Methodology Group Crit: Heike .

Mon 25th Mar 2013 Methodology Group Crit: Heike room 706.
This session just allowed us to touch base with Heike and check that we were on track with the project. It was also a chance to see what a few other students were producing.

I've also listed  some initial ideas for the dissertation work

we need to do over Easter.

Why do we photograph?

Psychology and representation

Self image and its importance

Why fear the camera?

Surveillance and the camera

Use of images within the family

So far the most wide ranging and interesting top appears to be the "Why do we photograph?" question. I'd really like to delve into the history and psychology of photography

.

A few other artists for inspiration

Lira Leirner has made this fantastic dress out of an old Royal Mail bag.


This dress is made from reclaimed stretch wool sweaters by Melissa Ferreira.




Comic Strip dress by Jane Lawrence.

made out of telephone books by Jolis Paons.

JOHN PETREY

A dress made out of bottle caps by sculpter John Petrey

 

since 1981 he has been creating images that cause reaction. But as he`s grown as a human and an artist, his work has become more of an expression of himself conceived and executed by his soul.

 

VISIT PAGE : http://www.johnpetrey.com/gallery.html?folio=Portfolio&gallery=THE%20DRESS%20SERIES

 

making other newspaper dresses for practice

My dresses made myself from newspaper.

inspired by the artist ?


Susan Stockwell's dress titled "Colonial Dress" was made out of world maps, wire and glue.

Peppermint magazine

Walking the talk?
Absolutely. Peppermint is green to the core, printed on an FSC-certified printing press on carbon neutral 100% post-consumer recycled paper. We also take our ethics seriously: as an independent magazine we have total editorial integrity, only showcasing brands and labels we support and advertisers whose values are in line with our own. We’re proud to say the judges at the 2009 Bell Excellence in Publishing Awards recognised our hard work, giving Peppermint not only the award for Best Sustainability in Publishing, but also Best Design for a Consumer Magazine and Best Overall Design of the year! We have also picked up numerous other awards since, including a Gold Medal for Best Book/Mag and a Judges’ Special Commendation at the PICAs 2009, a Gold Medal at the PICAs 2010, and were shortlisted for the Lord Mayor’s Awards (Brisbane) in 2010. Proud as we are, for Peppermint this is just the beginning…

INTERESTING ARTICLES....

Indigenous Fashion Runway

Wednesday, March 20th, 2013

Want to be part of a moment in fashion history? Head along to Melbourne’s Famous Spiegeltent on March 23 for the Indigenous Runway as part of L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival. Indigenous designers from Australia will be joined by their Maori counterparts from over the Tasman in this collaborative event, which is an initiative of the Indigenous Fashion Unearthed program. The morning will kick off with a runway show featuring indigenous models wearing garments made using native fibres and haute couture-level traditional weaving, alongside pieces created from contemporary fabrics and modern techniques. Designers taking part include Darren and Tania Dunn, Dmonic Intent, Lucy Simpson, Mia Brennan (pictured) and Shona Tawhiao. Post-show, an auction of pieces from the designers’ collections will help raise funds for Indigenous Fashion Unearthed, which provides opportunities for indigenous youth to learn about the fashion industry. We can’t think of a more inspiring way to start your weekend!

Colour Our World

Tuesday, March 5th, 2013

We at Peppermint love a good fashion festival, especially one that brings style to the suburbs. Running alongside L’Oreal Melbourne Fashion Festival, Colour Box Studio’s Fashion Program is doing exactly that – with the added bonus of a focus on sustainable, ethical and local fashion. Dates to jot into your diary if you happen to be west-side of Melbourne (more accurately, in the Footscray area) include March 10, when the studio will host a clothes swap, and March 20, which is a chance to network and hear from industry figures such as Dale Cornell from New Model Beauty Queen and Tegan Rose from Ink and Spindle at an event titled Fashion Box. Silk artist Ida Suod will run silk scarf printing workshops and Liz Doust will show you how to design and screenprint a purse, and if that’s not enough DIY to satisfy your cravings, more workshops will be announced on the website soon.

Estethica 2013

Thursday, February 28th, 2013

The quality of design-led eco fashion exhibited at this season’s London Fashion Week Estethica showcase was extremely high, as always. With new-on-the-scene Liora Lassalle straight out of Central St Martins, through to long term friends Goodone, who have been there from the birth of Estethica six years ago, there was a huge variety of designers, and more excitingly, clientele walking through. This platform allows sustainable fashion to be broadcast far and wide, and the industry can’t get enough. Let’s meet this season’s designers…{Words and photos by Rachel Manns}

Find more info and other designers by researching this site :

http://peppermintmag.com/estethica-2013/#more-16555

designer : Ellie Mücke

In striving to provide products of the highest quality from design through to manufacture, MüCKE ensures its products have minimal impact on the earth through sweatshop-free manufacturing and the re-use of old materials to make new items.  MüCKE reuses or recycles all material waste and minimises water usage where possible. As they grow, their goal is to continue making positive change by respecting the processes of production, the planet and its people. This means being responsible for their products throughout their entire life cycle, from conception to end-life and back again .

inspiration for costume ideas

The images above, are from the vogue magazine and the new york catwalk. I thought the style, colours and textures would work well with the theme i want to portray as they show a unique style and collaberate well.

costume sketches IDEAS?

