Local, Slow and Sustainable Fashion: Wool as a Fabric for Change

ISBN-13: 9783030882990 / Angielski / Twarda / 2022 / 230 str.

Klepp, Ingun Grimstad

Spis treści

1.     1.  KRUSING into the future: Restoring a local value chain through cooperation.
Authors: Research Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Research assistant Vilde Haugrønning (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Editor Tone Skårdal Tobiasson (nicefashion.org).
How the Norwegian research project KRUS (mentioned in the summary) rebooted local value-chains, changing the focus on raw materials, fuelled an interest in local yarns and contributed with innovation and value-creation. The chapter will be based on the KRUS report and the project’s PhD and Master’s thesis findings, adding some recent developments – such as increased focus on local production of knitting-yarns during the Covid-19 pandemic. The chapter will aim to explain what forces brought about the results, how media-interest was leveraged and thus mushroomed even more activity after the project ended. However, first and foremost the chapter will bring into the discussion how cooperation has dwarfed the focus on competitiveness – challenging the market economy’s main purpose and ‘raison d’être’.   

 

 

2.      2. Upping the Woolume: Waste prevention based on optimal use of materials.
Authors: Professor Jan Broda (Institute of Textile Engineering and Polymer Materials, Faculty of Materials, Civil and Environment Engineering, University of Bielsko-Biala), Assistant Professor Monika Rom (University of Bielsko-Biala), Assistant Professor Katarzyna Kobiela-Mendrek (University of Bielsko-Biala), Research Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Senior Researcher Kirsi Laitala (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Editor Tone Skårdal Tobiasson (nicefashion.org).
Fibre properties have been side-tracked by the increased focus on environmental measurements, specifically Life Cycle Analysis (LCAs)*. The EU is planning for a ‘environmental product footprint’ measuring system based on these partially problematic tools, mainly for apparel – however other fibre-based products may follow – such as interior-textiles. This type of thinking has resulted in an additional lack of understanding that any given fibre also differs widely based on geography, weather and genetics. This is very relevant for a fibre such as wool. Agricultural policies have mainly focused on food, and large-scale industry has embraced synthetic, oil-based materials; leaving most wool in Europe as an un-tapped resource, and thus creating a waste-problem. Through marketing-pushes focusing on certain properties at the cost of ignoring others; certain classes or breeds of wool have been touted as “best” for more purposes than necessary. Wool’s sound-absorbing abilities is neither tied to micron-count nor softness; therefore, we will explore what is known today about the potential for lower grade wools that are currently deemed as waste and their “good enough” suitability in sound-absorbing panels and other products identified through two on-going desk-top studies.

3.     3.  A Woollen Route forward: Exporting knowledge rather than products.
Authors: Professor Jan Broda (Institute of Textile Engineering and Polymer Materials, Faculty of Materials, Civil and Environment Engineering, University of Bielsko-Biala), Assistant Professor Monika Rom (University of Bielsko-Biala), Assistant Professor Katarzyna Kobiela-Mendrek (University of Bielsko-Biala), Research Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Editor Tone Skårdal Tobiasson (nicefashion.org), CEO Ingvild Svorkmoen Espelien (Selbu Spinning Mill).

A new project, WOOLUME, building on knowledge from KRUS, will be looking at wool from mountain sheep in the Polish region of Beskids mountains, and rebooting the place-specific value-chains. Can knowledge-transfer from one mountain-region to another give value-creation alongside environmental and climate benefits through informal networks combined with a formal research-projects? In a Covid-19 era, an increased focus on resilience of local value-chains, from raw material to finished products and market-place, has entered the public discourse, and is this perceived as protectionist, and thus self-serving? Or is it possible to both be critical to a trade-system that transports raw-materials and goods back and forth around the globe in a chase for the cheapest labour and the least safe-guarding of the environment; and claim that the dire climate-crisis demands over-national solutions? At the same time, most of the wool – probably as much as 80% or more in Europe – is classified as waste. This chapter will mainly describe the project in the perspective of ongoing international discourse surrounding the availability and prioritizing of local resources, and how this impacts a new way of thinking around consumption.

