Grass Routes - Green Lifestyle Blog

Bourgeois Boheme, an online animal-friendly fashion boutique, has recently launched its own stylish footwear for men and women named Espiritual and Jiva.

The shoes are handmade and ethically produced in Portugal and India. The range is made of microfibre, an eco-friendly leather alternative, and acoording to the producers 100% animal-friendly. Even the glue used is water based.

A French tourist called Bourgeois Boheme
Bourgeous Boheme was started by two vegans with a taste for style. In their spare hours next to their jobs, they built up the shop and started to design own products. The company name is dedicated to a French tourist whom they met by coincidence.

Animal rights with style
The style of shoe wear is a little different than what is already on the vegan shoe market. Most labels, such as No Sweat, Blackspot, or Vegetarian Shoes are more or less directed to alternative youth culture. Beyond Skin another vegan shoe brand and a very stylish, exclusive and trendy one, is more on the the high end both in quality and price. Alicia Lai, founder of Bourgeois Boheme says, “We saw there was a gap in the market for footwear that is not only animal-friendly but also stylish and affordable." That's the combinations we are looking for!

The webshop of Bourgeois Boheme offers a range of ethical fashion accessories for both men and women. Every product is free from animal ingredients and their product range includes footwear, bags, wallets, belts, cosmetics, etc. The shop has been awarded by Animal Rights organization Peta last year.

source: Haute Nature , Bourgeois Boheme

Recycle your jeans is a business that turns your own old jeans into new, funky sandals. You send them your old pair of jeans, and they make a pair of shoes or sandals out of them. The sandals are made in the UK.

Cradle-to-cradle-fashion
Quite a fun cradle-to-cradle recycling concept. If this kind of projects really reduce carbon footprints, as the company suggests, I doubt, but recycling old jeans into sandals sounds sustainable enough. A new wave of creative recycling attempts is on it's way and there are more and more advanced techniques to recycle old products into new ones. Often it's even invisible for the consumer, in example with some of the clothes of Patagonia.

Here in Germany I hear people being quite skeptical about using recycling in clothing, well these kind of innovative projects will hopefully set foot here as well and change the attitude!

Recently fashion shows and fashion weeks gave a lot of attention to the topic of Green Fashion. The New York Fashion Week was stuffed with different shows giving attention to the topic, in example one by Swedish eco fashion collective Ekovaruhuset at the Haworth NY showroom Read this article for a full report.

In New York also hemp showed its comeback on the Earth Pledge Future Fashion Show in New York (picture), where designers like Donatella Versace, Behnaz Sarafpour, Ralph Lauren, Donna Karan International, Calvin Klein, Isabel Toledo and Doo.Ri showed their eco-fashion creations with hemp and other sustainable textiles such as organic cotton. See reports on this the show by in example EcoTextileNews, Treehugger or Style.com

Talking about fashion, just announcing you...oops, should I say this?... that we have the more official launch of the first on sale collection of our own ethical fashion label Pamoyo upcoming...soon soon soon

Green is sexy - and new cool green fashion is combating the old eco-stereotypes succesfully.
And new organic underwear lines are giving green lifestyle a fresh, kinky sex appeal.

If you consider trying out some eco-clothing, underwear is not the worst to start with, because you don't really want chemical leftovers direct on your intimate body parts, do you? And some new organic underwear lines really give organic a new image. Also conventional lingerie producers start to take up the topic of sustainable production, as this article describes. A marvelous example of sexy green underwear are the collections by ethical lingerie brand Enamore (picture). For more info on organic underwear, see this informative blog post or read this report by green guide Inhabitat, handing you some last minute tips for Valentine...

Organic Exchange and MADE-BY are joining forces to launch a series of training sessions for brands and retailers, to support the growth of the sustainable fashion industry. Both organizations work on the support of a more sustainable fashion industry. On the 3rd of March 2008 the Organic Exchange will celebrate the opening of the European office in partnership with MADE BY and the launch of a shared training sessions. The party on the srd will be accompanied with an indroductionary training session.

Organic Exchange and MADE BY also announced shared training sessions on April 8 & 9 in Germany, June 9 & 10 in the UK and November 3 & 4 in Sweden. Organic Exchange Europe will also offer in-house trainings, consultancy projects and other key member services throughout the year. For more info, contact Organic Exchange.

As Summer Rayne Oaks, model and face of the ethical fashion show in Paris, predicted lately that more and more local and national green fashion events will occur and that green fashion will continue to grow. I was lately wondering if and when green fashion would set foot in Eastern Europe or Russia.

In Cracow on January 26th there was an eco-fashion show under the name "Recykling Multiplikacje - Pozak Recyklingowy". Students of the Cracow School of Art and Fashion Design (Szkola Artystyczego Projektowania Ubioru) were showing over 300 garments of eco-fashion clothing made of recycled materials-paper and plastic. The event was organized in cooperation with the Polish Goethe Institute.

