the official grace & cello blog

hey all,

do you like the joel plaskett emergency? from halifax originally, lives in toronto now, if i’m not mistaken … i love this song, and pretty much all of the music he puts out.

pass it on! and for those of you who haven’t heard of cbc radio 3, the link below will take you there. poke around the site, and enjoy the lesser known side of our north american music scene.

Fashionable People

: )

c.

hey ladies: we are searching for input from that sizeable population that we are certain is out there: namely, the eco-fashionistas.

do you care about the planet, and the people on it? are you looking for clothes and other products that you need for living that won’t kill the planet, and doesn’t require disadvantaged labour to make? then you are an eco-fashionista, make no mistake.

eco might sound like it only refers to the environment, but given that our societies are nestled cosily (or not so cosily as the case may be) into the environment, an eco-fashionista is sure to care not only about plants, water, critters and the like, but also for cultures, language, art, people, and everything else beautiful, and not so beautiful.

humanism they called it once, but in the 2000s such a term is too lop-sided; eco-fashionista rings truer somehow.

the point being, we are currently working at designing eco-clothes for all those who care to buy them, and we just want to be sure that we are making what you need. so please, get in touch with us and let us know what you are looking for…

…maybe it’s a trench coat in organic cotton twill, or more skirts that you can be sure haven’t been made in sweatshops…what kind of skirts, what colours…are your favourites out there? we’re sure you’ve been shopping around…what haven’t you found that you’ve really wanted?

listen, all i am trying to say is, we care, and you care, and we are making this stuff in the hopes that it’ll be what you (the eco-fashionista) is looking for…it’s a big guessing game a lot of the time, and thank goodness we have victoria designing for us because she is one hell of a good designer (which a lot of the time means she is also a good guesser!), but we thought a mini-survey might be in order.

so there you have it. the call is out: tell one, tell all: grace & cello is looking for input from the audience…we want you to tell us what needs to be out there on the market.

don’t be shy!

c.

in the midst of all the eco-madness going on around us (and by this i mean the greening of our mainstream consciousness), has anyone stopped to ask if our environment is actually improving as a result, or the quality of our lives?

what about our cities, for example? all these new green products for sale, but the traffic is still thick on the main, and everywhere i step the ground is hard and lifeless. is this stuff working? is it too early for such questions?

for our spring 2007 line, we wanted to dedicate our energies towards the eco-city because we truly believe that a great sense of imagination needs to be invested in re-thinking how we design and live in our spaces. as a company specializing in a form of green design, we can attest to the fact that while it ain’t always easy, it is possible. we know that an act of will can change our cities for the better. and we know that by doing so, we’ll enjoy our cities more, and we’ll be healthier. not to mention that the planet will breathe easier, water will flow clearer, and the soil will sustain life more abundantly.

it’s clear that keeping the planet in a comfortably habitable form, rife with all the diversity and complexity that life requires and thrives upon, will only happen if cities are on the bus. the eco-bus.

this is clear because cities are magnets and all the global weight of population and footprint is stuck there: bigger and bigger cities, demanding greater and greater resources. i love that cities should be our ground zero in this battle to live better, however, because knots and gobs of people piled on top, around and beside each other make for a more focused audience. i mean, we know where everyone is, n’est-ce pas? that’s a big step.

can you picture a planet where 95% of people live in cities, and only the bare minimum stay out in the nether lands in order to harvest the resources that feed the cities? could that even happen? maybe there’ll be resource zones around the globe that maintain high levels of rural residents (i.e., africa, asia, the amazon), while other regions (north america, europe) empty their countrysides except for seasonal service industry types and the odd resource extraction worker who manages an automated infrastructure that does in hours what entire coal-mining towns took months to do a hundred years ago…

oh well, maybe i’m fooling myself. perhaps the balance will always rest about where it is today; i mean there’ll always have to be someone living in the country since cities need stuff from the countryside in order to feed its citizenry, fuel its industry and otherwise clothe, shelter and entertain the masses.

regardless of whether the split is 80/20 or 95/5, the fact remains that our world is urbanizing. that means that if we can manage to build and live in our cities in a manner that minimizes harm to the planet, we’ll have largely succeeded in creating the sustainable societies that so many have been striving towards for so long.

but can we live in cities in an environmentally responsible manner? there is so much waste in cities. have you ever tried to wrap your head around how many paper coffee cups are used in one day, in one city? i’ve worked in so many offices in my day (*sigh*), and it is CRAZY how many people drink coffee everyday (at least once; some 2 or 3 times) but never bring their own mug! why, i wonder?

it’s just a small example, but there you go: cities are wasteful; we are wasteful. we buy so much, we throw away so much, we consume so much: how can we ever live wisely enough to make a difference?

pulling together some examples for our eco-city rant was informative on a number of levels. the most revealing to me was that there is a shockingly small number of truly innovative urban planning initiatives taking place out there…at least that we could find.

there are eco pre-fab homes, eco-skyscrapers, eco-kabillion dollar homes, and eco-condos, but there is no larger scale eco-street, eco-neighbourhood, or eco-downtown that we could present (sorry, eco-suburbs don’t count in my book…oxymoron) as a possible way forward. maybe i’m naïve, but with all the eco-talk circulating out there i figured we’d have more evidence to piece together for the audience at home.

