelmingly by the rich long-industrialised countries.
We need the government to act now on climate, to stop building coal-fired power stations and new runways – and to begin the renewable energy revolution. We need a tidal wave of people outside parliament to make them act to stop climate catastrophe now! Be part of that tidal wave, be there! Next year may be too late.
BUST is a magazine devoted to the female. Providing an unapologetic view of life in the female lane, they break down stereotypes! Based in the US and established in 1993, the magazine addresses a variety of different issues within pop sulture, including music, fashion, art & crafts and news.
Editor-in-Chief, Debbie Stoller, decided to call the magazine BUST, because it was “aggressive and sexy and funny… It was a title that could belong to a men’s porn magazine.”
For Women With Something To Get Off Their Chests! Click here for the Christmas Craftacular’s Facebook Page
Jumble Fever Under the bridge on Beck Road, E8 Saturday 6th December
Midday-4pm, Entry £1
A fabulous jumble sale with a boogie twist! There will be a great deal to see and do and buy.. See you there!
ETSY
An online shopping bazaar; Etsy is a cross between eBay and Amazon with a humble handmade twist. Launched in June 2005 by Robert Kalin, for sale Chris Maguire and Haim Schoppik, the site has grown to be incredibly popular, with tens of thousands of people selling their handmade goods (90% of whom are women!).
As Christmas draws nearer and greener, we have chosen our favorite handmade things to inspire your presents list. www.etsy.com
“The Kelsey”; a pleated clutch in paisley mocha
This handmade clutch is one of many adorable bags created by GraceyBags; get in touch through etsy.com to custom order a clutch and choose from a rainbow of fabrics.
Featured is ‘The Kelsey’ in a paisley mocha print on the outside in greens, blues, pinks, yellows and browns. The inside has been sewn from a silky brown fabric and the bag closes with a small magnet.
Recycled Journal – handbound Find a lovely selection of hand bound recycled books by Rhonda; bookbinder and book artist.
This particularly wonderful journal is made with a variety of recycled scrap papers ranging from large envelopes, posters, junk mail, blank paper, lined and graph paper, covers from old sketch books, old maps, discarded photocopies, misprints from the computer printer to paper bags.
Perfect as an art journal, the book is covered with an old map of the world, the one pictured above showing the islands of Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica.
There are 256 pages (when you count both sides of each sheet). The pages are handbound using green and brown linen threads, visible on the spine in 4 rows of chain stitches.
The book size is approximately 4″ x 4¼” and 1″ thick (or 10.5cm x 11cm x 2.5cm).
This adorable cotton tote is the perfect carry-all for any occasion. BellaBlu Designs signature French Bulldog silhouette has been cut from Heather Bailey‘s ‘Sway in Brown’ Pop Garden print and appliquéd to this cotton canvas bag. It is 100% 10 oz. cotton, measures 15 x 13 x 3 inches and can be customized with most other dog breeds.
We’ve also had a browse round treefort.myshopify.com, for some gift ideas for those of you with little ones in your life!
Dreamlets Dolls These cute little creatures would make an adorable gift this season, and as a product that gives 1% back to Artworks, Bridges to Understanding, or Poncho, they’re doing a lot more than making a loved one happy! The dolls come in a variety of shapes and colours, each with their own quirky personality. You are also able to choose which organization will benefit from your gift by registering your doll online.
Nikki McClure’s Mama & Baby Things Treefort also sell many of Nikki Mcclure‘s prints, books, cards, and calendars. Nikki McClure creates complex, yet natural designs by cutting away from a single piece of black construction paper with an x-acto knife. Her works are printed on 100% Recycled, 100% Post-Consumer Waste, Processed Chlorine Free paper that was manufactured with electricity that is offset with Green-e® certified renewable energy. Her work is printed by a small family-owned press in Portland, Oregon, US- and uses soy-based inks.
Kids On Roof “House” is made of Eco friendly-100% recycled cardboard and is 100% biodegradable. These houses are the perfect gift for creative children, as they’re meant to be decorated and personalised! (see below for examples from treefort) Kidsonroof donates 5% of its profits to specific Unicef projects; €24,000 has now been collected for the Unicef project for building better, small-scale housing for HIV/Aids inflicted orphans in Russia.
Beyond Retro Christmas Party!
This evening Beyond Retro is throwing it’s annual seasonal gathering – in both it’s shops, viagra buy the original Cheshire St warehouse and new sibling store in Soho – from 6pm – 8pm, there’ll be lots of exclusive goodies for you to browse through and they’ll even throw in some mulled wine and mince pies. Good times.
Made In Clerkenwell
This evening and all weekend, the Clerkenwell Green Association open their studios for Made in Clerkenwell, an event that showcases the work of over 70 designers they support through providing them with studio space, mentoring and business advice to help them create their work.
The fruits of their labors are exhibited and available for purchase, so you can hunt out that unique Christmas gift and buy all kinds of original and creative wares – ranging from fashion designs to jewellery, accessories, textiles and even ceramics.
What makes this shopping experience so different is that you can mingle with and chat to the designers and find out about their craft, inspirations, working method, becoming a designer, anything you want to know! So pop down, get a great gift and support new designers.
Open 6pm to 8pm, Thursday 27th November 2008 and
12pm to 6pm on Friday 28th, Saturday 29th and Sunday 30th November 2008.
£2.50 entrance – free to the under 16s.
It’s no secret that Brooklyn’s the place to be for smart indie pop these days, view but look a little closer to home and you might be surprised. Take tonight’s superb support acts, advice for example. First up is Pens, erectile a cute lo-fi local trio who, despite playing to only a handful of people, put on a wonderfully frantic and ramshackle performance – think Karen O‘s kid sisters gleefully bashing at snare, guitar and synths.
Fellow Londoners Chew Lips are up next and are nothing short of a revelation. The threesome cater in captivatingly melancholy electronic music and boast a bona fide icon-in-waiting in singer Tigs; she prowls and creeps around the venue, all black bob and wide eyes, unleashing powerful vocals and jumping on the bar to serenade us, while the boys whip up a glitchy synth and bass storm in the background. ‘Solo’ is the band’s set-closer and an undeniable highlight – scuzzy and danceable yet strangely sad, it will be one of your anthems of 2009, no question.
This bunch are hard to follow, but Telepathe just about manage it. Dave Sitek-produced debut ‘Dance Mother’ is on the way in January, and recreating its majesty live is clearly still a tricky undertaking for the Brooklyn duo. They do their best, unleashing a stream of cluttered soundscapes, layered harmonies and clipped rhythms, and while the effect is hypnotic at times, barely a word is uttered between songs – resulting in a distinct lack of atmosphere. This could of course be due, in part, to the fact that they are playing to a room full of typically disinterested Shoreditch types. Whatever the reason the performance falls a little flat, until final effort ‘Chromes On It’ that is, its spine-tingling beats waking the crowd from its stupor and climaxing with speakers shaking and half the band hanging from the ceiling as the hysterical throng down the front excitedly punch the air. It’s just enough to convince us that we’re not quite prepared to give up on Telepathe as a live proposition yet. More like this please.
Nuclear: Art and Radioactivity discount -4.064941&sspn=16.764146, visit this site 39.418945&ie=UTF8&ll=51.524712,-0.079694&spn=0.008598,0.019248&z=16&g=E1+6PG&iwloc=addr”target=”_blank”>Nicholls and Clarke Building, 3-10 Shoreditch High Street, Spitalfields, London E1.
‘Half-life’ Chris Oakley, 2008
High-definition video, 15 minutes
The Nicholls and Clarke Building hosts an exhibition that explores the changing perceptions of nuclear power. In our rapidly deteriorating climate, the effects of nuclear development from the past have come to haunt us. ‘The Nightwatchman,’ by Simon Hollington and Kypros Kyprianou, captures this disturbing predicament.
As we entered the installation there was something immediately unsettling about it. A board-meeting table situated in the centre of a large dilapidated storeroom indicated recent activity, and as we crept further through the exhibition space there was more evidence of some night watchmen. But they are no where to be found…
Together with the film ‘Half-life’ by Chris Oakley, there was a sense of being caught in a crossfire of two different eras: the naïvely optimistic 80′s and the knowledgeable cynicism of the present day.
The film showed a series of paradoxical images of nature vs. technology, and through it we were reminded of how our idea of what is progressive has been turned on it’s head.
If you’d like to have something of yours across the chests of music aficionados throughout the country, viagra you might like to apply for this. 100% music, cheap 100% recycled paper (well done), sildenafil Bearded Magazine is preparing for the re-launch of the printed magazine on January 29th, and they’re throwing in a t-shirt as well.
When it came to deciding what should go on the front of said t-shirt, they mumbled gibberish into their beards and drew blanks, and so they’ve put the task out to you the reader to help them out. In fact, they might be so filled with indecision that there could be four winners, so better chances for you! Have a look at the criteria and send in a design soon, you have until the 15th of December.
The Wellcome Collection’s new temporary exhibition is entitled ‘War and Medicine’ and focuses on the individual human consequences of war rather than the overall statistics of death and destruction that impersonalise and almost glorify military combat and which we are most often presented with. Soldiers are heroes when they die for their country but uncomfortable representatives of horror when they return wounded and disfigured.