Will the green living movement globalize?
The question rises if "green living" is something mainly exclusive for traditional western societies, or that the topic globalizes as well. Can eco-fashion or LOHAS become a success in Poland, or Turkey, or Russia? It is an interesting question to work out: can the green lifestyle movement be exported to countries where environmental awareness is not that popular? Will it also conquer groups of consumers and citizens not so much concerned about the environment?

source: sustainable style foundation
pictures by Pawel Kaminski

As a symbolic new start, Berlin's institute for creative sustainability celebrated it's new home in Prenzlauer Berg on Chinese New Year, introducing the year of the rat. Moving from it's former base in the cultural community UfaFabrik, the institute now found it's place within an innovative living community (WG) in Prenzlauerberg. It looked like an inspiring place to continue, and I hope the institute will keep the network of alternative communities in Berlin alive from their new home.

ID22, institute for creative sustainability, is in Berlin for all know for it's project Experimentcity, a model project for Berlin's local Agenda 21. They are supporting and developing alternative build and living concepts, thereby balancing between a network of subcultural, creative and often anarchist communities, housing companies and politics. Goal is to support participative and sustainable use of Berlins many empty spaces and buildings. Experimentcity offers innovative housing- and cultural projects a platform for exchange and cooperation.

Until recently the ID22 was based in the UfaFabrik, a cooperative residential community of about 30 to manage a large range of cultural, social and ecological projects: international culture center, children’s circus, cogeneration systems & renewable energy production, including one of Berlin's largest solar energy systems, local re-use of rainwater, greening of buildings, a natural foods store & organic bakery, guest house, alternative school, children's farm, one of Berlin's most successful internet communications initiatives, and a neighborhood & self-help center. It must be quite a change to leave such a place to go living on yourself...

Image: experimentdays 07

With the Premium slogan "Save the future!", a green area, "green living" statements on the PR material and it's central symposium with the title "eco is not a trend" the Premium Exhibitions during the Berlin Fashion Week dared to profile themselves as green. But did the event make this green promise true?

The exhibition took place in huge old postal depot halls near Potsdammer Platz, and once you enter you feel in a labyrinth of fashion worlds. Somewhere at the very end, behind all black and grey, one could find the green area. With neon green flours and pillars, it was visible were to go for the green fashion consumer. But for the mainstream fashion buyers it might just have been one bridge too far.

Eco-Fashion professionals versus LOHAS Light
I missed out on the symposium "eco is not a trend", but from others I heard it was a hot, passionate discussion between LOHAS-light and Eco fashion-professionals. Speakers included the designer Katherine Hamnett, Renate Künast from Alliance 90/The Greens and Michalis Pantelouris, editor-in-chief of IVY WORLD. The event was moderated by Melissa Drier, correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily in Germany. While green is growing as a lifestyle movement, it also has the tendency to be more about lifestyle communication than about the actual subject to protect the environment and create human working conditions. Something we all have to find a balance in! Too much of environmentalism doesn't make it anywhere, too much happy glossy lifestyle doesn't work either.

Eco2.0
Actually I was a bit suprised that so much central quotes from the Fair Fashion Affair, the ethical fashion event Grass Routes organized last Autumn, were reflected in the Premium PR. Christoph Harrach's statement on the new movement of "Eco2.0", a central focus on LOHAS, check it out on the Premium website! And the speech of Alexandra Perschau from the Pesticide Action Network was built upon the idea that eco should be more than a trend, and that that's the real responsibility for the fashion world. Without claiming any direct connections, I just realized we somehow hit the right thing there.

Meanwhile it stays a question for the fashion professionals and fashion events how to continue with the topic and make the promise true. In Germany there is still a long way to go! During the Premium Exhibition, the green fashion area stayed a small green spot between all grey, like a flower of hope between smoking factories. The real challenge is still to turn the grey into the green. In the end, green is not about style or trend, but just about a responsible production process. A positive note and prediction to end with: green is growing... no doubt.

Picture: ethical fashion by Camilla Norrback, a Swedish label present in the Premium Exhibition's green area.

With all the positive news about new ethical fashion trends, one sometimes forgets to also stay aware about the negative sides of clothing production. In December the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) published a new report on child labour in the clothing industry, focusing on cotton production.

According to the report, six of the world’s top seven cotton producers have been reported to use children in the field. The EJF states that the conditions child labourers endure in helping to produce the cotton products sold on international markets are often brutal. "They may be subjected to beatings, threats of violence and overwork. Shocking cases of sexual harassment and abuse of girls have been reported in some major cotton-producing countries. Many children in the cotton fields are exposed to what is termed hazardouschild labour, which can result in them being killed, injured or made ill as a result of their work."

