Silk textile with gilt thread embroidery, 16th Century. Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, © The New York Times, Dec. 5, 2005.

The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art have created an online exhibit that features highlights from their 2005 exhibit entitled Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey. The online exhibit is beautifully curated with interactive close ups of the costumes that are so detailed you can actually see the fabric grain. What’s so special about the Ottoman Empire? According to the press release in 2005:

“Three weaves were dominant: velvet (kadife), featuring a three-dimensional surface with some areas of pile and some of metal thread; brocade (kemha) and cloths of gold and silver thread (seraser)—the most expensive and luxurious. In the mid-16th century, Ottoman taste increasingly favored large, bold designs, such as medallions, stylized tiger stripes, and a triplespot design known as “çintamani” (literally, “auspicious jewel”). By repeatedly combining the similar motifs in different scales and patterns, the Ottomans were among the first to use recurrent motifs to create a dramatic and distinct visual language—a quintessentially “Ottoman brand”—that became identifiable with the empire’s centralized political strength and growing economic power—its style and status.”

If you are an educator and would like to incorporate this amazing online resource into your lessons, you can get some ideas from the resource for educators with a 4-part classroom activity that accompanies the exhibit.

Now…go explore!

Online exhibit: Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey

Other online exhibits: The Freer Gallery of Art and the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum of Asian Art

Educator’s resource: Asian Art Connections: A Resource for Educators. Style and Status: Imperial Costumes from Ottoman Turkey

If you’re in New York, check out (sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out, hosted by EcoSalon, Of Rags, NYC Fair Trade Coalition and Textile Arts Center.

Not just for an evening of shopping and celebrating, but also education! FREE education!

“(sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out is a collaboration that celebrates sustainability’s place in the fashion world and in the global economy. The term sustainable is in parenthesis for the event title because this word itself is not the focal point of the event, rather, the evening aims to show that anything fashionable should simply make a positive impact and not need a qualifier to differentiate it.” (Ecosalon)

Click here for the details, and enjoy the festivities!

Suzanne Lee, Senior Research Fellow at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London and author of Fashioning The Future: tomorrow’s wardrobe, is brilliantly combining fashion and biology in search of alternative fibre/material.

BioCouture is currently on display:

Trash Fashion: designing out waste

Antenna Gallery, The Science Museum London, until June 2011

The Future That Never Was: Alter Nature

ModeMuseum Hasselt, Belgium, until June 2011

Listen in on her recent TED talk:

[Centre: This child was 12 years old when he was assassinated for standing up for his rights]

“Acting is what I do for a living; activism is what I do to stay alive.” (Martin Sheen)

Today I witnessed 18,000 youth stand up and shout out  in support for children’s rights. Have you ever heard 18,000 children chant freedom, again and again? I can assure you that it is a sound I will not soon forget.

Did you know that he has been arrested more than 60 times for activism? He looks pretty darn innocent in this photo!

This year’s We Day events saw Free the Children co-founders Craig and Mark Kielburger celebrate the hard work and dedication of students all across Canada—students who have collectively raised 5 million dollars, banking 1 million volunteer hours along the way, for children in need.

The event has attracted human rights and environmental leaders from around the world; on stage to support, celebrate and motivate these students were activists Martin Sheen, Al Gore, Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr., Rick Hanson, Ethan Zohn, Philippe Cousteau, Spencer West, Scott Hammell, and Robin Wiszowaty, and musicians Hedley, Colbie Caillat, and The Barenaked Ladies.

Click here to watch it live on demand.

“Youth are not our future, they are our right now” (Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Sr.)

Empowering students by empowering teachers, the We Schools in Action program has built 150 schools (650 schools, over the last 15 years) in Kenya, Sierra Leone, Ecuador, China, Haiti and Sri Lanka and provided more than 60,000 people internationally with clean water.

Free the Children Founders Craig and Mark Kielburger

Want to get your students involved? Teachers, this is a year long initiative, with campaigns set to keep your students motivated and engaged throughout the entire process:

• Halloween for Hunger asks children to collect canned goods instead of candy, for donation in their community: 2009 saw 217,000 pounds of food collected

• On November 19th students are asked to participate in a Vow of Silence; this day of action calls attention to the 218 million child labourers who have no voice.

