Australians are disposing of 23kg of clothing each year. This means 800,000 tonnes of textiles and clothing are being discarded, with 90% ending up in landfill.

As individuals, we need to be conscious of what we are consuming and consider the lifecycle of our purchases.

Nina Gbor is an award-winning sustainability advocate, ethical fashion speaker, climate activist, writer, educator, and founder of Eco Styles. From lived experience and education, Nina writes and speaks about the dynamics between the global South and global North, with focus on inequalities and justice in areas of fashion relating to socio-economics, politics and gender.

Nina has a master’s degree in International Development and is a former sustainable fashion tutor in short courses at RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia. She coined the phrase ‘get off the fashion trendmill’ which means individuality and self-knowledge should be the premise for consuming clothing, not fashion trends. She is based in Sydney, Australia.

Join us online on Tuesday 25 October for a conversation with the stylish, Nina Gbor. Nina will share her passion for sustainable and ethical fashion, and female empowerment and prove that style & fashion don’t have to come at a cost to people or our planet!

This event is part of a series of inspirational talks to get you thinking differently about your waste. Check them out!

• November MICROfactorie technologies: Transforming our waste
• December Pre-loved gifting: the future of gift giving with Skye Bains

The clothing industry has an annual carbon footprint close to that of all 28 current EU states combined – at 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 yearly. It must rapidly decarbonise if we are to meet global reduction goals. But what might a decarbonised clothing economy look like? How do we respect workers and community in this transition? And what steps must we take to get there?

Speakers for this session will include:

• Writer and fashion consultant Aja Barber
• Ruth Strange from Ethical Consumer
• Deborah Baker from Fibreshed
• fashion supply chain voices and more

Have you ever wanted to cover up a stain on your favourite shirt or give an old shirt an exciting new life? Decorate something completely custom to wear yourself or make a unique present for a loved one? Maybe you’re just sick of watching Netflix and having nothing to show for it now that we’re in year two of COVID life?

I HAVE THE HOBBY FOR YOU. Join me (embroidery artist, flower enthusiast, thrift shopper, woman whose hands always need to stay busy) in a Zoom workshop designed to show you how to get started on a fun and vibrant embroidery project on a linen shirt.

Please note: there are a maximum of 10 spots in the workshop, and 7 are available at the regular price. There are 3 donation tickets available for sliding scale payment (suggested payment $10-$50) to increase the accessibility of this workshop. Please feel free to pay by donation if this is what is most feasible for you financially.

Class will cover:

• Choosing clothing, planning a design, choosing a colour palette
• Transferring the design to clothing
• Some basic stitches and suggestions for further learning

You will get:

• A materials list, including instructions for picking a shirt that will work well for hand embroidering (to be bought before the workshop begins) – this will be emailed after you have purchased a ticket
• Three different designs to apply to your clothing, with instructions on how to do so (you can also draw your own!)
• Colour suggestions for the provided designs
• Stitching demonstration

About the instructor:

Sam (she/her) is a self taught embroidery artist who has been stitching for 6 years and selling upcycled clothing for the last 3 years. She is inspired by nature (florals and foliage of all kinds!), vintage botanical illustrations, tarot cards, and traditional tattoo imagery.

On Thursday, September 2 at noon, join the Ellwood House and DeKalb County History Center for “The Lifestyle of Clothing in the 19th Century,” a free lecture by Erika Holst, Illinois Road Scholar and Curator of History at the Illinois State Museum.

“In today’s world of fast fashion we have become used to a minimal investment in our clothing, in terms of money and especially in terms of time,” says Holst. “During the 1800s, a significant portion of a woman’s day was dedicated to making, mending, washing, and making over clothing, and in wringing every last scrap of usefulness out of textiles by recycling them when clothing was too worn to be mended anymore.”

During this one-hour presentation, Holst will highlight the work that went into clothing using examples from the Illinois State Museum’s historic garment collection.

The presentation is part of Brown Bag Lunch/Local Lore, the museums’ series of free monthly lectures.

