The ClothesIt’s All About

Organic or Synthetic?What should we be making fabric from?

What Do Your Clothes Mean To You?Can you look great and be ethical? Does it matter?

#WhoMadeMyClothesAsk questions, demand answers

SWAPBRADFORDlove it, take it, swap it, wear it, use it, reuse it, change it, mend it, swap it over again

SwapBradford residency 25th to 28th November 2015 23:57, Fuse Art Space 22nd October to 19th December 2015

Contents

Residency Intro

Question the Answer:SwapBradford Questions and Responses

Why We Should Make Do and Mend

Replacing Zips

How to Sew on a Button

Stitch Your Own Shopping Bag

Natural Dyes

Sola Kafa Ulaya Mupedzanhamo

Further Reading and Campaigns

Thanks

SwapBradford was a residency from 25th to 28th November 2015, part of the 23:57 exhibition at Fuse Art Space, provoking an artistic response to climate change and the COP21 conference in Paris.

SwapBradford operated as a free 4 day clothes swap and workshop space. It also acted as a space to examine where our clothing comes from, the garment and textile trade’s impact on people and the environment and ask questions about our clothing consumption.

This zine is a record of the project and in addition to the blog which can be found at swapbradford.tumblr.com

Compiled by Sophie Powell as SwapBradford

As a woman in her late 30’s living in one of the wealthiest nations in the world, there’s a big part of me who is horrified by the human and environmental cost of the fashion and textile industry and desperately drum beats in an effort to change the system. In the same moment I despairingly look at the complexity of this system, how unimaginably difficult that seems and want to unlearn everything about Rana Plaza1, the yearly estimated 350k tonnes of usable clothing becoming landfill in the UK2, carcinogenic synthetic dyes and pesticides and their over-reliance on oil, bury my head in the nearest H&M and buy something to make me feel better.

Right that’s all a bit flippant isn’t it, but the reality is we’re in the shit as far as clothing goes, and maybe my overarching message is; what is actually gained by a bulging wardrobe? People are dying (actually dying, not to mention being permanently disabled and globally economically exploited, I’m including all you ‘fashionistas’ here) and our environment is suffering as a result of the cynical and manipulative culture of the fashion industry. As SwapBradford I’m trying to find a balance, trying to unpick the reasons and affect a change. But it’s complex - stop buying ‘fast fashion’

1 http://www.cleanclothes.org/ranaplaza2 source Valuing Our Clothes, WRAP, 2012

and the global industry collapses, plunging millions of workers and whole economies into recession. Keep supporting this industry and people and the environment continue to be brutally exploited; a full time garment worker receiving the living wage in Bangladesh will only meet 60% of their needs if they live in slum conditions3, in China whole rivers run red as a result of chemical dyes leeching into the ecosystem.

So what’s the answer? Can we have our LBD and wear it?

So around 8 years ago I decided I couldn’t keep investing in this system, I couldn’t bear the thought I was continuing to buy into an unchecked culture of mass exploitation and environmental destruction. I made a decision not to buy any clothes that hadn’t come from a reclaimed or recycled source or that couldn’t be transparently tracked from seed to dye to production, sales and the whole supply chain was committed to sustainability and fair-trade. I’m not that rich or have that much free time to research every item of clothing. So I organised swaps, lots of swaps and at all levels tried to keep clothes at least out of landfill. I only had one rule, if it doesn’t fit you can’t have it. Because the garment was seen as free doesn’t stop responsibility to care for it as if it was a high fashion couture piece.

3 source: How To Be a Fashion Revolutionary, Fashion Revolution

SwapBradford

When the opportunity to respond to 23:57 at Fuse came up, I wanted to invite people to think about different aspects of their clothing and actively question our relationship to the culture of the garment industry. Conscious of pushing a particular agenda, the residency was playful, with curiosity at it’s core. Included were ways to be involved in global campaigns who pressure manufacturers to be transparent about their garment workers, take responsibility for paying living wages and ensuring people’s working conditions are safe. See #WhoMadeMyClothes

We live in a culture where we’re trained to rejoice in clothing bargains, but not ask questions about why items are so cheap. The reality is clothes are cheap because the people who make them are paid very little. The alternative is buying clothes with a fair-trade standard by sourcing directly from independent designer/makers or buying garments which carry the international fair-trade mark, guaranteeing the worker a fair wage for their labour. Both of these choices, by high-street standards, are hard to come by and, as an expensive option, are at odds with the culture of a chameleonic ‘look’ that we’re urged to strive for. This can make for a complex set of consumer decisions, which by and large are unfulfilled by the high street.