• On January 12th, students celebrate and remember Haiti, through the We are all Haitians campaign

• February 19-25 is Aboriginal Education Week, where students are tasked to take action within their own local communities

• April 11-15 is 5 Days of Freedom. Register your interest and they will provide your school with posters, celebrity videos, motivational resources, etc.

Representing Social Alterations, I felt proud to be in the same room not with the leaders mentioned above, but with these kids…..these 18, 000 kids! It was like nothing I have ever experienced.

For more information, please check out We Day and Free the Children.

There are two events in particular that we were sorry to have missed recently: IXEL MODA (Colombia) and the Ethical Fashion Source Expo (UK), held in conjunction with the RITE Conference. 

The congress in Colombia, founded by Danilo Cañizares and Erika Rohenes Weber, is unique in its integration of international runways and professional presentations. College of William & Mary Professor, and author of Couture and Consensus, Regina Root serves as President Ad Honorem of Ixel Moda and oversees the academic vision of the congress along with fellow scientific committee members Kathia Castillo (Brazil) and Alex Blanch (Spain). Root’s keynote speech, invited by the founders and the sponsors which included among others the Cartagena Chamber of Commerce, the Colombian Ministry of Education and Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism, focused on Latin American heritage in world fashion.

The announced theme for next year’s congress is “Origins of Latin American Fashion”.

The conference also featured speakers such as Marsha Dickson of University of Delaware, author of Social Responsibility in the Global Apparel Industry and editor of Sustainable Fashion- a Handbook for Educators as well as Francesca Granata, editor of Fashion Projects, among other fantastic presenters.   

Lucky for us (and you!) Fashion Projects and TED have posts up on their sites to sum up some of the great research and work presented.

Jen Ballie and Matilda Aspinall, two of TED’s PhD students, checked out the EFF Expo, and attended the ‘Innovation’ seminar. If you too missed out on these events, pop on over to TED and Fashion Projects to learn more.

Our friends over at Re-dress in Ireland have been BUSY!

In less than one month, Re-dress will present FASHION EVOLUTION, Ireland’s 3rd ethical fashion week:

“Fashion Evolution aims to re-vitalise the spirit of the Irish fashion industry, with a schedule of exciting events catering for consumers, producers, retailers and supporters of fashion alike.” (Re-dress)

“Our mission is to provide the Irish fashion sector with the tools needed to make more sustainable fashion choices.” (Re-dress)

We don’t think they’ll have any trouble accomplishing this goal–just take a look at what they have planned!

What: Re-dress ETHICAL FASHION CALENDAR LAUNCH
When: Tuesday 4th April
Where: Online www.re-dress.ie
Cost: Free

What: FASHION MENTORING SESSIONS
When: Wednesday 5th 6-8pm
Where: Sugar Club, Upper Leeson Street, Dublin
Cost: 15 Euros BOOK NOW!

What: FASHION ENTREPRENEURSHIP; EVENING LECTURE AND NETWORKING SESSION WITH KATHARINE HAMNETT
When: Wednesday 5th 8.30-10pm
Where: Sugar Club, Upper Leeson Street, Dubin
Cost: 10 Euros BOOK NOW!

What: IRISH FASHION INDUSTRY CONFERENCE
When: Thursday 6th 9am-2pm
Where: Fallon and Byrne
Cost: 40 Euros (students and unemployed 20 euros) BOOK NOW!!

What: CLEAN CLOTHES CAMPAIGN – GENERAL MEETING
When: Thursday 6th Time TBC
Where: TBC
Cost: TBC BOOK NOW!

What: FREE PUBLIC FILM NIGHT
When: Friday 7th 7pm
Where: Smock Alley Café
Cost: FREE BOOK NOW!