Installation artist David Cotterrell‘s film, sales specially commissioned for the exhibition, salve attempts to rectify this. Covering three walls of a darkened room, more about the film shows wounded soldiers, with varying degrees of injury, being loaded onto a flight back to England from Helmand Province in Afghanistan. The only soundtrack is the constant hum of the plane’s engine, an eerie backdrop to the calm, efficient activity taking place on screen. There is an unsettling disjunction between our inclusion in the scene through the way it is presented to us and the alienness of the sight before our eyes. This slightly dreamlike atmosphere helps separate the artwork from the realms of documentary photography and helps us understand the confusion of this homeward flight, which we are told in the information outside, is often only partially remembered by the soldiers.
What is most striking about this piece is the individual humanity behind the uniforms of the men and women depicted. On the left are the walking wounded with a variety of arm slings and facial injuries being tended to by medical staff and waiting patiently for their journey to begin, on the right, more distressingly, a person is carried in on a stretcher, connected to breathing apparatus. It is heartbreaking to realise that although most of these people will probably survive, and so not register in the public consciousness, they will have been scarred for life both physically and emotionally. I began to see them as people beyond whatever my personal attitudes to their profession and the war they are fighting in was.
A harrowing counterpart to this work is Cotterrell’s written diary, where he describes with civilian horror, the daily minutiae of life amongst the medical staff in Camp Bastion. The exhibition’s mission statement is to explore the dichotomies in a society that is simultaneously developing ever more sophisticated means of destroying life and protecting it. The stalemate futility of this situation is given a human face by Cotterrell’s work.
David Cotterrell is featured in issue 10 of the magazine, out shortly.
Hurrying through the lights and sounds of Soho, stuff the words ‘bloody hell it’s cold’ rattled my skull. I was heading to see the Canadian singer and illustrator Chad VanGaalen, this known for rarely leaving his basement. In this weather, who would blame him?
Once inside Borderline I was able to thaw out and to take in the cosy surroundings. Kindly folk in chequered shirts patiently waited as they sipped Guinness. But there was something odd about this fresh-faced crowd. Moustaches, I realised. There were loads of them.
It’s Mo-vember, apparently. The time of year for all socially conscious gentlemen to grow out their fluff to raise money for testicular cancer. ‘That’s nice,’ I thought.
This playful and boyish act of sincerity seemed fitting for the night in store as there’s something of the fourteen-year-old boy about Chad VanGaalen. Deceptively awkward and immediately charming, he’ll break your heart.
Together with a hairy-faced accordionist he delivered a homemade and reflective sound. It was as if we had wandered into his basement, and he seemed a little surprised to see us there.
His hesitancy on stage draws you nearer, and his tight and masterful song-writing capabilities took a hold of my senses like a sedative.
That uneasy fluidity reminded me of Beach House and the unexpectedly punchier tunes provided an excitable energy that twanged some of those moustaches.
Listening to Chad is like putting on a pair of earmuffs and skate boarding down smooth suburban streets.
There’s a yearning to be free and limitless but it only slightly ventures out of the comfortable. A girl behind me whispered excitedly ‘It’s the kind of music I’d ride my bike to.’
It is difficult for any set at the Borderline to not feel intimate and Chad VanGaalen’s was by no means revolutionary.
But the evening was all together thoughtful and enchanting, and as I braved the bitter London streets once more, the words of Electric City wrapped me up like a duvet.
At 8am on Friday 28th November on a wet and grizzly morning, stuff the Greenwash Guerillas and a band of allies rallied together outside the E-On Head Office at 100 Pall Mall. We were there to protest against the planned government-approved scheme to build 7 new coal fired power stations. E-on will be responsible for the first of these havoc wreaking death chambers (no hyperbole here) at Kingsnorth, Kent. This power station alone will emit between 6 and 8 million tones of CO2 every year. If all 7 are built, treatment their collective emissions would be approximately 50 million tones of CO2 a year. This would make the Climate Change Committee’s proposal to cut back on CO2 emissions an average of 2% per annum so that by 2050 we’ll have an 80% reduction well… impossible.
Browsing through E-on’s website, it might be easy to be fooled into thinking they are an environmentally conscientious company promoting ‘clean, green energy that never runs out.’ But it doesn’t take long to realize that their wind farms and claims of boosting local employment are cleverly marketed to cast a rosy sheen over more profitable projects that use coal.
Coal is the grimiest of fossil fuels. It’s carbon-intensity is higher than oil and double that of natural gas. Yet, as the driving force behind the industrial revolution, it has been the primary source of power for the electricity generation. Gathered outside the E-on head office, we are no longer in the 19th century but in the 21st century and in the midst of a climatic crisis. With sea ice disappearing at a never-before-seen rapidity now is the time to use new greener sources of power, not to revert to the practices of the past.
So why is the government supporting what seems a disastrously archaic project?
The government’s answer is that by increasing the cost of carbon, power stations will be forced to use a process of carbon capture and storage (CCS) whereby the harmful carbon dioxide produced by coal is extracted from the air and buried underground.
However, a presentation made by the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee concluded that this reasoning is implausible. Voicing research from the U.K. Energy Research Centre and Climate Change Capital, it showed that using a process of CCS would in fact be the least cost effective option for power stations. The research they gathered predicted that CCS will cost power companies like E-On 70-100 or 90-155 Euros per ton of CO2, while the government estimates that the price of carbon between 2013 and 2020 will be less at approximately 39 Euros per ton.
It’s fair to say that it is extremely unlikely that power companies will go for the more expensive option, especially when the margin is as large as it is. In short, the government’s criteria for approving E- On’s power station at Kingsnorth is worryingly unsatisfactory.
If our government is failing to alleviate the catastrophic predicament of climate change that is costing lives then it is up to us as citizens to take action against the construction of Kingsnorth and others like it. For more information on what you can do please click here and please go to the national climate march on Saturday 6th December, bring your mates and make it fun. This is a serious issue and we need to get the message across but optimism is always the best the way of creating change, in my view anyway. Klimax is a network for climate activists that started in 2007 by environmentalists who wanted a platform for people with more radical ideas about direct actions. Well known in Sweden for their campaigns against private motorism and the meat industry, viagra sale the group has spread to a number of Swedish cities, cialis 40mg and in Gothenburg they consist of 20 active members.
Members of Klimax initially wanted to protest on the 13th October, which is the actual date of the anniversary, but after finding out there were no meetings that day, postponed to the 12th November. This allowed them the much needed time to plan their action in detail; the first few weeks consisted of a few hours of planning and as the time drew nearer members were working five hours a day to make sure everything was finished. Among writing speeches, making banners and establishing contact with the media, they had to prepare their costumes!
Our contact at Klimax said “We do not always dress up for events but we believe that it is a good way to spice up an action! We sometimes dress up as penguins or polar bears because they are the two types of animal that are severely affected by Climate Change; it is also fun and looks nice!”
Their aims with the action was threefold; firstly to pay tribute to the work done by the suffragettes- strong women fighting for women’s right to vote, secondly to make the politicians aware that there was strong opposition to the building of another tunnel under the river in Gothenburg; Miahabo Berkelder from Klimax in Gothenberg says that the group believe this to be an awful way to spend a large amount of money, just so that more cars can be on the road; asking ‘What if the money was invested in buses instead? New roads simply lead to more traffic and that is a disaster for our climate.’
The third reason for the protest was to make sure that politicians knew that climate change isn’t just a moral topic, it is a political topic.
On the day, members were shocked to see the six activists storm the meeting,
but after the action Klimax joked that if they had been politicians sitting there during long and boring meetings, they would have been happy with the distraction!
They certainly created a buzz, and definitely caught the attention of the council! After a short while the six were asked to leave the building and did so with little fuss.
In reaction to the protest, a woman from the Swedish environmental party said Klimax had a valid point, but a man from the conservative party was more concerned about security, wondering what would have happened if terrorists had stormed the meeting instead!
The plans for the tunnel are still up in the air. The initial decision to build the tunnel was made solely by Göran Johansson, the chairman of the Municipal Council. Because this wasn’t a democratic way of deciding, the case has been reported to the county administrative court.
According to Miahabo, there are a lot of plans in Klimax’s future; new actions will take place during the spring and there will be a new regular event called Climate Café- where anyone can attend to share coffee and discuss climate change, sometimes including an expert on the subject to answer any questions.
The next big event for Klimax is on the Global Day of Action, taking place in cities all over the world on the 6th of December. At the same time as the leaders of the world will be discussing the climate problems, demonstrations will be arranged all over the world including London and of course Gothenberg. Klimax have come together with several other groups to arrange a huge demonstration, Miahabo says that Klimax are organising a “Climate Clash” which is a wide spread Klimax phenomenon; they will walk out in the middle of a busy road and block the traffic; a perfect and simple way to make people aware of the climate problems.
Anyone who is interested in joining Klimax is welcome- it is a flat organization with no board of directors, anyone who wants to be a member is simply one.
For more information about Climate Rush, please visit: www.climaterush.co.uk Monday 1st Dec
The Ashni Art Gallery specialises in Indian Art that is both contemporary and of the past. They will be exhibiting the best of their collection from now until the 19th of December.
Tuesday 2nd Dec
Live in Bristol? Feeling somewhat alarmed by the continued transformation of the city centre to all things consumerist (with 120 new shops having just opened)? Slipping between the gap of reality and fantasy, andSomewhere Here are hijacking advertisement space to provide shoppers with a brief respite during the fall of capitalism. Nine artists take nine advertising hoardings (billboards) until the 3rd of December only. Catch them before they are swallowed by Advertisement Beast.
