Fashion is treated too much as news rather than what it is, what it does, and how it performs. | | | | | A Cotton Office in New Orleans, Edgar Degas, 1873, oil on canvas, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Pau. (Wikimedia Commons, public domain.) | | | | |  | “Fashion is treated too much as news rather than what it is, what it does, and how it performs.”
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// Transparency. That’s a word I think about often with regard to fashion. No, I’m not referring to recurring trends in PVC. On second thought, hehe fine, I do consider that fairly often. Indeed, I’m thinking about the stuff of fashion and how it gets made. Some amazing stories from apparel manufacturing and/or migrant workers recently, traveling through BANGALORE, NORTH CAROLINA, and ICYMI, CHINA by way of the PHILIPPINES. I’ve been privileged enough to spend time inside some of NYC’s GARMENT DISTRICT factories, and I’ve heard the same thing over and over again: We love making things. Do you ever ponder whose hands, whose machines, whose networks, went into making your clothes? Do you find satisfactory answers?… Oh, COTTON, how did we end up with such a fraught relationship with you, long staple fiber of our youth, subject of trade agreements, subcontracted labor, farm initiatives, and so, so much more? You’ve also unceremoniously disappeared from many of our garments over time. USA challenge: try to find socks made of 70%+ cotton that aren’t from NO NONSENSE (the socks are awesome, trust). Heavier read on the subject: EMPIRE OF COTTON (literally—the hardcover edition is legit weighty). Lighter read, but no less significant: THE TRAVELS OF A T-SHIRT IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY. Do people care about fabric content in clothing? Am I in the minority b/c I fastidiously check labels for fiber content? Historically (as in before 1900) natural fibers have been highly desirable, prized, the ultimate luxury. Flip side: today, synthetic fibers are giving a new definition to the term “haute" under the banner of “high performance”—I’m thinking luxe activewear, like these recently acquired GIRLFRIEND COLLECTIVE leggings (I’m not saying THAT WORD, thanks GOLDMAN SACHS). Flip side: would you rather have a 100% cotton tee from FOREVER 21, priced at around $10, with the accompanying labyrinthine ethical considerations and infinite mind vortex of pondering how it even got to the store in the first place? Flip side: Microfibers are polluting our world. Flip side: so are some natural fiber manufacturers that, say, pump dye waste directly into nearby waterways. Flip side: Do you have the time to sit inside and handloom your own x, y, z?… Thankful for the work LAIRD BORRELLI-PERSSON does over at VOGUE RUNWAY, ensuring those CN archive images are up and available for our thirsty eyeballs to cling on to. She wrote this too… STYLE.COM culture is real. vetementswebsite.com is fashion's LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD… In PARIS, light and beauty in RICK OWENS, DIOR, LOEWE, HAIDER ACKERMANN, COMME, so much more. CHRISTOPHER KANE launches a 10-year anniversary collection, and the medium of choice? Sweatshirts. | | | - HK Mindy Meissen, curator |
|
|
 | The New York Times |
| Experiments like one in Bangalore, luring migrants to fill factory jobs, collide with an old way of life that keeps women and girls in seclusion until an arranged marriage. | | |
|
 | W Magazine |
| In a revealing conversation with Rookie's Tavi Gevinson, Solange Knowles speaks out on motherhood, racism and black empowerment -- themes that dominate her third studio album, A Seat at the Table, which was released today: "I like to think that this is my punk moment." | | |
|
 | The Atlantic |
| Todd Whitley, a fabric-cutting manager in North Carolina, talks about the pride and dignity that’s come from having a career in American manufacturing. | | |
|
 | High Snobiety |
| Edison Chen may be a little bit older and a little bit wiser, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have anything polarizing to say anymore. | | |
|
 | Sourcing Journal Online |
| Out of sight, out of mind could easily describe the problem facing America's waterways, marine life-and personal health. It's happening via an unwitting cycle, but one that may be broken by a collective move toward natural fibers. | | |
|
 | DIS Magazine |
| A science fiction documentary about Filipina migrant workers in Hong Kong. | | |
|
| The Atlantic |
| At Berkeley, researchers are studying how wearing flip-flops changes buildings' air-conditioning needs. | | |
|
 | Business of Fashion |
| Tim Blanks talks to Rick Owens to decode the creative thinking behind his latest collection. Watch now. | | |
|
 | Vogue |
| From the Vogue archive: looks from each of the 22 collections designed by Christian Dior, himself. | | |
|
 | The Vintage News |
| That’s right -- these were being worn 1000 years before the birth of Christ. Archaeologists say that the two men whose remains were recently excavated from tombs in western China put their pants on one leg at a time, just like the rest of us do today. | | |
|
| Vogue |
| Good news for new Vetements fans-the collective is remaking its debut line and selling it exclusively on Style.com. | | |
|
 | Apparel |
| CalvinKlein.shopping and YvesSaintLaurent.shopping are two examples of companies that are using the "dot-shopping" extension to supplement their brands, redirecting shoppers to their existing homepages. | | |
|
 | Dazed Digital |
| Songs were written about the phone dubbed the ‘CrackBerry’, people found love and sex BBMing and it was also occasionally used for business -- now it’s dead. | | |
|
 | #EmergingUS |
| The founders of #BlackLivesMatter on how it all began. | | |
|
| Dazed Digital |
| ‘I need to give love and confidence to black girls’ -- interviewed by her friend Amandla Stenberg, Willow Smith talks gender fluidity, Chanel and the beautiful chaos of her generation. | | |
|
 | The Fashion Law |
| Anthony Vaccarello is making it very difficult for retailers – fast fashion or otherwise – to copy at least one key element of his Spring/Summer 2017 collection. | | |
|
 | Fast Company |
| We spoke with the Nepalese designer about creating a T-shirt for the Clinton campaign and why she's got his vote. | | |
|
 | via YouTube |
| | | | | | |
|
|
| © Copyright 2016, The REDEF Group |
|
|