What: EJF Cotton T-shirt exhibit
When: Tuesday 4th-Saturday 8th 10am-5pm daily
Where: The Greenhouse
Cost: FREE

Title: FASHION EVOLUTION
Location: Ireland
Link out: Click here
Start Date: 2010-05-04
End Date: 2010-05-08

“The fashion industry faces major challenges in both resources and labor, but designers featured in the Eco Chic exhibition strive to change the general attitude of fashion and consumption.” (Scandinavian House, on Eco Chic)

Will you be in New York sometime this year? If so, you are in luck with so many exhibits, instillations, seminars and talks surrounding responsible design in the fashion industry, including a lecture by Matilda Tham on “Metadesigning Fashion – Scenarios for Sustainable Fashion Futures” (see below). You may remember we have spoken on Matilda Tham before on SA, as she and Nadira presented their research alongside each other at this years FEI conference, back in early March. Click here for more information on her presentation and to visit the FEI conference site.

The Swedish Institute’s Eco Chic exhibition has scheduled New York as its first American stop. This traveling exhibit has been on tour since the winter of 2008, and has already visited Minsk, Kiev, Riga, Istanbul, and most recently Berlin.

“The ecological and ethical production of clothing begins with the design of a garment, and continues right through to the finished product, including the transparency of fashion companies about their production processes and materials.” (Scandinavian House, on EcoChic)

“Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion opens at Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America, May 5, 2010 and showcases Swedish fashion designers who take an environmentally-friendly and ethical approach to their work, without sacrificing style. On view through August 21, this exhibition illuminates high-fashion alternatives to much of today’s environmentally harmful clothing.”

Designers featured included: Anja Hynynen; Bergman’s; Camilla Norrback; Dem Collective; Johanna Hofring (also linked here: www.ekovaruhuset.se); Julian Red; Nudie; Pia Anjou; Reflective Circle; Righteous Fashion; Swedish Hasbeens; and Zion.

Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion will run from May 5th through until August 21st.

Gallery Hours: Open Tuesday – Saturday, 12 – 6 pm
Gallery Admission: FREE

Source: Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America

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Eco Chic-related Programs @ Scandinavia House

Symposium – Towards Sustainable Fashion
Directly followed by the Opening Party for Eco Chic in Volvo Hall

Tuesday, May 4, 2010, 6:30 pm, Victor Borge Hall
RSVP required. Please respond by Thursday, April 29 to malin@amscan.org

A symposium, in conjunction with the opening of the exhibit Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Fashion, with fashion designers who take an environmentally-friendly and ethical approach to their work, without sacrificing style. The panel of speakers includes designers and fashion experts from Sweden and The United States – Marcus Bergman, Karin Stenmar, Sass Brown and Eviana Hartman, and is moderated by Hazel Clark, Dean of the School of Art and Design and Theory, Parsons: The New School for Design.

The symposium is followed by a party celebrating the opening of the exhibit Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Fashion at Scandinavia House. The exhibit will be open until 9:30 pm.

Source: Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America

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Eco-Fashion Programs @ The Museum at FIT

Talk and Walk
Eco-Fashion Going Green & Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion

Wednesday, June 9, 10:30 am
FREE, but registration is required
Registration for this event will open in May

Join us for a walk through New York City visiting two exhibitions that highlight sustainability in fashion. First have a tour with curator Jennifer Farley of The Museum at FIT’s Eco-Fashion: Going Green and then visit Eco Chic – Towards Sustainable Swedish Fashion at Scandinavia House.

Meeting point: The Museum at FIT, 10:30 am, 7th Avenue (@ 27th Street), continuing to Scandinavia House

This event is organized in collaboration with The Museum at FIT. For information, visit www.fitnyc.edu.

Source: Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America

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Eco-Fashion: Going Green

Fashion & Textile History Gallery
Exhibit on view at The Museum at FIT May 25 – November 26, 2010

Location: 7th Avenue (@ 27th Street), NYC 10001-5992

Information: www.fitnyc.edu/museum

Source: Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America

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Metadesigning Fashion – Scenarios for Sustainable Fashion Futures
Lecture with Mathilda Tham

Thursday, June 17, 6 pm
FREE
Registration for this event will open in May

Location: 7th Avenue (@ 27th Street), NYC 10001-5992

Source: Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in America

Not to be confused with the Pratt exhibit, that runs until the 20^th of February, the graduate students of the MA in Fashion and the Environment over at the London College of Fashion will host “[a]n informal evening called Ethics+Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion, [...] on Friday 12th February at the HUB” for Go Green Week 2010, along with other awareness campaigns such as a fashion swapshop and workshops.