From looking back at my previous shoot, i really want to progress the idea further by perhpas making some more recycable garments. For this i have been working on some skethes in my notebook, experimening with texture, colour and design.

The future of fashion: ethical, sustainable, online

The future of fashion is set to be more sustainable, ethical, inclusive and all about the internet.

In this section we explore how the way we buy, choose and expect our clothes to be designed is changing dramatically and give an insight into a career in fashion design so you can plan your future in fashion.
For more on how technology is affecting fashion design read an article on The future of fashion

Sustainable and ethical fashion

Anti waste

Mark Liu launched Zero Waste, a range of women’s fashion that didn’t cut off an waste any materials, at London Fashion Week in 2007. By using a cutting technique designed to save the fabric typically wasted in pattern cutting (approximately 15% of the material) and sewing each garment to make waste into interesting details, Liu reduces waste and manufacturing costs.
www.stique.com

Recycled materials

From Somewhere re-thinks the fashion industry's rubbish, reclaiming and up-cycling as a design solution to an environmental problem. It's a sustainable fashion label run by Orsola de Castro and Filippo Ricci that makes womenswear collections with luxury designer pre-consumer waste - such as proofs, swatches, production off-cuts and end of rolls.
The operating principle behind the label is simple: what happens to the fashion’s industry’s production surplus and leftovers at the end of each season?
They call what they do “up-cycling” rather than recycling, and design is the way they turn scraps into beautiful clothes that take into account the balance between consumption and disposal.
In October 2008 From Somewhere won the Designer of the Year and Innovation RE:Use award at the RE:Fashion awards.
www.fromsomewhere.co.uk

Organic materials

John Patrick ORGANIC designs tailored, inspired eco fashion collections for men and women. Inhabitat describes Patrick’s work as the “next bold step for sustainable style and future-forward design”.
Patrick was one of the first designers to develop a direct relationship with organic farm collectives in Peru, where he travelled early in his career to learn more about the production of cotton and handspun alpaca wool. Since then, Patrick has helped increase the use of botanical dyes, recycled fabrics, and organic wool yarns, while revitalizing traditional techniques such as hand-weaving and whole-animal leather production.
www.johnpatrickorganic.com

Fairtrade

The Fairtrade Foundation, which awards the Fairtrade mark, defines fair trade as being “about better prices, decent working conditions, local sustainability, and fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world”. It strives to ensure companies pay sustainable prices and operate in a fair and just manner when in business with those who are often the most put upon in society.
People Tree is one fashion designer / retailer that takes fair trade seriously. Most of the brand’s organic cotton carries the Fairtrade mark and is working towards getting approval for its remaining producers.
“Fair Trade enables producers in the poorest communities of the world to work their way out of poverty, and look forward to a more positive future for themselves, their families and their communities,” says People Tree spokesman Antony Waller.
“For consumers they know that buying Fair Trade products means that they are an active part of the solution of world poverty, and are helping to send a strong message to multinational companies to rethink their trading policies in the developing world.”
People Tree has experienced growth across its online and wholesale business during the recession as people look for quality garments that they feel good about and can wear from season to season.
“Distrust in the financial markets has led people to question business practice and we have seen great support for companies like People Tree who are 100% fair trade,” says Waller. The company has recently collaborated with Harry Potter star Emma Watson on a line, which has helped the brand reach a younger audience.
www.peopletree.co.uk

Thrift

Taking a thrifty approach to the fashion you buy and wear can be a consuming pastime. Hunting through racks of clothes in a charity shop and coming up with a designer find is not unheard of. There is also the added bonus of knowing that your purchase has helped put money towards a good cause. In these recessionary times, the low prices are another appealing trait of charity shop shopping.
Oxfam is a prime example of a charity shop that has explored the nation’s passion for a bargain. Oxfam opened its first charity shop in 1947 on Broad Street, Oxford. It was the brainchild of the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief (later Oxfam) and was set up to help Greek civilian victims of World War II. The charity now has more than 700 stores across the UK, stocking everything from clothes to cutlery donated by the public and organisations.
In September 2007, Oxfam launched its first online shop, which now makes more each week than any of the charity’s individual high street stores. It followed this in 2008 with a collaboration with High Street behemoth Marks & Spencer. Under the clothes exchange scheme the public can donate unwanted M&S clothing to Oxfam and receive £5 M&S vouchers in return. So far the scheme has raised £2m for Oxfam.
Oxfam opened three boutiques in 2008 across London featuring selected vintage pieces alongside Fair Trade labels and pieces redesigned by fashion students. Jane Shepherdson, chief executive of Whistles and former brand director at Topshop, consulted on the scheme on a pro bono basis. A further four stores have since been opened across the UK.
In keeping with the trend towards online shopping, the charity plans to open a section dedicated to vintage clothing, supported by blogs and advice, in April 2010.
www.oxfam.org.uk/fashion

