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Pitches

Here are the pitches - Organized Upcyclers, The Man Couchers, Home Is Where The Heart Is, Plush 4 Patience, C&E Certified.

 

 

These are all great ideas. Our generous panel of judges - Toby Portner, Thanh Apostolides, Frank Valenti, Karl Okemura and Casey Agena had valuable comments and suggestions for each group. They scored each of the groups according to this table:

 

( 1 = “I strongly disagree.”  |  2 = “I disagree.”  |  3 = “I’m not sure.”  |  4 = “I agree.”  |  5 = “I strongly agree.” )
For each statement circle the number that corresponds with your feeling.
 

1

This project is solving a problem.

2

This project has thoroughly thought about the impact of their product on people and the planet over the lifetime of the product.

3

This project is innovative.

4

This project is a social enterprise using financial profit as a means to achieve a greater social benefit.

5

This project makes a product/service that I or someone I know would purchase/use.

6

This pitch told a story with which I connected and from which I learned.

7

This pitch presented an out of the world idea - a whole new way of doing something.

8

This pitch engaged the audience through interaction.

9

This pitch admitted mistakes and assumptions. It explained how the project team addressed those problems.

10

This pitch explained the complete value and cost from production to where the product ends up.

11

This pitch represented well the team and partners.

12

Overall, this was great! Go team and project!

 

The highest marked team was Home Is Where The Heart Is, with a total of 219 from four judges. Congratulations and great job to all the teams!

La Muse

We went to La Muse on July 23 and we really enjoyed it. We liked the store because they really care about the customers and they welcomed us very well into the store. Julia, the owner and founder of the boutique, answered all of our questions and she was happy that we were there. The store played really calming music and the environment of the store is really nice and quiet. La Muse isn't a really big store, but they do have a lot of items. Somehow though it didn't feel too crowded. I would go back to La Muse because they have beautiful jewelry and super cool toys like small toy robots and even nice dolls as well. Julia made her own store because she wanted to have her own songs played and her own pictures hung up on the wall. Julia told a story about how she saved all of her lunch money to buy a barbie doll, she appreciated and took care of it because she didn't have a wealthy family when she was younger living in China. It was really inspiring to hear her story because she puts a lot of effort into her store.  

True Cost

What is the REAL "True Cost" of your Clothing

 

             What goes on behind the scenes to your clothes? Do you think a machine does all the work for you? Do think humans do all the work for you? Do you think it's both humans and machines? Or humans, machines, and the enviroment? The answer is humans, machines, and the enviroment. A lot of history is in your clothing. On Tuesday, July 21, 2015, Profit for Progress watched a movie called "True Cost." This movie could change the way you think of your clothes, what you buy, and how you think of fashion forever.

 

           Now you're probably wondering really what goes on behind the scenes of your clothes? Depending on where your clothes are made, donated clothes are then shiped to (example) China. Then they rip off all the buttons or zippers. They spin the cloth into thread with a machine then made into clothes from there. The cloth making is made by humans though. Under paid garment workers. Threatened and beaten up.

 

          Not too long ago, the Rana Plaza fell down. An eight story building killing hundrends of people. A factory where are clothes are made in Bangladesh. The day before the accident, a pilar cracked in the building. The workers complaind and the manager just threatened them that if they didn't keep working the next day, he wouldn't pay them for their hard work. So, they kept working. And, over 1000 people died the next day. Families crying to see if there loved ones had survived the tradgedy.

 

       There were riots of garment workers of a pay raise. But the police wouldn't budge. They need to be paid too. Unfortunetly, a man was beaten to death and suffured at night. Something needs to be done about this. But nothing is. Also, most of are clothing waste is going to waste. Like scraps. And the pollution in the air and the waste from the factories that flow in the water. People have no choice but to drink the water. They get cancer, could lead to birth defects, and more. This is harm to the enviroment and humans.

 

         What are the wadges of these people? It varies from $0.01 a day- $172 a day. Can they support their family? Can they afford food and shelter? Do you think they should be paid fairly? No matter what your answer is, at least  you are consious of this world problem. But still, think about it.  

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                           by Allena

Pitches

Yesterday on 7/27/15 we made fake pitches about companies to our class. Each group of 3 or 4 people got companies to pitch to the class. The classmates graded the students presenting on a sheet of paper. This was a cool experience because we got to learn about different companies and we got to learn about how it feels to pitch a product or company. The first time we pitched, our group pitched about a product called Piña. Piña is a product the used pineapple, leaf fibers to use for clothing. We did a good job, but we did not win the prize. Our second pitch our group got assigned 4 companies The Peace Treaty, TS Designs, Outerknown and Space Between. I got assigned Outerknown, Outerknown is a cool company that was founded just a few weeks ago by Kelly Slater. Though the company just launched, it took them 28 months to make all of their designs the way they wanted to. This company is very sustainable, all of their shirts were made from 100% organic Pima cotton. All of their boardshorts reused fish nets and plastic bottles. I enjoyed talking about this company because I could relate to it. The process of finding out about this company was easy, their site was simple and was very detailed. It was easy to answer the questions on the paper becuase the company because I could relate to it. Here's what we had to answer to help us formulate our pitches:

 

Vision:

1) What is the mission statement of this company?