The residency has made me for the first time look more closely at the materials and fabrics our clothes are made from, and the environmental impact of base material and manufacturing techniques. For instance cotton farming uses 22.5% of the world’s insecticides and 10% of all pesticides.4 Some synthetic fabrics are made with petroleum, a non sustainable source of material, and with the COP21 agreement will (should) be off the table by 2050. Bamboo is processed using a large volume of water and chemicals to bind it in order to make it into a usable fabric.5 Currently there are no perfect solutions, but there are a number of ‘good fits’. Not everything is covered in this zine, the blog at swapbradford.tumblr.com hopefully picks up any slack.

There is a danger of becoming burdened with statistics, missing the point of the project. SwapBradford and the workshops were planned so visitors could engage with it at different levels. I’m interested in people’s relationship with their clothes, and how this can be used to think about the global impact of the garment industry, become involved with campaigns which address the inequalities in the garment and textile industry and to explore and share the alternatives to the treadmill of fast fashion.

4 source: How To Be a Fashion Revolutionary http://fashionrevolution.org/get-involved/5 http://eartheasy.com/wear_bam-boo_clothing.htm

Are clothes swaps and charity donations an ethical solution to ‘too many clothes’? Why?

SwapBradford asked several questions as part of the project. People were invited to answer by writing on scraps of fabric and hanging them on a washing line. Questions and some of the responses are included here.These scraps will be made into a shirt in reference the Triangle Shirtwaist fire in New York 1911.

This was in response to my research and personal questioning, whether donating and swapping clothes is just a salve to make people feel less guilt about being encouraged to buy more. Much of the clothing in charity shops and in swaps are products of the fast fashion industry. Is recycling another level of consumer support allowing manufacturers to avoid responsibility?

What do you think of the clothing industry’s ideas of ‘a new you’, ‘seasonal trends’ and a new wardrobe to match these?

I find it really hard to think about all of the issues involved with clothing marketing and (what I see) as the insidious fashion/ celebrity industry which surrounds it. There is so much body image shame and capitalist

politics wrapped up in the industry, particularly aimed at women, it makes me completely furious and as a result I try not to think about it too much. I was hoping that through asking the question I’d find people who have the polar opposite to my thought process and I’d get a better insight into how active consumers engage with and navigate it.

How can the clothing industry be more fair to people who work within it?

Do people think about the production of their clothes and the other people who are involved in all stages of garment and textile production? Does this influence people’s consumer choices?

#WhoMadeMyClothes

How are people around the world making use of over consumption of clothes?

I’m interested in if people visiting the swap are aware of the relationship between our charity industry and people overseas. See Sola Kafa Ulaya Mupedzanhamo article for a look at how charities use clothing which isn’t sold through regular retail outlets.

With a few basic sewing skills adjusting and mending is simple and will extend the life of your unworn clothes. Extending the life of clothing by an extra nine months of active use would reduce carbon, waste and water footprints by around 20-30% each and cut resource costs by 20% (£5 billion).

and

Some 30% of clothing has not been worn for the last year and four in five people own at least some clothes that have not been worn because they no longer fit or need altering.Valuing our Clothes report ©WRAP 2012

Common faults are broken zips and missing buttons, both of these are covered in this zine. There is a pattern for making shopping bags, which can be adjusted to be made from scrap fabric or clothing that’s no longer needed (and will save you 5p in major retailers!) There is also a section on dyeing clothes using natural materials, inspired by a workshop from SDC Colour Experience.

Why We Should Make Do And Mend

How to Replace

a Zip

Replacing zips are notoriously hard. In reality it’s not difficult just a bit fiddly.

Before you start you’ll need a replacement zip (same length or longer) good quality thread, pins and a tough pair of scissors.

For hand sewing you’ll need a good hour to sit and do it, machine sewing will take half that. If it extends a garment’s life it’s well worth it.

Finding a good set of instructions explaining the process easily and simply, was a bit harder. So here are a couple of links to websites that do the job really well.

http://bit.ly.1Pl8nRC

http://bit.ly.1PkEj6H

You will need:• 1pieceofmaterial46cmx100cm• 2piecesofmaterial46cmx10cm(forshorthandles)or

76cmx10cm(forlonghandles)• Thread• SewingMachine

Youcanmakethisbagfromanoldpillowcaseorstitchseveralpiecesoffabrictogetherforapatchworkeffect.

How to Stitch a Simple Shopping Bag

Instructions from morsbags.com based on an original design by Mediatinker

ColoursYellows to browns: turmeric, saffron, onion skins, henna, tea, coffeeReds to purples: Red cabbage, blackcurrants, blueberries

Henna, turmericUse around 1 tablespoon of powder to 150ml of boiling, or near boiling, water. Stir until as much as possible is dissolved. Leave the solution to settle for a while then filter through a tea strainer or filter paper. Henna works best mixed with water to a paste before adding the rest of the water.