Inclusive fashion

Sitting on a hospital ward in a gown can often heightens a patient’s feeling of vulnerability. The Department of Health and the Design Council have teamed up to overcome this issue with their Design for Dignity scheme. Patient gowns are just one aspect of hospitals that are being addressed by selected design teams under the scheme, which will tackle ward layouts, toilet and washing experiences in hospitals and more.
American fashion designer Ben de Lisi won the chance to redesign the traditional hospital patient gowns so that they significantly reduce the risk of physical exposure, cater for differences in patient size, cultural and religious preferences and are appropriate for a range of activities including sleeping, resting journeys to and from the toilet/bathroom and leaving the ward.
Prototypes of the new gowns were revealed in Spring 2010. Find out more about the project at www.designcouncil.org.uk/dignity

Online fashion

Fashion shows are evolving. The rise and rise of social media has meant that images from catwalk shows are now sent out minutes after a show finishes via Twitter so the public no longer has for magazines to hit the shelves months later. Comment swirls around the internet on blogs, forums and fashion websites about the collections well in advance of the clothes hitting the shelves.
“By streaming their shows online, brands take ownership of this real-time fashion communication, in an environment which they can influence, instead of letting others do it for them,” says the Business of Fashion founder Imran Ahmed.
According to Ahmed , the amount of brands streaming their collections online is growing from season to season. Some have even experimented with the process for A/W 2010.
However this implies significant change for the fashion system as a whole; when shows happen, when clothes are sold, and how they reach the consumer. We are only at the beginning of the internet revolution in fashion.”
Whether this means brands will abandon live shows is unclear. Replicating the experience of watching a show live and the energy they emit suggests that for the moment the show will go on.
Fashion retail has already been a huge success online. Whether it’s maternity wear and baby clothing on offer from Jojo Maman Bebe or upmarket designer clobber from Net-a-Porter, the quality of the fashion designs they sell must be complemented with an efficient transaction process, and a bit of brand sparkle for a fashion retailer to stand out online. Read more about how Net-a-Porter survived the dotcom bust thanks to its approach to service design.    Amanda hunt..

RECYCLING TEXTILES HOW IT GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE

RECYCLING TEXTILES HOW IT GIVEN A SECOND CHANCE

Textile recycling information sheet

why bother?	what you can do
how's, what's and where's of recycling textiles	useful contacts

Textile recycling originated in the Yorkshire Dales about 200 years ago. These days the 'rag and bone' men are textile reclamation businesses, which collect textiles for reuse (often abroad), and send material to the 'wiping' and 'flocking' industry and fibres to be reclaimed to make new garments. Textiles made from both natural and man-made fibres can be recycled.

Why bother?

top of page It is estimated that more than 1 million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year, with most of this coming from household sources. Textiles make up about 3% by weight of a household bin. At least 50% of the textiles we throw away are recyclable, however, the proportion of textile wastes reused or recycled annually in the UK is only around 25%.

Source:Analysis of household waste composition and factors driving waste increases - Dr. J. Parfitt, WRAP, December 2002
Although the majority of textile waste originates from household sources, waste textiles also arise during yarn and fabric manufacture, garment-making processes and from the retail industry. These are termed post-industrial waste, as opposed to the post-consumer waste which goes to jumble sales and charity shops. Together they provide a vast potential for recovery and recycling.
Recovery and recycling provide both environmental and economic benefits. Textile recovery:

• Reduces the need for landfill space. Textiles present particular problems in landfill as synthetic (man-made fibres) products will not decompose, while woollen garments do decompose and produce methane, which contributes to global warming.
• Reduces pressure on virgin resources.
• Aids the balance of payments as we import fewer materials for our needs.
• Results in less pollution and energy savings, as fibres do not have to be transported from abroad.

If everyone in the UK bought one reclaimed woollen garment each year, it would save an average of 371 million gallons of water (the average UK reservoir holds about 300 million gallons) and 480 tonnes of chemical dyestuffs. (Evergreen)

Reclaiming fibre avoids many of the polluting and energy intensive processes needed to make textiles from virgin materials, including: -

• Savings on energy consumption when processing, as items do not need to be re-dyed or scoured.
• Less effluent, as unlike raw wool, it does not have to be thoroughly washed using large volumes of water.
• Reduction of demand for dyes and fixing agents and the problems caused by their use and manufacture.

