Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
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Introduction
The Grow Your Jeans project involved hours of dedication by team members. Rebecca Burgess
grew and processed the indigo used to dye Sally Fox’s organic cotton yarn, shown here.
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Fibershed
Leslie Terzian of TangleBlue wove the cloth for the Grow Your Jeans Project.
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Introduction
Models from the Grow Your Jeans fashion show pose for a group photo.
Left to right: Celeste Thompson, Leslie Channel, Thyme Francis,
Dario Slavazza, Alycia Lang, Sally Fox, Sophia Zuchowski.
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Fibershed
• 6 •
Introduction
human rights and weak environmental standards, is one avenue for social
and environmental change that offers rays of hope. But it has not been
without countless disappointments. And novel technologies also have a
role to play in reducing negative impacts of the garment industry. But
both of these tools for reform on their own do nothing to transform the
existing power dynamics and economic models that provoked the envi-
ronmental and labor rights catastrophes we are currently digging ourselves
out of globally. And yet it is these two strategies that dominate the agendas
of sustainability teams at the world’s largest textile companies, that are
written about and debated within the trade group journals, and that
receive awards at global textiles conferences, reaping investor capital. As a
result the conversation that inserts economic and climate justice into the
DNA of the systems-change thought is still waiting for its day in the sun.
This book seeks to open the door for that conversation, while recog-
nizing that many more individuals and organizations are also expanding
this dialogue on a daily basis. In the following pages you will read a vision
of change that focuses on transforming our fiber and dye systems from
the soil up. This vision embraces everyone involved in the process, includ-
ing farmers, ranchers, grassroots organizers, designers, manufacturers,
cut-and-sew talent, crafters, fashion pundits, investors, transnational
brands, and you—the wearer. It is a vision for globally impactful solutions
that consider and provide a voice on how to reconfigure the seat of power
and begin putting decision making into the hands of those most familiar
with the social and ecological infrastructure of their communities. It is a
vision that enhances social, economic, and political opportunities for
communities to define and create their fiber and dye systems and rede-
sign the global textile process. It is place-based textile sovereignty, which
aims to include rather than exclude all the people, plants, animals, and
cultural practices that compose and define a specific geography.
I call this place-based textile system a fibershed. Similar to a local
watershed or a foodshed, a fibershed is focused on the source of the raw
material, the transparency with which it is converted into clothing, and the
connectivity among all parts, from soil
to skin and back to soil. In the fiber- I call this place-based
shed where I live, for example, natural
plant dyes and fibers such as flax, wool,
textile system a fibershed.
cotton, hemp, and indigo are being
grown using practices that are both traditional and modern, and many of
these cropping and livestock systems are showing benefits that we are just
beginning to document in detail, such as ameliorating the causes of climate
change, increasing resilience to drought, and rebuilding local economies.
• 7 •
Fibershed
Leslie Channel beside a bed of Japanese indigo while wearing organic and biodynamic jeans that were
grown, woven, and sewn in the Northern California Fibershed. Sally Fox’s color grown cotton yarn
was dyed in Rebecca Burgess’s fermentation indigo vat, then woven into fabric by Leslie Terzian,
which Daniel DiSanto made into bespoke jeans that he designed. The pokeberry top was dyed and
knit by Monica Paz Soldan from Hazel Flett and Sue Reuser’s Cormo and Romeldale cross wool yarns.
• 8 •
Introduction
Entering My Fibershed
Fibersheds are dynamic, evolving living systems that are far more com-
plex than I can begin to comprehend. They exist on their own accord,
and the narrative in this book explores my journey into this living system
and also highlights regional textile projects that have emerged in affili-
ated communities. Fibersheds are places where thousands of generations
of people have lived and thrived prior to my existence. It is my intention,
as well as that of many others, to help ensure that future generations will
continue to have an opportunity to flourish in relationship with their
place-based textile cultures.
In 2010 I began a personal journey within my home fibershed—a
150-mile radius from my front door in San Geronimo in Northern Cali-
fornia—by challenging myself to create and wear a wardrobe for one
year made from locally grown fibers and natural dyes and produced by
local labor, including myself, new and old friends, and family. This
“wardrobe challenge year” brought me into a direct relationship with the
land in the form of farms, ranches, and open spaces. I refined my own
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Fibershed
• 10 •
Introduction
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Fibershed
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Fibershed
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Introduction
land. With every passing day we increasingly see, hear, and feel the
destructive effects of our complicity in perpetuating systems that were
designed to make us the primary recipient of the planet’s finite resources.
Fibershed asks: How can we work together to transform contemporary
cultural and economic systems to benefit all life and promote regenera-
tion? And how can we do it without perpetuating consequences that
force another set of technological solutions? As we learn the fundamen-
tals of the carbon, water, and nutrient cycles, we understand that the
earth’s true ecological carrying capacity is directly connected to regener-
ative capacity of natural resources such as the soil and the fiber it grows.
This knowledge begs a deep human question: How will we care for,
protect, and use what the Earth provides in a manner that leaves the
land and water more diverse and productive than we found them?
This book is designed to help you approach your own regional land
base and inspire a commitment to work within its geography. It is an
invitation to engage with all parts of the growing, creating, and
wearing-and-caring processes. This can include reviving historical textile
recipes that use long-forgotten fibers and dyes and creating new recipes
that never existed. It is about making
beautiful textiles from what we might
perceive at first as limited resources.
This book is designed to
Hopefully the book will inspire new help you approach your
farming and ranching projects that own regional land base and
will lead to increased and diverse
inspire a commitment to
offerings of new natural dyes and
fibers and new income streams. If work within its geography.
you’re a textile entrepreneur develop-
ing your own brand or have spent years working at the corporate level of a
major brand, you’ll be able to use the latest understanding of biogeochem-
ical processes and carbon cycling outlined in these pages to frame your
fiber, dye, and supply-chain decisions. Implementing a deeper under-
standing of the earth’s biogeochemical and physical properties and cycles
is a critical step to generating new businesses that will help us remove the
legacy load of carbon from our atmosphere (yes, clothing can help us do
this!). The mainstream, industry-generated sustainability frameworks
that have guided brands for years in their sourcing decisions have not
been revised to incorporate the new science that has deepened our collec-
tive knowledge of the carbon cycle and the role of soil carbon sequestration.
For that fundamental reason alone, there is a glaring need for companies
to reevaluate their sourcing decisions with fresh eyes. Finally, this book
is designed to help stimulate our work toward a regenerative future.
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Wool leg warmers from the 150-mile wardrobe,
knit by Allison Reilly with Mary Pettis Sarley’s Twirl Yarn.