Food-Fibre-Fashion #10 05/02/23.

Welcome to this tenth edition of a LinkedIn newsletter - Food-Fibre-Fashion. A collection of tips, recommendations, opinions, learnings and knowledge exchange regarding the intersection of the food, fibre and fashion sectors.

This edition loosely looks to understanding our place, and how we ourselves break down into the fabric of the Earth.

*On that, I did in fact miss one edition of January. It simply felt too much. I had started a year-long Regenerative Leadership course, a new three-month business mentoring programme, was wiped of energy following a winter skills trip in the Scottish Highlands and subsequent sports massage, and then was suddenly emotionally drained when my mum broke her ankle and I planned to care for her. Recognising that no one is actually waiting for these newsletters, even though I set myself a loose deadline for the sake of accountability, means that we can be flexible. Attempting to set myself as a founder and creator who follows a nature-led strategy, over one that is fixed to the capitalist delights of 9-5 five-days-a-week, and being mostly freelance self-employed, means I can afford myself the capacity to be real and be realistic. So, I'm not apologising for missing an edition, but will make mid-February's a bumber edition. Especially as this newsletter is now also being cross-promoted on Substack under the same publication title: Food-Fibre-Fashion.

Opinion.

Exploring the compostability of textiles. ? Degradability is a contentious subject, especially in textiles. There is a significant amount of greenwash coming from brands, I think because there simply isn’t the understanding of what it means and what it looks like. The visuals are especially important.

Some fashion brands are claiming “biodegradable” on their labels, however this is being confused with “compostable”, even for garments that use synthetic dyes.

So what do these terms - compostability, biodegradability - mean?

In this article I look at the terms from a wider perspective. I'm not here to greenwash, just the stuff that can be tangibly seen when you try to put materials into a natural cycle. It gives you visual clues from the exploration of composting a garment.

Podcast.

Farmerarma: Farming Fashion. ? A three-part mini series co-produced by Farmerama Radio and both South East and South West England Fibreshed. Each episode looks to a different part of the supply chain when considering how to "farm" fashion, starting with the growers and producers in episode 1, fibre processors in episode 2, and finishing with independent designers in episode 3.

The mini series is opened by founder of brand People Tree (and researcher, practitioner, author) Safia Minney who says:

We need to think about how we create a just transition, which will mean reducing the amount of fashion we buy in a very short space of time. We know we have 9 planetary boundaries of which we've exceeded 4: that's land use, biodiversity, nitrogen-phosphate and also climate, and we know that there's a very direct correlation to the fashion industry. You can actually create in ways that regenerate both communities and livelihoods, as well as the earth. Because Fibershed [Fibreshed] is grounded in regional regenerative farming, that helps us to physically understand our region and planetary boundaries. ~ Safia Minney, Farming Fashion episode 1.

The episodes are succinct at less then 30 minutes each, but cover voices including a daughter-mum mixed farm duo in Dorset, a Gloucestershire shepherdess who designs farm-to-closet, a regenerative sheep farm in Somerset, a spinning mill, a fibre processing researcher, a weaving mill, and three designers tackling issues at different scales.

Find all the episodes through Farmerama Radio.

Film.

Joanna Macy - The Hidden Promise of Our Dark Age. ? Joanna Macy is a scholar of systems and Buddhist teacher who was introduced to me during one of my business mentoring sessions, where another programme attendee mentioned her in response to me saying I work in a nature-led way.

We live in this time of radical uncertainty. That is the darkness of our age, I think. This anguish of uncertainty ... We like to ensure we can count on certain things, we like to be confident about where we put our efforts, we want to be sure it's going to work. Well we're in a situation where that kind of suredness can't happen. So what I want to talk about ... is the gifts of uncertainty. The promise of this dark age are the gifts that we can harvest from uncertainty itself. ~ Joanna Macy, The Hidden Promise of our Dark Age via Bioneers.

According to Macy, these are the gifts we get from uncertainty: the present moment, a fresh recognition of the power of intention, the befriending of our pain and the great mystery that it brings us, our solidarity with our relations, and an immensity of time. Uncertainty stops us from being in the immediate moment; rather than focussing on hopefulness or hopelessness, which is preventing us from doing the things, we are able to move forward. She suggests that it is courageous to feel what you're feeling in the present moment, rather than brushing it away.

Book.

Circular Design for Fashion, by Ellen MacArthur Foundation. ? Along with Regenerative Fashion by Safia Minney, this was chosen for my January research reading. It had been on my wish list for some time, but managed to find it preloved (unfortunately via Amazon) for ￡24 saving me ￡6. But honestly I feel like it was a waste as I essentially spent money to be annoyed. I really dislike over-design, or poor design.

In terms of content, it would be a useful book for someone coming to the concept of the circular economy or circular fashion without any prior knowledge, such as students. The foundation describes it as a book for "fearless innovators committed to spearheading the future of fashion" and frankly I'd include myself in that group. However, after just a handful of pages I was questioning if they even considered their audience; one chapter was entitled "designing with people and for people" and yet they have text hidden in the book's spine, hard to read part-sentences in abstract shapes, full pages taken up with a portrait of a designer, and a requirement to turn the book on its side to read quotes or look at diagrams.

It points the reader towards some statistics from various reports, some of which I didn't know, so again if you're being introduced to the concept then it's useful. Findings such as these are highlighted (however, in pointless single page bullet point formatting):

It is estimated that some garments are discarded after just seven to ten wears. ~ Barnardo, Once worn thrice shy (2015).

Every year, the fashion industry is responsible for more greenhouse gas emissions than all international flights and container ships combined. ~ International Energy Agency, Energy, climate change & environment (2016).

Textiles can release microfibres that end up in the ocean and freshwater. These can be from synthetic fibres such as polyester, nylon or acrylic that won't biodegrade, or from natural fibres whose coating or dyeing renders them non-biodegradable. ~ Ellen MacArthur Foundation, A new textiles economy: redesigning fashion's future (2017).

Along with the over-design, I wrote down a lot of questions in response to the information they were giving. Here are just some of them to explain my frustration with their research and writing.

• There was nothing much in the way of user behaviour, regardless of this being a high reason for discard (and mentioned in the above finding) and sentences were closed-minded; one such said that "today less than 1% of clothes are recycled into new clothes ... due to clothing being created without considering its ability to be recycled". Where's the end user and policies involved with this system?
• They had mentioned that wool degrades the soil, but no mention of a study.
• In regards to only making what you sell, they had stated that if we move to a design > sell > make model then there "is no overproduction or unsold stock" and I wrote "nope, capitalism". (Plus, exploitation.)
• They consistently repeated projects from big fast fashion and luxury players, with 7 expert contributors from H&M and 5 from Inditex. And I had to put a ?? on Stella McCartney's page after underlining the sentence "we want to do everything we can to mitigate climate change".

This has turned into a longer review than anticipated and perhaps should be turned into a standalone post. You can't educate without giving all the information. So please, PLEASE hit reply if there's some content I'm putting out that doesn't seem to be sense-checked or objective enough. How can we fight the confusion and complexity of our systems if we don't have clear answers, especially from those that are supposed to be credible sources? It can't simply be about the word count Ellen MacArthur Circular Fashion team because you designed a book with pointless graphics.

If you want to give the book a go, then do. It can provide you with an overview of circular fashion, but don't expect it to give you realistic or accessible solutions. Find it Circular Design for Fashion here.

Campaign.

Black History Month. ? I never know what to say, or do. I came across this graphic asset from Fashion Revolution on Instagram that could in fact be used for all sorts of challenges, but was used to highlight racism in the fashion industry. Kimberly Jenkins is the founder of the Fashion and Race Database, an educational website that expands the narrative of fashion history and challenging mis-representation within the fashion system and writes:

“It is not enough to suddenly throw a bunch of diverse looking models onto your grid and pandering to us with diverse faces. We want to know if we open the doors to your executive board, when it comes to the power structure, what does it look like? How diverse is it really?” ~ Kimberly Jenkins.

Though solidarity and public support for racial equality is often used as a PR tool for fashion brands, the Fashion Revolution 2022 Fashion Transparency Index tells a different story. The report found that despite the brands' claims, just 8% of them actually publish their actions on racial equality. Furthermore, only 3% publish their company’s ethnicity pay gap. (Words slightly edited from the Fash Rev post).

"As an industry with such a racist legacy, fashion has a moral responsibility to address racial and ethnic inequality in their own operations and supply chains. Transparency is key to highlighting these issues and making sure brands are held accountable for their commitments." ~ Fashion Revolution.

The asset - shown below - hit me because I don't see it. I'm a white female, and I don't work in the fashion industry. I don't think I ever thought of race when I did work in it, and frankly I do go about my life in a bubble, because I'm a white English woman with certain privileges afforded to me due to this. I attempt to raise awareness on certain injustices such as modern slavery or climate effects, but I don't actually address the issue of race head on - and my excuse is that I don't know how. Though have I really tried? I can't ask to be insighted because then I'm proving myself useless and making those I'm asking work to educate me. So I try to unlearn and learn quietly. I've looked to the Slow Factory Foundation's Open Edu course, and the Fashion and Race Database's newsletters. If you do have resources that can enlighten me and have the capacity to share (that I could also share with others feeling the same as me), I'd really appreciate that.

You can read an article between Fashion Revolution's Bronwyn Seier and Kimberly Jenkins here.

Learning resources.

Fashion Revolution's fanzine library. ? These zines from activist organisation Fashion Revolution are now available as digital downloads on a pay what you feel basis. You download them via Gumroad, which is actually a nice stylish and quick browser app.

Money Fashion Power (zine 001) mostly relates to who made your clothes (and the so named campaign from Fashion Revolution), including garment worker diaries, the real cost of a t-shirt, and ways you can take action such as boycotting. It's an insight, but created in a playful way so that you can engage in the information without being overloaded. It works as this magazine style, unlike the above Circular Design book.

Loved Clothes Last (zine 002) is all about how waste is a design flaw, especially in the fashion industry. It's designed for the mass consumer - the everyday citizen - to recognise how they can shift the system by making better purchasing decisions. It includes how to know your materials, how to clean stains, fabric care symbols, how to sew on a button and editing your wardrobe. It importantly considers the bigger picture though, of why we have so much waste and what happens to it, with chapters on textile recycling, the international secondhand clothing market and the circular economy.

Fashion Environment Change (zine 003) is essentially a glossary that goes deep into terms and gives additional resources, but does so in a way that isn't just definitions, but rather poetry and illustrations too. It's not particularly extensive but is fairly vast in the key topics it pinpoints, including the anthropocene, landfill, microfibres and viscose.

Fashion Craft Revolution (zine 004) provides a lot of stories and case studies, specifically of heritage textile crafts, including Ladakh weaving, Ugandan barkcloth, the Panama hat, Indonesian batik, and so-called "kente cloth". It also includes important chapters on the role of women in these industries, and cultural intellectual property rights.

I also purchased a physical copy of the Action Required: 10 Global Goals That Will Change Fashion zine (hopefully this will be available as a digital download too as it is now sold out and a month later my copy still hasn't arrived).

Find all the zines in the Fashion Revolution fanzine library here.

Organisation.

Plastic Free Hackney. ? I'm touting something close to my heart for this edition. Plastic Free Hackney is a Community Interest Company based out of Hackney in East London. I have been a volunteer for 3.5 years, focussing mostly on running the social media channels and helping to facilite our monthly Pollution Picks. This year with the founder Bettina heading off to Asia with her family for a few months, I'm going to be helping Daisy with the workshops too.

All workshops are based around making your own low cost products to reduce your plastic pollution, potentially improve your health as they're all natural ingredients, learning how to be self-sufficient (they were especially useful during Covid), and of course, reducing how much money you put into large corporations. They're also educational; insighting attendees with information that is difficult to gather from all of the noise that big corps make. Make your own toiletries, make your own cleaning products, how to go plastic free, plastic free periods, plastic free families, and the monthly community pollution picks.

If you're not based in London you can still engage in checking your plastic consumption (and spending related to purchasing materials you don't even need) through the YouTube channel where you'll find past recordings of the workshops. There's also recipe booklets to try your own products, such as deodorant, reusable period pad, and multi-purpose spray cleaner.

Other plastic-related organisations to check out are:

• Everyday Plastic - they run a yearly citizen Big Plastic Count.
• Surfers Against Sewage - campaigns involving our waterways, including reducing single use plastic.
• Plastic Pollution Coalition - webinars on topics around plastic, including big oil and textile microfibres.
• The Story of Stuff - they have a documentary called The Story of Plastic.

Event.

Magdalena Abakanowicz: Every tangle of rope and thread. ? A vast exhibition of Magdalena Abakanowicz’s towering textile sculptures in the Blavatnik Building at Tate Modern is showing until 21st May 2023. Entitled ‘Every tangle of rope and thread’, the exhibition allows you to meander through Abakanowicz’s life and her development from smaller scale artworks to the large scale sisal shrouds that have been hung forest-like in the concrete?gallery.

I went along for my birthday, and this blog post describes what I thought and felt throughout it.

Nature connection.

Five minute continuous line drawing. ? Ordinarily I'd share with you 5 wellness recipes for the month we're in, but frankly decided to delay that for now as it's quite a lot of effort and November-December-January are still valuable.

Instead, on my latest business mentoring programme with Allia Impact, I was delighted by a founder who is on a mission to inspire 1 billion busy professionals to slow down and find joy through creative self care rituals. Inspired by her, I bring you this five minute nature connection line drawing activity. After finishing my seasonal planning this afternoon, I took five minutes to try something new, and really love the effect and the engagement with my plant.

1. Grab a pen, ideally a smooth one, as you're doing a continuous line - I used one of those Mitsubishi uni-ball ones, but Sharpies also work.
2. Choose your paper - could be small or large.
3. Choose your object - you could also be outside, but in winter selecting a house plant may be the only nature connection you feel is right.
4. You can set a timer, or simply draw until you feel you've drawn the object.
5. The idea is to not look at your paper, and draw the object's outline (or middle bits) without lifting your pen.

You're tapping into a different type of flow with this kind of activity, rather than overthinking a task; being present in the moment, even if just for a handful of minutes, and not being bogged down by being perfect. You're essentially doing what you did as a kid, but as you're an adult and appreciate some structure and rules, the object is there to guide you.

I didn't draw the whole plant, and it actually wasn't accurate because there is too much foliage, but I focussed on what was clear in front view and drew until I'd drawn enough to get the essence. I like the finished drawing. I flipped it portrait to display as I liked the blank space at the top.

You can find a reel of my drawing in progress over on Instagram, and tag me if you have a go! Here find Shazmin, the empowerment coach mentioned above, with her free 5-day self-care ritual challenge.

I participate in the Wild Work Collective from The Wild Academy, a rolling seasonal offering for the self-employed and founders to tap into a nature-led way of working. Today I caught up with The Wheel, a seasonal planning session. Recorded on February 1st, which is also Imbolc, a Gaelic traditional festival that marks the start of Spring, we are led in a planning session from Imbolc to the Spring Equinox, which this year falls on March 20th. Each season has a theme - lunar wisdom and quickening of the year, or emergence - and a symbolic tree - the willow.

It feels nice to close the writing of this newsletter that looked to highlight how we interact and break down in the world, with the symbols of reflection and healing that come from the moon and the willow. Willow if you didn't know produces salicin, used traditionally to make aspirin, and additionally allows the tree to heal itself. It is associated with water, as is the moon. We're locked with it, we're a part of it. Sometimes we need to go against the tide, and sometimes we need to recognise that we can't escape it - so to let go, be curious, regenerate.

You can now also find this newsletter on Substack as part of a wider package where you can become a paid subscriber to receive monthly guides and glossaries on regenerative food-fibre-fashion concepts, along with fibres. So it's pretty nice.

Hit reply if you have any comments, suggestions, recommendations, feedback, or to give some words of encouragement, maybe.