|
 Beautiful and stylish clothes are essential for climate-neutral fashion designer Rachel Bending, writes Erin Bell.
The phrase ‘eco-friendly fashion’ may conjure up an image of a shapeless, scratchy and highly flammable garment, imposing its ‘eco’ friendly values on the rest of your wardrobe. But global warming is changing our attitudes when it comes to the food we eat, the cars we drive and the clothes we buy. It is also giving rise to new era of provocative and stylish clothing labels for those of us with an environmental conscience.
And if there’s one person who is thinking green and is taking strides to act against a warming planet, it’s Rachel Bending – creator of Bird Textiles and Slingflings. Eight years ago she was working in a grassroots community on the mid-north coast of NSW and living a low-impact lifestyle with solar power, when the idea of sustainability in design came to her.
“Bird Textiles is a sustainable textile design brand,” Bending says.
“Bird has been an eco brand from day one using solar power for production, SKAL-certified organic cotton base fabrics, and water-based dyes to create the printed fabrics we are so well known for.”
Bending, originally from the UK, studied textile design at the Glasgow School of Art. Her creations are inspired by Japanese and Scandanavian design, 1950s wear and of course, nature. In recent years, she has also headlined worldwide, in magazines such as Time in which Bird Textiles featured as one of three significant sustainable fashion brands in Australasia.
Each season of Bird revolves around three new fabrics, designed in a Byron Bay studio and hand printed using water-based dye and working directly with a mill in India that weaves to its specifications. “No pesticides or herbicides are used in the production of the cotton we use to print on,” Bending says.
Remarkably, the business is completely climate neutral. Nearly 80% of the Bird collection is printed on organic fabric grown without chemicals. The products are then handmade using 100% renewable solar power. “Solar power is also used for the entire operations of the business, as a renewable energy source,” Bending says.
Earlier this year, the Bird Textiles Emporium opened its doors in Sydney’s Surry Hills. The store has plenty of quirks, including tags attached to garments that read ‘Australians use 69 billion plastic bags each year. Bag yourself a better environment and say no to a plastic bag.’
“I consider myself 50% designer and 50% educator,” Bending asserts. “In this age of mass product and mass merchandising, our customers really appreciate our sustainability ethos. What it comes down to is corporate responsibility. The buying public is becoming more discerning. People are seeing sense in ethical and sustainable consumerism and will buy with this in mind if we give them the choice. As individuals we need to take responsibility for our purchasing decisions. It’s a matter of looking at all aspects to reduce the impact on the planet. We try to subtly educate our consumers on reducing their impact on the environment by providing information on our swingtags, marketing materials and website.
“Let there be no misconception: fashion is fashion,” she continues. “But you can buy quality garments, perhaps with a more classic cut that will outlast fashion fads, or made from organic or a sustainable fibre. It’s important to support designers who are making the choice to manufacture more sustainably.”
Garments that are cheap and mass produced feed a cycle based on fashion trend, cheap price wars and mass production offshore in negligent working conditions, Bending argues. Instead, she is keen on designing garments and products that are eco-friendly, beautiful and made to last.
“There has been a movement towards throwaway fashion in the last 10 years,” she notes.
“The clothes that people buy are cheaper, but they are not made to last. It is an unsustainable and wasteful concept. That is all changing now, as people move back towards quality and longevity.”
The Bird collection is available in over 70 outlets in Australia and retails in middle to top-end boutiques, some eco stores and in mainstream outlets, the majority of which sell beautiful things.
“Marketing a product as eco friendly is not enough on its own to sell a product,” Bending says. “It needs to be beautiful. People will always want to buy beautiful things.”
So, what does the future hold for Bird Textiles? For now, Bending is sourcing ethically produced base fabrics such as bamboo, ingeo fibres, hemp and soy from India and Europe and plans to introduce a new level of sustainable practice to her work and slow the warming of the planet.
You may not be able to replace the glacial snowcap on Mt Kilimanjaro or halt the collapse of the Greenland ice shelf, but you can purchase garments that are kind to mother nature. Even Bending is the first to admit, “Power is in the hands of the vigilante consumer. The consumer has the choice about where they spend their dollar.”
www.birdtextile.com
 |
Show/Hide comments
Show/Hide comment form