Here is message from the MA Fashion and the Environment students via the Centre for Sustainable Fashion with all of the details:

“Fashion is saving the world this week at the University of the Arts! The first UAL Go Green Week of 2010 at The University of the Arts is fast approaching, held the week of the 8th until the 12th February, and the students from the LCF course MA Fashion and the Environment, who are advocates of an ethical and sustainable fashion industry; based at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, are raising awareness throughout the University of the exciting and innovative developments of sustainable design within the fashion and textile industries.

We have a couple of, what promise to be, exciting and informative events organised for Go Green week, in order to increase public consciousness of environmental issues that are becoming increasingly prominent of late in the industry. Over the course of the week, the Fashion and the Environment students are out to spread the word about what you and I can do to make our wardrobes greener, so to speak! Green is the new black, darling!

A Fashion Swapshop is organised for Thursday the 11th Feb, at the HUB, at the Davies Street between 6pm and 9pm. We are invited to search our wardrobes for garments we never wear, bring them along, and swap them for ones we will wear and love. The Swapshop is not the only focus of the evening, as it will also include speakers from textile recycling company TRAID who aim to protect the environment by diverting clothes from landfill, clothing customising workshops, and, for one night only in London, a vintage clothing stall all the way from Italy–Mercatino Michela.

An informal evening called Ethics+Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion, will be held on Friday 12th February at the HUB, at the Davies Street between 7pm and 9pm (the bar will be open) introducing and exploring the diverse and innovative areas of sustainability within the Fashion and Textile Industry. This event will be personally hosted by MA Fashion and the Environment students from LCF in collaboration with the Centre for Sustainable Fashion. Open to all students from around the university , we are invited to come along to learn more and find out why this is such a vitally important area of contemporary design, ask questions and even get advice regarding sustainable design for our own projects. This evening promises a scintillating line up of from ethical clothing companies such as: People Tree, Ethical Fashion Forum and, Environmental Justice Foundation (also selling their t-shirts) who will be discussing the work they do to play an important role in a changing industry. The evening will also include a short film made by the MA Fashion and the Environment students, showcasing the variety of work and unique individual talents all working towards securing a more sustainable fashion future.”

More info at SU Arts University Student Union.

Source: CSF

Source: Puff and Flock and Create10

In Personnes, Boltanski asserts that relics have become “vestiges of anonymous people, traces of strangers, with which it seems to be a question of communicating.” He cites Rolland Barthes, in the context of photography to support this question: ““A photo is literally an emanation from the referent. From a real body which was there, proceed radiations which ultimately touch me, who am here; the duration of the transmission is insignificant; the photograph of the missing being will touch me like the delayed rays of a star.” What “happens” therefore escapes any rational reduction: it is a matter of structuring the vanished body and eternal presence around a certain idea of the exhibition, a way of making manifest which opens the door to emotion.”

I stumbled upon this exhibit via Style Bubble. Here is what fashion blogger Susie Bubble had to say: “I’m simultaneously bemused and slightly saddened though that the next time I’m in the Grand Palais in March, all of this will be gone and in its place will be whatever runway setup Chanel decides upon for their A/W 10-11 show…”

Allan Chochinov at Core77 is often quoted for this statement: “Designers think they are in the artifact business, but they’re not; they’re in the consequence business.” (You can read more on responsible design in Chochinov’s Manifesto, found in the SA Reading section.) Although for me, obviously subjective in the SA context, Personnes reminds me of both artifact and consequence. It has me asking “What is the relationship between artifact and consequence in Boltanski’s work?” Seen through the lens of social, cultural and environmental responsibility, the exhibit is perhaps even more striking—more appalling (again, subjectively speaking). So I’m interested readers, what are your thoughts?

Image Source: Flickr via Style Bubble