Brown Bag Lunch/Local Lore is generously supported by the Mary E. Stevens Concert and Lecture Fund.

Clothing the Pandemic’ Workshop aims to offer a place for sharing experience and knowledge. It will help to connect people and institutions (international curators and conservators, historians, museums, and the global public) at a time when we are all physically distant from one another.

The workshop is seeking to understand how to document the Material Culture of the Pandemic; to develop Strategies and to face Challenges.

It will unfold in 2 parts: Part I “Collecting,Researching, Documenting, Displaying” in Spring 2021, Part II “Conservation, Preservation” in Fall 2021.

See full description of the project : http://costume.mini.icom.museum/clothing-the-pandemic/

PART II – FALL 2021 : CONSERVATION/PRESERVATION

• 3:00 PM – Welcoming words by ICOM Costume Chair, Corinne Thépaut-Cabasset
• 3:05 PM – Introductory words by ICOM CC Chair, Kate Seymour
• 3:15 PM – Collecting COVID: Collecting lockdown clothes for a social history museum, Beatrice Behlen
• 3:35 PM – Conserving a symbol: Preservation of the facemasks from the Covid-19 Pandemic, Sarah Benson and Anna Lagana
• 4:40 PM – Q&A

See full programme

Free online events upon registration only.

Join Leeds based embroidery artist and tutor Elnaz Yazdani online for an introduction to embroidery workshop. Perfect for those unable to attend a face to face workshop at the moment.

You will be guided through a variety of beautiful hand embroidery techniques and stitches using an array of different threads to create your own unique piece of hoop art. All the stitches you’ll learn can be applied to any cloth, item of clothing or accessory so you can carry on stitching beyond the workshop.

Embroidery is also a great way to keep calm and reduce stress levels so sign up and enjoy the meditative wonders of the process of embroidery.

Who is the workshop for?

The workshop is suitable for complete beginners as well as those with some embroidery experience, all levels are welcome.

Your Tutor

Elnaz Yazdani is an embroidery artist and educator based in Yorkshire. With a portfolio practice in embroidery and background in embroidery education, Elnaz is dedicated to sharing her skills and promoting the importance of embroidery as an art form for the future.

Elnaz has taught embroidery within higher education for over 5 years and teaches fashion, costume and textile BA and MA students. She also runs community-based workshops and takes on embroidery/ jewellery commissions. Visit Elnaz’ s website, elnazyazdani.com or find her on Instagram @elnazyazdani

What you need ready for the workshop:

• Some embroidery needles (Crewel & Chenille)

• Some threads and yarns, work with what you can find, embroidery threads, threads for the machine, cut strips of fabrics, thinner knitting or crochet yarns, paper yarn, plastic, ribbon, trimmings… basically if you can get it through your needle you can embroider with it!

• Fabric to work onto, plain or patterned, natural fabrics work best for beginners, try a cotton, wool, denim or linen, avoid stretch fabrics. Upcycle onto old bedding, pair or jeans, cushion or jacket.

• A pair of scissors

• If you have an embroidery hoop or frame please have this ready, if not it’s not essential so don’t worry.

• A pencil or fabric marker pen if you have one.

Please log into the zoom call 10 minutes before the session is due to commence so the class can begin on time.

Looking forward to stitching with you!

An introduction into hand weaving. This workshop is a perfect place to start if you’re a beginner or want a refresher course of the basics!

Before the workshop, Kirsty will post a pack out to you with everything you need. Each pack will consist of a loom, a variety of beautiful yarns and instructions, although she’ll be virtually on on hand! Inside you’ll also find loom return information for after the workshop.

Kirsty will demonstrate thread by thread how to set up a frame loom and how to accomplish different woven techniques. You will then be able to try these patterns out for yourself, weaving with a variety of different textural and colourful yarns to create a beautiful piece of handwoven cloth, to turn into a small wall hanging, a table piece for your home, or just keep as a fabulous bit of weaving!

