‘Sometimes I hear myself playing back and I’m like “Yeah! Now that guy really knows what he’s talking about!”‘ – Arj Barker
I had that feeling reading over this interview
I did with Oxfam 3things. Â Lauren, who interviewed me, has a lovely way of coaxing out questions and let me go rambling off on a host of sustainable fashion rants.
Thanks to my sister’s boyfriend, Dan McCabe, for the photo. It looks really professional especially as he took it in 5 minutes one afternoon in our back yard.
I presented some of my work at the ESA Consumption Research Conference in Berlin this week. It was a brilliant chance to test some of my ideas on the super intelligent social theorists:  Warde, Halkier, Miles and Truninger were all at the conference which was both exhilarating and nerve wrecking.  Some of my favourite presentations were from Janna Michael on authenticity and hipsters, Tim Harries on frugality and waste and Niklas Woermann who gave an impressive overview of social practice theory (which mostly went over my head).  Steven Miles, editor of the Journal of Consumer Culture gave me the latest issue, which was more exciting than the all fashion goodie bags, ever.  I had a completely amazing time and I’m pretty sure social practice research is what I want to do with the rest of my life.  Here is my powerpoint, let me know what you think, and please feel free to use it: Jack, T. (2012), Nobody was Dirty: challenging collective conventions of cleanliness, ESA Consumption Research Network Interim Meeting, Berlin.
I feel like my last post left something unresolved, what to do when you become more aware of consumerism? Â I really don’t know the answer to that, but buying best quality ‘wants’ and secondhand ‘needs’ seems to work in a variety of situations.
*side note* now that everyone can afford to ‘shop the look’, being ‘on trend’ is passé.
One of my friends suggested the the couple in my past post were just ignorant, which is a valid reaction.  I have definitely been swept away in the excitement of buying cheap socks or earphones, and would prefer to think I was uninformed rather than a bad person. Yet, everyone knows about sweatshops, and it isn’t rocket surgery to connect the concept of sweatshop with a $4 T-shirt, so why are we as a society claiming ignorance  being wilfully negligent celebrating sweatshop culture?
Here is a brilliant video by Annie Leonard explaining the implications of cheap stuff.
These people are on all the bus stop signs in Brisbane and Melbourne at the moment and since my last post on Nerida’s concern about the true cost of cheap fashion, I feel like these guys are blatantly screaming “Look at us, we rip off vulnerable garment workers, use harmful chemicals and dump mountains of textiles in landfill.”
“We have experienced a long history of conditioning to expect most items we purchase to be on sale and in abundance. However, through my journey of learning the sad closet tales behind cheap clothing, I no longer view it with the same rose-tinged lenses.”
Nerida Lennon has finally articulated what so many of us are thinking: “Since when has it been okay to boast about supporting sweatshops?”  It is a ubiquitous social meme,  sale shopping and then flaunting the cheapness of our outfits. But with what consequences?  Head over to Nerida’s website to read more of her thoughts.
Image courtesy of British Council Australia
Eco Journalist, Michael Green wrote a piece about laundering in last weekend’s The Age newspaper, mentioning my Nobody was Dirty research. Â Often I get emails after such pieces, and I am always very interested to hear what people think about some of the ideas. Â This time I received an email from Kate Brown, who very generously shared some of her thoughts about drying clothes, below is a copy – we would both love to hear what you think.
Email from Kate Brown
“While purchasing with the idea that the item will last for an extended period of time is not a groundbreaking phenomenon, or one that will save the environment, it is an idea that will perhaps help to combat the throw away attitude that society takes to fashion; an attitude that is in many ways the fault of the industry itself.” Jason Hewitt, August, 2012
One of the most aesthetically exciting designers to emerge from Melbourne in recent years, Jason Hewitt (he debuted in the LMFF student showcase in 2011) has spoken out publicly about his commitment to sustainability, and designing for social good. Head over to The Urban Silhouette to read the full article.
Model and sustainability entrapreneaur Nerida Lennon put this short documentry together with the clever people at EcoTopia. It looks at different elements of sustainable fashion including interviews with Georgia McCorkill and Alex Trimmer and a brief use phase appearance from my jeans.
I explore the possibilities of using fashion waste as fuel.
