Tag Archives: 100 Women of Influence

Sew 334 – Cotton with sustainable values

Georgie Somerset wears upcycledAustralian cotton industry focus on continual improvement of environmental production and safety measures is the basis of a great Sue Neales yarn For cotton, the big noise is about sustainability in The Australian this weekend.

Sue quotes cotton grower Simon Corish from Goondiwindi saying “consumers worldwide now want to know that the cotton they wear and use has been grown by farmers who do things environmentally well, and the big retailers are responding to that and saying they will only source in the future cotton that has been sustainably produced”.

The Australian industry has made great strides in reducing water use by 40 per cent and chemical use by 95 per cent in recent years – as discussed in an earlier Sew it Again post – and Sue’s story reports industry has now signed on for a five-year improved sustainability plan. “It requires Australia’s cotton growers to track their own – as well as the industry’s – ongoing performance against 45 key criteria linked to water efficiency, reduced chemical use, carbon footprint, biodiversity, farm productivity and work-related safety.”  Continue reading →

Sew 297 – Silk worn across generations

Georgie Somerset wears upcycled silkWe have clothing, and then we have fashion clothing. Clothing withstands the passage of time, whereas fashion comes and goes.

Professor Kate Fletcher Sustainable Fashion and Textiles says fashion links us to time and space – and caters to emotional and social needs. Where the fashion sector and the clothing industry come together – in fashion clothes – our emotional needs are made manifest as garments. She says this overlaying of emotional needs on physical goods fuels resource consumption, generates waste and promotes short-term thinking. It also leaves us feeling dissatisfied and disempowered, because external physical possessions are unable to satisfy internal psychological and emotional needs, no matter how much new stuff we consume.  Continue reading →