Matthew Flowers entered the Alternative Miss World Contest on the 2nd of may 2009 at the roundhouse. The brainchild of world famous sculptor Andrew Logan, this outrageously wonderful event happens once in a blue, gold, pink or lurex moon, starting way back in 1975.
Matthew wore 3 costumes as Little Miss Sustainable.
The costumes are all made in ways and with materials which demonstrate how to work with textiles and fashion in environmentally friendly ways, and to show that eco does not have to look like oatmeal, or feel like sack cloth!
For daywear, Matthew wore a handknitted shift dress made with biobamboo; all materials are available from annie’s fantastic shop,
This brand has SKAL and ECOTEX100 certification, which are European labels that tell the consumer that the production and raw materials meet the highest eco standards established for manufacture in Europe. These standards are hard to achieve, and any large company that makes products which meet these criteria is to be encouraged. Consumers need to have an eco label which they can recognise and trust, in the way that they now understand fairtrade and organic.
Bamboo is a very good alternative to cotton, even organic cotton, because it grows fast, does not need much water, pesticides or fertilisers, and can be repolymerised and spun again as well as being fully compostable because it is a natural material. It has many other great properties, is soft, drapes well, is antibacterial, and wicks away from the skin.
The dress also uses some recycled polyester from industrial waste from sarong weaving in Indonesia. Using ALL the scraps in any industrial process is an important economic and ecological principle. This yarn is fairtraded and supports women who were displaced by the tsunami as well.
The structure for the ball of wool that Matthew wore is made from willow from local resources (actually gathered on Hampstead Heath in London.) Willow is a renewable resource, and of course is biodegradable. Using local materials is very important because carbon emissions from transport of materials and products is, as we all know, very damaging to the environment. One of the most important principles of environmentally friendly design is to use local resources, and to build manufacturing which recognises natural local resources and encourages the skills needed to utilise those resources at a local level too, so that people don’t have to travel far to work.
The thick wool was hand felted by Annie and Ellie and is waste from Annie’s own textile business dating back to the 1980’s when she made felt for the fashion designer Jean Muir OBE MRSA.
The boots are hired. Hiring is a very advanced form of environmental textile and fashion design. Instead of purchasing and therefore having to ‘own’ and take responsibility for the garment you buy, you ‘borrow it’ from a shop and return it after use. A beautiful, and expensive item might be hired by many people, whereas a cheap polyester ‘fast fashion’ item can be recycled IF it is made entirely from one nonrenewable material such as polyester (yes buttons and all!) it would then be thrown back into the polymerisation vat, respun and woven and would make something entirely new. so yes we can even have fast fashion in the ecotextile design world!. You might say, but what about the energy used in the remaking of polyester garments? Well renewable energy sources are carbon neutral. Energy in itself is not bad, only energy which wastes carbon resources and causes pollution and global warming.
Of course one of the most important aspects of this daywear outfit is that is made entirely by hand. Maintaining skills in western countries is very difficult when our economies are based on money and we cannot afford the time to make things that take so long. Imagine a world where notes of music were rationed .We could only use 7 notes of one octave scale, and could only import music from countries where they had more time on their hands. Well all the skills like knitting are satisfying, clever, skilled, and many people are talented creatively. We need to look at balance between what we allow ourselves to do, and what we prevent ourselves from doing just because money is used as the great arbiter. 2000 textile and fashion students are highly trained and leave our colleges every year, yet we only ever see a few examples of their creativity, and then filtered through the complexities of multinational corporations. Small businesses can respond quickly and creativity to available resources and the imagination and demands of smaller groups of customers, creating a dynamic economy and diversity of creative expression. Skills are conserved and developed.
Finally, if we like this outfit, then an even more important aspect of environmentally friendly design has been achieved; enjoyment, attachment, and even love of what we wear. If we love it, we value it, we won’t want to waste it or throw it away!
The swimwear costume is made mainly from what we call technical nutrients. These are materials which are mainly finite in the world. They don’t grow, and we cannot replace them if we throw them away or burn them. Of course the main material is oil. The calder mobile is made from plastic plumbers pipe, covered in gaffer tape, and decorated with drops made from plastic drinking bottles. There are also glass and plastic beads. The costume is made from cling film, gaffer tape and insulating fabric.
The term technical nutrient was invented by Michael Braungart and William McDonnough, who wrote the seminal book ‘Cradle to Cradle’ subtitled ‘remaking the way we make things’
The ideas for textiles and fashion design being worn by little miss sustainable, are based on principles in this book. Basically, by understanding the processes and materials that go into making using and disposing of all products, we can intervene and make things better. and design the end of the products life into its beginning too.
Every material conforms to its own natural lifecycle, and when we use materials and mix them we need to consider the end of the products life as well and make sure that valuable, non renewable materials can be reclaimed and reused easily and efficiently, or composted without contaminating the environment. There are only 2 kinds of material in the world, technical and biological.
The calder mobile is also illustrating the single most important resource of the 21st century, namely water. Water is crucial for manufacturing so many of the goods that the world economy relies on. The economic power of money is how we currently share the worlds resources however unequally. We rely on our governments to negotiate for us, but we can see the punch ups which ensue over access to energy supplies. Water is an even more immediate need for people than energy, without it we very quickly die. Whole regions become barren, populations displaced. Access to what is known as ‘potable’ supplies ie sustainable and suitable for human consumption, at a local level, globally are crucial to life.
Imagine if reincarnation really was true for example, we would all want to make pretty sure that wherever we were about to be born next, there was access to the fundamental needs for life, let alone options and alternatives for living lives of quality and joy.
The Evening Wear represents the biological cycle of design.. Made entirely from biodegradable materials, gorgeous flowers, leaves, recycled silk, and more willow, the costume also integrates the cycle of decay and rebirth, and is accompanied by a song that expresses the longing of humankind within eternity, and the savage beauty of our planet. Oh for the wings of a dove, in the wilderness, build me a nest, and remain there forever at rest. Can we live lightly enough in our world to remain here forever?
through divine inspiration madame arcati located this little bit of fabness … little miss sustainability kicks in at about 2.0!