Wednesday 3rd Dec
Opening today at the ICA: Dispersion; an exploration by seven artists of the appropriation and circulation of images in contemporary society. They examine money, desire, and power in our accelerated image economy. It runs until Feb 1st.
Thursday 4th Dec
First Thursdays of the month is here! But aren’t galleries open most Thursdays anyway? It would be silly tell you a single thing to go and see, 100 galleries will be opening their doors until 9pm, so there will plenty to satiate your creative appetites, but if you perhaps feel so inspired that you are driven to the pencil yourself, The Princess Studios will be hosting free life-drawing drop-in sessions throughout the evening.
Friday 5th Dec
Vauxhall’s best kept secret-art-laboratory, Beaconsfield, curates Late at Tate this Friday, adapting Tate Britain’s Duveen Galleries and transitory places to create a terminal space, with an array of arrival and departure points, in which only the surreal applies …
Satuday 6th Dec
Colin McKenzie senses that art ought to be more like a day at Woodstock, or at least what he imagines Woodstock to be like: electric, dynamic, smooth, and mind-expanding. At the Red Gate Gallery. McKenzie strives against order and sense, aiming to manoeuvre without restriction.
Monday 1st December
The Lady: A Tribute to Sandy Denny, page Royal Festival Hall, treat London
An evening of songs from the back catalogue of one of the most influential female folk singers, approved Sandy Denny. Various artists including Marc Almond, P.P. Arnold and Johnny Flynn will be performing songs from her Fairport Convention days as well as her solo career. Should be a really interesting night in light of the current trend for new female folkies and a timely tribute to one of the godmothers of the genre.
A lovely gentle way to start the week with this folky-country duo who will hopefully be celebrating the first day of December with a performance of their Christmas single, released next week.
In the UK for one night only, this much-loved San Francisco band’s staccato, rough-round-the-edges punk pop is even better live.
Ten Kens, The Duchess, York
Anyone who has a blurry picture of people snogging on their record sleeve is a good bet for a messy live show and these Canadian grungers are reportedly no exception. Should be good in this small venue too.
New album produced by Will Oldham, harpist on Anthony and the Johnsons first album and with Andrew W.K. providing bass on her new record, this transsexual musician’s musical pedigree is assured.
Wednesday 3rd December
Kitty, Daisy and Lewis single launch, Madame JoJos, London
Snappily dressed, hearse-driving siblings playing rockabilly at their single launch party.
Liam Finn, Night and Day, Manchester
Introspective folk.
The Wave Pictures, Club Fandango, St Aloysius Social Club, London
Thursday 4th December
Vivian Girls, The Social, Nottingham
Uber-hyped Brooklyn girl group bring their shoe-gaze tinged grunge-pop to the UK. Time to see if they live up to their recorded promise as a live act.
Really bummed about breaking up with some girl called Emma, he headed into the woods alone and wrote an album about it. He must be feeling a bit better as he’s spreading the heartache on a UK tour.
Lovely duets from surprisingly compatible artists.
Pretty Taxing is a fashion collection with a twist, stuff as the end product is not clothes but car tax discs. Unusual – yes, sick but we all know how important accessorising is…
It would seem like a bad idea if such creatively interesting designers hadn’t contributed to the cause. They include Emma Bell, who has twice shown at London Fashion Week, David David and Pam Hogg. Along with artists Natasha Law and Stuart Semple, they have all created unique collectable pieces of fashion memorabilia.
You can pick up these discs of fashion-random-brilliance at Matches or at the pop-up shop KIN in Kingly Court, Carnaby Street. Abiding the law has never looked so good.
Today I was sent to Coventry, abortion quite literally. Together with 30 other Climate Camp activists dressed as Santa we descended on E.On, health the energy company responsible for the proposed new coal fired power station to be built at Kingsnorth.
This action followed a 48 hour action that happened over last Friday and Saturday – and E.On were not expecting our return. In fact, buy they were probably kicking themselves that the special fencing that they had put in place late last week was now lying dismantled on the floor next to their headquarters.
As a result our merry busload hopped off easily and headed straight for the main entrance of E.On’s offices.
Why? Despite spending a lot of time and energy letting the public know that they are one of the biggest investors in renewable energy in the UK (they’ll point out the big array of solar panels on one of their buildings and the lobby features a looped tape about wind farms) they are also pitching to build the first new coal fired power station to be built in the UK in 30 years, which will alone defeat all our CO2 emissions goals. So why spend so unwisely?
Whilst some merry santas climbed atop the revolving door and superglued their hands to the various entrances, another bunch of santas headed off into the building to see if they could speak to head honcho Paul Golby and let the employees know a bit more about the facts behind new coal.
Bearing banners that said Stop Coal and E.On F.Off they set off down the corridors singing some specially adapted carol songs.
Two intrepid santas managed to enter a boardroom meeting, surprising the attendees with some gifts of lumps of coal – for as you know santa gives bad children coal instead of gifts and E.On has been very bad this year. They were ejected from the property, but soon raced back in again…
We managed to disrupt operations for four hours, stopping employees and visitors as they came to work and giving interviews to the BBC and ITV, and live on the radio. Our action was spoken about on the World at One on Radio 4, which you can listen to here. We are talked about at approximately 8 minutes and 20 seconds into the programme.
The police were surprisingly even handed, although some employees were clearly fuming, especially the head of security (woops) One indoor santa even managed to locate a cup of tea and a newspaper to read.
At one point we were able to reenter the building, with the santas forming a conga line for the cameras. We delivered papers written by leading NGOs describing why there is no need for coal power, and generally had a merry old time. All employees and visitors were rerouted through back entrances, so I think it is fair to say that we were fairly disruptive…
Eventually we decided that once unstuck it was best that we leave, but the police had other ideas, and as we walked off down the road they tried to contain us, managing to trap four of our number and arrest them.
The rest of us ran off down the street to find our getaway vehicles, parked up in a local pub car park. Our drivers had thoughtfully bought us lunch in the pub, but shortly after we had gulped it down we were asked to leave because the police presence was putting off other customers. The police followed us as we left to pick up the other santas at Warwick university student union, and thereafter ensued the slowest police chase ever, with us managing to lose them after taking a wrong turn.
The purpose of this action was to embarrass E.On and raise awareness of what they up to in a light hearted and humourous way – I think that as a bunch of merry santas we did this exceptionally well. We hope that E.On will take heed and stop greenwashing their plans. It’s simple, don’t build Kingsnorth. Spend your money increasing investment in your (meagre) renewable energy supplies. If you would like to help us stop companies like E.On destroying our world check out what Climate Camp is up to next. More articles on this action can be read on Indymedia here and here.
We’re having a bit of a Grace Jones moment here at Amelia’s HQ. Obviously we’ve always known she was AMAZING but her majestic new single ‘Williams’ Blood’ goes to prove that she’s still totally got it. In fact, buy it’s been on repeat for about the past week and we’ve all been waving our arms in the air singing “I’ve got the Williams’ blood in me”. There’s an infectious gospel refrain running through this song that really brings out Jones’ strident message. Strongly autobiographical, link ‘Williams’ Blood’ tells the story of her parents’ life together in small-town domesticity and her musician grandfather – he of the Williams blood – philandering his way around the world, an insight into the Grace Jones spirit of rebellion.
There’s a cry for freedom and for breaking away from the strictures and constraints of her background, which you can’t help but feel has been successful for this overtly sexual, bonkers wardrobed, gay icon, hence the joyful bursts of the chorus. It also seems almost subversive for a female singer to talk about the influence of a male ancestor on their lives but Jones has never been one to play by the rules. In fact, as one of our writers proved, she’s perhaps the only woman with such immense stature you could prove your respect for by mooning. But that’s another story…
‘Williams’ Blood’ is released next Monday 8th December on Wall of Sound.
“The film was an experiment”, abortion says Jonas Cuaron, settling down across from me on a sofa at the Renoir this Saturday. I’ve come for the release of his debut film, Año Uña – year of nails – and the place is abuzz with excitement; I’m especially enamoured by the snippets of Mexican-tilted Spanish I hear that always make me nostalgic (Luisa with no ‘o’, can you guess?), “Ai que deliciosa!” someone behind me exclaims at the sight of a quesadilla in the first few minutes of the film; maravillosa indeed.
“I wanted to make a film”, he continues, “using a format that would be hard to watch”. Hard to watch? A legitimate concern when it dawns on you that you’re in for a feature-length film composed entirely of still-frame photographs. But the merit of any film boils down to one thing, a good story – and the impossible romance between American girl and Mexican boy in the throes of puberty, subsumes this hard-to-watch format and makes it altogether accessible. Plot aside for a moment though, the genesis of the film deserves as much attention, so I asked Jonas how the whole thing came about.
JC: For the film I took photographs of my everyday life for a year. I wanted to break the way in which film is normally done. Normally people write a screenplay first, and then out of the screenplay they do the image, but here I wanted to do it backwards. I took the photographs and then we made an installation where we put them all up in a room, and made a story from that.
Were there other possible narratives, did you find it hard to pick which story to tell?
Well I always knew that it had to be a story of this girl from the US and this boy from Mexico. They were the ones I photographed the most that year, and so I knew they were going to be the main characters and it grew organically from there. But sometimes I think, with all those photographs I could make a different movie, draw something completely different from the same images.
