Inside Margaret Burton: Shifting mindsets and the importance of educating people on how clothes are made
Continuing on my circular fashion series, I’m taking a look at how an independent designer can drive change in the industry. In addition to building a system for remanufacturing of garments at larger companies like Eileen Fisher, education and grassroots efforts are an essential part of shifting the consumer mindset on clothing and creating a circular economy. There is only so much an apparel brand can do if consumers are unaware of the social cost of the fast fashion they are demanding. How do we educate people on the value of handmade goods?
I caught up with Margaret Burton, a Pratt graduate who created a collection of deconstructed clothing made into new garments. Her main goal of the collection was to show the human labor that goes into making the clothing we wear. Her passion for shifting the industry has led her to Charlotte, North Carolina, where she teaches inner city and underprivileged kids how to sew.
Read about her journey – which has taken her from wasteful high-end fashion brands in NYC to the textile recycling industry in India – and how she hopes to change the industry in the interview below.
How did you get involved in sustainable fashion?
It wasn’t until the end of my sophomore year at Pratt when I did an internship over the summer that I became interested in sustainability. It was a big company with a lot of money, but the people at the head of the company didn’t have any design experience or knowledge of the field. They wasted a lot of money on samples and back and forth between factories in China. My job was to go in the back and cut all of the samples.
In addition to the samples, they had a lot of clothes that were made and had never been sold. I had to go in the back and cut everything in half. It was a high-end company so they had a lot of nice details. I was just imagining a woman overseas that was making all this stuff, and I’m just cutting all her beautiful work, it horrified me. After that experience, I started looking into what was going on. I watched documentaries and read Overdressed and To Die For. I also had a good teacher that talked to us about sustainable fashion.
There was also a video I watched that was on the shoddy industry in India, where unwanted western clothes are sent to. They cut off tags and they turn garments into reusable thread. I had an opportunity to go and visit a shoddy factory in India like the one from the video. I saw the waste produced first hand in NYC and then see it come full circle in India where the garments were being recycled.
How do you incorporate sustainability into your own work?
My senior year is when I really approached how I could solve this problem with my own work. How can I communicate and make people understand what’s going on? My approach is that I take clothes that have already been made and then I seam rip it and get it into a flat form. My thought process behind that is to have people see how many pieces are inside their garments. Have them think about, how is this put together? How does this get sewn together? Looking at it in a different way than how they looked at it before. A lot of people think that machines are making clothes, that there are no humans behind it.
Do you think it’s truly possible to have a circular production model in the fashion industry?
I feel like that is the goal of what I’m trying to do. My ideal dream is to do that. Right now I’m just kind of creating whatever I want because I don’t have enough clientele. I’ve been doing some custom orders here and there. Ideally, one thing I’m working on now is a jacket from a woman who’s father passed away and she wants me to turn his jacket into a fashionable denim jacket for her to wear. I’ve done it for a couple people on a small scale, but, ideally, that is what I would love to do. Take things from your closet that you’re not using and make it into something that you might need.
How have you been active in educating consumers about the labor it takes to make clothing?
I moved to Charlotte, North Carolina to teach high school students how to sew. When I took on this opportunity, I thought it was great to be able to build a little army of people who can make their own clothes and are educated. Our parent’s generation all had home ec class, they understand what it takes to make a garment and how long it takes to make it. Unlike me growing up, I never thought about who made my clothes and how my clothes came together.
The children that I’m teaching are in poor communities. I talk to them about how these brands are feeding off of the mindset that “I need this to be popular” or “I need this to be cool”. It’s really crazy how fashion has an effect on these kids and how kids will literally start selling drugs so they can afford the next pair of Jordans.
How did you get started working with the at-risk youth?
I was in Los Angeles working for Jeremy Scott, and somebody from my high school messaged me. He was working for a non-profit in Charlotte that reaches out to the refugee and inner-city communities. They give free English classes, sewing classes, cooking classes, to adults. He was hired to reach out to the youth. As he was reaching out to them he was starting to see how much of an affect fashion had on the community.
