Street Up and Independent

 found art, drawing on the #44 bus with added text

Feeling so  validated by the book, Shoot It! Hollywood Inc and the Rise of Independent Film, by Davis Spaner.  I have been spouting off about fashion's lack of great design and though some couture pieces break the jadescape, a whole lot of bore is hanging on the racks.

Spaner notes how the film industry run by appliance makers has focused on product placement and gratuitous noise in order to grow. Aha this really is what has happened to fashion, theater , music, more,  as well. Perhaps it is because:

(p 16)
"Of course, not every purely independent film is great cinema, but like Warner Bros, when it really was the Warner Brothers, independent filmmakers are more willing to take risks than today's business grad--turned-studio executives who always choose the safe route. And it is risk taking that makes possible the movie that shatters expectations. "

And risk taking makes for great music, the plays that break out and sing, clothes that strut , art that sustains the soul, enriches the heart. We thrive via change. Risk generates great design. Even the moguls will die without the independents.  I mean, that is where their crop of "next ideas" comes from, without creative diversity we shall surely risk devolution. Without nurturing possibilities, fewer can grow. It is not a good time to lower potential by elimnating possibilities Global warming ain't going away!

 "

Corporate rule hates risk (yet will risk the ability of this planet to sustain quality of life-go figure!)  Change is risk, therefore stagnation and narrowing rules the game. Monopoly becomes a bore and we are there! However the indies are rising , street up and grass roots are the future. Find your passion and collect with others to be great!! Dare to speak up, as every energy given to positive change reinforces the light.

Beautiful Sustainable, Sublime

Photo is cover of latest Sublime Issue, please check them out, 

subscribe or just let them know you care!!

This is a treat. I met the Sublime editor, Damian Santamanai, in London 2009 at the Eco Design Fair after party. The Eco Design Fair was where i had my first really public, speaking engagement. Nicola of Beautiful Soul propped me up from jet lag (i had flown in just hours earlier) and handed me a glass of champagne. I believe it went well, as had thought about the talk for days but never really wrote it down. However we were pitched up next to Carnaby Street (the home of Mods and Mary Quant) which totally influenced my early design aesthetique, so I started there, with appreciation for British style.

While other kids bought candy and toys with their allowances, i bought Vogue and crayons.

 So I am delighted to see the magazine alive and well. I tried to get the local colleges (Seattle) interested in subscribing but they shined me on...i also tried to get the attention of SPL i think...must put this back on the to do list.

It has been a few years more of proving that business as usual is not working out as most of us expected. Surely it is time to change the direction!! Sublime embraces the positive side of change and we need all of that we can get. For some reason the most natural thing in the world, change, is often met with suspicion, fear, or other negative reactions. When did we learn this?

PS if you go to the Mods link you will see that they are set up against the Rockers. Mods vs Rockers was possibly one of the most influential Life Magazine stories of my youth. I have a grade school report written from that article, i must dig it out and post the photos  --oh and I was in love with the Rockers!

Fashion Field Guide

 

food for the machine of life aka .nihilism parading as progress

Fashion Ecology and Evolution

How what we wear, do and create impacts what we wear, do and create. The mindful life will design itself. It will be fabulous!

I am almost through with my formal studies is environmental science and communications. The college i am attending is big on social justice, so that is my default major. I can now truly claim to be a meta disciplinary student of life, ongoing and ever changing. This is rock and roll.

Knowing how social injustice impacts access to resources, health, hierarchies and contributes to the Machiavellian and narcissistic attempts to control life, means I have to address it in order to go forward.

This super control of “life” is a bad idea and I can prove it. Then I will be free to go into how fashion can play a part in this re-volutionary drama. Really, fashion, art, poetry, video all have starring roles this next round, as co-creativity usurps procreativity.

Air Dye 2012

This eco friendly, as in water saving, dye technique was on the cat walk recently - part of the  fanfare created by the stakeholders of New York Fashion Week AirDye is for synthetic fabrics as is heat set but win some is better than none.
"Each Costello Tagliapietra dress dyed and printed with AirDye saves 45 gallons of water and 95 megajoules of energy."

Going to a meet-up in a few weeks and in my rsvp comment i wrote,
"i want to know what fabrics they carry that might be considered eco sane. (is a lesser/more thing as yet) I know the Northgate store carried some nice hemp weaves and knits, clean processed bamboos, tencel (?) & "healthy" organic cotton- if local water supply isn't endangered- etc. Also new dye techniques are being created to offset the coal tar "norm" This is the elephant in the fabric shop perhaps, but so be it!! -& This is just the tip of the trunk "

Sometimes speaking up is tricky, you never know what kind of reception you will get. This takes the "box of chocolates" metaphor to the next level. If the focus is on the chocolate and not the how, what, where, why and the whole of cocoa bean possibilities, we lose much in both the concept and the reality.

