Consumer Education
Refugees & Clothing
Along with father’s day, June 20th also marked World Refugee Day. The United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) along with its partners ran week-long awareness raising activities world wide centered around this year’s theme: Home. The day was commemorated in different ways from a simulated refugee experience in Kuala Lumpur to free concerts and entertainment... »
CWAC // Ethical Menswear Product Guide
Commerce with a Conscious takes shopping for ethical menswear to the next leve1 thanks to the new CWAC Product Guide. Here is how it works: “With the CWACPG, visitors can browse and compare CWAC-approved clothing and accessories based on the criteria of their choosing. The idea is have all of the best eco /... »
Toxic Chemicals in Personal Care Products: David Suzuki’s ‘Dirty Dozen’
Credit: jypsygen via Flickr. The David Suzuki Foundation (DSF) has compiled a list of toxic chemicals to avoid in personal care products. Research has shown that “one in eight of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal care products are industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides, reproductive toxins, endocrine disruptors, plasticizers, degreasers, and surfactants.” (DSF)... »
VOTE// Fashion Takes Action, Design Forward Award
Who’s your favourite responsible Canadian designer? Fashion Takes Action (FTA) has officially launched Canada’s 1st annual eco design award, Design Forward. I had the pleasure of working on this project, and I am so excited that Social Alterations could support this important initiative in Canada, and I will explain the extent of our participation in... »
Social Alterations// Slides
Nadira and I both promised to make the slides from our presentations at the FEI conference available online, and here they are, along with a slideshow of some of the images we captured from the event. I’ve reposted the videos of the presentations for convenience. Thanks to everyone who offered feedback, we were so... »
READ// Kate Fletcher, Matilda Lee, and Sandy Black
The ‘Open Space’ at the FEI conference featured celebrated authors Kate Fletcher, Sustainable Fashion and Textiles: Design Journeys, Matilda Lee, Eco-Chic: The Savvy Shoppers Guide to Ethical Fashion, and Sandy Black, Eco-Chic: The Fashion Paradox. You can find these texts and others in our reading section. FEI set the stage for the... »
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... »
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... »
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... »
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,... »
