The Pillars of Sustainability


Within my research, I wanted to touch more on the meaning of Sustainability. I found an article online stating that there are 3 known principles. These are referred to as Pillars:

- Economy

- Society

- Environment


Informally referred to as profit people and planet, these three pillars help us understand what sustainability really affects. 

My chosen subject, natural dyes falls under the environment pillar mostly which opens a path of exploration into other parts of fashion sustainability such as the effects on the ocean, carbon footprints, material waste, and animal cruelty. 

You know the price you pay for your clothes, but do you know the price the planet is also paying? 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How Does Desirability Connect?

Image
Here is my initial mindmap focusing on the desirability of a product. How companies might use the technique of greenwashing, falsely declaring to be sustainable just for an aesthetic product that attracts more sales - one of the many scandalous traits of the marketing world. I then went on to explore what is called \"opposites\". The idea behind opposites is to take an issue and flip it, often revealing the solution was right in front of you. For example:  Fast Fashion - Clothing made around trends that produce mass waste when the next trend arrives. Slow Fashion - The idea that a quality piece of fabric can have longevity to it and has more value, reducing waste. It was quite an eye-opener. A simple task that works in much broader problems too that don\"t revolve around the fashion world. What do you think?
Read more

Final stages

Image
With hand-in drawing closer I found myself with some extra time to do some final dyeing without leaves and making pattern prints, but rather just testing colours. On-campus in the dye lab, we had several old leftover dyeing items such as nuts, cochineal (which I have researched earlier in this blog), safflower, goldenrod, and other natural colours. They range from bright yellows to reds and some browns but not any green surprisingly.  I got 3 pieces of silk, 3 wool, and 3 cotton. One of each fabric was copper mordanted, then one of each was allum mordanted and the last lot was mordanted with iron.  I chose to dye with safflower (orangey-brown) on the iron samples because the already beige fabric would potentially enhance the orange tones. Goldenrod (bright yellow) was the second choice that I paired with copper due to the blue tones to try and create a green colour. Lastly, I wanted to try the cochineal (red) to judge for myself if it is as effective as people say. I tested wi...
Read more

Crushed beetles in your clothes, food and makeup?

Image
All around the world people are making textiles, clothes, dyed fabrics. Cochineal Beetles are little white parasitic bugs found on cacti mainly in Latin America. When crushed in the cocooned state they explode a red pigment that is used in food, drink, cosmetics, and many other industries including fashion. More commonly known as carmine, this pigment is globally used. This sparks an issue with animal rights activists. They argue that just because they are small creatures that don't verbalise pain, does that give us the right to crush them just to make lipstick?  I came across two videos this week. One, a woman from Mexico and the other a woman from Peru, both demonstrating the traditional use of these beetles to dye wool or fabrics. María Luis Mendoza de Cruz, Mexico, the wife of acclaimed Master Weaver Fidel Cruz Lazo shows in a workshop the crushing of these dried cocooned cochineal bugs and how adding acid will lighten the red colour, and adding alkaline creates a deep violet o...
Read more