They already had the sewing machines from when they teach women how to sew during the week. He thought, why not use those sewing machines to teach the youth to sew in the afternoons. He knew the basics of sewing but not how to pattern and construct a garment, so he asked me to come. I did that for a month, and it went really well. Eventually, they got a grant and then it became a program, and they asked me to come back.
How has it been to work with the kids? Has anything been surprising or challenging to explain this mind shift to them?
It has definitely been challenging to get them to believe me, or even get them to take action. I’ll have them watch The True Cost, and they’ll be so angry, but they still buy fast fashion. The stuff they buy their clothes off of nowadays is crazy. They have these apps on their phone where they can find t-shirts for five dollars and other really cheap stuff. They’re always looking at it.
I think it’s affecting their choices somewhat, they definitely think about it now, but I don’t think it’s changing their choice completely. I had a girl my class who kept buying fake Gucci and Givenchy bags and she finally stopped doing that. I kept telling her, you need to save this money and buy a car so that you can drive yourself to a job. The programs were twelve weeks at a time but now it’s changing, so I’ll be with students for a longer period of time. I think that will have a more lasting effect.
What do you think is necessary to have a more circular economy?
I feel like it’s both education and better technology for textile recycling. It really blows my mind, I don’t know how companies like H&M do it if they’re really recycling the clothing, then that’s more work, so the prices should go up. That’s the hardest part with my work, is educating people on what goes into making the garment. People see something of mine and ask, why is it so expensive? It’s hard to convince people that they should be paying more for their clothes.
Before the seventies, people wouldn’t have more than twelve pieces of clothing in their closet. They would have to save up money to buy a new pair of pants, it’s not like they could just go out and buy a new pair of pants. In my ideal world, I wish we could go back to that. But now that this fast-paced life has been introduced, I don’t know how to get people out of that cycle. I definitely think that education is a big part of it. Even with me sharing my work, the friends who have followed me along my journey are started to change the way that they shop.
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Visit Margaret’s website to view her work, https://www.margaret-burton.com/
Inside Eileen Fisher: Their innovative Tiny Factory as a model for the circular fashion industry
Over the next few weeks, I’m taking a look at circular fashion and how people are starting to shift their design thinking, and the consumer mindset to adapt to this new model. The next step in sustainable fashion is hacking circularity, taking the traditional “take, make, waste” model and closing the loop. How do we reverse the damage we’ve done and create garments out of discarded garments?
I talked with Carmen Gama, Designer of Eileen Fisher Renew, to hear about how they are stepping up as leaders in the industry to create a circular production model at their Tiny Factory. Carmen established RESEWN, a remanufacturing model so solve the company’s challenge of repurposing damaged inventory that they had been collecting since 2009.
The Tiny Factory, located on the Hudson in Irvington, New York, is pioneering the way for the industry to redefine its product lifecycle and production models. They’ve faced challenges along the way and are still developing ways to grow and scale their model to tackle all the inventory they have in stock but are finding innovative ways to overcome setbacks. Read more about Carmen’s work with the RESEWN program and the Tiny Factory in the interview below.
How did you first start the Eileen Fisher RESEWN program?
I started working with Eileen Fisher three years ago when I was a recently graduated student from Parsons. The CFDA partnered up with Eileen Fisher, along with two other students from Parsons, to figure out what to do with their damaged inventory they had been collecting from their take back program since 2009. We were trying to figure out how to make something profitable, beautiful and scalable. By repurposing just one garment at a time, changing a sleeve or fixing a button, we would not have been able to tackle the challenge the company was facing. We really focused in on developing systems and processes that were able to produce these garments.
At the end of the year we had a collection made of 500 units, and after Eileen saw our collection and our process she was really excited about our proposal to resolve this challenge. She asked us to continue, and I decided to stay and work on the project.
How did the Tiny Factory come into being?
