Fair Trade Fashion Showcase with Mandala Apparel

Calgary, Alberta (January 23, 2018) — Fair Trade Calgary is pleased to announce that three Calgary fashion designers have been selected to participate in a Fair Trade Fashion Showcase as part of the Canadian Fair Trade Network’s National Fair Trade Conference 2018! The three designers will complement three Vancouver VCAD student designers who will also be participating in the Showcase, which will highlight the supply chain of the material from fibre to fashion.  

These designers are taking on the challenge to create a fashion design using internationally certified fairtrade cotton weave material source from Mandala Apparels in India.

The 6th National Fair Trade Conference is being hosted at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, British Columbia from March 2 to 4, 2018.  Various sessions at the Conference this year will discuss transparency in the supply chain, handmade artisan craftmanship, and fair trade textiles and clothing.  The Fair Trade Fashion Showcase will display the fashions created by the designers, along with accompanying video and photography of the producers of the raw material, the cotton weavers, and the cutting, natural dying and sewing of the final product by the designers.

For more information on the Fair Trade Fashion Showcase, the fashion Revolution Week YYC, or Fair Trade Calgary visit www.fairtradecalgary.com.

For more information on the National Fair Trade Conference in Vancouver, visitwww.cftn.ca.

You can follow Fair Trade Calgary on social media: Twitter @FairTradeYYC , Instagram, or Facebook


Stay tuned for progress posts! 

-Caroline-

Below are Photos of the fantastic workers from Mandala Apparels who created the woven cotton yardage I will be using to create my garment. 

 

Natural Dye Workshop

I will be teaching a two day natural dye workshop during the last weekend in April. You can check out more details here (Pg 12) through ACAD's Extended Study Catalog.  It's going to be a super fun time, hope to see you there!
 

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Eco Printing with Natural Dyes

Above are process shots of my first batch of eco printed scarves. 

This past November I participated in Hamilton Artist Inc's Craft Mart. These scarves were one of the items I sold at the show. 

Last April I assisted Sheridan College's Textile Studio Technologist Janelle Guthrie with her Alternative Methods of Natural Dying Workshop. In this workshop we focused on rust dying, eco printing and botanical pounding. The results were amazing and as I continue to explore these techniques I keep unwrapping the most beautiful surprises. Eco printing makes stunning surface designs and patterns.  

Working with natural dyes takes a lot of dedication and patience, I've worked with different natural dying techniques for almost a year now and I'm just beginning to get the hang of it. For my final year at Sheridan I have only worked with natural dyes and will continue to use it in my thesis work next term. 

Yesterday I read two great articles about natural dyeing, one from my prof Thea Haines and one from India Flint, I highly recommend both of them.

If you are interested in owning one of these eco printed scarves there are still some left at Hawk and Sparrow on James Street N in Hamilton. 
 

Stay tuned for more post about my natural dyeing explorations!