Eco Fashion World

When we came back from Canada last month, we carried one big wish with us: to make and learn more about Brazilian music, M.A. playing the guitar and me as a singer. We thought it would be quite hard, because we're in German speaking Switzerland with not that many Brazilians around. The first week we went to a community party in the multicultural area where we live and guess what: we met a lovely young couple, he is Swiss and loves to play Brazilian music and she is a music teacher from São Paulo. Bossanova melodies are now heard even more often in our home!

I haven't been writing much these days because I feel I'm pursuing a new degree: one on 'how to become a mom'. It is truly amazing how much information I have been trying to digest lately. On complications I had, on pregnancy yoga, midwifes, doctors, insurances and maternity leave. Not to mention the amount of things we need to fill our house with to be fully prepared for our little one. It's easy to spend a fortune on furniture, clothes, diapers, a trolley and thousands of other 'practical things', so I was happy when a friend said: 'Just get the necessities and wait until the baby is there'. Watching 'The story of stuff' again this week, helped me to come to grips with the wish list our local baby store gave us. Necessities, in organic or second hand, and nothing more it is!

‘How humbling is it to learn something you don’t know’.

It is six years ago I started off in eco fashion and a lot has happened since. It is a privilege to not just be a participant in this movement, but also a researcher which allows me to take a different perspective. Wearing two hats is sometimes extremely difficult since it confuses and doesn’t allow me to take a distance that I 'should' have as a researcher. Luckily I work with great mentors who share their knowledge on how to employ an academic stance. One used the metaphor of Avatar the other day to explain to me how to approach my research:

‘My baby is 99% organic’.

The other day I attended an interesting presentation on how young mothers increasingly choose to consume organic products. The research showed that women often take a leading role in deciding on the purchase of organic products. Women are still the first child educators and are most often responsible for the household with a very limited role for their partners. Some are being supported by their spouses, but many men don’t seem to care as such or are rather cynical. Women can be critical too, especially about green washing, but the act of consuming green products itself gives them confidence that they’re doing good.

I am in the blessed position that I meet inspiring people wherever I go. People that make me think and reflect, take action, people who challenge me and tickle my curiosity. These are some of the people who make a difference to me:

One of my oldest friends and companions, Annouk, keeps on enthusing me with her hiphonest blog and activities. A newer friend, Abigail Doan, does the same with her amazing textile designs.

After three months in Canada I was so much looking forward seeing my friends and family back home. But this immense cloud seems to darken my sky at the moment, making it impossible for me to fly to Amsterdam this weekend. So while I consider my options of rescheduling for next week, I think it is best to do some pep-talking.

‘The Colony’ is the name of the spring ’10 collection of one of my favourite eco designers, Ada Zanditon. Today I was watching the video interview I did with her in which she narrates how she came to this collection, inspired by the book called ‘A world without bees’. The book talks about the possible reasons why bees are suffering from colony collapse disorder which is said to be a huge environmental problem. Throughout the book it becomes clear what amazing qualities bees have and how they pollinate one third of all the food we eat. Ada wanted to translate her fascination for bees into a collection that is, in my view, her strongest so far. Instead of going for fluffy yellow and black dresses, she started looking at the way bees think and found that the basis of what they do, lies in the honeycomb structure they build. She started constructing garments out of hexagons and discovered how body conscious this shape is. Creating her collection as a colony, like bees build their colony, brought her to the chosen color pattern: