Julie Gilhart leaving Barneys

Julie Gilhart speaking at the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference

It is quite sad to report that Julie Gilhart will no longer be Fashion Director and Senior Vice President at Barneys. Together with Judy Collinson, who will also be leaving Barneys, she championed emerging, often experimental designers in an otherwise often mind-numbing department-store horizon.

What’s more, Gilhart was an early and outspoken supporter of sustainable designers, such as John Patrick Organic and Loomstate, and also, more generally, of sustainable consumption/production practices of good design which followed a realistic tempo for fashion. She often brought Dries Van Noten, an independently owned company and designer, who produces two well-made collections yearly as an example of integrity in design. Gilhart has spoken on the topic of sustainability in design quite extensively, including at the panel Sarah Scaturro and I moderated at Pratt in conjunction with the “Ethics+Aesthetics” exhibition, as well as contributing to our exhibition catalogue. She also spoke at the 2009 Copenhagen Climate Change Conference.

Partially the victim of an incredibly ill-timed over-expansion, Barneys seems to be destined to go down-market or, perhaps more simply in a generic direction. This decision seems an ill-advised attempt at temporarily saving their bottom line while in the long run diluting their brand identity and potentially damaging their bottom line more permanently. (Brands like the Gap and/or American Apparel, albeit completely different in scope, are clear examples of such a downward spiral.)

If that’s the case—and taking away the unique and quirky aesthetic of Gilhart and Collinson from the mix seems to suggest it is—one will be hard-pressed to see why the so-called luxury consumer would shop at Barneys over Net-a-Porter, or, if outside New York, at a department store such as Neiman Marcus.

Francesca

Self-reliant Fashion Design--Politics and Practices in Fashion Design: The case of Buenos Aires

It's exciting to report on the great number of conferences happening in the field of fashion studies, which helps one grasps the cross-cultural and geographically diverse scope of the phenomenon. Alessandra Vaccari, an Italian scholar based at the University of Bologna, is organizing a conference in Buenos Aires in conjunction with the new masters launched by the University of Bologna, Buenos Aires. The conference, which is taking place November 11, is organized in collaboration with the Centro Metropolitano de Diseño.

For detailed information on the conference, see below:

Thursday 11 November 2010, 17.30-21.00

Auditorium, University of Bologna Rodríguez Peña 1464, Buenos Aires

The forum explores the role and activism of self-reliant fashion designers in the development of a new perception of fashion scene and system. The term “self-reliant” designates here a relatively high degree of independence from fashion industry; strong control and decision-making power over research, creative process, production, and communication; output ranging from one-offs to small series; close relationship with end users.

The self-reliant practice is not necessary a goal, but it is the condition in which new generations of designers increasingly work with an enhanced attention to cultural and ethical dimensions of fashion, often after the achievement of an academic qualification in fashion design.

The forum investigates what has become a global phenomenon, which is particularly interesting to study either in the presence of powerful fashion and textile industry (e.g. Italy), or when such an industry is weak, as is the case of contemporary Argentina. The forum involves designers, media and fashion institutions’ representatives, academics, and students, who are invited to express and discuss their views. Which are the creative strategies that self-reliant practices entail? What is the role of fashion oriented small medium sized enterprises? How do self-reliant fashion designers interact with urban and social space? Are they the product of the current trend toward academisation in design education? And which are the relationships between them and the public institutions promoting design and creative industries? These are some of the key questions that the project seeks to answer.

Project Alessandra Vaccari

Co-ordination Vicky Salías y Alessandra Vaccari

University of Bologna, Buenos Aires

Programme

17.30 Introduction Alessandra Vaccari (University of Bologna)

17.40 Panel 1: Policies Andrea Saltzman (Universidad de Buenos Aires) Celia Turquesa Topper (Universidad Argentina de la Empresa) Daniela Sartori y Cesar Albarracín (Cèsartori) Marina Pérez Zelaschi (Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Industrial) Pablo Ramírez (Ramírez) Sofìa Marré (Fundación Pro Tejer) Vicky Salías (Centro Metropolitano de Diseño)

Panel 1 Co-ordinator Vicky Salías

19.10 Coffee break

19.30 Panel 2: Practices Emiliano Blanco y Camila Milesi (Kostüme) Javier Estebecorena (HE Hermanos Estebecorena) Jimena Nahon (Catalogue) Marcelo Giacobbe (Marcelo Giacobbe) Mariana Szwarc (Salsipuedes) Vicente Donato (Università di Bologna) Victoria Lescano (Pagina/12) Yumico Takemoto (HP France)

Panel 2 Co-ordinator Victoria Lescano

University of Bologna, Buenos Aires + 54 11 4878 2900 informes@unibo.edu.ar

Centro Metropolitano de Diseño, Oficina de Moda, Buenos Aires +54 11 4126 2967 oficina.modaba@gmail.com

Virgin Knitters at the Textile Arts Center

Hall's father first scarf.

The Textile Arts Center, the founders of which were recently interviewed by Sarah Scaturro in Fashion Projects, is hosting a collaborative exhibition by Kimberly Ellen Hall titled "Virgin Knitters."

The exhibition is the documentation of a project started in 2007 for which Hall taught a number of people how to knit in exchange for their first project, a scarf. The project was inspired by the Buddhist notion of Wabi-Sabi, which can be partially understood as the appreciation of something specifically because of its imperfections.

That is how Hall explains the project:

"The virgin-knit scarves have both an emotional and aesthetic appeal. A virgin-knit scarf draws in the wearer through the knowledge that the knitter worked hard making it, while the aesthetic appeal stems from the ideas embodied in Wabi-Sabi, a Japanese concept of beauty. The idea that there is beauty and power in an object that is not precision made or the result of years of experience seems an important one today. It's easy to agree that everything is mass-produced, cheaply/quickly made these days, etc.—an antidote to that can be found in craft. But we often find at the other end of the spectrum is artisanal and labored handwork that can be a put-off when deciding to learn to make something for the first time."

Kimberly Ellen Hall is an artist and designer with an interest in the intangible qualities of textiles. She holds an MA in textiles from Central Saint Martins in London, and has designed on both sides of the Atlantic from Hussein Chalayan to Coach.

For more information on the exhibition and the accompanying programming, among which is a lecture by Sabrine Gschwandtner on November 11th please visit the Textiles Arts Center site

Kimberly Ellen Hall, Virgin Knitters Exhibition at the Textile Arts Center

Where Worlds Collide: Second-hand Clothes Reconsidered

by Patty Chang

Mitumba trader in Mathare Valley, Photo from REculture

Three things over the past few months got me thinking about second-hand clothes: (1) bedbugs, (2) the public debate waged through social mediaearlier in April that pitted development specialists against entrepreneur Jason Sadler over his questionably well-intentioned but spectacularly ill-conceived 1 Million Shirts for Africa project, and (3) the link between second-hand clothes and sustainability with the rise of environmentally conscious and socially responsible designers and consumers, who care about each step of the production process (re: ethics, labor conditions, carbon emissions, biodiversity, waste, animal welfare, etc.) Bedbugs aside, the last two points touch on the uneasy relationship regarding “doing good”, charities, and commerce, as well as a process more colloquially known as “aid dumping” which informs the subject of this post.

In 2008, Oxfam published a survey that estimated that in the U.K. alone, close to half or 2.4 billion items of clothes remained unworn gathering dust on shelves and hangers in British homes. The charity urged consumers to be more environmentally conscious and help fight poverty by donating their unwanted clothes to charities across the U.K. The U.S. spent a collective $282 billion in 2006 on new clothes and the average American got rid of 68 pounds of clothing and textiles. According to Goodwill, approximately 23.8 billion pounds of clothing and textiles end up in U.S. landfills each year. In an effort to make a dent in the percentage of discarded clothing, Levi Strauss & Co. partnered with Goodwill to launch in 2010 a product care tag that also encourages people to donate their unwanted clothing. With the rise in environmental responsibility over the past decade, more consumers are dropping off their excess clothes at their local charity or thrift shops. Many of us would concede that donating unwanted goods to charity is morally the right thing do, and a win-win situation – your items are going towards those in need and you get a tax write off.