What was exciting about working in that format?
Well I wanted to play with the boundaries between reality and fiction. I wanted to have images that were real, but to show, how with text, or with a narrative over those images, you can have a completely different meaning. All the images in the movie are real, but none of that happened, I wanted to play with that boundary.
So there was no interchange between reality and fiction? There must’ve been!
Well I mean, in the events there was. Like my Grandpa really did get sick and he had cancer, but for instance, the main characters, Diego and Molly, they are my brother and my girlfriend, so I hope that wasn’t real (chuckles).
How did your brother feel about in falling in love with your girlfriend, was that awkward?
Well the narrative was so fictional, so far away from reality that both him and Eireann saw it as an acting job; they never thought of it as real. All the character’s names are real aside from Eireann, which I changed to Molly because I wanted to help Diego and Molly not feel awkward, and I knew that Diego was gonna be saying really dirty things about her character, so I thought it would be easier for him if she was called Molly and not Eireann.
Throughout the film, Molly seems to be perpetually trying to capture something real from Mexico in a photograph, and failing. Is that Ironic? Seeing as you’re playing with a moment captured and how it can mean lots of things.
With Molly, a lot of what I wanted to play with was the idea of the tourist, being a foreigner in another country, so even though she’s the one seeing, she’s the observer with the camera, in the case of a tourist like Molly, people are also observing her. So with her character I played a lot with the subconscious of being in a new place.
You grew up partially in Mexico and partially in the US, so is that something you link closely too?
For me, that part of the narrative – the interchange between two cultures – it really fascinates me; so when I realised that Diego and Molly would be my main characters, I was happy because the relationship between both cultures is an important one for me. I know what it is to be new in a different place, and I understand the boundaries between the two languages, and a lot of this is seen in the character of Molly. Many of those pictures were taken during Eireann’s first visit to Mexico, and it was at the time when Bush had just been elected. For her it was really hard to be in Mexico because everyone was judging her for what Bush was doing, so I wanted to play with the idea, that I also feel from being a Mexican in the US, that people see you as a nationality and not who you are.
What is the main theme of the film for you?
When I first started making a film with photographs, I realised that the main theme would be the passage of time and the impermanence of things. You can’t do anything about photography and not talk about the passage of time, and particularly in a film – film is always dependent on the idea of time and still-photography doesn’t have time in a way, and so for me, the whole film is an exploration of how nothing lasts forever.
Would you use the format again?
I think it’s a very interesting format to explore, but for me, I’ve done everything I would want to do with that format. It’s been a very important learning experience for me. At the end of the day, the important thing is having a good story.
Muchisimas Gracias Jonas. How do you like London?
It’s cold.
Last night, adiposity to coincide with World AIDS Day, clinicvinspired.com, a youth volunteer organisation website, hosted a charity fashion show to raise money for the children’s HIV Charity, Body & Soul.
This fashion show was the last stage in a creative process, which started off with four volunteer design teams, based in four parts of the country, who gave their time to find new and exciting designers. The creative workshops were set up by Junky Styling in London, Traid, who nurtured the Bristol designers, the Ethical Fashion Forum in Nottingham and Kesh(pictured above), who worked with the Manchester based designers.
Said designers had to then compete against each other to create the best outfit from recycled clothes, e.g.: the clothes given to charity shops – and it was at this fashion show where the winner would be decided by designer Ben de Lisi.
TV presenter Miquita Oliver hosted the event and the celebrity quota was filled by Rolling Stone daughter, Leah Wood (pictured above), who modeled on the catwalk and Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman, who provided some post-show tunes.
Even bigger names (not in attendance) but supporting the charity include actress Kate Winslet and Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who donated a suit and a shirt respectively, to be remade into something fabulous. Designer Zandra Rhodes is also a big supporter of this recycling fashion cause saying, “It is appalling how much we waste in society these days, but it seems we are entering a new era of resourcefulness. This is really exciting – and the best part of it is young people are leading the new trend.”
Taking place in Central Saint Martins aptly named Innovation Centre; the venue was small and intimate, which perfectly captured the tone of the event. Unlike most fashion shows, this one had a very human element when a representative from the Body & Soul charity got on stage to talk about her experience living with HIV. She spoke about having to live a double life, having to hide her illness from the world due to the level of prejudice that still exists towards the disease. Money raised from this event will go towards generating awareness about HIV.
As we sat by the catwalk, video screens showed the designers in their workshops making the clothes that would soon appear in front of us. What these guys did with discarded shirts and dresses was pretty impressive, it wasn’t about following trends but making creative, innovative and pretty pieces, and there was a lot of that evident on the catwalk.
Ben de Lisi was there to judge the entries, with only a matter of minutes to decide who the winner would be, he was asked how he would do it and said, “I shoot straight from the hip, I know exactly what I want.”
Who he wanted was designer Anne-Marie Fleming, from the Junky Styling stable. She seemed to me to be a safe choice as although her design was good, it was not the best seen on the catwalk by a long way.
This event worked so well to promote two causes, the importance of recycling (not always being a slave to trends) and reducing the level of our prejudice about supposedly taboo subjects.
All the clothes can be viewed at vinspired.com/fashion and will be auctioned on eBay from today, so you can get your hands on a uniquely designed piece and give some cash to a very good cause.
Written by Jennifer McNulty on Tuesday December 2nd, 2008 3:41 pm
999 it’s time, sildenafilerectile is another green focused campaign. As the website notes “We are in a state of emergency – socially, store economically and ecologically. What do we do in an emergency? In the UK, viagra 100mg we dial 999…” Well that all sounds pretty heartening until you realise that the 999 campaigns reaction to this emergency hasn’t exactly been particularly speedy so far. I can’t help feeling that the climate emergency we are facing means groups should be advocating some real direct action rather than just planting a tree or joining the 10:10 movement. However the campaign has some great initiatives to get the ball rolling and hopefully get more people thinking about the global crisis.
Of course the campaign does have some credibility, it encourages people to get more environmentally friendly, and behind the celebrity endorsements 999 has some forward thinking ideas about how communities in particular can work together to create a more sustainable world. Transforming rural and urban spaces into shared land to grow food has been one of the most successful elements. Capital Growth is the place to start with a great run through of the process and steps and how to get involved. Land sharing empowers people by growing their own food and creating stronger links in communities as well as reducing the reliance on supermarkets. A definite step in the right direction.
I caught up with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, the rural country celebrity chef, to talk about his part in the 999 campaign.
Can you outline what 999′s main priority is about and why you’re here today?
999 is about driving home the issue of climate change and what we ourselves can do to combat the emergency situation we have found ourselves in. I’ve come today because our aim ties in with the Climate Rush campaign, and its a great way to get talking with the local community, and of course it’s the 9th of the 9th 09.
How is the 999 campaign coming along? It doesn’t seemed to have gained as much prominence in the press such as campaigns like the recent 10:10?
It’s an on-going process, im specifically been looking at the food aspect, and as the ambassador I’m really interested in what small scale communities can do to combat the threat of climate change.
Can you please give some examples of the message your trying to get across in relation to the food aspect of the campaign?
With my books and TV series I’ve been highlighting the importance of locally grown produce and recently I’ve been pushing the idea of land sharing. The idea is to find land, whether in urban or rural spaces where people can grow their own food, there is so much land wasted around the UK that can be used. With over a thousand people on waiting lists for allotments especially in the south, it is vital we utilize all the land we can instead of relying on foreign markets for our vegetables. Food is a great way to create a cohesive community and bring people together.
How is the land sharing campaign going, have you had much success?
We’ve had over a thousand land plots given to us and up to 30,000 people signing up to the website, so it’s defiantly getting people interested. The campaign is also working with groups like the Church of England and a range of British NGOs. The National Trust for example has just given us 1000 plots of land, so although it’s quite a slow process, there’s been a real positive reaction across the country.
With your interest in climate change, have the facts about the meat industry’s huge carbon footprint persuaded you to become vegetarian yet?
No, not yet, I’m aware of the issues, and I keep by own pigs and livestock, and always advocate buying locally soured meat to keep the carbon footprint low.
So let’s hope this campaign can help to stop this emergency from escalating, with 1 day, 11 hours, 9 minutes since 999 Day, the pressure is on.
The Design Museum’s annual exhibition of young designers begins on September 18 with site-specific works from Marc Owens and Dave Bowker. Owens is inspired by virtual realities – his work Avatar Machine replicates video gaming via a headset (above), order designed to make the wearer see themselves as a virtual character in the real world. Bowker works in data visualisation and will be re-examining the way visitors move about the Museum.
Once a year thousands of London’s most interesting and historic buildings are opened to the public, sale some of which are locked up tight for the rest of the year. Although some of the most popular buildings in the centre of London have already been completely booked, drugs there are still plenty of places worth visiting.
If you haven’t got your eye on anything in your local area, consider visiting the house of Dr Samuel Johnson, of “the dictionary” fame. It’s free to visit on Friday (there will be free cake on this day) and Saturday, in honour of the great man’s birthday.
Radical Nature
This exhibition of works revolving around nature and inspired by environmentalism features pieces from architect Richard Buckminster Fuller and artists such as Joseph Beuys and Hans Haacke, as well as newer names such as Heath and Ivan Morrison and Simon Starling. Impactful and timely, there are lots of strong visual statements such as the Fallen Forest by Henrik Håkansson (above) and a visual record of the fields of wheat planted as an act of protest on a landfill site in Manhattan.