Whether you produce a traditional or contemporary design, you will get to take your very own handwoven fabric home with you. Kirsty will be on hand to answer questions for all your weaving needs and with 10 years experience in the field, her expertise really bring her workshops to life!

All yarns will also be provided, but if you have some at home that you’ve been saving for that special project, bring them along!

If you’d like to buy the frame loom you use during the workshop, they’re offered to coursegoers at a 20% discounted rate.

PLEASE NOTE: KIRSTY PACKS ALL EQUIPMENT WEARING FULL PPE AND LEAVES A 48 HOUR GAP BEFORE POSTAGE. ALL PACKAGES ARE SANITISED.

Textiles in business history (double feature)

Presenters: Muwei Chen (Beijing Foreign Studies University) and Alka Raman (London School of Economics)

Chair: Ashton Merck (Duke University)

A Voluntary Approach to Pollution Treatment Through Trade Association-Led Collective Action: Traditional Black Dyeing Firms in 1970s Kyoto

Muwei Chen (Beijing Foreign Studies University)

The problem of pollution is a typical example of an external diseconomy that takes an important position in the relationship between the environment and private firms. Private firms incline to prioritize economic profit over environmental protection, thus, relying on firms’ initiatives to treat pollution seems impracticable. However, Japan has encouraged voluntary environmental actions since when legislation and regulations on pollution were still in formation. This voluntary approach is considered to be opposite to the European and American styles, which primarily promote pollution treatment through top-down decision making by governments. Previous studies on this approach mainly focus on comparison between Japan and Western countries on the macro level. However, how the firms negotiated with the government as well as other stakeholders is less known. Besides, while big firms attract much academic and social attention, small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) are underexplored. Therefore, it warrants further study through a business historical lens to unravel what happened on the micro and meso level. This study aims to address these gaps by exploring how SMEs collectively dealt with pollution under the leadership of trade associations, while contributing to an understanding of the bottom-up voluntary approach. This study examines the case of an industrial district specializing in black dyeing in Kyoto and its surrounding areas that successfully solved their pollution problem in around 10 years. This is largely attributable to the collective attempts initiated by the Kyoto Kurozome Industrial Cooperative Association. These include both negotiations with various stakeholders and other activities to motivate the association members from within. The conclusions are as follows. First, the collective attempts compensated for the risk that the relatively loose regulation environment for SMEs could lead to reduced motivation to treat pollution. Second, the association constructed a regulative and normative environment to facilitate peer supervision based on horizontal inter-firm relationship. Third, the negotiation included diverse stakeholders, nevertheless, the failure to adopt the new dyeing method was attributed to the influence from the supply chain.

From imitation to industrialisation: Evolution of cloth quality in the British cotton industry, 1740-1820

Alka Raman (London School of Economics)

The introduction of Indian printed and painted cotton textiles into Britain in the late seventeenth century led to immediate imitations of these goods by British manufacturers. Did the process of imitation of these foreign benchmark products lead to the adoption of a specific trajectory of technological growth within the British cotton industry? This paper contributes to a topic central to interpretations of British industrialisation, pathways to technological change, and eventually innovations, using qualitative empirical material analysis. It highlights material knowledge transfer in the absence of codified means of knowledge exchange and identifies imitation as a key channel for innovation and technological change. Textual evidence from contemporary entrepreneurs, merchants, manufacturers as well as observers of the British cotton industry indicates that manufacturers in the early British cotton industry were concerned about cloth quality vis-à-vis Indian cottons and that there was a shift towards improvements in cloth quality, especially for the making of the cotton warp yarn. These texts suggest the hypothesis that there was a shift towards finer cotton textiles in Britain, via attempts to make the cotton warp yarn match Indian quality. With a novel dataset of surviving British and Indian textiles of the period, the paper puts this hypothesis to test and concludes that between 1746 and 1850, there was an increase in the quality of British cottons leading to a convergence with the quality of handmade Indian cottons. Extant literature mentions learning from pre-existing products but what this learning entailed and whether imitation of benchmark products stimulated technological innovations are questions that have remained unexplored. While British industrialisation has been studied from a variety of viewpoints, the impact of pre-existing goods, whose replication by machinery effectively constitutes the shift towards industrialisation, is a perspective previously ignored. This paper shows how competitive ambition amongst British manufactures to produce goods that rivalled Indian cottons steered the trajectory of mechanical innovations in the British cotton industry. Using empirical microscopic analysis of the historical material textile sources, I demonstrate that technological change in the British cotton industry was guided by the quest to match the cloth quality of handmade Indian cottons.

