When The Mercury Rises

I’m writing this post in the middle of a heatwave. Tomorrow, the mercury will rise to an unprecedented 38º C in London, which means that it will be hottest here than in my tropical native country of Panama. Funny enough, summer-loving people in London are celebrating this weather without thinking for a second that this heat is a sign that our planet is not doing well. Admittedly, I am a winter person, and I don’t like the heat, but if I go to a Caribbean beach in Panama and all of a sudden it starts snowing I would be far from happy. We are warming up the planet to extinction, but we are going down with a celebration.

Around this time last year, I wrote a post on sustainability and the myths of Recycling and how we need to reduce our waste as much as possible. Today, I write about why we should be cautious when the brands that we buy from tell us that they are sustainable and green. Over the last year, many brands have jumped on the wagon of sustainability, especially fast fashion brands, but I wonder if we are starting to use this term as a selling point rather than as a real concern for the planet.

I’m not underestimating the efforts and the investments that brands are making to become more sustainable. But, some of the things that these brands are advertising as their efforts to becoming green are just a fraction of what they need to be doing. To be truly sustainable, a brand must acknowledge that the life-cycle of a garment is longer than they had anticipated and should also include the life after the item has been worn and replaced.

This new way of thinking about the life-cycle of clothes involves both brands and consumers. We are all in this together and if we don’t want to kill our planet, we must act now.

What actions can we take right now to become more sustainable?

As Brands:

• Use sustainable materials/suppliers/processes: this is what the majority of brands calling themselves sustainable are doing right now, and in principle, it is something good. But it is just the first step on the roadmap to sustainability. The work doesn’t end there; there is more to be done.

• Source locally: it is kind of counterproductive to source sustainable materials in remote places, ship them all the way to the factories and then ship the finished garments to distribution centres where they will be shipped again to the points of sale. It really doesn’t matter how sustainable a brand’s materials are if the carbon footprint of their supply chain is destroying the Earth.

• Generate less waste: this is the tricky bit. Fashion brands need to sell to stay in business and to sell more, you need to produce more, but there must be a limit to the amount and frequency of the items produced. A brand may be the greenest of them all in sourcing sustainable fabrics or having a sustainable supply chain, but if they are releasing hundreds of new designs each month to force their customers to keep on renewing their wardrobe, all their sustainability efforts will go to waste. Literally. The real challenge of turning a fashion brand into a sustainable brand is how to make customers buy new clothes while at the same time stopping them from sending the old ones to landfills or incinerators. This is where the concept of circular economy comes in, but is it really possible to make fashion circular?

• Keep it affordable: Price is the icing on the cake. Sustainable materials and research are still not cheap and to be able to lower their cost we would need to produce and sell so much that we would be contributing to the problem of waste while trying to amend it. At the same time, the sad reality is that if sustainable clothing is more expensive than non-sustainable one, people will keep on buying the latter.

As consumers:

• Buy less: it all comes down to generating less waste, and to generate less waste, we must renew our wardrobes less often. This is the last thing that brands want to hear, but in all honesty, we don’t need to buy new clothes every season. Today we have five times more clothes on average than our previous generations, maybe because they didn’t have the money or the offer, or perhaps because they made their clothes themselves and these lasted longer. My mom once told me that she only had two dresses that my grandmother had made her, and as a child, she would have to go out on Sundays looking the same every week. And so did everyone else! Obviously, I’m not pretending that we go back to making our own clothes (which wouldn’t be too bad) or to owning just two pieces of clothes. The ideal would be to buy less but buy smarter, buying from brands that are truly sustainable and circular and that produce quality clothes that last longer and promote less waste.

• Buy Second-hand/Vintage: Buying smarter also involves giving a new life to someone else’s old clothes. Pre-loved clothes are not only a sustainable way to renew our wardrobe, but it also gives you the advantage of not looking exactly the same as everyone else who buys from current seasons.

• Don’t Become a serial returner: sizing is a serious issue when buying online, and sometimes we have to purchase and return at least once to get the right sizing. Some consumers buy/wear/return consistently, or buy many different sizes of the same item in the hopes that at least one would fit instead of properly researching the measurements of their body according to the tables that online retailers provide. Serial returners have a massive impact on the environment.

• Buy from brands that are circular: again, buy less but buy smarter. Buy from brands that allow you to take your old clothes back to the shop in exchange for store credit. But, before doing that, ask them what they will do with your old clothes.

• Repurpose your old clothes: don’t throw away your old clothes. Hand them down, take them to charity shops, return them to the shops where you bought them from if they offer store credit, donate them to the homeless but don’t throw them in the bin.