How's, what's and where's of recycling textiles

top of page The majority of post-consumer textiles are currently collected by charities like The Salvation Army, Scope and Oxfam. Some charities, for example Oxfam and The Salvation Army, sort collected material selling it on to merchants in the appropriate sectors.

Over 70% of the world's population use second hand clothes.(Textiles on line)

Some post-industrial waste is recycled 'in-house', usually in the yarn and fabric manufacturing sector. The rest, aside from going to landfill or incineration, is sent to merchants.

Collection Methods

At present the consumer has the option of putting textiles in 'clothes banks', taking them to charity shops or having them picked up for a jumble sale.
Recyclatex, a scheme run by the Textile Recycling Association in conjunction with local authorities and charities, provides textile banks for public use. The Salvation Army, Scope, and Oxfam also use a bank scheme in conjunction with other methods. Scope, for example, runs a national door-to-door textile collection service. There are about 3,000 textile banks nationwide, but clothes banks are only operating at about 25% capacity.
The Salvation Army is the largest operator of textile banks in the UK, with over 2,000 banks nationwide. On average, each of these banks is estimated to collect about six tonnes of textiles per year. Combined with door-to-door collections, The Salvation Army's textile recycling operations account for the processing of in excess of 17,000 tonnes of clothing a year. Clothes are given to the homeless, sold in charity shops or sold in developing countries in Africa, the Indian sub-continent and parts of Eastern Europe. Nearly 70% of items put into clothing banks are reused as clothes, and any un-wearable items are sold to merchants to be recycled and used as factory wiping cloths.

The average lifetime of a garment is about three years. (textiles on line)

Unsold and un-wearable clothing is sent to Oxfam's Wastesaver, a textile recycling plant in Huddersfield. These clothes are sold as raw materials to the textile recycling industry. Wastesaver handles about 100 tonnes a week.
The European Recycling Company Limited operates a network of collecting points for second-hand shoes, most of which are re-usable. The shoes are sorted according to their condition and then sold into developing countries, where they are locally reconditioned and resold at affordable prices in those areas. A pilot research study is being carried out in Germany to create techniques for reprocessing excess shoe materials into alternative products, such as sound insulation board.

Processing and Outlets for Waste Textiles

All collected textiles are sorted and graded by highly skilled, experienced workers, who are able to recognise the large variety of fibre types resulting from the introduction of synthetics and blended fibre fabrics. Once sorted the items are sent to various destinations as outlined below:

WEARABLE TEXTILES
SHOES Resold abroad in countries like Pakistan, India, Africa and East European countries.	CLOTHES Resold in the U.K. and abroad. Oxfam's Wastesaver provides clothes to Mozambique, Malawi or Angola for emergency use, as well as providing warm winter clothing to former Yugoslavia, Albania, Afghanistan and Northern Iraq.

UNWEARABLE TEXTILES
TROUSERS, SKIRTS, ETC.Sold to the 'flocking' industry. Items are shredded for fillers in car insulation, roofing felts, loudspeaker cones, panel linings, furniture padding etc.	WOOLLEN GARMENTSSold to specialist firms for fibre reclamation to make yarn or fabric.	COTTON AND SILKSorted into grades to make wiping cloths for a range of industries from automotive to mining, and for use in paper manufacture.

Post industrial waste is often reprocessed in house. Clippings from garment manufacture are also used by fibre reclaimers to make into garments, felt and blankets.
Some items will be reused by designers fashioning garments and bags from recovered items, however this is a very small sector within the overall destinations of textiles.

From the Textiles Recycling Association, published in A Way With Waste 1999.

The Fibre Reclamation Process

Mills grade incoming material into type and colour. The colour sorting means no re-dying has to take place, saving energy and pollutants. Initially the material is shredded into 'shoddy' (fibres). Depending on the end uses of the yarn e.g. a rug, other fibres are chosen to be blended with the shoddy. The blended mixture is carded to clean and mix the fibres, and spun ready for weaving or knitting.

The Recycling Scene

Evergreen produces yarns and fabrics from recycled fibres. Their most successful products are inblends spun from English and Chinese hemp and recycled denim, in addition to other recycled fibre blends containing wool, cashmere, silk and PET (polyester made from post-consumer recycled plastic drinks bottles and tencel, a fibre made from wool).
The reuse of clothes is promoting a new breed of designer. NoLoGo are a team of volunteer designers set up by Oxfam who restyle donated garments and fabrics, selling them on at some Oxfam shops.

The Recycled Products Guide has details of products made from recycled textiles. Available at www.recycledproducts.org.uk

The export market is rapidly growing as more market points are set up abroad. Some merchants also offer an array of services to encourage more collection, such as security uniform shredding prior to recycling.

What You Can Do

• Take your used clothes to a textile bank. Contact the recycling officer in your local authority if there are no banks in your area and ask why; they may collect textiles through other means. Alternatively you can take used clothing to local charity shops.
• Give old clothes/shoes/curtains/handbags etc. to jumble sales. Remember to tie shoes together: part of the 6% of textiles which is wastage for merchants are single shoes.
• Buy second-hand clothes - you can often pick up unusual period pieces! If bought from a charity shop, it will also benefit a charity. 