You can download the whole report for free from the EJF resources page.

Fashion campaign
The Environmental Justice Foundation has been lately in the fashion spots because of their T-shirt campaign to clean up cotton production. The campaign visited Fashion weeks in London, Paris, and now Berlin, and gained attention with famous models and designer names including Katharine Hamnett and Christian Lacroix.

Environment & human rights
We have been in contact with the EJF a few times and now met them on the Premium Exhibition in Berlin. The London based Foundation operates it's campaigns with a small team, and often cooperates with larger organizations such as Greenpeace. The EJF makes a direct link between the need for environmental security and the defence of basic human rights. And in the case of cotton production this is really needed, because the effects for humans and environment are very interrelated. Fair trade cotton that is not produced organic, that's kind of impossible...

Room to Roam - "the new breath of freedom blowing through a well-assorted wardrobe."

Actually there is more cool, German ethical fashion labels than one might think. On the Premium exhibition, we met the people behind the label Room to Roam. The Munich based organic fashion label Room to Roam combines fresh design and sustainability. Created by designer Akela Stoklas, the label offers elegant and exclusive items for women. Another fresh new ethical fashion brand in Germany!

Image: Room to Roam

Mayi is a young, ethical fashion brand from Vienna by artist and designer Maye Riess. The clothes are serene and subtle, using white and light colors, and round, arty screen prints. The label produces one-of-a-kinds, the screen prints are hand made. The label positions themselves as sustainable and innovative, and their materials are ecological.

The streets of Berlin are crowded from German and international fashionistas, as the Berlin Fashion Week is hitting the city. Some small reports from your Grass Routes agents...

Bundesamt für Bekleidung
At the Premium fair visitors were invited to analyze their clothing in the laboratory of the Federal Office for Garment, a Swiss institution. With a newly developed laboratorial computer system the "beamter" (officers) could analyze all the steps in the production chain of a garment: where it was made, the age of the producer, the environmental impact of the materials, etc.

After such an analyze, this brilliant invention "greening machine" would take care of all eventual negative social environmental scores. 2 seconds of "greening" was enough for the organic t-shirt I had tested, but also tougher cases could be handled with this machine, neutralizing any damage being caused in the production process.

Green washing
Frans tested his Italian jacket, with the outcome: made from wool & poliester, origin of materials: Thailand and Pakistan, 312 travel hours, 4 sewers, the dyes causing a small risk of cancer, and all kinds of technical details I did not understand. Anyway this jacket had to be green washed for almost a minute.

Because of their innovative approach, the Bundesamt für Bekleidung is travelling all around the world with their laboratory. They might visit your town as well to give you the chance to test the production process of your wardrobe...

Armed Angels are a young, trendy social fashion label from Cologne. They are conquering Germany with just a few simple shirts. Only selling over the internet, or through friends and friends of friends of friends. 3,33 Euro per piece of clothing goes to charity. For their innovative business concept, Armed Angels recently won a German innovation price. Check these guys out, we will hear more of them!

Angelface 2008
Armed Angels organize open contests on both their designs and models. More than 200 models have already joined. It's actually quite fun to have the chance to choose a model for a clothing brand. They also have style-of-the-month voting, where people can send in their designs and vote two shirt prints per month into the webshop. I just wanted to comment that they should also put a vote for their charity projects, but they already do...

Streetwear & social activism
Also the crew of the German ethical fashion webshop Fairwear.de organize a shirt print contest. You can send in your print design, graphics and creative impulses until the 8th of Februari 2008. The best designs will be printed, the deisgners get 50 Euros and discount in the webshop. I like the Fairwear guys because they connect their site to both streetwear styles and social activism, and seem to stay close to their ideals. They have a nice mix of fair fashion labels including Kuyichi, Tudo Bom?, Epona, THTC, Machja, and No Sweat. Just on question, where are the German ethical fashion brands?

picture: Armed Angels

Recycling fashion is still on it's way up. Now organic cotton is getting into the mainstream market, trend hungry eco-fashionistas need something different again. Well, this one-of-a-kind dress is quite a statement!

The dress, by designer Nina Valenti of Naturevsfuture is made from thousands of recycled ‘Honest Kids’ juice pouches from Terracycle . Each pouch was cut into different size squares and mounted on to a silk taffeta lining creating different patterns that cover every inch of the dress.

Cradle-to-cradle fashion
After the recent Itialian mafioso trash scam here comes the trash glam! After cradle-to-cradle architecture, a concept where buildings are up to 100 percent sustainable and partly biodegradable, we are approaching cradle-to-cradle fashion. Next season you will eat your dress, baby!

source: Inhabitat

In an effort to make our cars go greener, our EU governments decided to push the production of biofuel (also known as biogas or biodiesel, with an immediate result: rainforests are disappearing faster. After environmental organizations alarmed, the EU promised to forbid to cut down rain forests for the production of biofuel. But generally, the high demand of resources makes it more attractive than ever before to cut down these trees and plant soy for oil or hamburgers.