Al acceder a este evento Usted permite que los datos personales proporcionados sean almacenados por Colectivo de Historia de la Empresa, que su participación en el evento sea grabada, distribuida por medios digitales y redes sociales. Además, que el Colectivo de Historia de la Empresa lo contacte posteriormente. En cualquier momento Usted puede revocar este permiso o solicitar que se elimine su participación solicitandolo a bizhiscollective@gmail.com

By registering to this event you agree for The Business History Collective to keep personal information and for The Business History Collective to record your participation during the said online meeting and to distribute that recording through digital platforms and social media. The Business History Collective might contact you at a later date. You may unsubscribe or revoke this permission at any time or request that your contribution is edited out by email to bizhiscollective@gmail.com.

Presented by The Hills Shire Council Library Service and Resource Recovery teams .

THIS EVENT IS FOR HILLS SHIRE COUNCIL RESIDENTS ONLY. YOUR RESIDENTIAL ADDRESS WILL BE REQUIRED FOR REGISTRATION.

Are you thinking about using modern cloth nappies and don’t know where to start? Join us online for our introduction to cloth nappies webinar. We’ve got a cloth nappy expert ready to answer your questions and help you get started.

You will be required to download Zoom to your device and create your own account before the day. Please login and test your account before the day as there will be no technical support available.

The Zoom link for the event will be sent to participants prior to the event.

FREE | Bookings essential online | Suitable for Adults

Unless sold out prior, ticket sales for this event will end at 8pm Wednesday 3 March.

Self-taught mending enthusiast Ollie Cultrara will guide participants in three basic visible mending techniques for patching and darning your own items.

Participants should bring their own materials, including:

• Cloth item to mend,
• Sewing needle,
• Thread and/or embroidery floss,
• Fabric of similar texture for patching (a spare sock or scrap of fabric can work),
• Scissors

Optional:

• Sewing pins,
• Embroidery hoop or firm object (like a glass jar) to place behind your sewing,
• Rubber band to hold fabric in place over the firm object

This workshop is for Mornington Peninsula Shire residents only.

Tune in to learn all about getting started with cloth nappies. Learn how to wash them, where to buy them and what to look for. She will cover washing tips, dispel myths, show the different styles of modern cloth and most importantly an opportunity to ask questions to get you confident with cloth.

Elana lives a minimalist and low waste lifestyle, with two young children who spent a combined 5 years in cloth nappies. She has a degree in Social Science (Environment) and is passionate about reducing the environmental impact of households, but also understands the pressures of modern life and balancing work and children.

We believe in looking after our clothes and the textiles we use in everyday life, such as bed linen, and re-use, embellish and repair rather than buy new. In this workshop we will show you some basic darning and mending techniques and encourage you to be creative in your own mending projects. Please bring along something you would like to mend, needle, thread, pins and scissors if you’d like to work alongside us. This is not essential as watching and listening is more than OK too!

*PLEASE NOTE: We will be registering your email address used to sign up, to later contact with a survey of Benow Festival – your information will not be used in any other way.

Join Elana from Cloth Nappy Workshops Melbourne to discover the world of modern cloth nappies. She will take you through everything you need to know to get started with cloth nappies. Learn how to wash them, where to buy them and what to look for. She will cover washing tips, dispel myths, show the different styles of modern cloth nappies and most importantly give you an opportunity to ask questions to get you confident with cloth.