Describe this playlist

Camilla listens to a lot of NPR. If you want to know her playlist turn the dial to your local NPR station. She also enjoys 90.3 KEXP which is often playing in the warehouse. It’s how we first heard several songs on this list.

This playlist is a combination of my favorite tracks from new releases in 2012 and older music I’ve listened to as a result. I wish I could have included a track from Theesatisfaction‘s new album that is being released March 29th. Several Prairie staff members are fans and NPR is streaming their new release.

What role does music play in your personal life? Your work life?

Seattle is still a music city and people talk about it with passion. A high percentage of our population is conversant in obscure musicians and genres. After eight years here I’m still being educated by those around me.

In our climate it’s another version of discussing the weather. Those conversations can be viewed as an emotional barometer.  Staff share what they’re listening to and frequently attend shows together. My playlist isn’t at all reflective of our eclectic musical taste. We’re planning a staff trip to see Heart at Puyallup Fair and we’ve named several garments after Stevie Nicks songs. We always listen to music at work and sometimes neglect to turn it down when answering the phone. It’s an integral part of our work environment and keeps us motivated and connected.

Why do you think so many of us draw inspiration from music?

Musical affinities are way to signify who you are.

How does music play into the Prairie ethos?

We work to create our own environment. Playing music is a simple way to achieve that goal.

If you could spend one day with an artist on this playlist who would it be and why?

Brian Eno must have some great stories.

Image: Lilia Ramirez

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I work with many sustainable designers and one of the more common questions I’m asked is usually about who another designer uses for manufacturing or dyeing. I will never forget the loss of a U.S based non-toxic dyeing facility that one of the designers below regularly used – and eventually had to close its doors.

Another designer had asked me to ask her (as if we were in high school) where she did her dyeing and I suggested, “She’s really nice and will tell you. Just ask her.”

That designer never did and so the business went under.

I wonder how many more stories are out there where designers were too nervous to ask about production and so stayed mum.

Mom always told me, the dumbest question was the one that never got asked.

I caught up with six top sustainable designers to ask them a simple question: Do you think the more sustainable designers share their sources, the stronger their field will become?

Here’s what they had to say.

Nicole Bridger, I think it’s great for us eco designers to work together and help each other out. We are stronger as a collective for sure. The only thing to be careful of is that we don’t all end up using the same fabrics and colors, the different lines can end up looking the same. So for that reason it is important to keep your individual aesthetic. But I think its possible for us to work together and be mindful not to have the same fabrics.

Celeste Lilore, RESTORE Barriers for entry become points of “cooperation” when sourcing is shared. It takes a village and building community will help move sustainable fashion to mainstream.

Davora Lindner, Prairie Underground Most designers in this category share a short list of resources. Sourcing unique sustainable textiles is more about buying power than availability. Purchasing greater quantities increases your options and makes the price per yard less expensive. The ability to source overseas expands your options a good deal, but again these are custom production orders with high minimum yardage.  We focus on textile categories in our small collection to ensure that we can move forward with new fabrications in a manner that is realistic for production.

Alice Wu, Feral Childe Yes, if designers collaborate on sustainable sourcing, the field will be stronger. Currently the variety of sustainable fabrics available to independent and emerging designers is fairly limited since not only is there not that much variety in color and fabrication, it can be difficult to meet a 1,000 yard opening order minimum that some suppliers demand. If suppliers see that sustainable designers have staying power in the marketplace it may encourage them to lower their minimums and offer greater product variety. There is a golden opportunity out there for a U.S-based independent sustainable fabric sales rep to connect the dots – someone who’s got the relationships both with designers and suppliers who can help us pool together our needs for new fabric production orders as well as find takers for production overrun fabric.

Tara St. James, Study NY My short answer is yes. Absolutely. To elaborate, I am a huge proponent of open source material and transparency in manufacturing. Luckily most sustainable designers seem to agree with me and are very forthcoming with their resources and ready to share their contacts. It allows independent designers to share resources without the burden of production minimums, while affording them lower costs and share shipping. If only the rest of the fashion industry were to adopt the same philosophy, it would allow for not only larger exposure for sustainable textile vendors, but more demand on traditional manufacturers to implement sustainable practices.

Gretchen Jones Yes and No. Collaborations are all about the partners. Is each artist bringing to the table some new perspective and referential material?  Can the collaboration maintain each others individual voices, while supporting the complimentary elements?