All in all the question rises: can we save our planet just with the 'right' consumption? Or can we only by a grand, political shift, a green revolution? At least, just consuming the right, green sounding products won't help. On the other hand, for us as consumers it is the only way to change the way things are produced, and the effects are larger than one might think.

Green revolution
The effect of a high demand for eco-products is the mainstreaming of good business. And in the side stream, this development is part of a bigger movement, a movement of global consciousness. I believe we are at a paradigm shift of which the effects are still to come. We have the possibility of a historic moment. We can. By making a choice in what we consume, and why. And by demanding high results from our political representatives. It's time for some revolution, and we might be just in the middle of it.

Saving rainforests is so...retro
Yes, we better be in a hurry to safe some rainforests (again). Some time ago I had a conversation: where is the safe the rainforest thing? Why is it not hot? An excellent topic to get high up on the agenda again. Especially because it is connected so narrowly to climate change. Because it doesn't make sense to plant trees as long as we cut them down faster. Saving Rainforests is so... retro. But what about a nice recycled Save the Rainforest shirt in best New Rave style cut?

Resources:
EcoWorldly , GreenPeace , WikiPedia

Picture by Lova Palmer

Last days I kind of literally stumbled over two interesting project spaces in my living area in Berlin Kreuzberg. The first one was a project called "supermarkt2.0". In an old supermarket space, they created a common work place for all kinds of creatives, without walls, so you could walk around and "shop" around. Architects, fashion photographers, pottery makers, painters, city planners, web designers all working criss cross through each other, without separating walls. I just passed by, were invited inside and had some talks on interesting topics such as whether there are blob like buildings in Berlin or not.

Self HUB
Yesterday I was at the opening of a project called Self HUB. It's a flexible working and common space for "social pioneers". The idea of the Hub flew over from London, and already developed itself in several cities across the world, from Rotterdam to Johannesburg. They organize all kinds of coaching and network projects for people who work on social innovation. That includes sustainable development but also psychology. Cultural creatives in the wider sense.

Social networking is the new black, the black2.0 off course.

I met a lot of people, not everyone I recognized as a social pioneer, but definitely there was an unusual open and friendly atmosphere, and I felt they were really putting their sweat and tears into this new project. For German social pioneers, you must check them out and will hear from one of their upcoming projects.

All these new, green eco-fashion brands. They are soo cool, soo green, soo georgeous. A serious fashion event can't do without them. And there we are. Sometimes I wonder, why all activists, all creatives, all green thinkers are capitalist entrepreneurs nowadays. Do we really believe consumption can save the planet? Concurrence will make us more friendly to each other? Fashion brings enlightenment?

In this light, initiatives that strive to create a different company model are rather interesting. There is a growing a amount of network / community based social companies. Although they are pioneers, they also set the trend in an era dominated by web2.0.

Fashion 2.0
A good example of a community managed company is the eco-friendly surf brand NVOHK. They recruite members through what they call a "crowdfunding business" to develop and launch a new lifestyle brand that blends social responsibility and financial performance.

Based in Los Angeles, Nvohk is recruiting 20,000 - 40,000 members to contribute $50 a year to develop and shape the nvohk brand. Members will make major business decisions including logo design, web design, product design, advertising, etc. Members will also receive a free member t-shirt, 35% of nvohk's net profits in the form of reward points that can be redeemed to purchase products, and 25% off all nvohk products. nvohk will donate 10% of net profits to environmental organizations selected by its members.

I just heard from my partner Cecilia that she already is a member. I am curious...

Source: www.projectnvohk.com

Do you also wonder what to do with this dear old shirt, and do not dare to throw it away because of all the memories sticking to it? Now here is your chance to actually give your old shirt a new life where it`s story is not washed away, but traveling with it.

Re-shirt.net is an online shop, collecting old shirts and documenting the life journey of every Re-Shirt around the world. Where normally a shirt get's less value while being worn, Re-shirts become more valuable while becoming the centre of a story and being worn by different people. Ever shirt get's an orange tag with an identification code. And the longer a shirt circulates, the more interesting it's history becomes...

Artistic statement
Re-shirt is initiated by the creative entrepreneur network Shapeshifters and more an artistic statement against overconsumption and the bad effects of conventional clothing production than a serious approach to get all the old shirts of the world send to Vienna with their stories and all.