Bale of Second-Hand Clothing. Image from Collective Selection

While a cohesive definition of “sustainability” on the supply side of the fashion industry has yet to emerge, as consumers we are often called upon to recycle and reuse, barter, swap or buy second hand where possible or even simply buy fewer but more durable items to contribute to the overall concept. And by extension, some people deliberately seek out second-hand clothes as a form of validation of their ethical stance on wasteful over-consumption and over-production of clothing for what some deem to be ‘superficial’ purposes.

How your clothes donated to charity organizations winds up at market stalls in far off foreign locations has been the subject of increasing scrutiny. The process goes something like this: before second-hand clothes can be re-consumed or take on a ‘new’ life with other owners, charitable organizations like the Salvation Army and Goodwill need to sift through the loads, price, and evaluate the items at their warehouses. Special period clothes are set aside for foreign and domestic vintage garment buyers. The rest of the load is indiscriminately compressed into 50 kg or heavier bales sometimes containing other unsorted clothing. The lowest quality clothing is shipped to Africa, medium-quality to Latin America, while Japan gets the bulk load of the top-quality items. Used clothing companies known as “rag traders” pay a few cents per pound for what they take and relieve logistically overburdened charities of these donations. Some estimate that as much as 75 percent of the clothes we donate in the U.S. to charities are exported globally to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Once the bales arrive at the country of destination, they are sold off to wholesalers and pass through a number of transactions before they end up for sale at local market stalls (see here for a firsthand account). By the way, since 1990 the second-hand clothing trade in U.S. and foreign markets is valued at approximately $1 billion annually.

Monrova, Liberia, Photo from Foreign Policy

Media coverage of Western cast offs to developing and least developing countries has not been positive, especially the impact of the second-hand clothes trade in sub-Saharan Africa. While various regions are affected by the trade differently, sub-Saharan Africa is the number one destination for these garments. Some argue, with much eye rolling, that the dumping of Western “leftovers” in Africa is symptomatic of a culture of excessive overproduction of low grade clothing waste. Still, others assert that the ailing local textile and garment industries are direct products of neoliberal markets and adverse economic policies dictated by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. The cases of Zambia and Uganda are often cited as examples in which cheap North American or European second-hand clothes flood the local markets and undercut the competitiveness of local textile industries, and with that, induce the decline of ‘traditional’ culture. In the sub-region of West Africa, where the dumping of cotton on the international markets has already produced adverse impact on the 10-15 million small farmers, the recent trends in a study by Oxfam show that out of the 41 textile and clothing industries that were in existence in the region in the mid-1990s, only six were operating at full capacity in 2004, and only three had satisfactory levels of performance. These trends have been detrimental to national policy makers who strove to transform the cotton fiber into finished and semi-finished products to stimulate employment and industry in the region. Countries like Eritrea, India, Indonesia, Nigeria, the Philippines, and South Africa enacted protectionist trade policies to ban the trade of used clothing in what they claim to be because of porous borders and illegal smuggling practices that went along with the trade.

Justifications in defense of second-hand clothing trade tend to point out that it creates employment in recipient countries, especially in the form of transporting, cleaning, repairing and restyling clothes. Development economist Steven Haggblade has argued that second-hand garments provide low-cost (or more affordable) clothing for people living in poverty. His study of Rwanda in the 1980s demonstrates that while the country was an outlier in that did not have an indigenous textile and a garment manufacturing industry, the second-hand clothing trade created better paid jobs in cleaning, repairing and restyling of garments for the 88 percent lost of employment in the informal sector tailoring.