While I was working on creating the systems for the RESEWN program, the manager who was guiding the project, Cynthia Power from Eileen Fisher, also had an idea of Eileen Fisher having their own factory here in Irvington. The factory didn’t start with the idea of making garments out of garments, but out of the idea of owning some of our Eileen Fisher production. So they opened the factory and at the same time, we were trying to scale our process. When it opened it was supposed to be 75% Eileen Fisher main collection and 25% Eileen Fisher RESEWN collections, and it started that way. Very quickly, Eileen decided to do only RESEWN because it was too expensive to do the main production in the facility.
What does the production process look like at the Tiny Factory?
Making garments out of garments requires different steps from regular production. First, you have to source the inventory that you need. Second, you have to deconstruct that garment. Third, you have to prep the materials on a table. You have to lay it all out to be ready for cutting. This is what we call our pre-production steps. It’s kind of like when designers place their fabric orders, or the colors of their yarn, you forget what happens on the other side of the world, people spinning and creating textiles. That is what those three steps are for us, we are prepping the garment to become raw material.
After those steps then it’s just regular production. We cut them and then we sew them, we have three factory sewers. They were hired initially with a very simple skill set, which was sewing basic pants, one of our viscose pants. But when they started doing our production, the skill set for making garments out of garments was a lot higher. We ended up having to train them because sometimes we had garments made from silk and other details. In the beginning, I was very much involved in every step from the sorting to the deconstructing, so it was not very economically sustainable. To solve this we cross-trained all of the sewers to not only to sit down at the sewing machine constructing the garments but also doing the other pre-production steps.
Has there ever been inventory that you’ve been stumped on what to do with? And how did you work around it?
Yeah, there’s a lot of them, but we have one, in particular, it’s a silk jersey. It’s a bread and butter fabric that we use every season. That fabric tends to stain in the same way, it’s this oily stain that is pretty consistent, but they’re everywhere in the garment. Sometimes you don’t even see it, but when you’re pressing them more stains come up. We actually did a production of them, it’s a beautiful shell. But as we were finishing production and we were steaming them to be ready to be packed to the store, stains were surfacing.
Now we’re working with one of our vendors that is doing fiber recycling with textiles to solve this problem. We told them to take the silk and experiment with it, that we would like to use it if they can shred it and turn it into a new textile. They were so excited, within a month they came back with a sample. Now those garments will be part of a new textile that we will be using for Spring 2019.
Do you work with the design team from the Eileen Fisher main line to talk about what fabrics are used designs are done in the main line?
I’m part of the circular by design team at Eileen Fisher, which is a team of people trying to make sense of circularity, how it works and what does it look like for Eileen Fisher. We have been thinking a lot about design for takeback. Eileen has essentially been doing this since day one since her designs have been so simple, so they actually provide a lot of material to work with.
Are you working with other brands to share what you’ve learned?
We opened our doors and share the story with anyone who is interested. It’s not only up to us to change this industry it’s up to everybody else. We were talking about sustainability, and now we’re talking about circularity and I think transparency is the next big thing that people are going to jump on board for. If these companies really want to see change in this industry, companies will have to be transparent in order to see change and we have to share how we’re doing it. We’re working on some collaborations with designers and companies like H&M have come to tour the facility. We open our doors to anybody. It doesn’t have to be the same model for everybody, but it’s about taking what we’re doing and applying it to your own needs.
How do you see this programming growing? What do you see for the future of the Tiny Factory?
Right now because of manpower there is a limit. I feel like our processes are there. We have processes that can replicate what we’re doing by the hundreds. The number of people who are working here is just not enough to do that. So far, every store would love to have our product. And I’d love to have more online, our product actually sells well online, our story is told better there.
My ideal shoot for the moon goal for the factory is that we can produce as fast as we are getting garments in. We will need a lot more people. I think our designs are there. Right now we’re at a bottleneck, we’re really drowning in garments. I would like to produce as fast as clothing is coming in.