Slow Fashion
Actually, this shirt action turns around the whole perception of old clothing! A piece of clothing is getting more valuable with the story it collects, and so fashion designers have to suggest this stories with advertising, image building, using retro prints, etc. But in reality, the story of your grandmothers dress is more exciting than that new Vutton bag, isn't it. Let's be slow!

With all the Fashion Fairs around, Slow Fashion gives a good contrast:

Berlin lost a bit of it’s rebellious soul again. Since the 1st of January, most remarkable vehicles are considered illegal because of their high emissions. Until recently, the streets of Berlin were filled with old caravans, self-made buses, hippie vans, mobile homes, and gipsy style movable houses. But new, green policies declared war to the unfiltered diesel-motors. And the streets of Berlin are… cleaner.

What is presented as greening in one way, might be greenwashing in another. Strict emulsion and pollution policies in cities are a good initiative, in my opinion. But the rules only target to older models, while the new cars are not stimulated to become more greener than they are. On the contrary, the ‘green’ sticker on your car gives you the illusion, that your car is green.

As the owners of an old Volkswagen 'Bully', we are lucky to have a gasoline van with catalysator. Our bus got a ‘green’ sticker, the greenest level one can get (there is green, yellow, orange, red, and no sticker for the too dirty outcasts). But what is green about a van driving on gasoline and drinking one-on-ten?

It would be more honest to make emission restrictions for new cars ass well. While the old cars are bullied away and will find a new life in Eastern Europe or Africa, a pressure on new cars could mean something on a global level. If they would have the courage, the Berlin municipality could start to forbid or eco-tax extreme jeeps and other new, polluting car models.

We are meanwhile dreaming of new alternatives for our ‘green’ but polluting travel friend. Recently we found out about the Verdier Solar Power, a Westfalia based, high tech caravan on hybrid and hydraulic power. A wet dream for green travelers, Wesfalia hobbyists, LOHAS, and design fetishists. The red dot award winning design is still only a design, but let’s hope it will be released rather soon!

(images (c) copyright Verdier)

"Earth ship? What by mother earth is that?" Earth ships are sustainable houses made of recycled materials and with simple, low tech methods. Earth ship often have often organic shapes, integrating recycled materials such as glass bottles and car tires, locally sourced wood, etc. The idea with an earth ship is that it is self-sufficient by i.e. collecting water, creating it's own energy, using techniques for warmth storage, and a food- supplying garden.

The concept of earth ships can be applied in both natural and urban environments, but it is mostly used in deserted areas. The concept is simple, affordable and I bet it will become more trendy to build this kind of living spaces also in Europe within the coming years. Often round shapes and futuristic styles are integrated, some earth ships look like blobs or Barbapapa- houses, while others are completely covered completely by plants, giving it the looks of a hobbit hole. Ideal for eco-adicts, LOHAS, creatives, architecture freaks, and generally for people living in a deserted area.

In The Netherlands a group of people is realizing an interesting project called "Alminde" with sustainable housing in the flat 'polder' lands not far from Amsterdam. Initiated by artist village Ruigoord, the project is carried out in cooperation with the local government and two large housing corporations. Between fields and forests, a local community of about sixty sustainable houses is created. All participants design and build their own house, but the ground is shared ownership, and half of the area is used as community ground for group rooms, meditation space, ateliers, shop, and vegetable gardens.

For more info on earth ships:
www.earthship.net
Earthship report by CNN
Earthship report by Al Jazeera

Bring green to your screen! JuntoVenture, a video activist collective and non-profit environmental organization, is hosting a multi-media challenge entitled “The Think Green, Live Green Challenge.”

JuntoVenture created the interactive challenge to build a community of dialog about the challenges of eco-friendly living. Participants are encouraged to submit their responses using a digital homemade video to win 'green' prizes. The video submission deadline is February 28, 2007.

The challenge is geared towards building a community-based discussion about “going green.” JuntoVenture seam to be cool crew of young creative activists based in California. They are using digital media to inspire, educate, and empower people to live a more sustainable lifestyle. www.juntoventure.org

Organic Exchange is opening office in Europe! Organic Exchange is a charitable organization from the United States that aims to promote organic agriculture with a special focus on fibers such as cotton. They support brands and organizations in the field. Their new focus on Europe will be another push for the rise of cool, ethcial fashion, because they have the capacities to also support larger brands to green up their production process...

With an office in The Netherlands, they are going to cooperate closely with Made-By. They will be supported by dutch development organisations ICCO and Solidaridad. In 2008, OE will offer three types of services to help brands and retailers develop their organic business as well continuing to provide their member services. These services include four basic training events, which are open to anyone but are targeted at retailers and suppliers. They will take place in Amsterdam, Germany, the UK and Sweden.

source: Eco Textile News

A mysterious group called I-local campaigned in The Netherlands with a radical activist approach, the slogan "act local! find local!" and statements like "globalization is over".

They spread more than 10.000 of their orange balaclavas, extreme YouTube videos and all around the country they glued slogans at the outward roads of villages and cities, calling car drivers to go back home. With the background idea: most things you can find in your own neighborhood. So why go somewhere else? A rather radical but interesting reaction on the enormous traffic jam problems in this overstuffed country.

Off course, this mysterious action group of radical anti-globalists turned out to be an internet company offering a local search engine, now good for 1 million visitors a month in the Benelux. Guerillia marketing is still on it's rise, but this example is remarkable. Especially for a country that lately has been in the picture for it's anti-European sentiments. And for the real anti-globalists this might be a bit of an image-problem. I wouldn't be surprised if the I-locals will infiltrate anti-G8 and WTO demonstrations with their orange balaclavas and slogans like: "Act local! Ami go home!"...

A cross in a circle, passing by on a bag, a jacked or a pair of jeans. Ethical fashion brand Kuyichi made it quite far in The Netherlands! In Berlin we had to suffer to find more than one kind of Kuyichi male jeans, here Kuyichi is rather mainstream. Even in the village where my parents live there is a shop with a better collection than any shop in Berlin can offer, meanwhile also selling Misericordia and Inti without even marketing their shop as ethical.

Is ethical fashion more hot in the Netherlands than in Germany? Hard to say. Germany has been a pioneer with organic cotton clothing, and still has a strong position in the "eco 0.1". But what about "eco 0.2", the new, young and trendy eco-fashion movement?

Something especially developed is the amount of projects, campaigns and organizations that commit themselves to hyping ethical clothing. In Germany I have the feeling this is not happening too much. That's a big difference. In example dutch organization Solidaridad, inventor of the Max Havelaar - Fair Trade label, the Utz-certification for coffee (a sort of Fair Trade Light for the mainstream coffee market), brains behind several ethical clothing brands including Kuyichi, and the Made-By initiative.

Also other initiatives have been a lot in the picture, in example the actions of the young, creative collective YOI, with a guerilla store and fashion shows, who introduced and hyped the term Hiphonest for the new eco-fashion generation. Now 'Hiphonest' might be the most used term in the Netherlands for trendy ethical clothing.

The reason for my Amsterdam visit this time was a meeting with Goede Waar & Co, a dutch consumer organization specialized in ethical consumption and sustainable production. One of their focuses is clothing. One of their activities is a "clothing checker", a tool to give information to consumers about social and environmental aspects of their clothing. They ask ethical and mainstream brands to fill in their questionnaire, visit the companies when possible, and give scores for the categories: social, environment, economy (people, planet, profit).
Goede Waar & Co do also a lot in campaigning, in example organizing swapper parties, and swapping your clothes on parties is getting hot if you did not know it yet.

After my visit to Goede Waar & Co I walked back through the Jordaan to the station. On my way through the Haarlemmerstraat I passed two stores for "Natural clothes", and off course the ethical fashion store Nukuhiva, with a rather strong choice of ethical classics. Not a daring choice, most of the collection was black (if green is the new black, it still looks quite black!).
About half of the Nukuhiva clothing collection is Kuyichi, a heaven for 'style conscious' Kuyichi lovers! Furthermore brands like Edun, Misericordia, Loomstate, and Intoxica. They had also a small but cool choice of shoes from Veja (organic, vegan shoes) and Worn Again. And the fantastic jewelery from designer Natalie Dissel, who I lately met during the Africa Inspires workshop in Kenya.

This part of town is loved for its small houses and picturesque atmosphere, and what once was a poor area is now a yuppies paradise. Still I am amazed that with the extreme house prices this area is still lively and dynamic, with a good blend of students, expats, LOHAS, artists, weirdos, dealers and grandmothers. For the ethical consumer there is a lot of offer, with a bio-supermarket, and the booming 'honest' coffee and bagels concept. The largest ecological market I have seen so far. And not to forget, bikers are the number one in traffic! At least they believe so.

*** article by Frans C. Prins


More interesting dutch initiatives on ethical clothing:
- Sustainable Fashion Community: Het is groen en het...
- Cotton Clash, hiphonest parties, ethical fashion shows: Move Your World
- Fair Wear Foundation
- Finding ethical products in The Netherlands on: Alles Duurzaam
- Clean clothes

Fairliebt is a fine, young ethical T-shirt label from Hamburg in Germany. They use fair trade shirts from organic cotton and sustainable screen print techniques. The shirts are recognizable by their clear, playful designs.

