Category Archives: campaigns and leadership

Sew 213 – Op shops are tops

My sister Joanne, right, and I were raised by a mother who made clothing for herself and for us, in the time before sweatshops and cheap fast fashion. As a child, I remember being told not to say anything if we saw our young neighbours wearing our cast-offs.

Clothing is still passed on through social and family networks, to maximise use of garments and the fabrics from which they were made. Thrifty values are ingrained, so Jo and I still share unworn clothing before it is donated to opportunity shops, turned into rags or dumped.

These day clothing swaps and swish parties are happening things and I am an avid supporter of op shops – both buying from and donating to.

Op shops operate with a lot of wonderful volunteer support, play an important role in helping those in need and keeping textiles out of landfill through reuse and recycling. Continue reading →

Sew 211 – Use skills to renovate clothes

I’m up to day 211 of upcycling and renovating existing clothing to give them another chance at life through the 2014 Sew it Again project.

We don’t live in a perfect world so why expect our clothing to be so? Clothing requires maintenance and can be renovated. Sometimes we wash them more than we need to (Levis CEO doesn’t wash jeans) and often times we rush off to buy something new instead of checking and changing what we already have.

As an op shop queen, I buy very little new, am into DIY and use the library. But when I found Womankind magazine while browsing the newsagent, I saw something special.

The cover is symbolic, a beautiful butterfly collage of a woman’s face, the editorial by Antonia Case a compelling case for using time wisely to create a good life and the article about Julia Schor was the decider to add Womankind to my collection of affirming publications. Continue reading →

Sew 188 – ARLF farewell honours

It was an honour to be commissioned to create a unique, relevant farewell gift for Dr Lesley Fitzpatrick who led the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation as CEO for seven years.

The ARLF’s flagship program is the Australian Rural Leadership Program which provides a rare opportunity to enrich, enlighten and empower selected individuals – and I was fortunate to be sponsored through the program in 2009 thanks to the Fairfax Agricultural Media scholarship.

One of Lesley’s achievements as CEO was securing Graduate Certificate status for ARLP through James Cook University. I found the Grad Cert transformative because It led me on a creative journey into eco-leadership, reusing natural fibres to reduce waste and help shift the way we think about fashion and clothing. Continue reading →

Sew 176 – REfashion for celebration

The 60th anniversary of UNICEF’s presence in Malaysia is cause for celebration and I am proud that my sister-in-law Dr Wendy Relf chose to wear upcycled REfashion, namely Sew 176, instead of other available choices.

Photographed below is Wendy, with my brother Professor Tony Capon, Director of the International Institute for Global Health at United Nations University in Kuala Lumpur, as they headed off to this special event tonight.

Many of us have many, perhaps too many, choices in what we can wear because there is a surfeit of clothes in the world. What happens to clothes when we tire of them, grow out of them, find they don’t suit our shape anymore? Continue reading →

Sew 175 – Skinny jeans wrap skirt

It was very affirming to see Biloela upcycler Kerrie leap into her REfashion projects with confidence, enthusiasm, creativitity and commitment to getting results that worked for her lifestyle and existing local resources.

There’s been some interesting discussion on Facebook after my friend Gen Robey shared a photo of waste clothing at Reedy Creek refuse station at the Gold Coast, which prompted reflection on why charitable recyclers are swamped with cast-offs every day and end up dumping them. The reasons I put forward are these:

1. Non-transparent global supply chains mean you can buy new so cheaply (ask Q who’s exploited in process and remember Rana Plaza)

2. Many people have lost simple sewing skills to mend and alter – can’t replace a button or cut off wayward (once-on-trend) feature to revive garment for second life. Continue reading →

Sew 174 – Jumpers become history skirt

The recent Textile Beat history skirt workshop at Biloela was ‘sew’ productive it is still providing a store of daily upcycles for me to post while I visit my brother Professor Anthony (Tony) Capon in Malaysia.

Tony is based in KL as Director of the International Institute for Global Health at United Nations University and it is always inspiring to have the opportunity to talk about big issues facing the world around our shared interest in disease prevention, ecological health and food production.

Obesity is a growing global epidemic and was the focus of a recent opinion piece Tony wrote for the New Straits Times which has since opened new dialogue about obesity as the ‘mother of all diseases’. Tony and I also enjoyed visiting Malaysia’s League of Extraordinary Women exhibition which features global humanitarian Dr Jemilah Mahmood, see photo below. Continue reading →

Sew 170 – REfashion is non-toxic

The reasons why I’m upcycling natural fibre garments during 2014 include because it is creative, mindful, resourceful, flexible, sustainable, thrifty, bespoke, handy, fun, ethical, reducing waste, shifting habits, demonstrating alternatives and non-toxic.

This Ecouterre article about toxic threads provides further affirmation: “Around 80 billion garments are produced worldwide, the equivalent of just over 11 garments a year for every person on the planet, according to Greenpeace. The growing volumes of clothing being made, sold, and disposed of magnifies the human and environmental costs of our clothes at every stage of their life cycle, which means that even minute quantities of toxins can cumulatively amount to the widespread dispersal of damaging chemicals across the globe, the group says.” Continue reading →

Sew 169 – Gorgeous zero-waste skirt

At a global level people are beginning to question the way we dress, where clothing comes from, and whether it is made with ethical and sustainable processes.

As there is rising interest in home cooking and food growing for health and wellbeing, there is a pressing need to rethink our approach to textiles and fashion. Fast food and fast fashion are convenient – but not necessarily sustainable or good for us and our planet.

My model for a social and environmental shift includes empowering individuals to reimagine and recreate their own wardrobe collection by creatively chopping and changing existing clothing to suit themselves.

Instead of global generic bland brand dressing, this shift involves local, individual unfashionistas branding themselves through sustainable, ethical eco-clothing as part of a REfashion Revolution turning waste and reject clothing into something to wear with pride. Continue reading →

Sew 156 – On World Environment Day

On average Australians throw away around 21 million tonnes of waste per year, according to the Australian Government’s Living Greener initiative. This figure includes waste from our homes and gardens as well as waste generated from building and renovating our homes.

Since the population of Australia is 22 million, we’re each contributing nearly one tonne (that’s 1000 kg) of waste every single year. This is three kgs of waste each, every day, every year ongoing.

Steps to reduce waste are simple actions we each undertake to minimise our footprint on the planet – today as World Environment Day and every other day after that. Continue reading →

Sew 154 – Three Ts reworked

Leadership is an action not a position. This favourite quote is attributed to US television executive Donald H. McGannon who believed in socially responsible leadership through actions – such as dropping cigarette advertising because it was the right thing to do.

I’ve adopted this quote as my own following socially responsible leadership study last year with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation and James Cook University, which led to my upcycling social enterprise Textile Beat and this Sew it Again campaign.

On a much bigger scale and operating since 2007, Redress is a Hong-Kong based non-government organisation led by Christina Dean working to promote environmental sustainability in the fashion industry by reducing textile waste, pollution, water and energy consumption. Continue reading →