look at me! last time i was here i wailed that progress is key in environmental issues (and all social causes, really), and that black and white eco-options simply don’t exist yet. then, today i take to criticizing the lack of true eco-cities out there in the world…

i agree – progress is being made. we need to take comfort in that. we need to build on the positives, not harp on the negatives. i agree – i really do.

but i guess i feel a need to stick a bee in someone’s bonnet. our collective bonnet, perhaps. here in canada, our governments have been blowing a lot of hot (greenhouse-inducing) air lately concerning how we’ll (eventually…like in 2050) combat climate change.

these politicized proclamations disappoint me, i have to admit. we all know almost intuitively what needs to happen – and we know it needs to happen not much later than right now – yet still we huff and puff and blow and blow and blow…

here is one thing we clearly know, even if we don’t know exactly what to do with this knowledge (and i say we just face it, and figure out where to go next):

our cities need to be able to run without cars. cars are wasteful, stressful and they pollute the very air we base our quality of life on. we need cities without cars, but who is on this? who do we have figuring this out? how far along are we on this yellow brick, tree-lined road?

our governments won’t go near it, most people can’t even imagine it, and big business opposes it…but none of this changes the fact that this is what needs to happen.

so let’s start planning it, together…

bye for now,

c.

tone is everything, they say. and they say it all the time, too; it’s weird. too repetitive, if you ask me. me, i prefer saying things once or twice max, but all the time? i don’t think so. i mean, chill out. lighten up.

although, i do agree that tone is important, and that is what i am struggling with here. i want to make sure that the tone is just right for this welcome edition of the ‘front stoop’.

welcome, by the way. welcome here to this space. i know it doesn’t look like much right now, but i think it’ll really be great. i mean, we’re here, right? that ain’t bad for starters…

i don’t know; it’s not like i have it all worked out or anything. i mean, i think that would betray the very space we are trying to create: a free space for meeting, sharing, and if we’re lucky, maybe even finding some direction forward, or at least some sense with which we can justify staying put.

it’s my intention to talk first, and the loudest (since i’m first, and it’s easy to be louder than nobody), but i hope this will become a true meeting place where others will speak out: about the environment, cities, fashion, art, society and the building of a better one…

the subject doesn’t matter, really; it can be heavy or light – it’d just be nice to hear people talking for a change. sometimes i feel like i’m surrounded by so many words that don’t really add up to much, you know?

on a seemingly unrelated subject, but totally relevant in my mind, i received a great email the other day from a wonderful boutique in squamish, british columbia (Agnes Jean) that happens to sell grace & cello. the owner (georgia) was asking about bamboo, and whether we could actually consider this to be an eco-fabric since it requires a considerable amount of chemical input in order to process it (after harvest, that is). georgia is wholeheartedly dedicated to supporting ethical fashion, and has been researching the subject extensively. her questions focused around the bleach that is needed to whiten bamboo, as well as the labour practices employed by the mill that we buy our fabric from.

first of all, i have to admit that i was ecstatic at her questions! i mean, how great that there are actually boutique owners out there that care enough to grill their suppliers about the environmental and labour practices that went into the making of the clothes to be sold in their boutiques! i wish there were more like her! also, we spend so much time worrying about the same kinds of questions here at g&c; it is nice to see that we aren’t the only ones, and that we’re not wasting our time…

what i tried to explain to georgia (and i’m not sure that i succeeded) was that trying to run a business, or just live one’s life for that matter, in an ecologically sensitive manner is no black and white affair. one invariably has to settle for making progress instead of simply having the luxury of choosing the perfect eco-option.

bamboo is a perfect example of this. farmers can grow bamboo without using chemicals on the landscape, since bamboo grows like a weed. growing regular cotton, on the other hand, requires an incredible amount of pesticide, herbicide and fertilizer to grow, and so growing regular cotton results in an enormous amount of environmental degradation. where regular cotton is grown, you can be sure that the soil and water is in poor condition.

so bamboo is better, right?

well yes, and no. like georgia mentioned, in order to process bamboo for use as clothing a significant amount of bleach and softener is needed – what about these chemicals? doesn’t this mean bamboo is definitely NOT eco?

in the better world we are working towards, the eco-option will always require no harmful chemical inputs at any point of its life-course, but in today’s world we know we have to settle for a fabric that leaves a smaller impact on the environment.

and bamboo is easier on the environment than regular cotton for the simple reason that the chemicals used on bamboo are used in a factory (inside), while those used for cotton are used on the landscape (outside), as well as in factories.

although some might be skeptical, it is infinitely more difficult to manage chemicals sprayed across a landscape (and therefore set free to infiltrate and move across the environment) as compared to chemicals used in a closed and controlled environment (such as a factory).

those who tell you we can manage the flow of chemicals on the landscape – in nature – are either confused, silly, or lying, while those who assert that we can manage chemicals responsibly in a closed (factory) system have many examples that will prove their case.

using toxic, harmful substances indoors is not our ideal, but we agree it is much, much better than spraying these substances across our landscapes, where they invariably work their way into our water- and air- ways.

anyway, that’s what we believe, and it’s for this reason that we use bamboo that is mixed with organic cotton for many of our tops. using this bamboo and organic cotton blend means that we have contributed to a movement where responsible agriculturalists are paid fairly for taking better care of our living landscapes.

i wonder what kind of tone that’ll come across as? i meant it in the best possible way, i assure you all.

is anyone out there?

bye,
c.