Happy Valentines Day, though i cringe at the market's absurd takeover i laud the sentiment. Today i promise to choose love over fear, that is my challenge, feel free to make it yours.

satin, velvet, beaded, embroidered valentines that 

hang on my wall to remind me of that which is truly valuable.

Woad Dye

Just found out about this medieval dye from France being revived and marketed in products by Bleu de Lecture.  French blue was in vogue way  before the aniline  mauve craze of the industrial era. Woad is plant based and looks to be a good alt for indigo (which crocks). This will add to the range of naturally sane blue colored possibilities.


The video from Des Racines et Ailes. is lovely and informative, even if you don't speak French  

photo credit: workshops from botanical colors, 

Woad Dye and Denise Lambert of Bleu de Lectoure

More on natural dyes at Botanical Colors. 

the light goes on

and on. Check out the latest universal light shows at http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap120124.html
This post is to remind us that we are born of Stars (The Living Universe, Elgin) and that we are the light with the power necessary to change the way poor perceptions have  misguided life. It is also the year of the dragon, wow all this magick is now!!
photo by Bjørn Jørgensen/NASA (Grotfjord, Norway - 1/23/12).

Shame on US

Tris is back, though banned in 1977 for use in children's pajamas, it is now turning up on changing tables, car seats and other foam filled infant products.

banner for occupy seattle (occupy chaplains) 

stencilled panel by michael, fabric border finish  by djb

Flame retardants are chemicals meant to protect us, but once again the "cure" is might be worse than the disease. The effectiveness of flame reatarding toxins is being questioned but the health consequences of this body of  "halogenated flame retardants – those containing bromine or chlorine – can cause endocrine disruption, immunotoxicity, reproductive toxicity, cancer, and adverse effects on fetal and child development and on neurologic function."

Toxic flame retardants found in many foam baby products

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | May 18, 2011

KOMO television just aired this "news" a few days ago.  Washington State legislators are seeking a ban, so this news is about the politics more than the health of children. That is a sad reflection of what our media considers important.

Common Threads Initiative

Patagonia, has launched an EBay shop for their used gear and garments. With headings : Reduce, Repair, Reuse, Recycle, Reimagine.

According to ecouterre, "Patagonia created a virtual swap meet on Wednesday for buying and selling used Patagonia gear—an unexpected retail model that’s a first for a major brand.......

The Common Threads Initiative addresses a significant part of today’s environmental problem: the footprint of our stuff,” says Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia’s founder and owner. “This program first asks customers to not buy something if they don’t need it. If they do need it, we ask that they buy what will last a long time—and to repair what breaks, reuse, or resell whatever they don’t wear any more. And, finally, recycle whatever’s truly worn out.”

Not only will Patagonia be putting used clothes back into circulation, but it also won’t profit from any of the transactions.

The program is groundbreaking for several reasons. Not only will Patagonia be putting used clothes back into circulation, which could cannibalize new sales, but it also won’t profit from any of the transactions. Patagonia, Chouinard adds, is the first company to ask its customers to take a formal pledge to reduce consumption and keep products out of the landfill or incinerator."

Bluebird for Happiness

Aqua flocked organdy, fiber collage
for my granddaughters.

Welcoming the New Year

Kids Killer Klothes

"Ask your legislator to support the Toxic-Free Kids Act! The Toxic-Free Kids Act will be introduced in January, but we need to get the word out now. Why? Because we don’t want cancer-causing flame retardants in our children’s products and we need companies to stop replacing one toxic chemical with another in products made for kids.

The Toxic-Free Kids Act will get cancer-causing Tris Flame Retardants out of baby products and encourage companies to switch to safer chemicals that won't harm health, the environment, or their bottom line. Tris flame retardants are especially concerning because they can cause cancer. One was even removed from kids pajamas in the 70s because of health concerns but now it’s back, and we need to get it out of our homes and away from our kids."

This is a message from Washington Toxics Coalition, in the hope that we as a people will start taking back our responsibility for the well being of life on this little planet, we call home.

I am for a "Sanity Act" as there is no rational excuse I can find to not freak at what our "leaders" have allowed. In the name of commerce we as a species have been duped into a suicidal trance of sugars, fats and seductive virtual worlds.

The manmade processed, patented, promoted for profits reality lost it's human purpose. What have we become and why is it so much less than our true possibility.?

possibility

the chicken stopped to ponder possibilities before crossing the road.
Ballard metal art on 57th and 14th

When faced with an opposition, ask yourself or others what might be another possibility? It is so easy to see the "is" that we fail to realize that it is only an appearance of one of many possible alternatives. What may look to be anger may be pain. What is a rule may have a good way around it. What was useful once, may no longer be applicable.