To me, as a designer whom struggles with the connection to sustainability and ethical business practices vs. my high fashion, yet independent aesthetics. I believe the success of a collaboration would and will only be successful [and heighten the eco movement] by walking the tight rope between style and morals. I want to diversify, I want to diffuse. I know my strengths, and am very aware of my weaknesses. Collaborations are about building each other up. I think, when done thoughtfully and with intention to elevate, collaborations can certainly lead to progression for sustainability.

I personally believe the only way we will make a change, is to create and manufacturer competitive, forward and quality goods.  The sustainable design community must produce with the focus on ‘fashion first,’ after all, we are a part of the fashion industry, we will always be able to do so ethically, the challenge is in creating at the high caliber design of those competing with out their environmental in mind. We change minds through changing perspectives. Collaborations could and will, create opportunity to express with support, deliver with quality and produce competitively. In turn – we change minds and grow our community through shared experience and story – not just a dress.

Image by Pheezy

The post EcoSalon Asks, 6 Designers Answer appeared first on EcoSalon.

Our series on Dumbing Down American Design, has afforded us opportunities to catch up with some really interesting people. Our final installment is no less attractive, interviewing both Howard Brown of Stewart+Brown and Davora Lindner, co-designer of Prairie Underground.

For the last time we revisit the driving question: Has our quest for convenience and rock bottom prices forever altered fashion and is American design becoming a thing of the past?

When it comes to American design, two top designers in the sustainable design field, Davora Lindner of Prairie Underground and Howard Brown of Stewart+Brown both stand out.

Brown, whose mother owned a boutique in Missoula, Montana for 30+ years says she taught him that fit was everything.

“It took us a couple times to get our sizing right but now we know exactly who we’re designing for,” says Brown, whose being raised around people trying on clothing has only helped Stewart+Brown when it comes to a base customer fit.

Today, 93 percent of Stewart+Brown is U.S. manufactured in L.A. facilities while the other seven percent – including knits – is outsourced to China, (what Brown calls our own ignorance in letting the knitwear industry fade away stateside).

But why China? “Why not?” Brown says. “People need to be very careful with their preconceptions of China. I think it all comes down to racial stereotyping and elements of ignorance based on headlines and media,” he adds. “In China, people are protesting over environmental degradation and unfair labor practices and getting shot and killed for it. We need to be supporting those people,” he says.

Brown is pretty outspoken about his line and manufacturing practices and with good reason. “When we first started out, there was no way to track the supply chain, it was uncharted territory. The easy solution would’ve been to just go the conventional route but we thought we’d use the opportunity to raise the bar on sustainable production and design,” Brown says, adding that thanks to today’s “conscious consumer,” who buys from lines like Stewart+Brown and Prairie Underground, they can do more than exist, they can thrive.

Davora Lindner co-designer of Prairie Underground says her label’s “hardscrabble approach to getting things done through hard work and keeping our hands busy,” has enabled Prairie to stay afloat just fine in the U.S. and almost completely in Seattle, WA.

“Local production is an extension of our work ethic and pragmatism, but it was also a choice and a political stance. Aside from the fact that we had no experience producing overseas, we wanted to produce our collection locally and were willing to work within that vernacular to make it a possibility,” she says, adding that it seems “bewildering and out of touch” to have production take place so far away.

Though disturbing to her and design partner Camilla Eckersley that fewer things are made in the United States, owning their own business also meant conscious choices to manufacture as well as design domestically. “Our responsibility now is to sustain the momentum and we feel an obligation to provide meaningful work for our subcontractors,” says Lindner.

Like a lot of independent designers Stewart+Brown and Prairie Underground’s business template was influenced by previous work experience.

Prairie co-designer Camilla Eckersley’s experience working for companies in San Francisco as a production sewer later evolved into a position of a production manager and after additional training she became a designer and pattern maker. “The companies she worked for all produced domestically so this was what she knew and became the basis for our company,” says Lindner. “I come from a background of a fine artist who made things by hand and learned new techniques at community art centers, networking at supply stores or in dialogue with other artists,” she adds.

Lindner’s grassroots approach has paid off and like in Brown’s L.A., there is a lot of micro-manufacturing happening all over Seattle for her to tap into.

“Our contractors work within 20 minutes of one another and some know each other or have employed the same sewers. They appear as pioneers in their neighborhoods and they operate more like small businesses than huge factories,” says Lindner.

While Prairie Underground and Stewart+Brown hold tight to their supply chains and do their best to keep all design in the U.S., Brown offers his best advice to an overlooked part of this whole series: the consumer. “Educate yourself. Dig deeper and look at the big picture all around you. Being a conscious consumer and supporting brands that support sustainability is the only way we’re going to win this battle.”

Top image from Rob Lee

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