Thames Festival
Sunday
One of the few fireworks displays allowed along the Thames will occur on Sunday when the Thames Festival fireworks are set off in all their glory, fired from barges between Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridge so everyone can get a perfect view. There are also events all day, including fire-eaters, an outdoor ballroom (starting to become the South Bank’s speciality) and the annual Night Carnival, where 2,000 costumed revellers bearing lanterns and luminous costumes will welcome the pyrotechnics.
Another load of talks, healing workshops and activities to get stuck into, information pills don’t forget Co-Mutiny is still on all this week in Bristol, Climate Rush are still on tour, and also make sure you get down to protest against the closure of the Vestas Wind Turbine factory this Thursday. Good luck with fitting it all in, I’m certainly going to struggle!
An exciting event has been organised with international speakers and delegates involved in policy-making, business, and academia. Understanding the role of climate change policy is central to a business’s future success. Topics will include the political, economical, technological, and legal challenges and solutions for decarbonising electricity.
To register for a discounted ticket visit the website and enter ‘ge2009′ as the discount code.
A Global New Deal needs a Green New Protectionism
Wednesday 16 Sep 2009 ?
An evening to learn and discuss the ‘triple crunch’ that we face: climate change, energy insecurity, and financial and economic meltdown. Colin Hines, Author and convener of the Green New Deal Group will be leading the talks. Colin has worked in the environmental movement for over 30 years including 10 years at Greenpeace. His recent work focuses on the adverse environmental and social effects of international trade and the need to solve these problems by replacing globalisation with localisation. During the evening there will also be a tribute to ‘Teddy’ Goldsmith, founder of The Ecologist magazine.
Time: 6.30pm drinks and food, 7.30pm talk begins at Burgh House
Venue: Gaia House, 18 Well Walk, Hampstead
Contacts: To book email, book online or call 0207 428 0054.
Website: www.gaiafoundation.org
Protest against the closure of Vestas Wind Turbine Factory
Thursday 17 Sep 2009 ?
As well as the continuing protest against the closure of the Vestas Wind Turbine factory at the Isle of Wight, there will also be a chance for people to make their feelings known across the country. People are meeting at the Department of Energy and Climate Change in London to lobby against the government. There will also be speakers including John Mcdonnel, MP (Labour, Hayes and Harlington) and Tracy Edwards (Young Members Organiser for the Public and Commercial Services Union).
Couldn’t put it better than Phil Thornhill from the Campaign against Climate Change “Just when we need a huge expansion in renewable energy they are closing down the only significant wind turbine factory in the UK. The government has spent billions bailing out the banks, and £2.3 billion in loan guarantees to support the UK car industry – they can and should step in to save the infrastructure we are really going to need prevent a climate catastrophe.
Whilst the impact on employment on the Isle of Wight will be quite devastating, this is an issue not just about jobs or one factory but about whether the government is really going to match up its actions to its rhetoric on green jobs and the rapid decarbonisation of the British economy – whether its prepared to act with the kind of resolution and energy we need to cope with the Climate Emergency”.
Time: 5.30 to 6.30pm
Venue: Outside the Department of Energy and Climate Change, 3 Whitehall Place.
?Website: www.campaigncc.org
Out of the Ordinary Festival
Friday 18 Sep 2009 to Sunday 20 Sep 2009
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OOTO is a 3 day family friendly and eco friendly festival set in the beautiful Sussex countryside celebrating the Autumn Equinox. Featuring a variety of live music powered by solar panels and wind generators, fascinating talks and workshops, children’s activities, awesome performances, a green market place and many more out of the ordinary surprises. The festival is also offering Big Green Gathering ticket holders a discount for the event held over the weekend
Venue: Knockhatch Farm, Hailsham, East Sussex
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Website: www.outoftheordinaryfestival.com
Tree-Athlon
Saturday 19th September
Get fit and get your very own tree sapling to take home! Participants run a 5km race to raise money for Trees for Cities, an independent environmental charity working with local communities on tree planting projects. There is also music, entertainment, lots of tree-themed activities, whatever that may consist of, and plenty of other workshops to keep the whole family entertained.
The race is open to runners aged 14 and up and is ideal for beginners or experienced runners alike. Register now, to make sure you can raise as much sponsorship as possible before the day, and look forward to a grand day out.
?The Urban Green Fair is held in Brockwell Park in London this Sunday, Its a free event and with plenty to do and see, the fair is also powered by solar and wind energy.
The annual family event, has a range of films, talks, workshops, kids activities, stalls, sunshine as well as some unusual bicycles. Unfortunatly no bars or big stages but this keeps the emphasis on education and communication. A chance to share ideas, meet familiar faces and make new friends. With little government action on peak oil and climate change there is plenty to discuss and lots we can do as individuals. ?
Leytonstone Town Centre will car free day this Sunday. As well as having no vehicles hurtling around there will also be entertainment, stalls, live music, dancing, public art and childrens’ play areas. Simon Webbe from Blue and Aswad will be headlining! Get yourself down, and make sure you leave the car(if you’ve got one) at home.
Time: 1pm-7pm
Venue: Outside Leyonstone tube station
Website: www.walthamforest.gov.uk
Co-mutiny
Saturday 12th of September until Monday 21st September
A coming together of activists, eco-warriors gardeners, artists, community/political groups, cooks, builders etc. to demonstrate our creative power to build a city/world we would like to see. Co-Mutineers have taken an old cathedral (of the holy apostles) near the Triangle in the Clifton/Hotwells area, it’s a space to converge, eat, sleep meet and discuss, plan and skill-share!
There will be over a week of different activities, direct actions, workshops, film screenings, public demonstrations and parties. It’s happening all across Bristol and the wider South West.
During the week there will be actions happening all across the city, which will climax in a fancy dress carnival through the financial district of Bristol on the Friday.
Venue: Bristol Pro Cathedral, Park Place, BS8 1JW
Website: http://comutiny.wordpress.com/ Monday 14th September
William Elliott Whitmore The Garage, order London
We can’t get enough of this distilled, medications gravelly bluesman. With Whitmore, it’s almost like you’re listening from inside a huge bottle of JD.
Having supported folk heavy weights, Tunng, Bon Iver, and King Creosote, this ballsy 19 year old manages to blend the vocal lustre of Nico and Laura Marling whilst having an edgy stage presence more like Gwen Stefani. Beguiling.
A traditional folk night in a scuzzy South-East London boozer. You want more reason that that? Well living legend, Tom Paley who played with Woodie Guthrie back in the day and enchantingly odd, Birdengine are two big ones.
It’s the last chance to see Rankin’s retrospective in Brick Lane this week. The exhibition moves through Rankin at university exploring the well worn art student quest to find a sense of self to portraying the plight of the Congo. After this introduction the exhibition opens onto his best know fashion, website erotic and beauty editorials. Featuring Kate, Hedi, Tilda Swinton and the Dame of British Fashion, Vivienne Westwood to name a few. Rankin’s strongest work comes through in the portraits where he has assumed a sense of a relationship with the sitter, tweaking out their quirks through the movement of an eyebrow, eye or twitch of the lips or neck. Throughout the exhibition Rankin moved his studio into the space to continue photographing the public portraits. A portion of everyone’s fee goes to support Oxfam’s to work in the Congo.
Until the 18th September.
The Museum of London is staging a three day fashion diversity event during London Fashion Week. On Thursday the museum hosts a range of workshops from a discussion of the development of sustainable fashion by CHOOLIPS, to a Moving Passion to Profit workshop in association with the MOORDESIGN salon finishing with the importance of branding. Colour Production, addressing how companies interact with their audience visually. Finally 7-16 year olds are giving the opportunity to unlock their creativity in a fashion drawing workshop teaching concentration, communication and dexterity.
Friday and Saturday host the fashion diversity catwalks: Emerging, Established and Honorary designers at 1pm or 3pm Friday and 1pm on Saturday, places are free. Honorary designers Junky Styling and Nico Didonna also present pieces for the runway.
To conclude Saturday’s event, at 3pm student and graduate designers from schools and colleges across London showcase designs inspired by 18th century pleasure gardens and related costumes from from the Museum of London’s archives.
Unable to go to Fashion Week? Fear not! As mentioned last week, the Fashion Revolution exhibition opens at Somerset House. The exhibition curated by Showstudio celebrates nine years of Showstudio.com. The website established by Nick Knight has pushed and developed the idea of communicating fashion ‘live’ through films, online live interviews and streamed performances involving photographers, models, stylists graphic designers and cultural figures to create ethereal fashion portraiture and communication through body and style. New fashion films have been commissioned to accompany the exhibition, alongside a live photographic studio that gives the viewer the opportunity to see the whimsical world of fashion in play.
Saturday 19th
GIANT VINTAGE SALE
This just dropped into the inbox – The East End thrift store are inviting all budding clothing DIY’ers to come down to the store and fill a bag with all that you can for ten or twenty pounds. Open Saturday to Sunday from 10-7pm.
The National Portrait Gallery celebrates the icon of 60′s British Fashion photography, Twiggy. Dedicating a room to the most iconic images created with her image by a range of photographers from Richard Avedon to Solve Sundsbo. The exhibition coincides with a publication of a new book: Twiggy : A life in photography. This exhibition is a must for anyone interested in the relationship between sitter and photography in fashion portraiture.