 

 

Textile recycling assoiation

Textile recycling assoiation

Textiles

* FOR our textiles price indicators, click on the Textiles Prices Archive link to the left - or you can also see below for 2012 price indicators *

Despite currency and demand fluctuations in overseas markets, demand for used clothing from the UK has remained generally good over the past few years.

Most UK clothing material is collected via the bank system and from charity shops, although an increasing amount is also collected door-to-door.

While selling second hand clothes in the UK is still an option, especially through charity shops, increasingly clothes are exported for sale in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East. In addition, material which is not used for clothing can often be turned into wiping cloths and specifications have also been drawn up for these by the wiper and cloth manufacturers division of the Textile Recycling Association.

In recent years the UK textiles industry has come under increasing pressure. In particular, competition from sorting businesses in Eastern Europe has forced some companies to move their sorting operations out of the UK to similar regions. At the same time, political and currency issues also impact on the market.

In the UK, the second hand trade has suffered from the dual problem created by the expansion of cheap clothing shops and 'fast fashion' — discouraging people from buying second hand clothes while meaning clothes can be less durable when they do eventually enter the second hand market.

Following the economic downturn in late 2008, textile recyclers also expressed concerns that the amount of clothing entering the second hand market could decline as householders keep hold of clothing for longer.

Disposal

The majority of textiles thrown out by households ends up in landfill, with Defra estimating that 1.5 million tonnes a year of unwanted clothing is eventually landfilled. Meanwhile, the Textile Recycling Association has estimated that in excess of 400,000 tonnes of textiles was collected and recycled in 2008.

As part of the Waste Strategy for England 2007, Defra identified clothing as one of 10 priority areas that would be examined within its Sustainable Consumption and Production work. The first stakeholder event for the Sustainable Clothing Roadmap was held in September 2007, and as well as launching an evidence project examining just how to maximise textile recycling and reuse, the question of introducing producer responsibility for textiles has also been raised.

In February 2009 the Sustainable Clothing Action Plan, which saw key stakeholders in the textile industry outline just how they planned to increase their sustainability, was launched.

The high price of textiles has prompted concerns over widespread theft of material from both textile banks and door-to-door collection bags, with some claiming organised criminals are involved. In January 2011, the Minister for Civil Society, Nick Hurd, held a round-table meeting involving representatives from the textile recycling industry, charities, regulatory bodies and police to address the issue of bogus textile collections.

Textile prices 2012

Three textile guide price categories are shown here:

• Textile banks - this reflects the amount that may be paid to a local authority or a waste management company, usually by a collector for material from textile banks. The payment may be amended if the local authority has to pay a bank hire fee or an element of the collection costs and if a donation is made to a charity.
• Shop collections - this price indicates the amount which may be paid by a collector to a charity shop for clothes the shop has not sold to the public directly. Prices vary on content from poorer quality material through to clothes and leather items.
• Charity rags - this is a general term for material, usually well-presented and often from charity shop collections, delivered to the factory of a larger textile collecting business which often exports used clothing and textiles.

Prices are £ per tonne of material

	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun
Textile banks	270 - 340	260 - 350	260 - 360	260 - 360	260 - 360
Shop collections	490 - 550	500 - 560	500 - 560	500 - 560	500 - 570
Charity rags	580 - 650	600 - 670	610 - 690	610 - 700	620 - 700
	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec
Textile banks
Shop collections
Charity rags

Prices are £ per tonne of material

 

 

 

 

Why Recycle?

So the important question is: why recycle textiles? The global issues surrounding the environment and the contentious use of landfill has never been more prominent and I&G Cohen are determined to divert as much textile waste as possible from landfill sites.
Did You Know?

