Socially Responsible Design

WATCH// Social Alterations @ FEI

Thursday, March 4, 2010
By maryhanlon
WATCH// Social Alterations @ FEI

Here are just two of the videos we took at the conference. We have more videos to come, so stay tuned for those. The first video is of my Pecha Kucha talk. I’ll be posting the slides and my notes a little later on. Please contact us if you have any questions on the works... »

Social Alterations @ FEI

Tuesday, March 2, 2010
By maryhanlon
Social Alterations @ FEI

So here we are in London for the Fashioning an Ethical Industry Conference: Fast Forward. Today, Nadira and I will both be presenting at the conference, and with Katrine in attendance, this will mark the first time the SA team is all together in the same place at the same time!   We will be doing... »

Fashion Futures

Sunday, February 28, 2010
By maryhanlon
Fashion Futures

Fashion Futures, a new report out of Forum for the Future in partnership with Levis Strauss & Co., has predicted 4 scenarios for the future of the fashion industry (see below).  Here is an excerpt from the Executive Summary: “Fashion Futures is a call for a sustainable fashion industry. We want companies in all sectors to... »

Tracing Trash

Tuesday, February 16, 2010
By maryhanlon
Tracing Trash

Trash of Your Society (T.O.Y.S.), an art project of theSYNdicate, is on tour investigating the after-life-cycle of products, or artefacts (a.k.a. trash). Do you know what happens to your products once you’ve tossed them? Here is part of ‘The Concept’: The footsteps or traces that refuse leaves internationally, are the subject of the art project of... »

Social Biomimicry: Insect Societies and Human Design

Sunday, February 14, 2010
By maryhanlon
Social Biomimicry: Insect Societies and Human Design

How might ‘social biomimicry’ influence design within the context of socially, culturally, environmentally, and economically responsible systems of fashion? While this conference may not directly focus on fashion at the stage of design conception, it does concentrate on other stages, such as manufacturing, communications, transportation, and green building. Indirectly, lessons learned at all stages... »

Bamboo// Continued Misconceptions

Sunday, February 14, 2010
By maryhanlon
Bamboo// Continued Misconceptions

With the current spotlight on ‘green’ fashion over at Vogue U.K. via Livia Firth and the Green Carpet Challenge, we were surprised to see bamboo as designer Linda Loudermilk’s fibre of choice for Colin Firth’s suit at the premier of Tom Ford’s “A Single Man” in Paris. Despite the comments out of Loudermilk’s office, we’re... »

Can Design Change Behaviour?

Wednesday, February 10, 2010
By nadiralamrad
Can Design Change Behaviour?

This question was answered recently by Banny Banerjee, Director of the Stanford Design Program and Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering.  In short, his answer is YES! ““Our behavior is deeply influenced by the norms and frameworks that surround us and design can be used to create systems and experiences that work with an underlying understanding... »

Midway: Message from the Gyre

Tuesday, February 9, 2010
By maryhanlon
Midway: Message from the Gyre

“We’ve lost our sense of outrage” (Chris Jordan, TEDtalk, June 23, 2008). How do we change? We change through behaviour, says photographer Chris Jordan. His book, Running the Numbers: An American Self Portrait, is available for direct purchase through his website, and also via Amazon, through the SA . This short film speaks for itself: Jordan presents... »

Update// Noko is a No Show!!

Monday, February 8, 2010
By nadiralamrad
Update// Noko is a No Show!!

If you read our website regularly, you may have seen a post in December about Noko Jeans, a company manufacturing jeans in North Korea (DPRK).  At the end of that post I wrote: “To tell you the truth, I don’t really know what to think about this so, I emailed Noko jeans earlier today asking... »

Go Green Week, 2010 // The University of the Arts

Thursday, February 4, 2010
By maryhanlon
Go Green Week, 2010 // The University of the Arts

Timo Rissanen offers a great post with his notes on ‘The Sustainability Equation: Ethics and Aesthetics in Contemporary Fashion’ and on the ‘Ethics and Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion’ exhibit at Pratt on his personal blog “Timo Rissanen: Fashion Creation Without Fabric Waste Creation.” Not to be confused with the Pratt exhibit, that runs until the... »