BY JAN NARY
Qualifications in agricultural science, ABC rural reporting and journalism may seem an unlikely background for a woman driving a revolution in fashion but that’s Jane Milburn’s story. Founder of Textile Beat, Jane’s work aligns with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals. Her initiative in the “slow clothing” movement won Jane a 2019 Churchill Fellowship investigating ways of being more hands-on with our clothes to help reduce textile waste and enhance wellbeing.
“We need to take agency over what we wear,” she says. “We are all conditioned by big fashion to strive for a certain look, to be in fashion – when in fact that’s impossible, because it keeps being changed and we’ll never catch up. Planned obsolescence started with the fashion industry, and because we wear clothes, it’s immediately obvious whether we’re in or out of the fashion club. We need to jump off the treadmill and do our own thing, create our own style by experimenting and playing with clothing.”
Jane says that while domestic science classes may be a thing of the past, we could all benefit from learning life skills, how to make and mend and restyle clothes.
“Some people may feel that they’re too busy; that it’s so much easier to order online and wait for delivery,” she says. “That’s a shame because we’re being de-skilled; making and creating things by hand is an essential part of our psycho-social makeup.”
Jane observes that there are many parallels between slow food and slow fashion and that concern about the future welfare of the environment depends largely on our food and fabric consumption patterns.
“Slow fashion reflects many permaculture values,” she says. “The ’60s saw a wave of concern about food ingredients, production methods and environmental contamination. We should be as concerned about fabrics and make every purchase a considered decision. So many issues are layered into this; clothes, food, the environment, social manipulation, exploitation of garment workers…it’s a big issue!
“Sixty per cent of our clothes are synthetics made of plastic. We’re better off buying natural fibres like cotton and wool; even though their production is not perfect, they’re improving. There have been processes developed to reconstitute potato greens, orange peel, milk, and banana skins into fabric, but as part of the food system, it’s better that they stay on the farm as fertilisers and soil improvers.
“The first step for change is to unhook ourselves from the concept of having to look a certain way to be acceptable; basically, that’s a lot of baloney.”
At Point Lookout Hall on Wednesday, October 9, at 10:30am, Jane will hold a 90-minute talk and discussion about the options and choices for purchasing clothes.