• Don’t judge people for what they wear: the pressure to look always stylish and trendy is one of the main reasons that force us to buy so many clothes that we don’t need. This is particularly true when you work in the fashion industry because peers and superiors are constantly judging you from what you wear. This forces workers in the industry to contribute to this cycle of massive spending.

The time for complaining about the heat is long gone. It is time that we do something about it. We must seriously keep this conversation alive and look for ways to becoming more sustainable and saving our planet. Do you have any other ideas of how to become greener as consumers and as brands?

Photo credit: behind the scenes by Andrzej Gruszka.

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Who Stole Pink From Men?

When I read the news that the new Minister of Women, Family and Human Rights of Brazil, Damares Alves, said that a new era begins where boys will wear blue and girls will wear pink, I thought to myself: is this still a thing? I was under the impression that we had moved past this whole ‘blue for boys / pink for girls’ thing a few decades ago, but oh! was I wrong! Just a quick browse at the major retailers online shows that the majority of them still support the idea that colours have a gender. In times when the fight for a fairer and more equal society should be on every brand’s agenda, why does it seem like so many fashion brands still haven’t gotten the memo?

Last year, I wrote about our loyalty to brands that don’t deserve it. So, for this post, I decided to start my research by going to the kids section of the online stores of the brands that I spoke about in that previous post: Nike and Adidas. I was shocked to see that these brands are still designing clothes for kids predominantly using pink and pastel colours for girls and more neutral and bold colours for boys. And it doesn’t end there, other brands like H&M, Zara, Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and even the very progressive Desigual perpetuate these colour roles as well. From all the websites that I visited, the only one that had a more neutral gender store was Hollister, to my surprise.

If you asked the creative directors of any of these brands the reason behind this, they might tell you that the trends for boys this season don’t include pink, or that if they designed clothes for kids switching these gender roles parents wouldn’t buy them because their children wouldn’t want to wear them. But children don’t make these decisions on their own, they have been conditioned by their family, the media or society in general to think like this. I am convinced that if any of our children’s male heroes or male role models wore more pink, we would see a rise in pink coloured clothes sales for that season for boys.

Besides, this idea that pink is feminine and blue is masculine is a very recent invention. Until the arrival of pastel colours, the colour for children of any gender used to be white. According to the Smithsonian Institution, at the beginning of the 20th century, that is less than 100 years ago, colours began to be assigned to genders with pink being promoted as a colour for boys because it was ‘decided and strong’. It wasn’t until the mid-20th century when trends changed and the colours for genders were switched to blue for the boys and pink for the girls. But, as a trend, it faded away until the mid-80’s when it came back thanks to the pregnancy test brands and have since been imprinted in our minds.

As a photographer, I know that the message behind the colours that we use in imagery can be very powerful. But I also know that colours don’t have an innate meaning; humans assign it to them. For instance, in the western world, the colour red can be associated with love, passion and sensuality, but a red flag is a sign of risk and danger. Meanwhile, in countries like China, red means good luck, happiness or success. In some cultures, white symbolizes purity but in other cultures, it is associated with death.

Not a single colour means the same to two different people. What a colour makes someone feel is something unique to the individual. If you need a colour to be able to tell your children apart, then you have a different problem. But a boy won’t feel less masculine if he wears pink unless you make him feel that way. Besides, what does feeling masculine or feminine even mean to a baby? Babies start developing their identities as they grow and if a baby boy identifies as a male they will continue feeling like a male no matter how much pink you put on them.

The fashion industry has a massive impact on our lives, even if one is not conscious about it. We express ourselves through the clothes we wear. They speak about our mood of the day, our cultural backgrounds, our political stances or what we do for a living. Sometimes, they can also be used as tools of oppression.

The message behind the words of Minister Alves is about undoing everything that we have accomplished in terms of gender equality. We mustn’t let that happen, we must fight back. As an industry, we have the most incredible tool at our disposal for the task, one that is so powerful and ubiquitous that it can reach every single person on the planet. Stop forcing pastels onto girls and let’s get more boys to wear pink

Photo credit: me, age 2.

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I Wish I Had Known... About Pattern Making!

This is the fifteenth post in my series of monthly posts where I speak with people in the creative industries and ask them questions about the things that "I Wish I Had Known" when I started out as a creative myself.