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Click here to shop Eileen Fisher RESEWN products
Inside Wildlife Works: Protecting nature while producing ethically made clothing
You can’t answer the question, “what is ethical fashion” without looking at the process of cutting, sewing and finishing goods. You need to ask complex questions like, who are the people that make my clothing and are they working in a safe environment where they are being paid fairly? The apparel supply chain is very complex and it’s rare that you can pick up a t-shirt and know exactly where it was made and if the people who made it are making fair wages.
As consumers become more aware of working conditions and as brands are starting to cater to these customers, the intricacies and importance of ethical manufacturing have come to the forefront of many discussions. One organization driving change is Wildlife Works in Kenya. They’ve seen ups and downs and have watched the industry grow and develop since they were founded almost 20 years ago.
Wildlife Works approached apparel manufacturing as a market driven solution to their conservation efforts, resulting in the world’s only carbon neutral, fair trade factory protecting wildlife. When they started the facility in 2000 they were way ahead of the curve and had to work hard to create a market for their product. Now they are seeing big name fashion conglomerates like Kering and fast fashion brands like H&M engaging in sustainability practices.
I spoke with the Marketing and Creative Director of Wildlife Works, Joyce Hu, who oversees operations for the apparel manufacturing facility in Kenya, as well as overall messaging and branding. She told me about how Wildlife Works began and how it’s evolved over time in the rapidly changing fashion landscape.
Can you tell me a little bit about how Wildlife Works was founded and how you got involved with the organization?
The company was founded back in 1998 by Mike Korchinsky. Before then, he had a very successful consulting firm, working with clients from fortune 500 companies. He had an opportunity to go on safari in Kenya, and while he was there, saw a cycle of violence between the poachers, rangers, and community that was caused by the lack of jobs. The community needed jobs and a lot of the existing organizations weren’t filling that need. Because of this unemployment, poaching and deforestation were happening at a high rate.
He had a vision to create a market based solution for conservation, to combat unemployment. In 2000 he set up a factory. He focused on apparel manufacturing since sewing is a low skill job that people can be trained to do where there is very little job opportunity. Also, a lot of the communities had a sewing background already. He started with 10 seamstresses.
I connected with Wildlife Works in 2006 and thought the brand was amazing. I ended up helping them produce a fashion show for World Environmental Day. Then I went off to pursue other opportunities and got back in touch with them in 2009, when they were on hiatus after the recession. Mike was getting more involved with REDD+ and carbon offsetting and was starting to gain a lot of momentum. Through that, he met a lot of great customers and investors and hired me when a big investment came through. I was hired to take on the factory for a relaunch of the brand, manage the factory from product development and production management to marketing and branding.
What was it like to relaunch the brand, was the market ready for the product?
We first relaunched with graphic tees and trendier silhouettes and we did that for a few years. It was a time when fast fashion was really dominating the fashion market, and we were doing things so differently with logistics and manufacturing. The wholesale market was so different then. We didn’t have a million dollars to put into marketing, so we switched gears and moved to doing private label production for brands. That’s how we are able to support ourselves, doing private label with sustainable brands. That’s what we’ve focused on for the past years. We’ve tied our brand to movements like Fashion Revolution and brands are asking for ethical manufacturing now.
As the factory has developed, how have you determined fair wages? Have you always been a Fair Trade Certified factory?
We’ve always paid at an urban minimum wage level, most people train up in skill and are paid more than that. But low skilled labor is paid the county’s minimum wage.
As for certifications, we are Fairtrade International and USA Fair Trade certified, it’s very important for us to have that transparency. Puma, one of our investors requires us to be Puma Safe certified, which is mostly safety auditing. A lot of our brand partners don’t actually need the fair trade certification since we are already very transparent. Especially a lot of the smaller brands we work with, they are very transparent and are able to support their claims by showing who they work with and storytelling.
Fair trade certifications are very expensive and are mostly for larger brands who lack the transparency and they really need that sort of certification in order to legitimize whatever they are trying to say on the marketing side of things.
Do you feel now that ethical fashion is being talked about more, how has the landscape changed?
