After subzero temperatures and finding myself confronting mortality not once but twice in the last week (through being called back for a repeat mammogram and a too-close-for-comfort encounter between a train and a car that I was a passenger in), and fortunately having angels looking after me in both cases, I find myself knee-deep in work deadlines that I've fallen behind on, so my posts will be short (maybe that's a good thing). I've been trying to make Christmas ornaments, too, but it's frustrating when hours of hand beading and embroidery yield something that looks like you'd find it at Pier 1 on sale for $3.99. That may say more about me than our culture of cheap textiles, however.
Which brings to this week's must-read article, from the London Times: Disposable Fashion: For sale, Hardly Worn, 2 Million Tonnes of Clothes. The world of fast fashion and textiles yields not just a distorted sense of where and how textiles are made, at high environmental and social cost, but even when recycled these poorly made products are difficult to reuse. Slow Fashion - buying fewer, better-quality clothes -- is important, and learning how to make things is even better, if only because it helps people to understand what it takes to make a garment.
If you just can't take any more bad news about our global condition, there's a fun article previewing the Marimekko spring collection of textile designs at this Helsinki paper. The designs, a collaboration between Marimekko and Finnish-British designer Sanna Annukka, are rooted in myth and legend and story; for example, "All kinds of things can be seen in Taikamylly, which tells of a device which churns out prosperity: ladles and forks, pearls and coins." I love the idea that ladles and forks are symbols of abundance. This design is called Pearls of Fortune:
May you all have angels on alert and pearls of fortune -- and forks and ladles, too.
I'm afraid I have no suggestions or solutions for our wasteful attitude problems (though I do love the advice given the supermodel), but I do want to asssure you....
What you produce with your hands and heart and creative spirit is not the same as the Pier1 things. It's not. And any other discerning eye and heart will know that. This sounds quite trite... but it isn't meant that way. I prize the items that others have hand made for me... I can see the care that is sewn/glued/stapled into it. They have a weight to them... a sense of realness...
But I think you do know that. That's why you are compelled to do what you do.
Posted by: Kathleen C. | December 18, 2008 at 08:52 AM
That Times article was very interesting, nothing that I didn't know of before really, but it's an important issue!
Love the last line: “If we spent exactly double the amount of money on each garment and bought exactly half as many garments, nobody would be impoverished by that.” It is so true.
Posted by: Frida | December 18, 2008 at 02:11 AM
Hi M-L! Thank you -- yes, it's been a traumatic week, but all is well.
I thought of you as I wrote the post - I hope you'll write about the line too, as your perspective is so wonderful, and you know the language and culture.. I love regional fairy tales and legends, and the designs are so colorful and alive.
Posted by: Lainie | December 17, 2008 at 03:06 PM
Oh, you beat me to posting about the new Marimekko collection! It really is quite different from the early years of their large bold abstract shapes. I love the references to the Kalevala myths.
Glad your guardian angels have been alert, what scares you've had!
Posted by: marja-leena | December 17, 2008 at 02:59 PM