I had the immense pleasure of meeting Neil J. Christopher, Pattern Cutter and co-owner of ARN Mercantile, a small company with great ideals that makes workwear combining British Heritage with Japanese technical skills and quality. Neil and I spoke about what makes a good Pattern Maker and how to successfully mix technology with manual skills within the craft:

1. What is the role of a Pattern Maker?

The main role is to interpret the ideas, ideals and vision of the designer, taking from the flat image and building a 3D garment, but also advancing the concept of what you are doing, offering advice on structure, movement and fabrics needed to build a better garment.

2. Which skills does a Pattern Maker need to have?

The ability to see in 3D is a key skill, but also fabric knowledge, construction and production. If you can sew that is a wonderful thing, but on a basic level, maths help, as does skill with a pencil. Clean lines save time and effort later on.

3. Is there a difference between a Pattern Maker and a Pattern Cutter, or are they interchangeable names?

In basic terms, they do get confused, but a Pattern Cutter cuts cloth to build garments in a factory, where a Pattern Maker makes the pattern they will work from, but a knowledge of what is needed for both jobs helps. If you can cut cloth and build garments it helps you to understand how the production works and will make you a better Maker. A Cutter can and do make patterns but that is a question of ownership

4. Why do we need patterns?

They are the building blocks of garments. To be able to make anything we need the pattern to make it from, but there is also an ownership issue and to fully have control over what you make and to keep it 'yours' is to own the pattern.

5. How are patterns made?

I cut the card by hand but some use computer-based cutting which would only become a 'hard' pattern in the factory, which is the basic answer, but the more build focused answer is with a lot of practice and understanding of the finished product.

6. There are in the market many software packages aimed at Pattern Making, but there is still a percentage of Pattern Makers who prefer to do it by hand. Are they just being old-fashioned or is it still more reliable to do it by hand?

There are many different software packages out there to build patterns but they suffer from the age of the core processes used to establish them. Many do use them and in fact, if you are making basic mass-market products they are the most cost-effective way to go. But, if you wish to build something that speaks to you and is yours, a hand-made card pattern is the best way to get your ideals out there. I am very bias on this but I have worked on many different kinds of 'software' and even helped build them and I feel you can not replace the hands of a good Maker within the process.

7. Do you think that technology has helped Pattern Making in any way, for instance, with fabric optimisation?

For layout, the cutting of cloth, yes very much so. It has simplified that part and increased fabric usage. I would always say that nothing beats the computer for that, but for shape and construction, we still have a fair way to go.

8. Can a designer make and cut their own patterns?

A few do, to begin with, but it's a skill where the basics can be simple to learn but as you grow and build a more complex garment you would need to have a skill set of hands working on that. With the basic skills, you can better help a skilled Maker to achieve your needed shapes. I would highly recommend anyone who was thinking of going into design to spend the time to understand patterns.

9. What about sizing? Why don’t we still have a standardised sizing in the industry?

Simple answer: too many markets. The clothing business can no longer focus on one market and with that comes a huge set of block patterns and sizes options. Even within one market, we are not all the same shape. Sizes have to reflect the needs of the customer; block patterns must also focus the producer to make for body type, not just size.

10. There is also some controversy with laser cutting. A lot of people criticise laser cutting because of its perfection. Do you think it diminishes the garment?

I have just seen some laser cutting and been given the option to program and cut with it. Yes, there have been issues with it, but mainly due to how it's been programmed to be used. It was not originally set up for cloth and the engineers who set it up did not intend its use in this field. In time and with care it will be a great benefit to the industry but right now it's still in a learning curve.

11. Is Pattern Making something that you study or that you learn as an apprentice?

Both, if you are lucky and find someone who is willing to teach you then an apprenticeship is a wonderful way to learn by doing. Some colleges do offer a short course, but it is normally part of a bigger design lead program. In the US and the EU it's a course in its own right, but here in the UK we tend to show the basics and hope that that will do and that you pick up more by working on it. I was lucky enough to work with a skilled Maker when I was young and then learnt more as time past, but you will always learn from other Cutter/Makers as there is little formal training outside of the bespoke business. As a Maker we find our own way around 'issues' and sharing that with your peers is a great way to improve.

12. Do Pattern Making students need to learn about the history of fashion?

I do believe they should at least look into it but within context. I have a huge collection of vintage patterns and pattern books yet some students I know have no interest in it. Most problems that you will ever have with Pattern Making are problems that others have also had, solved and, if you are lucky, shared their results.

Thanks so much, Neil, for taking a few minutes from your busy travelling schedule to speak with me about the important and often overlooked role of the Pattern Maker! This is everything that I Wish I Had Known!

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If you haven't read the previous posts of this series, you can check the whole series here. I hope you liked this new post and stay tuned for a different creative each month!

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