• Over 1 million tonnes of textiles are thrown away every year mostly from domestic sources, of which only 25% are recycled.
• Textiles represent between 3% - 5% of household waste.
• Estimates for arising of textile waste vary between 550,000 - 900,000 tonnes each year.
• Recycling textiles can save up to 15 times the energy recoverable by incineration.
• Textiles make up 12% of landfill sites
• In one year discarded clothing would fill Old Trafford Football Stadium
• If everyone in the UK bought one reclaimed woollen garment each year, it would save an average of 371 million gallons of water, (the average UK reservoir holds about 300 million gallons) and 480 tonnes of chemical dyestuffs- (source: evergreen)
• There are about 6,000 textile banks nationwide, but clothes banks are only operating at about 25% capacity
• Over 70% of the world's population use second hand clothes
• Discarded clothing and shoes are typically sent to landfill. Textiles present particular problems in landfill. Synthetic (man-made fibres) products do not decompose. Woollen garments do decompose, but in doing so they produce methane, which contributes to global warming and climate change. This is an ominous warning which only highlights the importance of recycling in textiles.
• What are the benefits of recycling?
  When asking why recycle textiles there are further benefits that extend outside the immediate environmental positives. Recycling in textiles in the UK provides an affordable source of clothing to disadvantaged people in the developing world and emerging countries in Eastern Europe. In many of these countries it also provides the basis of economic growth by providing employment for much of the population.
  Alan Wheeler of the Textile Recycling Association confirms this when he says this "clothing recycling is not only good for the environment, but also that it has an important social and economic role to play. The benefits extend to the UK where we estimate that private textile reclamation businesses employ around 5 - 10,000 people, with a further 9,500 employed in UK charity shops. The public and politicians should be fully aware of the crucial contributions this industry makes to the world economy and sustainable development."
  Our work at I&G also provides a help to local authorities and local communities. For example local councils such as Gateshead Council currently pay about £30 for every tonne of material sent to landfill. If we multiply this by waste produced by Gateshead residents' last year, then the 115,000 tonnes of gives a waste disposal bill of over £2 million pounds. We can help these local councils save money particularly during this current economic climate by diverting textile waste from landfill and therefore cutting local council’s waste expenditure.
  On a positive note according to DEFRA, in 2008-9 the total waste collected from the UK's 25m households dropped slightly to 24.3m tonnes. Of this, 9.1m tonnes were recycled. Almost all of the remainder went to landfill. A DEFRA spokesman claims, "We can't keep on sending textile waste to landfill, People are already reducing the amount of waste they produce, and are reusing and recycling more, and we are working hard to increase this,"
  What Can I Do? Take your used clothes to a textile recycling bank. Contact the recycling officer in your local authority if there are no banks in your area and ask why not? They may collect textiles through other means.
  Or next time one of our care2collect bags comes through your door put some of your unwanted clothing in and we will happily collect your used goods, averting textile waste from landfill whilst working on behalf of a number of worthwhile charities.
  Where can I get more information?
  There are lots of great sites to visit to find out more about textile recycling and recycling in general. These are just a few:
  The Textile Recycling Association >
  
• TEXTILES
• 

• Just the Facts
• Collecting Textiles
• Recycling Textiles

Fleece, flannel, corduroy, cotton, nylon, denim, wool, and linen. What can you do with these fibers when you’re finished wearing them, sleeping on them, or draping them over your windows? One way to benefit both your community and the environment is to donate used textiles to charitable organizations. Most recovered household textiles end up at these organizations, who sell or donate the majority of these products. The remainder go to either a textile recovery facility or the landfill.

Just the Facts

• An estimated 13.1 million tons of textiles were generated in 2010, or 5.3 percent of total municipal solid waste (MSW) generation.
• An estimated 14.0 percent of textiles in clothing and footwear and 17.1 percent of items such as sheets and pillowcases was recovered for export or reprocessing in 2010.
• The recovery rate for all textiles was 15.0 percent in 2010, 2.0 million tons

Collecting Textiles

More Textiles Information

The Secondary Materials and Recycled Textiles (SMART) Association  is working to increase the amount of textile waste that can be recovered while developing new uses, products and markets for products derived from preconsumer and postconsumer textile waste.
The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service has created a fact sheet on household textile and apparel recycling

Textiles typically are not sorted at the point of collection, but keeping them clean and free from moisture is important. Once clothes get wet, stained, or mildewed, they cannot be sold for reuse. To prevent contamination, many charities offer enclosed drop-off boxes for clothing or other fabrics. Communities with curbside collection for textiles should educate donors on how to properly bag clothing.

Recycling Textiles

Textile recovery facilities separate overly worn or stained clothing into a variety of categories. Based on data from the Council for Textile Recycling, it was estimated that 1.3 million tons of textiles in clothing were recovered for recycling in 2009. Some recovered textiles become wiping and polishing cloths. Cotton can be made into rags or form a component for new high-quality paper. Knitted or woven woolens and similar materials are "pulled" into a fibrous state for reuse by the textile industry in low-grade applications, such as car insulation or seat stuffing. Other types of fabric can be reprocessed into fibers for upholstery, insulation, and even building materials. Buttons and zippers are stripped off for reuse. Very little is left over at the end of the recycling process. The remaining natural materials, such as various grades of cotton, can be composted.

developing research and ideas...

After one of our lectures, i was given some information about the photographer, Danny Treacy. I was really inspired by this photographer, and helped me dig deeper into what i want to portray throughout my work. 

British photographer Danny Treacy is currently showing his ongoing series of life size portraits ‘them’. The photographs depict Treacy dressed in outfits made from discarded clothing and other props against black backgrounds. the strange outfits obscure Treacy’s face creating a sinister and eerie air to the pictures. Treacy graduated from London's royal college of art in 2002 when the photographers' gallery awarded him with their graduate award.

