Insight and inspiration in turbulent times.
Sandra sees her family’s five acre Northern California farmland and the privilege to work it as the greatest source of wealth. For Sandra and her family, wealth comes in the form of fruit trees, lambing season, biodynamic farming, mushroom hunting, growing the food her family eats, hosting farm dinners, wearing the clothes she makes from the farm’s fiber, and giving back to the community.
Headquartered at the Werkshack in uptown, Oakland, GDS Cloth Goods is the design and production studio by Geana Sieburger. A vibrant environment filled with makers of all types, it allows Geana to do her often solitary work in the company of a creative community and independent makers who share her principals and motivations.
Between pesticides, chemical dyes, and plastic, producing a typical sweater eats an enormous amount of natural and industrial resources. Apparel is one of the world’s most polluting industries, and the U.S. sends up to 75 percent of its cotton abroad—only to ship it back as cheap T-shirts. The Northern California Fibershed was designed to circumvent all that.
“From the very beginning, this has been a learning experience,” says Nancy. “Both with raising goats and buying this property. The land we purchased was previously used as a dumpsite, and we’ve been working hard to restore the ecosystem here. Having Jack and Sister May opened up the vision we had for the place.”
Safely tucked into the San Miguel mountains northeast of San Luis Obispo, down a long ambling road that leads far away from cities, highways and all of civilization, warm late afternoon light falls and fills the golden hills surrounding Blue Oak Canyon Ranch. The two humble stewards of Blue Oak are Lynn and Jim Moody, who tell me that just a week prior, the grass was still green.
BastCore is located in the greater-Omaha area and serves the fiber supply chain in an altogether unique way, through the processing of hemp. Outside, those were actually bales of hemp, harvested from across the country in states like Kentucky, Colorado, and Minnesota, which I was invited to see in person for BastCore’s open house at the end of September.
On the day of the harvest of the industrial hemp variety trial in North Carolina, we packed up the truck with some harvest tools and grabbed some friends from Bountiful Backyards in Durham, NC and Homegrown Agriculture in Bethel, NC, to make the trip out to the plot to harvest the crop and set up for drying. Again we came not knowing what exactly to expect – the weather since our last visit had stayed consistent with a few showers mixed into a month of dry weeks.
One month after seeding, we headed back to Eastern North Carolina to check in on the first organic hemp seed trial in the state under the new pilot program. What we could see immediately upon surveying the plots was a refreshing sight – clear germination and growth, differentiation amongst the varieties, and patches of heavy sprouting.
“I don’t create complicated fiber art. My pieces are simple, natural and classic. They’re wearable and not at all fussy. I want my customers to use and enjoy my clothing for a long time. For it to be part of their identity.” It’s slow fashion at its core.
Celebrating the collaborations that transform materials from soil to skin, we set out to visit each designer creating a full look for the Climate Beneficial Fashion Gala. Here we share excerpts from three conversations: read on for inspiration from their design practices and pathways to sustainability, and how each consumer, designer, and the fashion industry as a whole can take part in environmental restoration.
I was told that this was the land of the “Legendary Merinos.” Carrie and John have been shepherding these animals for the last three years, but the sheep themselves were a long-standing gift from John’s mother, Jean Near. In the 1940’s Jean’s father raised sheep in the neighboring Potter Valley.
A newer garment construction project is being birthed using Community Supported Cloth (CSC), a new Climate Beneficial Wool cloth supply chain lofted by Fibershed.
