The publishing arm of Anti-Factory--a one-woman fashion design unit in San Francisco that makes unique items out of recycled garments. Links and posts regarding art and DIY issues. Holla!
Instead of summarizing the discussion, I'm posting a link to an interesting blog entry and ensuing discussion by Purldrop (owner of DIY New York boutique Sodafine) about smallscale production and consumerism in the fashion world. Do go visit and see what you think... Let me know your thoughts, too.
Maker of Anti-Factory clothing: unique garments made from recycled materials...because sweatshops suck! I am primarily a visual artist who is currently teaching sculpture at the California College of Arts in San Francisco. My clothing line is my strange attempt at creating wearable examples of turning away from mass-production and mass-consumption. Viva la revolution!
5 Comments:
Phew! Someone is focussing on the ideas that I think are important :) I totally had the same thoughts as you, but like you mentioned, was afraid of throwing a wrench into the machine.
I honestly could say alot of negative things, and harp on about how silly it is that the folks who debate these things so much are the folks who HAVE A CHOICE.
Lower class folks aren't concerned with whether their clothing and goods are sweatshop free, because they don't have the convenience of having a choice.
From experience, I know that when you're poor you have to sacrifice your health because good food is too expensive and not within budget. I know that you have to sacrifice health care to be able to pay your rent. You have to sacrifice alot of things to be able to survive period.
Yeah, I could go on and on :)
I just think that alot of people are unable to see the big picture. And they are focussing on the wrong issues. :(
Melissa S.
hey melissa, i was going to write you a personal email to follow up, but you beat me to it!
yep, it's a hard issue, isn't it? i feel like sometimes it's easy to just start making slogans like, "buy DIY" or "support handmakers", but then again, it's more complicated than that, isn't it? but at least it's a start! i mean, i do the same: fall into the trap of thinking that if everyone just woke up their conscience everything will be better. but the actual economics of it just wouldn't facilitate this.
i feel a bit badly about taking it totally off-topic, actually. maybe i should have posted it here on my own blog, since that's the kind of stuff people expect to read here, prolly.
ayyyyyy! i hope it doesn't scare off other people from writing replies on her question. I realize that i can come off sounding sort of hardcore, hardline, and just plain militant sometimes. *sigh*!
anyhows, you raised a good point and i'm glad it was thrown into the mix! and i'm glad i wasn't drunk or something when I added to it :) ha ha.
I was relieved to hear your opinion added to the conversation. Sometimes it feels like people are too much in agreement, or too tame about these issues.
It's necessary to have extreme points of view thrown into the mix.
I'm also really optimistic and hope that people will just "wake up" and change their habits to make an impact. But then, you have to realize the reality of things... no harm in reminding people of that.
Melissa S.
I have a tendency to play "devil's advocate in conversations sometimes and it gets me into trouble. The last time I did this was when I was speaking at a panel discussion in front of 80 people about art and politics and i just started mouthing off in order to get the ball rolling and have some interesting conversation. it totally backfired on me and i wound up being castigated and feeling really badly about myself. Now that I look back on it, I think I should have been more tactful, but I still appreciate the necessity of saying unpopular things and potentially being the target of wrathfulness. It's honest conversation, right? ;p
http://www.ssireview.org/articles/entry/the_other_csr/
i agree with everyone. i would like to share this link which shows how unaware people can be about their purchases. i thought it was quite interesting.
if you keey reading the article it goes into some detail.
may or may not impact how you might want to market.
i.b.
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