Along similar lines, anthropologist Karen Tranberg Hansen has argued with respect to Zambia that it’s too easy to blame used clothes imports for the poor performance of local textile and clothing industry which were already ailing prior to the liberalization of trade import regulations. She views the embrace of the second-hand clothing trade as a response to the economic woes of the early 1990s. Moreover, she claims that the second-hand clothing trade has generated more income for locals and the government from import tariffs. Her analysis also moves past the argument of the consumption of Western goods in Africa (especially clothes) as a symbol of Western domination and global imperialism. Instead, she convincingly shows us how Zambian men and women have culturally re-appropriated and re-defined Western notions of dress to their own contexts and outward function of their identity. Lastly, she’s quick to point out that countries like Kenya and Uganda which are large importers of second-hand clothing also have textile and garment manufacturing firms that export to the U.S. under the provisions of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA).

George Packer proclaims in a matter of 5,000 words, “I have become a convert to used clothing. Africans want it. It gives them dignity and choice”. Me, on the other hand, I’m not all that sure. I often think about Anthony Appiah’s case for cosmopolitanism. While he acknowledges that many people in least developing countries are simply too poor to live the life they want lead, irrespective of what one calls ‘choice’, he also queries the premise of a cultural expression of “authenticity”. He notes that if people in impoverished communities one day become richer and still choose to wear T-shirts, then “Talk of authenticity now just amounts to telling other people what they ought to value in their own traditions”.

Still yet, the question remains whether impoverished recipients of Western cast offs should pay for items effectively donated to non-profit charities?

IXEL MODA 2010: A Sustainable Fashion Conference in Cartagena, Colombia

Work by the Colombian Slow Fashion Designer Juliana Correa of ONA

I was recently invited to speak at IXEL MODA—a conference on Latin American fashion that takes place each year in Cartagena, Colombia and was co-funded by Erika Rohenes Weber and Danilo Cañizares.

The conference had both an academic and a business and development component. The academic side of the conference, which was organized by the Latin American fashion scholar Regina Root, focused on the theme of sustainability—a particularly interesting theme in the context of Colombia’s ongoing environmental and social problems.

Departing from her historical studies in Argentinean fashion, which were discussed in her recent book Couture and Consensus, Root discussed the need for inclusiveness in developing the country’s fashion system. Marsha Dickson, who is also U.S.-based, spoke about ethical fashion and social responsibility and the phenomenon of Fair Trade, as well as the difficulty of defining the terms. Arturo Tejada spoke on the importance of fashion education in the promotion of sustainability within the fashion industries. Kathia Castilho, from the Universidade Anhembi Morumbi as well as the editor of the Brazilian fashion journal dObra[s] spoke on fashion and language, while I spoke on the phenomenon of slow fashion, tying it to earlier experimental fashion movements and, in particular, deconstruction fashion.

Also of interest were presentations by Laura Novik, who spoke on sustainability and slow fashion in the context of Chilean fashion, which she promotes through her organization Raizdiseno, as well as the Brazilian journalist and academic Carol Garcia, who traced the tension between globalization and authenticity by following the permutation of Latin American symbols historically and cross-culturally. Garcia wrote a book on the topic titled “Moda Brasil: Fragmentos de um Vestir Tropical” (Fashion Brazil: Fragments of a Tropical Way of Dressing), San Paulo: Anhembi Morumbi Editor, 2001, which unfortunately has not yet being translated into English.

Work by the Colombian Slow Fashion Designer Juliana Correa of ONA

The event also showcased Colombian designers, some of whom fall within the slow fashion movement. Of particular relevance is the work of Alfonso Mendoza, whose jewelry is based on the region’s Afro-Caribbean heritage and includes local artisanal craft and fibers, as well as the experimental work of slow fashion designer Juliana Correa of ONA.

Another aspect of the conference discussed the need for a greater development of Colombian fashion both as actual industry and image industry and included a number of government officials, particularly ones connected to Inexmoda the Colombian Institute for exports and fashion. The intermingling of business and government officials alongside academic discussions made for interesting exchanges of ideas across what is generally an often strict divide based on—at least, in this case—the false assumption that the former might not be interested in academic discourse.

Francesca Granata