“they are us and they are them. they are the work of Danny Treacy. they are

the figments of his imagination and desire. they are made from recovered

clothes, collected from those lonely places - the woods, the wasteland,

the car-parks. they are re-stitched and re-fashioned: re-modelled into junk

monsters. they are nightmares of the catwalk, prowling around the outskirts

of style's dumb extravagance.”

when reading i learnt, Danny collects old clothes in woods, wastelands or car-parks. Then he stitches the single pieces together to make these weird suits. When he wears those suits he becomes them.

Texts

Them

What circus is this? What strange ghosts are they that loom out of the darkest black, the last place in our dreams? They are us and they are Them.

They are the work of Danny Treacy. They are figments of his imagination and desire. They are made from recovered clothes. They are from those lonely places, the woods, the wastelands, the car-parks. They are re-stitched and re-fashioned: re-modelled into junk monsters. They are nightmares of the catwalk, prowling around the outskirts of style's dumb extravagance.

They belonged to the unknown and the anonymous. They are the lost, the deranged, the sexually driven and, who knows, the dead. They are the sinister carnival playing in the street. They are the music we dread to hear. They confront us and they defy us. They take a chance on our presence. They take a chance on existence. They are Danny Treacy dressed-up.

They mask his identity. They become the confined space of his transgression. They are charged in this way. They are the places where he is close to Them.

They are awkward. They are contorted. They are the body harnessed, the body pinched, the body stitched-up. They have those Frankenstein, stiff-legged poses. They are B-movie cut-outs. They are Dada and they are Pop. They are the friends of Surrealism: shouting anarchy, whispering perversion. They are sampled pieces, cross-dressed collages, mix-gendered melodramas: part nasty, part nice.

They are the suits, the jeans, the rubber gloves. They are the workers and they are the dancers. They are the porno tea-break, the sexed-up secrets. They are rough trade. They are the soldiers. They have the armour and the equipment. They are medieval, the spice of old England. They are the danger-men, the shit-kickers. They are ready. They are tooled-up. They are tight and they are fit.

They are soiled and stained and perfectly formed. They are the shapes around which menace lingers. They are intimate and they are a violation. They are the victors and the victims. They are the kiss and the tell. They are true and they are false.

David Chandler, Director Photoworks. 2007.

 

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers[] regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities during World War I and the most important centre of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy, and social theory.

watched a documentary about the Contrasting Lives of Bin men

For ten days London bin man Wilbur Ramirez worked in Indonesia, collecting the rubbish from the homes in the capital city, Jakarta. He joined Imam Syaffi, a local Sampa (residential rubbish collector), as he went door to door in a wealthy neighbourhood, taking away the rubbish in his rickety handcart. On Wilbur’s last day he gave Imam the day off and did his round for him.

Imam invited Wilbur to stay in his home, a tiny shack near a small rat-infested rubbish dump, and they quickly became friends. Wilbur and Imam are both devoted family men who work hard and like a laugh. They both do the same job, but their lives couldn’t be more different.

Job title: Refuse truck driver / loader.

Age: 43.

Location: Hammersmith and Fullham, West London.

Salary: £1700 per month.

Typical working day:

Wilbur wakes up around 4.00am and gets to the depot by 5.45am. After his daily checks on the lorry, he leaves the yard by 6.00am, picking up his colleagues on the way to wherever they will be starting that day’s round.

Together they fill up the lorry, with rubbish in one side and recycling in the other, and then take it to the tip. Once there, they empty the lorry’s load and grab a cup of tea before heading back to fill the vehicle again. This second load goes to a different tip, but at both places they unload the rubbish and recycling separately.

Wilbur’s day ends with him driving back to the depot to fill up the lorry with diesel so it’s ready to go the next day. He also completes some paperwork about any problems or defects, then hands back the keys, books off and goes home.

 

Wilbur Ramirez

Wilbur Ramirezhas been a bin man in the London borough of Hammersmith and Fulham for six years, and he still loves his job. Every morning, while most people are still in bed, he’s at the depot picking up his high-tech ten-ton truck, collecting his two colleagues and setting off on his round. He collects the rubbish from around sixteen hundred houses, in a different part of the borough, every day. His patch includes some of the richest streets in London, but also some of the poorest.

As soon as they’ve collected all the rubbish on their patch and taken it to the dump, Wilbur and his crew can knock off work and go home. So if they work as a team and get the job done quickly, they can be home by 1.00pm - with the rest of the day to do what they like.

The job can be pretty stinky, especially in the summer when there are sometimes maggots in the rubbish. To make it bearable, Wilbur likes to have a laugh as he works. He and the boys often play pranks on each other, like throwing eggs or jumping out from behind something and saying "Boo!" It’s childish stuff, but it makes the day more fun.