Onion skins, red cabbage (chopped)Place into an aluminium pan, cover with water, bring it to the boil and simmer for around an hour. Strain the liquid ready to be used.

Blueberries, blackcurrantsUse fresh or tinned fruit. For every 50ml of juice and berries use 100ml of boiling water. First crush them in a pestle and mortar or with a fork, pour on the water, stir and crush again. Leave for at least an hour then strain before dyeing fabric.

Tea, coffee, saffron For every 150ml of boiling water use a teabag (open or sealed), 2 teaspoons of powdered coffee or a small pinch of saffron. Leave to brew for an hour and strain.

Mordants/dye fixesFor these dyes you’ll first need to soak your fabric in a salt water solution. This is called a mordant and fixes the dye to the fabric. Use 20g of salt to100ml of boiling water. Soak the fabric

Natural DyesChanging the colour is the easiest way to dramatically change your clothes. Richard Ashworth from SDC Colour Experience visited the swap to show us how to use natural materials to dye fabric.

Put together using source material from SDC Colour Experience. Many thanks to Richard Ashorth for his invaluable support and advice. http://www.sdc.org.uk/education/colour-experience/

for at least an hour before dyeing and wring it out when it’s cool enough to handle. Remember boiling water can shrink wool.

TipsWhite or pale fabrics made from natural fabrics such as cotton, wool and silk will work best. Check the garment label before you start.

If you decide to research other natural materials to dye fabric, take care when collecting – some plants can irritate your skin or are harmful if eaten. Care should be taken not to collect from parks and countryside as certain plants are protected (e.g. lichen)

MethodPlace your pre soaked fabric into the dye, making sure all the fabric is under the solution. Leave the fabric for at least an hour, overnight is better; the longer it’s dyeing the stronger the colour

will be. Stir the fabric regularly to make sure the dye is well mixed.

When the fabric is ready take it out and wash in cold running water until it runs clear.

Your new garment is ready to go!

The following is an abridged article Where do your old clothes go? By Lucy Rodgers, from the section Magazine BBC News 11 February 2015

How do our shirts, trousers, jeans and dresses end up thousands of miles away in a Polish thrift store or street market in Ghana? The international journey of our cast-offs begins when charities sell on the clothing that cannot be sold in the UK’s 10,000 charity shops. The UK Charity Retail Association says 90% of garments handed over directly to shops “end up on the rack in store”.

However, according to Andrew Brooks author of Clothing Poverty, as little as 10-30% of what is given to UK charities overall actually ends up being sold over the counter. It is a similar proportion in the US and Canada. What isn’t bought in shops is, more often than not, Brooks says, sold to textile merchants, who then sort, grade and export the surplus garments - converting what began as donations into tradeable goods.

“There’s a moment of magic where a gift turns into a commodity,” says Brooks. “Like many used items, on the surface second-hand clothes may appear to have very little value, but through processes of sorting and transporting - turning disorderly objects into an ordered commodity - they are reproduced as retailable assets.”

One of those businesses transforming our cast-offs is London-based family firm LMB Textile Recycling. Director Ross Barry and his staff collect the contents of clothing banks - sometimes on behalf of charities - and check them by hand for quality. Those that pass the test are baled together and exported to the company’s regular customers in Eastern Europe and Africa, where the garments are highly valued.

“They get cheap, affordable clothing that works for them, that’s fashionable and that lasts a long time,” he says.

The onward journey of our clothing depends very much on what we have donated - different garments tend to end up in different places.For example, Andrew Brooks’s research found that white dress-shirts regularly headed to Pakistan, where there was a great demand among lawyers - warm coats often travelled to Eastern Europe, and short-sleeved tops and shorts, perhaps predictably, ended up in Africa.

So, much of the UK’s donated clothing - along with thousands of tonnes more from the rest of Western Europe and North America - ends up being sold to buyers in developing economies. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Brooks believes it is and argues that the flow of old clothing from the Western world - as well as the availability of cheap, new garments from East Asia - has had a negative effect on

Sola Kafa Ulaya Mupedzanhamo

local textile industries in many countries. This is particularly so in Sub-Saharan Africa, where a third of all globally donated clothes are sold, he says.

Since the 1980s and 90s, used clothing has gained a significant market share across Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. In Uganda, second-hand garments now account for 81% of all clothing purchases, his research found.Brooks points to Ghana as an example of a country where local industries have been particularly negatively affected - its textile and clothing employment fell by 80% between 1975 and 2000. Nigeria’s 200,000-person textile workforce has also all but disappeared, he says. But for the charity sector, selling on the clothing that can’t be sold in shops remains a key source of income.