Their T-shirts are made by Lamu Lamu in a factory in Nairobi, and certified fair trade. During my visit in Kanya I coincidently visited the factory. My photo's of this visit are lost, but here a short impression: it was rather stuffed in the factory. They started with only about twenty workers, now every corner of the working place is used. In one corner sewers were busy for a local Kenyan clothing brand, full of colors and patterns. On the other side I found the shirts of Lamu Lamu. As they also produce non organic basic T-shirts for the local market, I could compare the quality. Indeed, the organic cotton felt much, much nicer and softer!

As I wrote already in another article, it is hard to see the fair trade aspects in a factory if you are not trained for it. The area is really industrial, dirty and rough. For someone with a lot of beautiful ideas about sustainable production this can be rather disappointing, but the reality is off course that we also have to create better working conditions inside the dirty industrial areas. And respect for those sweating to realize this on every day base!

The cotton from the Fairliebt shirts comes from Phenix in Uganda, please read the articles below if you want to know more about this organic, fair trade cotton from Uganda.
Fairliebt are selling their shirts online to keep prices low. A succesful concept for them, and a good example for others. Thanks to Fairliebt for your positive spirit!

*** I wrote this article shortly before the unfortunate happenings in Kenya of the past weeks. Let's hope that peace will return to this lovely country. Frans

See one of the Fairliebt clips on MySpace:

Stockholm is becoming a meltingpot of hot, organic fashion and anticorporate blackspot. Thursday we went for a few hours eco-fashion hunting in Stockholm, in search for future Pamoyo selling shops and for general interest off course. First we visited Red & Fairy, a shop who opened their doors just five weeks ago. The clothes they sell are completely organic and fair trade. Red&Fairy prefer labels that produce fairtrade in the South. They sell clothes from two Swedish labels, Righteous Fashion and Dem Collective, and furthermore Kuyichi. A small but very nice shop, and we hope they will make it and grow!

Next stop was the Ekovaruhuset in old town Gamlastan, very well located between arts and crafts shops and chique fashion boutiques. The Ekovaruhuset, with a second store in New York, has a large offer of fashionable clothes, shoes, and accessories. On the one hand they sell fashion, on the other hand a selection of organic cleaning detergents, ethical living magazines and chique organic chocolates. Considering all the Christmas rush, the personal was very calm and spreading a peaceful atmosphere with a lot of attention and love in creating one-of-a-kind packages. One of the women in the shop said that the skepticism against ecological clothes had been hard, but that they now notice a change of attitude. They sell a selection of very wide range of cool, well known ethical fashion brands and local Swedish ethical designers like American Apparel, Anja Hynynen, Bergman Sweden, Birgitta Ericsson, Blackspot, Camilla Norrback, DEM Collective, Demin, Gossypium, Günay Kulbay, Howies, Johanna Hofring, Lovisa Burfitt och Stina Johnson, Kuyichi, Misericordia, Modiga barn, Nana Baah, Peau-Ethique, Pelle Backman, Loomstate, Steward&Brown, Solius, ThreeAsFour, Tor Söderin, Zion Clothing, Åsa och Taneale and Veja.

On our way to hipster area Söder we accidently passed Sarabia, the agency office of Kuyichi, Misericordia, Edun, and Steward & Brown. Unfortunately closed, but showing a nice location and good windows to look in through. Just afterwards we spotted Adbusters’ Blockspot sneakers in an ordinary, large Swedish fashion store, which made us believe that ethical fashion is really getting hot in Stockholm. As young people in Sweden generally are well dressed in style and seem to spend a little budget on fashion, there might be a good market for ethical fashion as well, with still quite a space to grow. Considering that the new cool Swedish ethical brands are focusing on the young generation in particular, with designer fashion like Camilla Norrback, and a range of smaller, upcoming labels, ethical fashion might in Sweden work best being style conscious. But as ecological and social awareness in Sweden is relatively progressive, it sounds logical that the ethical side will also market itself here upnorth, which is recently proved by the succesfull exhibition “Fair Fashion?” in Göteborg last autumn.

After all, the most ethical fashion is to be found in Söder, where lampposts and traffic signs are dressed in handmade knitwear. An original form of street art taking care of the freezing street furniture and the stubbornness of bypassers...

In Northern Uganda, in the region around Lira, there is as much as 27 thousand farmers (!!!) growing organic cotton. The farmers are united in a cooperative with chosen representatives. The organic cotton project here is started by and running through the Dutch company BoWeevil. The cotton from the Phenix factory in Kampala which I visited the day before, origins from this project as well. As might do the Edun or M&S clothes you are wearing on this very moment.

I went to see the project and visited some farmers. It was quite a trip from Kampala, it takes about six hours on crazy roads. As I understood, this area has been under control by the cruel guerilla Lord’s Resistance Army until very recently. Now there are peace negotiations, so the area is calmer and the farmers, who lived in refugee camps, are living on their lands again. So until one, two years ago they had to go to their lands with fear and go back to the camps before the evening fell. One could understand that’s not an easy way to work. Okay, no Army anymore, but on the way back our driver refused to stop at the beautiful Nile waterfalls because there was a danger for guerilla bandits.

