I havenāt had a chance to sit down and write a proper post in a few weeks, and I thought Iād share a quick update on why that is / all thatās been going on behind the scenes here. I promise to share another knitting deep dive soon!
Whatās been keeping me busy (& why Iām in London)
For the last six months Iāve been supporting The Sustainable Angle in preparation for their annual Future Fabrics Expo in London - and itās coming up this week! Future Fabrics Expo is the largest dedicated showcase for sourcing certified, sustainably and responsibly produced materials for fashion, home & textile brands. A little highlight reel from London last year, if youāre curious:
I volunteered at the first NYC edition of the expo in November, and will be working with the team on this yearās NYC expo as well. If you work in sustainable fashion (especially if youāre in New York), mark your calendar for November 19th & 20th! And let me know if youāre interested to learn more about attending, partnering, speaking, etc.
Separately - while in London I couldnāt pass up the opportunity to check out Denier Studio, a yarn store dedicated to selling all ādeadstockā materials:
Threads of exploration
Aka some things that have been on my mind latelyā¦
Because our current systems are optimized to make tons of new products, Iāve been thinking that the āunravelingā part of my re-manufacturing lifecycle would present the most interesting opportunities for innovation. But a recent conversation with an experienced knitwear designer prompted me to re-frame my perspective: our current systems are optimized to make tons of ~the same~ new products. Meaning:
Every new design and new material needs to be tested and optimized, which makes āswitchingā costs high. This is why manufacturers set minimum order quantities and offer volume discounts, effectively incentivizing overproduction (a lot more could be said on this topic - maybe in a future newsletter). I even experience this in my own small way - itās tangibly faster and easier for me to knit a second sweater with the same materials than it is to knit a new design with new yarn.
Moving to more circular systems will require innovation at the design and manufacturing stages too - plugging unravelled yarn (as an example) back into existing production models isnāt enough. Weāll need to optimize for working with smaller quantities of a wider variety of materials, and get better at working with this new flavor of āfeedstockā - aka the materials we already have in circulation.
When I tell people Iām working in sustainable fashion, the question often comes up, āwhat does sustainable fashion really mean?ā
Thereās a lot of ways this question can be answered. But the one I keep coming back to is āthe most sustainable clothes are the ones you already own*, regardless of brand and materialā. The pieces that you ~actually~ wear, over, and over, and over again. *Thereās so much more I could write about my own personal hypocrisies when it comes to fashion & sustainability, and my relationship to clothing and consumption. Another essay for another timeā¦
I thought this recent piece about tailoring basics to make them fit perfectly was a fantastic example of this idea:
Enjoy!
Best,
Anne
Fantastic as always!