“The important thing is that charities maximise every donation, no matter what quality it [donated clothing] is, to help fund their life-changing charity work,”

A spokesman for the Charity Retail Association says. Yet, explaining to the public how this international process works - the fact that many donations end up exported through textile traders, often to the developing countries NGOs are trying to help - is a difficult prospect.

Ian Falkingham, a former Oxfam area shop manager who now works for the charity in Senegal, acknowledges that questions remain over the transparency of relationships between textile traders and some charities. In order to avoid this dependency on middlemen, some organisations, including Oxfam and the Salvation Army, have set up their own recycling businesses.

“We’ve worked really hard to move away from that model,” Falkingham says.

He explains how Oxfam’s Wastesaver recycling plant in Batley, West Yorkshire, not only means the charity no longer has to deal with commercial textile traders, but also allows greater control of the onward journey of all unsold donations. Out of the 11,000 tonnes of clothing donated to Oxfam every year, 3,000 tonnes (27%) is sold in its shops. Of the remaining 8,000 tonnes, 1,000 tonnes are disposed of and 5,600 tonnes (half of that donated) head abroad to Eastern Europe and East and West Africa.

Falkingham says collecting and selling stock through Oxfam’s chain of shops remains the “absolute priority” - it makes the most profit and it helps forge relationships with givers, encouraging better-quality donations. But there will always be stock “that doesn’t sell”, he explains, and charities have to find ways of making money out of it - such as selling abroad.

“I think most people would be pleased that their bra ended up in Senegal. I think they would think that was a good use of it.”

Oxfam has also attempted to enhance benefits for importers by setting up Frip Ethique - a social enterprise in Senegal. The facility, now overseen by Falkingham, employs 40 local staff to sort 2,000 tonnes of Oxfam’s exported clothing (36% of total exports) and sell on to small traders at fair prices. All profits are ploughed back into projects in Senegal.

“We are really now managing to make the trade work for very poor people who would otherwise be excluded from it,” Falkingham says.

But Brooks argues that while Oxfam’s model is a “pragmatic solution” in the short term, it is a “tiny part” of a massive second-hand clothing sector and doesn’t tackle the trade dynamics and systems that, he says, deny the world’s poorest “ways to climb out of poverty”.

For Ross Barry and his recycling company, The Collection, sorting and export of our old clothes presents the only real alternative to dumping in landfill. He also argues it benefits many people up and down the trade chain.

“If we as a company buy it, a charity or a local authority gets paid for it. We also employ lots of staff, so they get paid. It then gets sold to our customers and they employ their own staff within their own company.”

Other beneficiaries include destination governments, via import duty payments, and local traders who are, he says, predominantly women. Barry dismisses suggestions that such buyers are being forced to wear the Western world’s cast-offs. Many prefer second-hand garments to the alternative - poorer-quality clothing manufactured in East Asia, he says. But he does believe charities should be clearer when explaining the true fate of the clothing donations they receive.

“I think for charities, it was a nice easy story for them - that everything that was donated was sold in the charity shop.” he says. “But the truth of the matter is, people in the UK, on the whole, don’t need to buy cheap clothing.”

The fact that many of our old clothes end up overseas should not stop people handing them over to charity, he says, but he welcomes a time when the role of his industry is out in the open.

“People would much rather know the truth - why perpetuate the myth?”

The original title of this article has been changed for this zine, coming from a glossary of terms used across Africa for second hand clothing, source: Clothing Poverty. Congo: “sola” (to choose), Kenya & Tanzania: “kafa ulaya” (clothes of the dead whites), Zimbabwe: “mupedzanhamo” (where all problems end)

Reading ListStitched Up, The anti capitalist book of fashion, Tansy E Hoskins,

Clothing Poverty:`The hidden world of Fast Fashion and Second –hand Clothes, Andrew Brooks

To die for, is fashion wearing out the world?, Lucy Siegle

Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, Elizabeth L Cline

Upcyclist, Antonia Edwards

Other organisations and campaignsAnti-Slavery International antislavery.org

Canopy canopyplanet.org

Centre for Sustainable Fashion sustainable-fashion.com

Clean Clothes Campaign cleanclothes.org

Fashion Revolution fashionrevolution.org

Global Organic Textile Standards (GOTS) global-standard.org

Greenpeace Detox greenpeace.org/detox/

Labour Behind the Label labourbehindthelabel.org

Sustainable Clothing Action Plan: Clothing Knowledge Hub wrap.org.uk/node/19930

Textiles Environment Design tedresearch.net

Textile Futures Research Centre tfrc.org.uk

Massive thanks to everybody involved in making the SwapBradford residency happen. Pat and Josie, Sarah and James from Fuse, Richard from SDC Colour Experience and the brilliant Bradford College BA Fashion students Kiran, Aishah, Aisha, Ahroob, Alex, Georgina, Catherine and Zara