People are way more open to the conversation now. It also helps that we have some big name carbon credit customers, for example, Kering. Because of working with the carbon credit program, Kering is now open to talking to about manufacturing opportunities. We now can have conversations with bigger brands like the Gap Incs of the industry who never would have before considered talking to us when we first got started.
We’re still quite far from producing with them, not only are we a bit small for them, but we are also against the direction of mainstream fashion right now. But, at least they know about us and they are willing to have a conversation. It’s opening up a market.
Do you have your own definition of ethical fashion?
I think it’s really doing everything you can in your power to make decisions that make the least amount of harm on people, planet, and wildlife.
It’s a great question, it shows that you’re really deep in it. It’s easy to say that you’re a brand that does sustainable fashion using organic cotton or does sustainable production. But the deeper you get into it you see how grey it is and how the lines are so blurred because the global supply chain is very hidden and not transparent. It’s so hard to make the right decisions because the system doesn’t allow you to.
Are you optimistic about the future of sustainable fashion?
Yeah, I see a lot of progress. The fact that our business has been able to grow is a great indication. I am hopeful, but I don’t think that solution is what we think it is going to be. I think the solution is going to be something that is very technology driven, that we don’t even know right now. We are up to our head in the current global supply chain and we are blinded by it, something needs to come from nowhere really fast and that’s how change is going to happen.
Inside Dunitz & Company: Beautiful artisanal jewelry and fair trade values
Many consumers hear about ethical or fair trade fashion and don’t understand what this means, does a portion of profits go to charity? Do they give a pair of shoes to kids in need? These guesses only barely scratch the surface of the intricacies of an ethical fashion business. As part of a series that takes a closer look at how to produce and run an ethical fashion enterprise, I am featuring Nancy Dunitz, founder of Dunitz & Company, who started her own fair trade artisan business over 25 years ago before it was the trendy thing to do.
We talked about how shifting consumer habits has made more people attracted to her brand, but has also changed the way people shop. For a small artisan brand, these changes in the industry demand adaptability and making quick high-risk decisions in order to keep supporting and providing work for rural artisan communities. Read more about her journey in the interview below.
As a company that has been doing fair trade fashion for a while now, how have you seen the industry change?
When I first started my business in 1989, the term “fair trade” was not in my working vocabulary. I don’t think it was in anyone’s. What was clear to me, for me, was I wanted to live by the golden rule and treat all people I worked with with the respect they deserved.
I was driven to create a fashion line that was well designed and fashion forward. Obviously, the goal was to create demand for what at the time was a new look. It was also important to pay the artisans we worked with fairly. I always assumed if I was fair and took care of the people I worked with, they would do the same for me.
Until recently, I exclusively wholesaled my designs to boutiques, gift stores and museum shops primarily in the USA. For years, imported traditional crafts were perceived as cheap and not well made. Elevating a collection that higher end shops chose to carry was our goal. And we were successful.
I started hearing the term “fair trade” in the mid 1990s. And from there, awareness of fair trade has slowly and steadily grown. For many years, people purchased our line because they thought it was beautiful. As awareness of fair trade grew, most customers found that the “fair trade” aspect was a bonus.
Has the increased awareness about fair trade helped your business?
There was a time that some retail shop owners bought from Dunitz & Company because we were Fair Trade Federation members (and/or said we practiced fair trade) before they even studied our line and decided it was attractive. Unfortunately, in recent times there has been a lot of ‘greenwashing’ and people using the buzzword “fair trade” because they think it will garner sales. There has also been an influx of compassion marketing. I believe many customers are exhausted by the constant badgering to help this charity or that charity. I think this leads to a lot of confusion. I even have a few recent wholesale customers who now tell me they buy my line because it’s pretty. Full circle.
What was the process like to decide on a specific fair trade certification for your business? These days there are many routes a company could go, you could become a B Corporation, USA Fair Trade, World Fair Trade, Nest Seal Approved, etc.
