Exactly one year ago I visited a talk on sustainable fabrics during the opening weekend of De Wasserij, a fashion-hub in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. One of the guests was Andriana Landegent, an entrepreneur who, with her company Ecological Republic, was one of the first to supply 100% biological and naturally dyed fabrics to the fashion industry. During that talk I realized that even though certain fabrics are made of biological materials, they probably underwent a chemical dyeing process. This changed my perception of sustainable clothing once again. Dyeing fabrics is a nasty business. Luckily, some amazing innovations are changing the game!
Lees verder “What Dyeing Does”How Our Clothes End Up in Landfills
Millions of tonnes of textile waste end up in landfills or incinerators each year (BBC 2020, Fixing Fashion 2019). There is no recent or reliable data on exact global numbers, but NBCLX (2020) talks about ten million tons of clothes for the US alone in 2015 and CBC News (2018) mentions three times a baseball stadium a year in Canada. I can’t even grasp the amount of clothes we’re talking about. Almost all of these garments are chemically treated and a big part is made of plastic-based materials. Needless to say that they cause a big threat to our environment. These enormous numbers got me wondering though. How do so many clothes end up in landfills? When I can’t resell or swap garments, I usually bring them to charity shops and almost everybody I know does the same thing. How is it possible, then, that so many clothes end up in landfills?
Lees verder “How Our Clothes End Up in Landfills”Reduce the Impact of Your Wardrobe
I’ve been reading again and again that the fashion industry’s biggest climate impact is actually made in the consumer phase. Knowing about the immense amount of greenhouse gasses and toxic pollution that the production phase entails, this surprises me. What is so harmful about taking care of our clothes? What surprised me is that on top of washing and drying, even wearing our clothes has an impact.
Don’t despair though! There’s things you can do.
Lees verder “Reduce the Impact of Your Wardrobe”My thoughts on wearing (second-hand) leather
I used to think it was fine to wear second-hand leather. Over the years I bought some amazing leather and suede skirts in thrift shops. Truth be told, I also own a leather jacket which I bought new some ten years ago and I still buy the occasional pair of leather shoes. However, when I would see somebody in a fur coat, I would be shocked. Even if I knew it was second-hand. A conversation I had a while back made me reconsider this. Why should a second-hand fur coat be different from brand new leather shoes? I couldn’t convince myself of an answer. Ever since, I’ve been wanting to look further into this topic to create a well-informed opinion. Fortunately, leather was elaborately discussed last week in the course ‘Fashion and Sustainability’ that I’m taking, by the London College of Fashion. A great opportunity for me to learn more and share my thoughts with you.
Lees verder “My thoughts on wearing (second-hand) leather”Manifesto
I grew up in the North-West of Europe, in the Netherlands to be precise, where capitalism and consumerism have been leading principles since the nineties. Me and my sisters must have shared over twenty barbies and every birthday and Christmas there’d be piles of gifts to unpack. Buying cheap clothing was the accompanying norm. I would go and buy clothes with my friends during school breaks. We’d have small budgets and want to buy a lot, so we’d only go to fast-fashion chains like H&M, Coolcat, Bershka and later Primark. We didn’t consider the quality of garments, or how often we would wear them. At the time, we didn’t know any better.
Lees verder “Manifesto”Organic vs Sustainable (or Responsible) Cotton
Hema is a Dutch brand where I love to buy my undergarments. It has been a household name in Netherlands for decades, known for its nice stores and good quality products. Most garments either have a label that says ‘biological cotton’, or ‘responsible cotton’. This gave me the impression that my undies were honestly and sustainably produced. The other day I was in one of the stores and my eye fell on these labels again. I wondered: what is the difference between biological and responsible cotton?
Lees verder “Organic vs Sustainable (or Responsible) Cotton”deze dagen
mijn kleding wordt steeds misbegrepen
voor zusters tenue, dus
sluit ik het raam wanneer
buiten applaus klinkt
we verzamelen deze dagen
en stelen onze zinnen
als.je.niets.doet.dan.ben.je.er.niet
de stad op kweek
steeds vaker stoppen zwarte Tesla’s op klaarlichte dag aaneengesloten in de straten. verschijnen uit synchroon geopende portieken in lange wanten gestoken handen gooien bruine zakken vol etensresten naast de stoep. glasbakken stoppen ze vol luiers en kerstbomen. hield de coalitie de afvalcontainers niet dagenlang gesloten dan sloopten zij de vol-sensoren eruit.
hun verzet verzamelde in het hulst van de ondergrondse. waar kiemen torenhoog dropen om kernwaarden te evenaren. sindsdien laten ze kinderen probiotisch Maaswater drinken en metropalen likken. geen steriele levens met a-topische symptomen. de weerstand van Rotterdammers is hoog.
Biologisch vs. duurzaam katoen
Dé winkel waar ik heen ga voor hemdjes en andere onderkleding is absoluut de Hema. Ik vind het een leuk merk met fijne winkels en producten. Daarbij vertrouw ik erop dat de kleding die ik er koop op een eerlijke en duurzame manier is geproduceerd. Op de meeste kleding staat namelijk aangegeven dat het gemaakt is met duurzaam of biologisch katoen. Toen ik laatst bij de Hema een jasje kocht als kraamkado, vielen de labels me weer op en vroeg ik me af wat het verschil is tussen biologisch en duurzaam katoen.
Lees verder “Biologisch vs. duurzaam katoen”GedichtenSalon
Op zondag 19 januari (14:00u) draag ik voor tijdens de Gedichtensalon van Theater ’t Kapelletje in Rotterdam. Net als Eddy Geerlings, Jacques Börger, Wout Oppenheim, Kurt Lourens en Erwin the Librarian mag ik voor even stadsdichter van Rotterdam spelen. Ik draag een gedicht voor dat ik schreef over een recente gebeurtenis in de stad die me raakte. Daarnaast lees ik een selectie uit mijn werk.
Waar: Theater ’t Kapelletje, Schiekade 45-47, Rotterdam
Wanneer: 19 januari, 14.00 tot 16.00 uur, zaal open om 13.30 uur
Entree: € 7,50, incl. consumptie
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