Saturn Cottage Industries and the (Fashion) Revolution
Fashion Revolution Week 2022
Fashion Revolution is a movement which started in response to the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013, which killed over 1,100 garment factory workers and injured over 2,500. You can read the International Labour Organisation’s comments on the incident and it’s aftermath here, or search Google for news reports from the time. Fashion Revolution has become the world’s largest fashion activism movement, mobilising consumers, companies, and governments to challenge labour and environmental abuses in the global fashion industry.
This year’s theme is “MONEY FASHION POWER”, shining a light on the exploitation of labour and natural resources in the fashion and textiles industry.
“Big brands and retailers produce too much too fast, and manipulate us into a toxic cycle of overconsumption.” - Fashion Revolution 2022
Saturn Cottage Industries was born from my disillusionment with the fashion industry and the wasteful and exploitative practices rampant within it. The Rana Plaza disaster happened the year after I graduated from college with my honours degree in fashion design. At the time, I was working in a company supplying womenswear to high-street retail brands, but within a couple of years, I drifted away from the industry, increasingly unsure how to find a fulfilling role within it.
Saturn Cottage Industries is also born out of my personal values and my hope for a better future. To move past feeling overwhelmed by the enormity of issues across the industry, I want to do what I can, where I am, with what’s at hand. So here I am, making jackets and quilts, in Ireland, with Irish-made or salvaged fabrics.
If you know me well then you know that authenticity is an important value of mine. For one thing, I have an incredibly low tolerance for bullsh*t, which may come across socially as direct or even a little prickly! However, in craft terms, authenticity informs not only the skilled and practised motion of my hands, but also my approach to materials and sourcing. A product is what it is made from and a textile product is the work of many hands. From farm to fibre to yarn to cloth, fabric production is incredibly labour- and resource-intensive. My sewing skills are only a fleeting touchpoint in the long arc of a textile life (apologies to my ego), so I aim to be as transparent as possible about what goes into my pieces, including both my labour and my materials. Using Irish fabrics honours the rich textile heritage here, while repurposing vintage or salvaged fabrics honours the many hands and resources which went into their creation, by looping them back into use and life.
Terms such as transparency, circular fashion, and ethical consumption are creeping into the media lexicon as well as the language of corporate policy, the latter of which unfortunately tends toward their dilution. I am hesitant to use these terms when talking about Saturn Cottage Industries, because they are highly complex and often end up flattened and oversimplified in their usage.
As you can see in the materials section of any of my listings, I demonstrate my transparency by describing what goes into my pieces and, when possible, where it came from. Sourcing locally is important to me, but, for example, sewing thread is not produced in Ireland (I am currently using an Italian cotton thread from an Irish supplier).
Circular fashion conceives of a closed loop of fibre usage, where waste is designed out of the process and resources can be reused over and over. This is a constantly innovating field, but often calls for heavy mechanical or chemical processes. Reusing or repurposing fabric is a key element of my work, but in my current capacity that takes the form of salvage and integration of fabric into a new piece of high quality. I cannot promise it will last for centuries - natural fibres age well but ultimately deteriorate - however, I can save that piece of cotton or linen from the landfill right now, and make something beautiful and repairable.
As for “ethical consumption” some will say that there is no such thing under capitalism, but I think it’s useful to consider the concept as an individual, deeply personal metric. It’s often about buying less and falling in love with what you do buy. Sometimes it’s about considering the environmental impacts of a product, for others it’s about seeking the product or service in your community before clicking on to the corporate conglomerates. For others still it’s about understanding labour and working conditions like one of Fashion Revolution’s key campaigns, Who Made Your Clothes?
My dream for Saturn Cottage Industries' place in the Fashion Revolution movement is to continue to practise transparency through descriptions, to step towards a local circular textiles system through my reuse and patchwork, and to find like-minded future-building fashion folk and textile treasurers to collect and commission my work.
If you would like to learn more about Fashion Revolution, or find events in your area, check the website and social media accounts, and get involved from April 18th-24th 2022.
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