Pull the fashion rope, roll around in dressing up boxes courtesy of Costume Boutique. Jump up and Down for the tombola, be styled by Super Super Magazine, scouted by models 1 or preview some of the hottest new design talent with the Fashion and Textiles museum.
Moreover TRAID are holding a stitching workshop on how to transform old clothes into new designs as demonstrated by their remade range.
Written by Sally Mumby-Croft on Monday September 14th, 2009 11:35 am
Saying you work in fashion normally garners one of two reactions: awe with a smidgen of jealousy on the presumption all you do is swan around with fabrics and making swishy type movements before dashing off to an exotic shoot/party/event of the year, or utter contempt.
On arriving at a friend’s boyfriend’s drinks it was the second reaction I received. He and his friends were doing a masters degree in ethical business, and had I arrived dressed as Cruella DeVil with a baby’s head on a silver platter I possible would have got a warmer reception. As allegedly glamorous as fashion is, it is also many people’s favourite whipping boy. Neither picture is entirely true.
Channel 4’s Dispatches programme exposed the vile, undeniably horrific and illegal working conditions of UK based sweatshops. Showing the secret film to a sweatshop surveyor, he stated these compared to some of the worst conditions he’s seen in the Far East. The conditions in the sweatshop should never be allowed to happen regardless of where it is in the world: Leicester or Laos it really doesn’t matter.
The UK High Street actually has some very high standards when it comes to treatment of labourers. The retailers featured, including New Look, Peacocks and Jane Norman stated their supply chains were SEDEX approved. SEDEX allows retailers to independently demonstrate their commitment to ethics. Obviously this self regulation had failed. Each retailer appeared to take on board the facts and launch appropriate investigations into sub-contracting. If only they had been more proactive in the first place.
One retailer leading the way in the UK is ASOS. In the last few months they have built on the successes of Fashion Enter, a not-for-profit enterprise, specialising in garment sampling and helped them open a dedicated ASOS factory. Having a UK based factory will not only cut transport costs, carbon footprints, and lower turnaround times for ASOS but also boost the local economy.
It’s thanks to programmes like Dispatches that public awareness of poor working conditions is being raised. This is undeniably a good thing. Sweatshops like this should not be allowed to exist.
Let’s look at the facts for a moment. The story doesn’t end there and Dispatches, to their credit, touched on it. The existence of fast fashion and super cheap clothes has a huge role to play in the existence of sweatshops. In yesteryear clothes were luxury items, to be worn over and over; to be mended and repaired, to be recycled into new garments. Not so anymore. Some of the responsibility must inevitably fall on the heads of all of us. How often have you bought a cheap top, or bargain basement jeans, or a £15 dress that was such a steal it’d be rude not to buy it? I know I have (not the dress, but you get the picture). How often do you really think about where that has come from? The Dispatches vox pop revealed that few people actually do.
The fact is until UK consumers begin to demand better working conditions and simultaneously agree to pay for them little will change. When asked why UK retailers rarely manufacture in the UK anymore, the answer is simple. The UK consumer won’t pay the necessary price. Why do these sweatshops exist? Because on ever dwindling profit margins short cuts will happen. Blind eyes will be turned – a feeling echoed by both Mary Portas and Melanie Rickey in their tweets after the show. Such things are, again, totally unacceptable.
I used to get asked to make outfits for people. When I gave honest rock bottom quotes, I found most of these requests vanished. Why pay £100 for a shirt when you can go down town and get one for a tenner? Scales of economy and an essentially bespoke service aside, it’s the same thing. Regardless of who does it, every piece has to be cut, every seam sewn, and every feature, rhinestone, embellishment and sequin attached. A suit has over 140 separate pieces, a zipper five, a shirt cuff six or more including buttons and buttonholes.
A lot of work goes into the shirt on your back. Those making it deserve to get paid a living wage, and work in safe conditions. Those manufacturing deserve to make a profit. The consumer deserves quality goods at the right price. At some point someone is going to lose out. Nine times out of ten this will be the person we can’t directly see.
So what do we do? A little bit of research goes a long way. Check out responsible manufacturers, check out your local boutiques (a small designer is often more likely to be ethical and more importantly the chance of bumping into someone in the same outfit is greatly reduced), check out eco-fashion labels (for instance in Amelia’s new book) or places like Traid, and check out ASOS’ own brand.Your t-shirt may cost £25 instead of £5, your jeans £40 instead of £15, but in each tiny way it’ll help stop sweatshops.
As one of the members of the public on the programme stated, ‘we each have to buy within our means, but that doesn’t mean buying irresponsibly.’
To watch the documentary on Channel 4’s 4oD, click here.
Written by Nick Bain on Thursday November 11th, 2010 5:00 pm
As I packed for my first ever Glastonbury, sildenafilinformation pills I thought PRACTICAL and WARM. My long time friend and side kick had relayed stories of the year before being a torrent of mud and rain. What dedication. She and 136, buy 999 others had traipsed through thigh high mud for 5 days all in the name of music.
So when I asked the veteran Glastonbury go-er what on earth should I pack? she could not stress enough how many thermals, fleecies, and things that can be destroyed, I should take. And don’t forget your wellies! Having just moved here from NZ and lacking all the essentials, I was pointed in the direction of the camping store and left to my own devices! I hit Katmandu for a completely uncool but practical fleece jumper and Primark to stock up on tights and cheapie things that can be thrashed – after all, you don’t go to Glastonbury to hide from the elements.
As I arrived and joined the queue for international ticket pick up I was instantly struck by gumboot envy! An array of colors and patterns strutted past and I rarely saw the same pair twice. Fortunately my own pair was black and decorated with cute pink flowers and pink soles so they made the cut.
Check mine out on the right
We arrived 2 days early purely to get the best campsite in all of fair Glastonbury, and after setting up tent we ventured down to explore and make the most of the sunshine – after all it wasn’t going to last, right?! The market stalls were already bustling, and the scene was a feast for the eyes! Girls in vintage dresses, colored tights, floral patterns -everything high street and everything fashion was on display.
Thursday evening bought the rain and Friday saw drizzle turning the once dust bowl farm into a thick mud that threatened to steal your boots with each step. But this did not hinder efforts from the crowd to look every bit like the glossy photos we see each year of celebrities looking effortlessly cool.
The boldest looks seemed to appear directly from the onsite costume stalls in Shangri la. Super heroes, brides, cows, video game characters and even a banana competed on the muddy catwalk.
Of course when it comes down to it, after a couple of pear ciders you’re so excited to be jumping and shaking in front of your favorite band, you forget about your own mish mash of uncoordinated practical warm things and have just want to have a damn good time!
Me attempting the effortlessly cool look
Today we received great news that the issues we sent to Tokyo record shop Escalator Records three months ago have finally arrived. Why it took so long we have no idea, dosage perhaps the Royal Mail staff had a good read of them before they even got on the plane.
Escalator Records is a label based record store that was opened in 2002 in Harajuku Tokyo, and has stocked the most wonderful and limited records ever since. The store is very well respected and even has some famous fans. Haruka from the store told us, “Daft Punk, the people at Ed Banger, Modular People, Annie and CSS all give big love to the store”.
They also run an internet radio show, through which they aim to spread the word about as yet unknown Japanese bands.
Haruka was nice enough to send us some photos to prove their arrival, as we had previously believed they had been lost forever.
With a hint of sea air, try this folksy group from the deep dark depths of Kodiak Island, remedy Alaska, have created a relaxing but catchy and almost addictive new album. It’s a move away from the acoustic sounds of their first but Port O’Brien has managed to retain a sense of their previous identity.
The album as a whole creates a brilliant relaxed nautical atmosphere, not surprisingly as most of it was written whilst the lead dude was out solo in the Gulf of Alaska fishing months of his life away. Their Arcade Fire type passion is quite mesmerising and each song did leave me wanting more.
A splash of The Go! Team style shouting/village singing on their first track draws you in with excitement although the remainder of the album is not quite so uplifting. There is a woody, dusty feel to each song, I couldn’t help but imagine sitting round a camp fire with a few old chums, a guitar and everyone singing until their heart’s were content. Maybe even a porch, a straw hat and that trusty guitar would do the trick.
Quite a good album over all, indeed, all I could do was sing along (to the first track anyway). It won’t be making history any time soon, but a nice little listen.
Esau Mwamwaya and Radioclit pretty much showcase a run down of the most interesting aspects of modern world music. Absolutely guaranteed to get you dancing.
I don’t know why I’ve never seen These New Puritans live, I really would like to catch them at this, mainly because it would give me a chance to see Zombie Zombie again as well.
Both of these bands are awesome, and I can’t think of a better way to spend a Sunday evening than a little bit of a freak out to some psychedelic garage.
MONDAY 7th JULY: Monika Bobinska, viagra‘Ambivalent Landscape’: Adam King: 20th June-13thJuly.
Cambridge Heath Road, more about London E2 9DA (Thursday-Sunday 1-6pm, Sunday 2-5pm).
New two and three dimensional collages by Adam King explore the dreams and fears of urban consumer society and its relationship to the natural world. King’s kaleiderscopic collages are made from wallpaper, pipe cleaners and print images, creating a tidal wave of debris – flowers, anatomical imagery, consumer items, broken cars, images of war – which threatens to burst out, confusing your sense of dimensions.