There are also some unexpected perks to the job - like the bakers who give the bin men the most delicious cakes every week as a thank you for the good job they’re doing. At Christmas and Easter they often get generous tips from local residents. But not everyone is nice to the bin men. The bane of Wilbur’s life is drivers who come up behind the lorry and beep their car horn furiously as they try to get past the large vehicle. He wishes people would treat bin men with a little more respect, because without them there would soon be piles of rubbish on street corners and rats everywhere.

Wilbur is a real family man. His wife Nikky and their four children Jay, Olivia, Maya and Marlon are his life. He loves the fact that after a full day’s work he can be home when his daughter returns from school and take her and the little ones to the park.

 

Imam Syaffi

Imam Syaffi has been a Jakarta rubbish collector, or Sampa, for three years. Though it’s a really tough job, in some ways he’s grateful to have it.

Imam has an agreement with two residents’ associations in South Jakarta to collect the rubbish from the homes of people in the area. In return, he’s guaranteed a regular monthly salary. Unfortunately for Imam, the money he earns only covers his rent. For food and other essentials he has to work in the evenings, sorting through rubbish for anything which can be sold for recycling. He collects plastic, metal, paper – almost anything he can sell, except for polystyrene.

Imam gets up at 6.00am every morning. After a quick coffee, he leaves for his round. It’s a twenty-minute walk from his home to where his handcart is parked. He checks it over, oils the wheels, makes sure he has all his kit – the claw, the brooms, the basket - and then he’s away. He works until around midday, usually making two trips back to the dump to unload the rubbish. It’s really hard work because the cart is quite rickety and the wheels don’t pump up very well, and when it’s full it weighs a lot.

Around midday, when it's really hot, Imam takes a break for a few hours. He has lunch with his wife, plays with his baby son and does any errands. Sometimes he even manages to go and play a game of football with his friends, the other Sampas. At around 3.00pm Imam returns to work to finish off his round, which involves one or sometimes two more trips to the dump. The worst time for him is the rainy season, when it's really hard to stop the drains getting blocked with leaves and overflowing as a result.

Imam is married to Windi and they have a baby son named Malik. The couple met in the village from where both their families originate, which is in central Java. After marrying Imam, Windi moved into the tiny two-room plywood shack he grew up in and where his parents still live. The shack is situated a few feet away from the mosquito-infested dump where Imam and the other Sampas unload their rubbish. When their baby was born, Imam decided that his family had to move - especially after Windi was bitten on the leg by a rat while she was sleeping.

Although the documentary was not based on my theme of fashion, i still found the video really interesting and fascinating to watch, as the series documented how waste has a massive role on today's society, and how the public can change certain aspects for good or bad?

Test shot in studio

Test shot in studio

before my shoot day, i was struggling to know what lighting to use? I therefor drew a lighting diagram showing my original plan....

Lighting:

For my shoot I decided to use a simple lighting plan, as when researching I learn a lot of fashion advertising campaigns use this technique a lot. Before my shoot I looked into different light sources, but in the end decided to use a medium size soft box. From previous workshops in the year I leant, soft boxes work by confining the light from a lamp into a closed chamber and releasing it through at least one layer of diffusion material. I also learnt, the larger the light source, in relation to the subject, the softer the light becomes, which was useful when deciding what size to use for my shoot. When viewing the contact sheets I noticed that this piece of lighting equipment enabled, light to pass through the translucent fabric and scatter, producing a very even and soft result. Perfect when comparing and incorporating similar approaches to fashion advertising shoots. From using this type of light, I thought it worked well as a fill light,  as it didn’t cast harsh shadows. I think overall, the large soft box covered the entire subject with light allowing a softer light and softened edges of shadows.

I really like the shot above but i would like to devlop further, perhaps experimenting with off-site location?

EQUIPMENT USED:

BLACK BACKDROP

1 PRO-LIGHT

BUIETY DISH

LIGHT METRE

MAMIYA RZ CAMERA

160 COLOUR FILM

EXTENTION LEAD

When looking back at the contact sheet above, the type of lighting, background and type of camera was not to my liking. The shoot gave me a good idea of what i would like my project to represent, but think with more time, thoughts and ideas i could devlop further, perhaps experimenting with digitial and off-site photography, allowing my skills to be develop and improve.

What i want my work to represent?Making my first outfit!

What i want my work to represent?

After researching, I want my work to resemble a striking display, deconstructing, re-cutting and completely transforming people’s perception of second-hand clothing or recyclable material, and create ethical fashion with a sense of right and wrong?

I want my work to explain and emphasize the importance of the global and personal benefits of adopting these practices, and would like to demonstrate the ways in which individuals, can make conscious changes in their wardrobe choices, reduceing their environmental impact of “waste couture” on our planet.

Making my first outfit

over the last 2 weeks i have managed to make a recyclable dress made from newspaper material. The print screens shown below, are the stages of my creation....






Although the outfit took time to make, i was pleased with the final outcome as i felt i had acheived what i set out to do.