Green or Grey Fashion?

Cathy Amouroux is a 22 year old fashion designer and stylist living in Paris. She is a guest blogger for Greening Beauty. More at: at: www.cathyamouroux.fr

[Editor’s Note: Use a web-based translator, such as Chrome, to read the article in English]

by: Cathy Amouroux

Mon cœur balance. Il est dur d’assouvir ses envies créatives tout en se demandant en permanence si notre démarche est responsable ou non.

Je me suis déjà intéressée à la mode équitable en travaillant avec Cruselita, jeune marque de bijoux et d’accessoires engagée dans la protection de notre environnement et des conditions de travail de ses fabricants. Cette démarche limite les possibilités créatives à cause du choix plus restreint des matières. Mais la beauté de l’enjeu compense largement cette réduction des moyens: les produits obtenus ont une richesse particulière que les produits classiques n’ont pas.

D’un autre côté je suis, je l’avoue, friande de la « grey fashion ». Lorsque je préparais ma dernière collection, je suis littéralement tombée sous le charme des fournisseurs Schoeller Textiles et American Supply. Loin des classiques sergés de coton, on trouve chez eux des matières exceptionnelles, des tissages et maillages hors du commun, et des couleurs absolument introuvables ailleurs. Je trouve que l’utilisation d’une de ces matières se suffit à elle même pour donner un cachet particulier à toute création.

Malheureusement, il y a de quoi se sentir coupable quand on achète de tels matériaux, car leur mode de fabrication est souvent polluant !

J’ai alors voulu me pencher sur la question suivante : peut-on trouver des textiles funs ET écologiques ?

Récemment encore, pour moi éco textiles évoquaient souvent monotonie et fadeur. Blanc, beige, kaki, marron…à des kilomètres de mon univers.

Je me suis alors dit que non, c’est impossible, les prouesses technologiques ne peuvent pas s’arrêter là. J’ai donc décidé de mener ma propre petite enquête auprès de mes deux favoris cités plus haut.

Après avoir pris rendez-vous avec Schoeller textiles, j’ai été chaleureusement reçue par Mme Emmanuelle Vallée-Beauvais, représentante du fournisseur en France.

Cette dernière m’a fait découvrir la gamme proposée par la société sœur de Schoeller appelée Bluesign, qui garantit le meilleur rapport entre technicité et respect de l’environnement. Et à ma grande surprise, je suis repartie avec une bonne dizaine d’échantillons incroyables sous le bras. En voici un aperçu:

PICTURES

Légende photo 1 : De la couleur et des surfaces surprenantes.

Quant à mon deuxième favori American Supply, après quelques prises d’informations, j’ai découvert que la marque s’engage de plus en plus dans le respect de notre planète en consignant ses créations dans une charte de responsabilité environnementale.

Le fournisseur utilise en effet des plastiques végétaux recyclés ou recyclables, des colles végétales, ou encore des matériaux composites à base de déchets industriels détournés.

American Supply a également montré récemment son engagement en offrant sa créativité à la dernière campagne de publicité EcoFolio, l’éco-organisme des papiers qui organise, finance et accompagne la collecte, le tri et le recyclage des papiers.

Enquête conclue avec succès: le beau et l’extraordinaire peuvent aller dans le sens du respect et d’un engagement responsable.

Cathy Amouroux is a 22 year old fashion designer and stylist living in Paris. She has already worked alongside such fashion greats as: Jean-Charles de Castelbajac, Maxime Simoens and also Ostwald Helgason in London. At the same time, she has been working on creating her own designs and imprinting her own aesthetics on her fashion collections. You can see more from Cathy at: www.cathyamouroux.fr

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Max Havelaar France and Gossypium U.K. Mean Business for Fair Trade Cotton

By Paige Donner

Gossypium is an example of a company that put the horse before the cart.  Founded by Abigail and Thomas Petit in 2000, Gossypium is a clothing and textile manufacturer based out of the U.K. that is specialized in organic and Fair Trade cotton.

Often, you will find that companies focus on either Fair Trade or Organic when it comes to ethical practices. When the focus is on Fair Trade cotton, the primary concern is for the farmer and that they, and their families, are able to earn a living wage from their daily endeavors. Oftentimes, in these instances, emphasizing that the cotton farmed and sold to industrial manufacturers be organic can actually work against the Fair Trade farmers because they are then priced out of the market.

Gossypium from the U.K. and Max Havelaar France are both Fair Trade cotton Heros.

Abigail and Thomas Petit decided to do it all. They began by spending two years in India back in 1998 where they set up a partnership with Agrocel, an organization that has defined and branded a cotton fiber that is distinctive for its high quality.

Agrocel® Pure & Fair Indian Organic Cotton is cultivated from 12 rural service centers across India and works with a selected group of local farmers.  At each center, there is a team of agronomists who monitors growing to International Organic Standards.

It was only after the Petits set up this chain of Fair Trade supply that they returned to the U.K. where they began their clothing and textile brand, Gossypium, using this high quality, organic and Fair Trade sourced cotton. It has since established itself as one of the U.K.’s leading ethical brands.

Fair Trade cotton pyjamas by Gossypium. High quality textiles, aloe vera finish. Fair Trade ethics.

Abigail Petit attended a Fair Trade cotton conference in November hosted by Max Havelaar in Paris and held at the Mairie de Paris (city hall) which sits just across from Notre Dame.  Max Havelaar is the Fair Trade organization in France, and though it sounds like the name of a Rock Star, in fact it is a non-profit organization that is rockin’ the world of ethical and fair trade markets.

Max Havelaar organizers of the event invited key industry attendees to a dinner the evening before the conference so they could hear firsthand what some of the concerns and questions are as the Fair Trade market develops further and enters more widely into mainstream textile markets.

France has quietly but powerfully been moving forward on these fronts: The entire French Post Office Corps., “La Poste,” is clothed in uniforms that are manufactured from Fair Trade cotton sourced textiles. The manufacturing company is Amor Lux. Max Havelaar has been a key organization in getting these sorts of strategic partnerships flowing.

From Abigail Petit concerning the Conference at the Mairie de Paris held early in November 2010:

“The secret is out! The cotton farmers are not happy! We are not paying them enough for their cotton. It was great to have the farmers represented at the recent Max Havelaar Conference in Paris, but there is only one solution- LOVE Your COTTON! We do at Gossypium, we respect the amazing fabric that our Indian farmers provide for us and lovingly use it to make our cosy pyjamas here in Lewes, U.K. We are so proud to say that they are Fairtrade, organic, Aloe Vera Finished cotton. Get them on!”

And from their website:

Our vision is that the making and wearing of textiles is indeed a pleasant and beautiful global occupation, not at all at odds with a socially fair or environmentally sustainable world, and we set out to create trade in textiles according to these principles. – Gossypium Founders

Abigail Petit is well-known internationally as a leader in ethical and Fair Trade sourced textiles. Thomas Petit’s family has been in textiles in Paris since the French revolution and he brings to Vericott Ltd., the parent company of Gossypium, knowledge of design and branding.

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