Serpentine Gallery, ‘Continuation’: Richard Prince: 26th June-7th September.
Painter, photographer, sculptor and collector, Richard Prince’s work explores American pop culture, literature and art in his follow up of Spiritual America. A direct dialogue with space, the exhibition includes an eclectic range of photography, sculptures, books, artworks to classic American ‘muscle cars’.
TUESDAY 8th JULY: Spacex Gallery, ‘Structures for the unseen’:Axel Antas: 12 May-12 July.
45 Preston Street?, Exeter?, EX1 1DF.
Film, large scale drawings and a series of photographs taken in the vast Catalan Pyrenees, shown alongside a selection of earlier works from Antas’ ‘Intervention’ series. ‘Catalan Pyrenees’ includes bird boxes placed amongst the landscape that stand alone on a mountain tops, whilst ‘Intervention’ series features landscapes covered in artificially created low lying mist.
Contemporary Art Projects, ‘Cut n shunt’: Craig Fisher, Debra Swann, J.A.Nicholls: 20th June-27th July.
20 Rivington Street, London, EC2A 3DU.
Urban life, history and nature are touched upon with an injected twist of the abnormal. Transcending material boundaries with desire, playfulness gives the exhibition a sense of new possibilities.
WEDNESDAY 9th JULY: Penny school Gallery,‘New Talents: Fashion & Photography’: 9th July-3rd October: tues-fri 11-4pm.
55 richmond rd, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey, KT2 5BP.
Dynamic & exciting collaboration between ND Fashion & HNC Photography students; to launch the New Degree in Fashion & textiles starting at Kingston College.
WHATIFTHEWORLD/GALLERY, ‘Hypocrite’s Lament & the drain of progress’: Zander Blom and Julia Rosa Clark: 9th -26th July.
Lower Ground Floor, 23 Charlotte Road, Shoreditch, EC2A 3P8.
The remnants of art, modernism and culture are explored as well as the influence of South African life where both artists originate. Coming from a country that is often seen as dismal, brutal and segregated, this informs their fractured work.
THURSDAY 10th JULY: ICA, ‘A recent history of writing and drawing’: Jurg Lehni & Alex Rich: 9th July-31st August.
ICA, The Mall, London SW1Y 5AH.
Features examples of machines that enable writing and drawing as well as mechanisms which create giant wall drawings, punch messages in paper and make images on screen. Based on the misuse and reuse of modern technology.
FRIDAY 11th JULY: The Old Truman Brewery, ‘Interiors’: Nottingham Trent University, Kingston University, Ravenbourne College, university of Brighton, Kingston University, University of Portsmouth, Cambridge School of Art and Design: 11th-14th July.
91 Brick Lane, London E1 6QL.
The 7th week focuses on interiors. Why not take a stroll in this huge open space and view some groovy graphics, haunting photos and model homes?
Brick Lane Gallery, ‘Free for Wall: Part 2′:artists to be confirmed:11th-28th July.
196 Brick Lane, London, E1 6SA.
Still compiling raw talent from the streets, The Brick Lane Gallery presents it’s second installment of some fresh ‘n funky art. If you’re a street artist eager to showcase your work, get your skates on and send some images to: brice@thebricklanegallery.com- who knows..maybe you’ll be viewing your own work in a few days!
Vice’s Pub, ‘Cup Rocking’: Andy Uprock: 11th July.
Old Blue Last, 38 Great Eastern St Storeditch EG2A 3ES
Using aroung 2,500 cups and mapping out large areas of cyclone fencing and sticking plastic cups into the existing diamond shaped holes, Andy transforms streets and public areas into places of interest. Cups are recycled and used for another project-now that’s what you call inspirational yet sustainable art!
SATURDAY 12th JULY: The Museum for objects of Vertu, ‘Dust jacket…A cover for the voyage of the beagle’: Rosie Cooper, Richard Gray, Sonja Howick , Piers Jamson , Rachael Mathews , Fleur Oakes , Matthew Robins , Audrey Reynolds , Tim Spooner: 12-13th July, 12-6pm, by appointment thereafter until 27th July.
Fleur Oakes studio, 89 Park road, New Barnet.
(Piccadilly line , cockfosters station
The museum for objects, nestled in the cosy studio of Miss Fleur Oakes, presents objects that are described as ‘compelling ;the bits and bobs that get pushed to the back of a dressing table drawer, that then find their way to a flea market’. Expect obscure objects that contain lost tales, all set within a woody wonderland.
After hearing dribs and drabs about Pivot I was conscious of them, this site but not to the extent where I had actually checked them out. Then I heard their album, troche and I simply couldn’t fail to take notice any longer. It’s so fresh and marvelously creepy that I instantly found myself proclaiming it my album of the month. To who I have no idea, viagra order it’s not like I’m the presenter of ‘hit, miss or maybe’ on live and kicking (god I wish I was though), but I continued to proclaim none the less.
The venue was practically empty when I arrived and the support band (who i couldn’t find out the name of) received almost no love, with most people opting to bask in the sun outside. The crowd seemed to escalate nine fold in the 5 minutes before Pivot were due to appear, and the place was rammed by the time they moderately made their way on stage.
As they unleashed their barrage of musical experiments, I was intrigued by the undecided response most people seemed to adopt. Some began to dance, while most just watched intently. By the end of the first track though everyone was applauding.
Their tracks are made up of instrumentals that leap between timings, volumes and moods to create something that can’t be pigeonholed to any genre. Vocals are used, but lyrics and melodies are cast aside in favor of woops and other primal outbursts. They sound intelligent, but in a way that isn’t brash or confusing. It simply sounds good because so much thought has gone into each little section of every track.
They end their set with the ominous ‘O Soundtrack My Heart’, which sounds like it should be soundtracking some very confusing art house movie, and in many ways I think they make art house music. If such a term could exist. Half the time, you’ve no idea what’s going on, but you continue to watch anyway. You can’t help yourself, because songs become more and more intriguing as they go on.
Do you open up Grazia, this web see Alexa Chung in the ‘latest’ starry ensemble and think, “Oo! Where can I get me one of those?” Yeah, I thought not. That’s exactly what Hadley Freeman, Deputy Fashion Editor at The Guardian, thought too. However Bronwyn Cosgrave, author of Made for Each Other: Fashion & The Academy Awards, appeared to think us a more sheepish bunch at The Red Carpet: Fashion and Celebrity talk at the Barbican on Thursday 3rd July.
Andy Warhol foresaw the ‘famous for 15 minutes’ culture which we now find ourselves knee-deep in, and it was talk of reality TV that opened up this topical, lively and at times quite bitchy discussion about celebrities (French president’s wife Carla Bruni certainly won’t be getting a Christmas card from Cosgrave) and their hold over a designer’s success.
Forget being scouted as a model, fancy being scouted to be a designer’s new best friend? It would seem relationships between celebrity and stylist, stylist and designer and designer and celebrity (put in print in this months InStyle magazine) are as fickle as we thought. Marketing constructs? Really?
From Big Brother stars, to the mutual money making success of celeb/designer friendships, the conversation soon turned to the Oscars, where Cosgrave got rather too much into her stride. Resembling the host of an empowering self-help seminar, all very ‘breathe in the positive, release the negative’, Cosgrave lost my interest and it was left to Freeman to regain it with her belief that designers are today blinded by celebrity moments, and often forget that real people have to wear their clothes. It is after all ironically the customer who pays, and not the multi-million pound celebrity.
So do celebrities hold the key to designer success? Well, with the enticement of publicity and increased sales vying against the importance of brand image (Amy Winehouse and Karl Lagerfeld anyone?), it’s a tricky one to call. But with the recent credit crunch and the vast array of new, young design talent coming out of London, perhaps we are more inclined to buy what we like, what suits us and what we haven’t seen someone else wearing on Oxford Street that afternoon.
Written by Ruth Hickman on Tuesday July 8th, 2008 11:33 am
Usually I’m loathe to talk in breathy, click hero-worship tones but let’s make no bones about it, clinic I absolutely gawked when I first encountered the work of art director Petra Storrs – she’s a set, prop and costume designer who has worked some serious origami- fashion magic with lots of bits of paper, amongst other things. Having been recently featured in Dazed and Confused, Storrs has been dressing a series of super brilliant muso-types like MGMT, Telepathe and Paloma Faith, for the latter constructed a ruddy brilliant umbrella dress out of mirrors.
Her work with paper and other inexpensive materials is testament to the potential for creativity to flourish even when times are hard. Practically speaking you’d be wise to stay away from water, flames and people with scissors, but these are minor quibbles, all that matters is that you’d look pretty damn cool.
Tell me a bit about your DIY ethos – when did you start experimenting?
Well, I design and make things, so I-do-it-myself, and I think it’s important the designing and making processes go together as they inform each other. I have been working professionally as an art director and designer for a couple of years now, but previous to that I have always been very busy making art and my mum taught me and my friend to sew when we where very young (maybe 4 or 5 years old), and all our next door neighbours where painters, sculptors or keen quilt makers so I have always found it very appealing.
Do you think we’re going to be seeing a lot more of it? Is creativity changing?
I don’t know, it is hard to have an overview when you’re in this little bubble! I think its important to try to work in a way that means you get the most creative output from what you put in be it time, materials or money. East London is choc a block with talented creative people working away for next to nothing, I think they should all be paid lots of money, that would be a nice change!