Dunitz & Company is a verified member of Fair Trade Federation. Honestly, when FTF first launched in 1994, I was approached to be one of their founding members. My colleagues informed me that in order to be a member, I would have to allow the group to audit our financials. As you know, I studied business at NYU and worked in corporate finance before launching Dunitz & Company. That concept made me uncomfortable and I declined. I mean, I knew in my heart I was doing things “right”. But the ‘audit’ aspect made me uncomfortable.
Do you remember my mentioning all the people using “fair trade” as a buzzword to obtain sales? This is why I finally applied for Fair Trade Federation membership. I knew with all the noise out there and people saying they did what they didn’t, it was imperative to be screened. Let me be clear, Fair Trade Federation members are screened and verified. We are not certified. The organization does not have the manpower to send representatives to workshops all over the globe. I can tell you, just the same that the screening process is quite rigorous. A large percentage of applications for FTF memberships are denied. And FTF depends on member dues for survival. That says a lot. Dunitz & Company is also a gold-certified Green America business.
I’ve heard that becoming Fair Trade certified can be cost prohibitive for small businesses, and the records needed to be produced can be time-consuming. Did you face these challenges?
I’m almost certain there isn’t a way for craft items to be certified. The verification process for the Fair Trade Federation is rigorous, but it is not impossible. Dues are based on gross sales. It can be significant, but it is not prohibitive. And if a company passes the screening, it absolutely makes sense to be part of this group. For more than 25 years, I’ve almost exclusively worked with two groups of artisans. I confess, this made the screening processes a lot easier on us.
While you were getting your MBA at NYU did any of your classes cover business and human rights? What was your most important learning experience since running your business on balancing business profitability and fair working conditions?
When I first went to NYU, I had no idea what I wanted to do with an MBA. I was encouraged by my parents to get a practical education and this was viewed as such. The truth is I had always wanted to go to fine art school. When I finished school, I pursued and landed a position in the entertainment business, actually at Warner Home Video. It was not an artistic or creative position. I did, however, have the opportunity to go to a lot of movie screenings! After several years working in financial planning, I naively jumped ship to start something of my own. Honestly, starting a small fashion company involves a lot of hip shooting. At Warner Bros., I was involved with projections and multi-million dollar budgets. With a small business, one bad trade show throws any projections out the window. I always say the first 5 years of my business was my tuition. I lived hand to mouth until I created a jewelry line that customers wanted to buy. I was lucky. It happened.
What is the design process like for Dunitz & Company? Are artisans involved in the process?
I do a lot of homework before I travel to Guatemala each season. I study fashion and color trends diligently. It’s a lot easier these days than when I first started. In the early 1990’s there was no such thing as email or SKYPE. Almost all of our design work was done down there. Now we can do a lot of prep work before I arrive. Communication is so much easier. I concept a good majority of what Dunitz & Company shows. I also absolutely collaborate with the artisans I work with. Very often they show me designs they’ve created. And often I say “Yes”! Let’s create your design in Dunitz colors and see what consumers in the US think. I have to admit, I’ve had a few best sellers I didn’t personally design.
What has been the biggest success for your company up to this point? What does the future look like for Dunitz & Company?
I think the biggest success is that after more than 25 years, I’m still working with and collaborating with the same community of artisans. I’ve frequently been told that without the orders Dunitz & Company generates, the bead workshop I source from would not exist. Unfortunately, a majority of folks who managed similar types of operations are no longer in business. As I mentioned, for more than 25 years, Dunitz & Company exclusively wholesaled our work to fine shops nationwide. The nature of wholesale has dramatically changed. It’s no secret that many specialty shops (and big box stores too) have closed. Most of the major wholesale gift shows have closed. And the ones that remain have become smaller. The way people shop has completely changed.
I’m optimistic for the future. However, it is clear, to continue sustaining the artisans I’ve worked with for so many years, Dunitz & Company must build a significant retail arm. We’ve launched (what I think is a beautiful retail website) www.shopdunitz.com, recently opened an Etsy shop and have a few items selling at Amazon Handmade. I’ve been working diligently on social media and am hopeful it will pay off.
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