 

4.     4.  Slow and Indigenous approaches to teaching textile arts
Authors: Associate Director Lorrie Miller (University of British Columbia), Museum Director Kjellaug Isaksen (senterfornordligefolk.no), Executive Director Rebecca Burgess (Fibershed), Research Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Editor Tone Skårdal Tobiasson (nicefashion.org).

Making with one’s hands is an inherently slow practice at a lived pace. Crafting can also aid in our disconnection from clock-driven time and reconnect us with our past, present and future. There is a growing interest in such crafting, and the volume of online stores, and classes that focus on the 'hand-made' attests to a trend away from the mass produced. There is a curiosity in learning 'how to' that brings students to textile art class, and so beginning with the question of how, and then winding back to the questions of why, what and where are central. Why do we make the things we do, why did our ancestors, what does it mean to us now? What materials do we use, and what is the impact of these materials on our environment, ecosystem and future? Where we are physically rooted in our landscape along with our place-in-time also need to be unpacked so that we may make conscious choices about our crafting materials. This chapter will reflect on the textile traditions of several cultures, in particular, Indigenous cultures including coastal Salish peoples from the Pacific northwest, Native Americans with the USA, as well of those of the Sea Sami in the North of Norway.
            This chapter grounds crafting and textile practices in one's local and sustainable fibreshed. Here, the authors will remind readers that we learn from one another and alongside one another by showing and sharing, as described as ‘yarning’ in Tyson Yunkaporta’s SAND TALK How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World. Stories are an integral part of such meaningful teaching and learning practices. If we can engage others by using stories and teaching hand-based skills in ways that encourages reflection, care and genuine engagement, then we may be able to bring a deeper understanding of our impacts of the material world.

5. Setting a new stage: Small scale as a way forward.
Authors: Research Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Executive Director Rebecca Burgess (Fibershed), Founder Jane Philbrick (TILL: bioFASHIONtech), Associate Director Lorrie Miller (University of British Columbia), Ceo Ingvild Svorkmoen Espelien (Selbu Spinning Mill), Professor Jan Broda (Institute of Textile Engineering and Polymer Materials, Faculty of Materials, Civil and Environment Engineering, University of Bielsko-Biala), Assistant Professor Monika Rom (University of Bielsko-Biala), Assistant Professor Katarzyna Kobiela-Mendrek (University of Bielsko-Biala), Editor Tone Skårdal Tobiasson (nicefashion.org).

A quiet revolution is taking place and may increase in force based on the current pandemic, as we need to address some “super-wicked problems”: Covid-19’s economic consequencesalongside the climate and environmental crisis. Based on concrete examples from around the world on how regenerative farming and the new focus on fibres’ environmental footprint and local variation as opposed to industrial farming and mass production, this article will highlight a possible new path. The examples will be from a varied pool and will mainly be actors working with wool. On the list we find the cooperation between Oslo Micro-mill and Northern Playground, the small the up-start artisan-farming cooperative TILL - Today’s Industrial Living Landscape: bioFASHIONtech /UCRF (Connecticut, USA), the Grey Gotland project (Gotland, Sweden), a hi-Wool project in Portugal, Fibershed (California, USA), and the products to be developed from the wool of the Kohut family in the Ochodzita mountains in southern Poland in cooperation with Selbu Spinning Mill. These projects and more represent a counter-movement of people leaving behind well-paid jobs in urban areas to pursue rural, small-scale and community-building projects based on local fibre resources, as well as building rural-urban hubs that galvanize the best of both worlds. If deemed relevant, we will also explore a qiviut wool project (Greenland) and their textile practices include traditions of making, but also traditions of raising and herding woolly animals, such as alpaca herding practices in Peru, and cashmere goat herding in Mongolia.

Key words: Wool, natural fibres, regenerative farming, indigenous breeds, organic, networks, community-building.

 

6.      6. Rethinking economics through regional, revolutionary and regenerative stories.
Authors: Executive Director Founder Jane Philbrick (TILL: bioFASHIONtech), Rebecca Burgess (Fibershed), Associate Director Lorrie Miller (University of British Columbia), Research Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Editor Tone Skårdal Tobiasson (nicefashion.org), Designer Ida Falck Øien (HAIK/W).

