150 mile wardrobe: local fiber, real color, Gandhi economy

Except for notions (buttons, zippers, etc), everything in Rebecca Burgess' wardrobe has been grown and designed within 150 miles of her home. But until putting her closet on a diet one year ago, nearly all her clothing was produced far from home, and that made her a very typical American.

Over the past half century the U.S. textile industry has been decimated. "In 1965, 95% of the clothing in a typical American's closet was made in America," Burgess writes on her blog, "today less than 5% of our clothes are made here."

Upset by the outsourcing of the American wardrobe, as well as the disconnect this by the waste produced by the textile industry worldwide (it's the #1 polluter of fresh water on the planet and America's 5th largest polluting industry), Burgess decided she needed to focus public attention on local fabric, in the same way the food movement had done with local food.

Inspired by the success of challenges like the 100 Mile Diet, Burgess decided to put her closet on a diet. For six weeks she wore one outfit (created from local rancher Sally Fox's color-grown cotton that Fox had milled back in 1983 before the area lost all of its mills), but then local designers, in collaboration with local farmers, began creating more hand spun/knitted/dyed pieces until her wardrobe had become so complete she even had a naturally-wicking alpaca raincoat.

Rebecca calls her experiment the Fibershed Project, because like a foodshed or watershed, her fibershed- the 150 mile radius of her home- is big enough to provide for all the fibers and dyes necessary to create a diverse wardrobe. She admits she's lucky to be in Northern California where there are plenty of ranchers raising even alpacas, angoras and mohair goats and where there's an ideal climate for growing a variety of color-grown cottons.

In this video, we visit Burgess at her dye farm in Lagunitas, California and her home nearby where she shows us her 150-mile wardrobe, including a bicycle-felted vest and a sweater made from the wool of the oldest rancher in the fibershed (a 96-year-old sheep rancher) and the youngest designer (an 18-year-old knitter).

Original story here: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/150-mile-wardrobe-local-fiber-real-color...

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• local economy
• wabi-sabi
• 100 mile wardrobe
• natural dye
• natural fibers
• natural clothes
• local clothes
• local mills
• american-made
• american-made clothes
• water pollution
• textile industry
• textile pollution
• 100 mile diet
• natural textiles
• wool
• alpaca wool
• felt
• bicycle-powered production
• rebecca burgess
• fibershed project
• fibershed marketplace
• sally fox
• color-grown cotton
• hyperlocal clothing
• local clothing
• gandhi
• slow fashion
• fast fashion

[LocumRex]

I love this ideal and concept. However... if it takes 120 hours to make a complex Norwegian sweater w/zipper and the knitter wants around $10.00/ hour then that sweater will cost $1200. Mind you, $10.00 / hour (@ 40hr work week) is less than $21,000 a year and below the poverty line. This is why we continue to buy from a faceless indentured labor force, overseas and ship it over. Is there any way to change this paradigm anymore? Local and Affordable?

[kirstendirksen]

@LocumRex Rebecca doesn't expect everyone to live only within the fibershed, we've just gone too far in the other direction (nothing/little in the fibershed). Also, not all clothing has to be complex handknit stuff. Rebecca told me that 5th Ave is interested, "but if we want to put our yarns, from our sheep and our alpaca on mechanized equipment we need this to be a lot finer (points to handknit sweater) and we need the spin to be a lot tighter. So for that to take place we need new equipment."

[kirstendirksen]

Rebecca isn't saying we should go back to the past. Her response to my question about that: "Now we have the ability through an information age that's come.. My goal is to use the best of modern technology and the best of self sufficiency that we could learn from our ancestors. Combine self sufficiency with modern technology and that combo, like a solar-powered cotton mill on a farm. That mill is very advanced, yet at the same time it's very new and old. I love this new old thing. "

[nagaempress]

Ill be honest when she started talking about the gold pants I started crying. Im crying for what we have lost. We live in a generic society where everything is plastic and preservatives. Where we go to big box stores and buy clothing that are made by kids. We are starving in this counrty for jobs. Bring the cottage industries back and support these people. I know the clothing will be more expensive but years ago people didn't buy clothes every year. We can go back to that and be happy.

[cfalk19]

I love her feet! You can tell she rarely wears those baby-toe warping runners we all love so much. Wide, flat feet! :D

[belmontartwork]

UR adorable...smiles...thanks



[macoafi]

@exee1 But if you look at Apple and Walmart in particular, where are they making jobs? Not America. Walmart forces their suppliers overseas to meet a certain pricepoint, and Apple moved all their production overseas years ago. Just because the CEOs live here doesn't mean the labor is done here or that transporting the items to stores is fuel-efficient and short.

Besides, trade is only beneficial when it's exports. Imports are a loss.

[macoafi]

@cloudld nettles would make similar materials, from what I've heard.

[macoafi]

@LocumRex there are knitting machines. I think you can buy them at JoAnn fabrics even. Then you cut up the knitted fabric it made and sew it into a sweater. That's how most mass-produced knit fabric is made, just far far away.

However, this DOES explain why wardrobes were SO much smaller historically. Average woman in 1930 had 9 dresses for her whole wardrobe--and that's long after the industrial revolution.

[truepres]

It's lawful in California. She would just need to do it under the medical use recognition.

[Sassymarkrep]

Love this! We have become so reliant on modern technology and that is part of the downfall.

[truepres]

Outstanding!

In trying to get a more full understanding of the implementation of the mechanism of usury and its consequential degradation of real culture, I stumbled across a copious lecture series giving a very well researched history of it between the years 1470 and 1770. I don't know if you realize it, but your work illustrates a slice of what a non-usury economic culture would start and look like at the basic level function. It's life before the abuse/control mechanism was naively accepted.

[cloudld]

Too bad she can't grow hemp for raw materials. 

[grarrs]

This is so cool!

Ive been sticking to wearing only natural materials, like cotton, wool, leather. But this is extreme! Very nice initiative!