The farming life looked all quite romantic to me, traditional huts, some chickens running around, people hanging around or working a bit. The farmers have small fields with different crops. They do not make use of irrigation, so depend on the rain seasons that occur a few times per year. Next to cotton they grow sesame, red peppers and vegetables for local consumption. The income from cotton and sesame, which is exported, gives income which the farmers can use to send their children to school or buy medicines from. From the extra income they gain with growing organic, the farmers can afford building small houses instead of huts. This is a development from the last years, and if it continues, traditional huts might disappear pretty fast from the landscape.

This is the ambivalence of development. On the one hand it is a positive achievement for the farmer, having a good roof, a house with a door that you can close of, on the other hand it can be a loss of cultural value. An even stronger ambivalence I felt when visiting the Maasai women project in Kenja. In this project, run by catholic nuns, they make traditional jewelry to be able to send their children to school. As they said, they hope that their children will then be able to give the Maasai a stronger presence in municipalities, politics, and that this will decrease their oppression. But while these children go to school, they will live less tightened to their traditional culture, and if they become successful, they will most likely be westernized.

There is not much enemies of cotton in Uganda, so the need for pesticides is not all that high. Often farmers do not have the money to invest in chemicals either. So the step to become organic is not all to large. What makes a difference, is that the organic farmers are trained in methods to prevent their crops in a natural way. A rather genius but logical invention is to plant red peppers around the cotton. Quite some animals don’t really like peppers so they will stay away. And by using this method, they also produce peppers. Another part of growing organic is using crop rotation. The different crops use the ground different, which keeps the soil fertile, so one does not need artificial fertilizers to pimp up the ground. The crop rotation also results in a more efficient use of the landfill and a higher production. In this way it is also more economic. And off course also the non-organic farmers are very interested to see what their neighbors are doing…

In the end, the social effect of this organic cotton project might be much bigger than the ecological impact. The farmers get a guaranteed price and buy for their cotton, the get training and a organic-bonus of twenty percent. This can mean the difference for sending their children to school or having a proper housing. As they are organized in a cooperative, they are relatively self-organized. In that sense, it is a logical step that the project is becoming fair trade certified now. But also the ecological impact is important, as it supports and conserves a relatively traditional way of farming, and is a good alternative to technolization, GM production and ‘improvements’ with pesticides, often introduced or forced by large corporations, who also try to get more grip in Africa. In this fall, the Ugandese case is an interesting example because the success of the organic production, the support from the Ugandese government and the result might be that the whole North of Uganda will be organic within a few years.

After the workshop in Kenya I took a bus from Nairobi to Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The trip with Akamba bus took about fifteen hours. It was relatively comfortable, compared to Matatu traveling, where you sit in a small van pressed against each other, but the roads where wobbly, sandy and dusty and one feels quite exhausted after such a trip. On the way I spotted a lot of colorful birds, zebras, antelopes, and apes. After being in wealthy circumstances of hotels, restaurants, and good company, this was quite a difference and I felt arriving in Africa for real!

Kampala roads are much worse than Nairobi roads! And traffic jams are relative if you get used being stuck five hours a day... In Kampala we visited a few projects, in example a designer who makes jewelery and bags from recycled materials (see picture left, she is holding a bag made from recycled plastic), which are produced under a women support program. We also visited the Phenix factory, where they produce fabrics and garments form organic cotton. It was interesting to see, since they work hard to make the factory vertically integrated, one could see the whole process from bringing cotton in to a ready sewn and printed garment in one factory.

Actually it is really worth visiting so many places of production because it gives much more of an insight in the reality of garment production. One of the things I learned on my journey is how complex the matters of fair trade is and also how relative it can look. Complex because it is a whole production chain involved. The cotton can be organic and fair trade, but that doesn't make the final product organic or fair trade. Relative because fair trade, even when certified, is not always visible directly, fair trade does not automatically mean smiling workers (as the marketing of fair trade will make you believe), so it is more in the invisible part (control on labor rights, transparency of the production chain, etc.) that makes the difference.

Last weeks Frans visited Kenya and Uganda and visited several projects there. The trip started with the workshop Africa Inspires in Nairobi, organized by the Ethical Fashion Forum, an international platform for ethical fashion brands and initiatives, and the ITC. The workshop provided a program of visits to social projects, fair trade initiatives, recycling, etc. If you are working with ethical fashion or are a fashion designer interested to do so, the projects of the Ethical Fashion Forum might be of interest for you as well!

We visited projects in and around Nairobi and the Rift Valley. They included breadwork and weaving, shoe and bag production, etc. TO BE CONTINUED SOON...