There is an ongoing discussion on the economic structures we as societies are part of, and how they do or do not deliver a structure for a more sustainable future. Critique has surfaced from voices such as feminists, religious alternatives, and certainly those concerned with environmental and ethical issues. Some themes are of interest for this monograph: Cooperation vs. competition, Green Growth vs. Degrowth, the role of renewables vs non-renewables, and of course addressing the current embracing by all of the Circular Economy. In this chapter, we will do the rather impossible task of looking at alternatives to Market Economics, Here, we will discuss the potential for several regionally-defining systems mainly based on regenerative farming and the Earth Logic report. What are the alternatives’ potential for problem-solving and a resilient economic future,when placing the Earth, the environment, and climate change centre-stage? We can learn from regional approaches that put the needs of the planet ahead of profit, as seen with Biosphere, as Nordhordland on the west coast of Norway has done; including the development of a Wool Heritage Route*, which shows the relationship between geography, species, production, and biodiversity and environmental gains.

 

7.     7.  A Fibre Future: Using old knowledge in new ways
Authors: Executive Director Rebecca Burgess (Fibershed), Research Professor Ingun Grimstad Klepp (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Senior Researcher Kirsi Laitala (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Research assistant Vilde Haugrønning (Consumption Research Norway/Oslo Metropolitan University), Editor Tone Skårdal Tobiasson (nicefashion.org).

As the last chapter, we will sum up with a look to the future, to a possible fibre diet that is compatible with the Earth’s Planetary Boundaries and that works with nature’s menu, not against it. Instead of the constant cry for innovation and technological solutions, we will show how ‘old knowledge’ can be leveraged to solve the current wicked problems and crises we are facing, and how we can live with ‘less’ and ‘better’. Through interviews done in the KRUS project and with on-going research in LASTING, we will high-light the weaving of human relationships and the many networks as the most valuable resource in the ‘slow fashion’ movement. We will also show how the sustainable fashion focus has attacked the dessert before even addressing the appetizer. This will critique both the current ‘circular economic’ solution that has been hi-jacked by the recycling industry, and the belief that fashion is an everchanging driver for constant newness. In our daily lives, we develop meaningful relationships with our wardrobes if we take the time to value them, through care and wear.

 

O autorze

Ingun Grimstad Klepp is Professor of Clothing and Sustainability affiliated with Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. 

Tone Skårdal Tobiasson is a seasoned journalist and editor, and founder of Nordic Initiative Clean & Ethical Fashion. 

 

Blurb

This book is a tour de force and a heart-on-sleeve exploration of how a familiar fibre can radically change the fashion and sustainability story.

Professor Kate Fletcher, Centre for Sustainable Fashion, London College of Fashion, UK

 The authors of this fascinating book use wool as a lens through which to see important aspects of the contemporary world: corporate capitalism, consumerism, standardisation and their opposites: localised crafts and practices, quality of life, sustainability. Readable, enlightening and engaged, this book is fuelled by a passion for wool and expertly weaves, spins, cards and knits the small and the large scale, contributing not only to our knowledge about fabrics and sustainability, but also adds depth to our understanding of globalisation.

Professor Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Oslo, Norway

This book explores the importance of the agriculturally-based fiber and textile industry, and how local, small-scale operations and markets, coupled with a connection to soil health, can lead the way to new transformative changes. It draws on a four-year research project on Norwegian wool, as well as similar studies in Poland and Portugal. It also explores the role of women and the Indigenous perspective: in Europe this will constitute Sami and Inuit, in Northern America the Inuit and First Nations in Canada, along with Native Americans.

Born out of academic interest in the slow food movement, the importance of local raw materials has been put under the spotlight in recent years. Meanwhile, the havoc wreaked by the fast fashion industry has been drawing attention to the need for a new, sustainable approach to clothing and textile manufacture. This edited collection is unique in its scope, taking the conversation beyond traditional debates around fast fashion and agriculture, and examining how textile industry is rooted in the land, and within society and community. Featuring a diverse range of authors, the book will be valuable reading for academics interested in sustainable management, the study of consumption, the study of Indigenous perspectives, and the study of agricultural practices.

Ingun Grimstad Klepp is Professor of Clothing and Sustainability affiliated with Consumption Research Norway (SIFO) at Oslo Metropolitan University, Norway. 

Tone Skårdal Tobiasson is a seasoned journalist and editor, and founder of Nordic Initiative Clean & Ethical Fashion.