Some thoughts about responsible fashion
Ever since I started to work with textiles and clothing I felt connected to all the people on this planet who are working with their hands to make a living.
Literally growing up in one of Germany’s first organic stores in the eighties, I was brought up with strong moral values and a sense of responsibility to everything and everyone around me. A lot has changed since then – we became more conscious about our environment, thinking about saving energy and choosing well when buying our food – but what about the clothes we wear?
In my eyes, this asect is considered by too few- besides the aspect of fashion and looks- especially given that we wear our clothes daily, directly on our skin, after all the largest organ of the body.
Our aim is to get it easy, fast and cheap – but with best quality. How is this possible? The fashion system has changed rapidly over the past 50 years, every month we are flooded with new styles and must haves.Collections are copied as soon as they appear on the runway – trends vanish as soon as they are out on the streets.
Clothing turned from something we use to something we use up. Like chewing gum or washing powder.
However if we go down to the beginning of the value chain, we should at least consider who is paying the price for our consumption. A T-shirt for five Euro or Jeans for 15 Euro are too good to be true – and it’s not about the mass production factor as often argued.
“How can a product that needs to be sown, grown, harvested, combed, spun, knitted, cut and stitched, finished, printed, labelled, packaged and transported cost a couple of Euros?“ Li Edelekoort
Fabrics are full of pesticides, ruining farmers and soil. Textile workers are fighting for a minimum wage, producing our clothes in dangerous factories without any rights or health insurance. Although they constantly work overtime, they are not able to feed their families.
And we haven’t yet considered the amount of waste we create with all used up clothes.
We are trained to fulfill our needs with consumption – as soon as we feel any kind of lack , there’s probably something you can buy to make you more happy, healthy, prestigious or attractive.
In our complex world there’s no way to always find the perfect sustainable solution, but we always have a choice.It could make a difference to just think about it and consider what the consequence of my own actions might be. I started to ask myself – what do I really need? What is enough? How can I support others instead of exploiting humans and nature?
It is all about first small steps in my opinion. I always set my priorities on aesthetics first – but focusing more and more on sustainable material. And here the circle closes, as my aim is to create timeless, yet modern fashion, handmade in Munich using sustainable, eco-friendly material.No need to call it eco fashion, but individual pieces you might value and love –supporting responsible farmers and projects, as well as your independent local stores.
Speaking for KILENZ, we are not keen on putting labels and declarations on our clothes-our aim is to follow heart and gut and stand truly behind our product. As aesthetics and design are still most important, we try to improve the process step-by-step.
Supporting local manufacturers, our collection features for example wool fabrics from Loden Steiner or finest linnen from Leinen Viehböck in Austria. We use organic cotton and hemp textiles. And as far as it concerns special, fancy textiles, we buy stock goods and recycle the overstock of huge fashion companies.
By redirecting the design process, we are mostly inspired by the supply of sustainable material – we see what’s available every season – and match it with own ideas and concepts to create a modern, classy, individual piece with a sustainable background.
Warmly recommended if you want to dip deeper in this matter :
„the true cost“ a film by Andrew Morgan