What is it about the materials – in particular your use of paper – which you find appealing?
I often work in paper because it is very immediate, and gives you license to experiment, almost like a maquette, or a three dimensional drawing, a blue print of how it might be. I think objects and designs have the most potential just before they are finished. Also I like how fragile and delicate paper is, as lots of my work is for the photographic industry, it really only needs to last for a few days until it is captured in a picture,
What is it you hope people will take away from your work?
I would like people to be pleased and for them to remember it, but my primary motivation is really for me, its like art therapy!
What has been your favourite project that you’ve worked on in the last year?
The Mirror Dress is my favourite project so far I think. It is collaboration with singer Paloma Faith, she’s so theatrical and such a wonderful performer, it really comes alive, and its curved surfaces are completely reflective so it almost seems liquid as she moves around the stage. It’s also different in every environment like a chameleon reflecting the surrounding colours, shapes and audience.
What or who else do you find inspiring?
Everything and anything, lots of sculptural shapes and structures, architecture, pictures from the National Geographic, Planet Earth, I love all the tiny underwater creatures and small insects beetles and bugs: they are really extraordinary iridescent, brightly patterned and beautiful.
What advice would you have for anyone hoping to break into fashion right now?
Work for as many different people as possible to gain experience of all the element that go in to having a small business and at the same time concentrate on a few projects of your own and make them amazing and create a website. Say Yes to everything because you never know what it will lead to.
Naomi Thompson set up Vintage Secret in response to the increasing demand for good quality, sildenafil reasonably priced vintage clothing. Running the venture from her little boudoir in Dalston, the site has gone from strength to strength, with Vintage Secret styling fashionistas like Mademoiselle Robot, artists and DJs Tinsel Edwards and Twinkle Troughton (pictured here as styled by Naomi), and singers Catherine AD and Tallulah Rendall. Vintage Secret’s events page and blog have become part of every London vintage fan’s bible, with the site’s newsletter offering competition winners tickets to the best parties that give you a chance to air your best gladrags! We had a chat with Naomi as she launches Vintage Secret homeware…
Have you always had a passion for all things vintage?
As far back as I can remember I have loved the shape of classic vintage
dresses. I haven’t always had the guts to do the full on 50′s look but
that was when I was much younger. Then I just decided to embrace it. Life
is too short to follow the crowd.
When did you decide to set up your own company?
I had a bit of a eureka! moment when I saw a rubbish M&S dress on sale for
£30 on a vintage website a few years ago. I had got the same one from a
jumble sale in Portsmouth for 50p. I thought ‘my dresses at home are much
nicer and better quality’ so why not start a site selling beautiful good
quality items instead of al the rubbish that is passed of as vintage.
Where do you find your stock?
Well that’s would be telling! I do buying trips out of London. Tip – head
to the seaside towns. It’s morbid but the best vintage has been lovingly
looked after by little old ladies who have moved to the beach.
We hear you’re expanding into vintage home-ware- is this true?
Yes I have found some amazing crockery sets and lots of fabulous tea cups
and cake stands. I now have over 400 items of vintage crockery, including
50′s toast racks! They are perfect for a tea party or even a small
wedding. I have a full 80 piece baby pink 50′s dinner set that can be
hired for a special occasion. We also have the most beautiful hand
embroidered vintage table clothes, linen napkins and bunting. We can even
come and set it all up for you. If you are looking for gifts I also have a
huge collection of 30′s bevelled mirrors and 30′s dressing table sets but
those are by appointment only.
Any tips on how to keep vintage clothes in good condition?
Keep them out of light and away from moths. Don’t put them on metal
hangers and always clean items before you put them away.
You’ve styled lots of fans like vintage blogger Mademoiselle Robot- can
you share your vintage style Dos and Don’t with us?
Dress according to your shape. I don’t wear 60′s clothes as much as I love
them, as they just don’t look right. That’s the great thing about vintage,
you can pick an era depending on your figure and if you stick to it you
can instantly know what will fit and suit you in the future. I would also
say, push your boundaries. The amount of times I have had to cajole
someone into a frock which hanging up is their idea of hell, only for them
to fall in love with it when it is on.
Photographs by Matt Kent
Make up by Bella Cruickshank
Written by Katie Antoniou on Wednesday August 12th, 2009 3:31 pm
Dirty White Gold is Leah Borromeo‘s film about cotton. It exposes a whole crop of problems with our clothes by unspooling high street supply chains right back to cotton seeds. Even what you think is a sweatshop-free t-shirt unravels to reveal a thread supplier using child labour, or a farmer in such heavy debt he’s killed himself. These cotton-to-coffin suicides are destroying Indian farming families.
Blood on the maps: film poster design by Peter Kennard @at_earth
Dirty White Gold “goes right the way back to seeds,” says Leah. “It’s a Saturday night date film.” Ha ha.
We’re here on a sunny Sunday afternoon as part of the Stoke Newington Literary Festival, and Leah‘s been invited by new magazine Stir to talk about her film. It’s not unusual now to promote and campaign around a film while you’re still making it, and after a successful round of crowdfunding, filming in India is complete and Dirty White Gold is now on its London leg.
Until a few years ago, Leah was deputy foreign editor at Sky News. That job ended when she made the news herself while protesting in her bra at the G20 summit. She was arrested for impersonating a police officer (there was also a truncheon and a tank involved).
Leah Borromeo filming Dirty White Gold
Leah comes across as both fun and formidable. On second hand clothing, she says. “No, it doesn’t smell of death. New clothes smell of death. You know that ‘new clothes’ smell you get when you walk into a shopping centre? That’s formaldehyde. On clothes marked 100% cotton, often they’re only 73% cotton. The rest is chemicals.”
I knew that ‘new clothes’ smell was too good to be true.
Dot questions where her cardigan was made: poster by Dr.D
It all comes back down to our old friend, capitalism. As the trailer says, “what you are witnessing is the death throes of smallholder agriculture, under the onslaught of corporations”. Farmers are tempted away from subsistence farming by cash crops, produced for their commercial value rather than for use by the farmer. So the farmer buys a box of cotton seeds, plus licenses, pesticides and insecticides (the Indian government has a 15% holding in one of the largest insecticide companies). He pays for labour to spray all those chemicals, and the money he gets back isn’t enough to make up what was spent. Plus, he’s competing on unlevel fields against US and EU farmers who get subsidies.
Trailer: watch the cotton industry unravel
So what can be done about rotten cotton?
“You can’t wander in with a colonial attitude,” says Leah. “It has to be organic. There are resistances in India, there needs to be education. There are collectives which support farmers switching to organic, and then make sure they get a fair price. But the market has to be there. At the moment farmers aren’t going for it because they’re scared.”
There are stats and facts, and then we’re onto actions we can take when we’re shopping.
“Ask yourself: do I need to buy it?” says Leah. “It’s not so much what you buy, as whether you should be buying in the first place.”
Secondly, “pick up a needle. There are lots of people who can repair clothes for you. The Denim Doctor is a guy in Salford who repairs jeans like new.”
Lastly, “think about where you buy.” Leah recommends shopping second hand or from Traid, and Claire from Traid who is in the audience explains that Traid supports the Pesticide Action Network and other projects to help improve the global textile supply chain. This makes me like their TRAIDremade label (available online) even more.
Imagery throughout courtesy of Rachael Oku
For those not yet in-the-know TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) is a charity working to reduce landfill by collecting and reusing residents of the UK’s unwanted clothes, visit and raising funds to fight global poverty by reselling them in their trademark shops. 2010 is a special year for the charity as it celebrates its 10th birthday so there are sure to be lots of events taking place that you can get involved with throughout the year.
Armed with my SLR digital camera and a notebook I headed to the TRAID flagship store on Camden High Street with a childish excitement at the prospect of being in store after hours. As I entered the store the friendly retail staff were busy tidying up whilst the workshop was in full swing, symptoms with each of the four ladies in attendance talking Lyla (and her assistant Yuqian) through what garments they had brought with them and how they were hoping to re-invent them. With ample supplies of yarn, buttons and every other embellishment you can think of I was transported back to my childhood – feeling very much like the wide-eyed kid in the candy store.
Christiana making a start on her shirt.
Lyla helping Christiana fit her shirt after removing the sleeves.
Laura cutting out her birds…
Mojca pinning her lace before sewing.
Last but not least I met Michelle who was looking to reinvent a black t-shirt as she didn’t like the V-neckline. To mix things up she added a purple band of fabric inside squaring off the neckline and adding a bright splash of colour.
Lyla overseeing Michelle sew on the machines…
Lyla Patel, TRAID’s Head of Education said, “We run our workshops in TRAID shops so everyone taking part is surrounded by inspiration from our fantastic pre-loved and vintage stock. The techniques taught make clothes last longer, diverting clothes from landfill and protecting the environment. Its fun, it’s ethical and there is nothing like basking in the glow of something that you have made yourself.”
By running free ‘Sew Good’ events TRAID are aiming to help people take control of their wardrobe and extend the life of their clothes by teaching basic mending, adjusting and remaking skills that will hopefully stay with them for life. With the free workshops open to everyone, regardless of their skill level there’s really no excuse for not popping down and getting into the ‘Make Do and Mend’ Spirit. Did I mention that it’s Free?