2) Is this company focused on any of the important issues within the fashion industry that you have studied? Is it a social enterprise? Explain.

 

Tangible Results:

1) Do you like the products the company is selling? Why or why not?

2) Do you think the products themselves reflect the company’s stated values? Why or why not?

3) What is the Price Range? Do you think these are fair prices? Why or why not?

4) Can you tell what are the current scope and scale of the company and its impact? i.e. How many people and products are involved?

 

Strategy:

1) What is the role of the customer?

2) Describe the company’s business model?

 

Impression:

1) How do you feel after exploring the company’s website? Do you trust this company?

2) Is the website informative? Explain

3) Write at least 5 Key Words or phrases you feel this company uses to identify itself.

4) Google the company - do you find any reports contradicting the company’s mission? Read at least one non-company provided report or review. Does this report support your findings about the company?

5) What questions do you have for this company?

6) Is there anything you think the company could improve on?

 

Shark Tank VS. Unreasonable Institute

We watched a few clips of Shark Tank and Unreasonable Institute and we have a few positive and negative thoughts about each of the shows. First of all, our positive thoughts about Shark Tank are it's entertaining and it shows the good and bad examples of good social entreprenership. The entertaining part about shark tank is the pitches and the comments that the sharks give the pitchers. Our negative thoughts about Shark Tank are that the sharks only care about the money, instead of the enviroment/community. For example, in one episode a guy told the sharks that he wanted money to give to charity, but the sharks never even asked about the charity. Sometimes, either the sharks and/or the pitchers can be rude or mean. For example, a pitcher told a shark that the shark doesn't know anything about the t-shirt business because the shark always wears suits. Our positive thoughts about Unreasonable Institute are that they show great examples of helping people and the enviroment. In particular, there was a woman who saw polluted air in China, so she created a solar stove and it helped the people in China. Our negative thoughts about Unreasonable Institute is that it isn't very entertaining because even though the talks are very important, it's harder to pay attention compared to Shark Tank. So you see, there are positives and negatives for these shows, but the one that is probably better is Unreasonable Institute, while it may not be as entertaining, it is more educational. 

Lanikila Pacific

Lanikila Pacific is a family of programes and services designed to help build independence and an improved quality of life for adults with challenges in their lifes. Some of these challenges include mental and physical handicaps. The first interactions we had ater meeting with Frank, the facilities manager, were with people in the TLC room. The TLC program and room is a space where people can make crafts and learn new things. I was amazed to see how many people there were. We also visited the kitchen and found out about the Meals on Wheels program. Many of the people working in the kitchen may indeed have some kind of disability, but they are very capable of carying out their work cooking meals for hundreds of clients. The meals are delivered by a team of volunteers to people who are unable to leave their homes. Also when delivering the meals, volunteers are able to cheak on the clients to make sure that they are OK.

 

Lanikila Pacific also has its own room screenprinting shirts and has its own sewing machine and embroidery machines making all kinds of things. The man in charge of the embroidery machine is legally blind. This was impresssive to me because he could use his other senses to do the same things that I am able to do being able to see.

 

 

The three words that Lanakila uses to describe its mission are inspire, independence and inclusion. I felt so inspired after visiting. I'm glad this organization exists for all of the people who need it. 

 

Fighting Eel

On Thursday, July 23 my class went to Fighting Eel, along with Lanikila Pacific, Iolani Sportswear, and La Muse.  After visiting Lanikila Pacific, we walked to China Town.  We had lunch in a shopping center.  After finishing lunch we walked to La Muse were we saw some really cool wooden robots.  My spirits were lifted as we saw a "man couch" (which is called that because men go there and sit down while there girlfriends or wives shop) in Fighting Eel.  All of the boys ran to the couch and shoved each other for room on the couch.  There were alot of things there. We especially liked the Illuminati necklace.  The manager was very kind and went out of her way to make us feel welcome and to answer our questions.  I learned that their materials are sourced from the USA, I also learned that all their clothes are sewn and packed in a two mile radius of the store.  After we finished looking around the store and asking questions, we went to the design studio.  We saw Rona Bennet there.  She told us that "No one is to big to do a job" and "Never make decisions on an empty stomach."  The design room was surprisingly casual.  After that, my class went to the sewing and storage rooms.  In the sewing room, we saw four people working on dresses.  It was really crowded with boxes, chairs, and tables.  In the storage room, there was a lot of racks and boxes.  In the middle of the room, there were three guys labeling, stacking, and counting boxes.  I asked when we could aply for a job in the storage room, they said they didn't know.  The jobs of the people in the storage room are to make sure the whole order is there.  After we left the storage room we walked back to the Fighting Eel store, on the way I saw donner kebabs, which smelled really good.  After getting into the store all the boys ran for the man couch after about ten minutes of cramp comfort on the couch, the bus came.

The Wage List

When we went shopping at Goodwill for items to use in our final project we had a total of $12 per group. With that budget in mind we then used this chart to figure out how much money we could spend on any given single item. The countries on this list represent the top 14 countries where our clothes are made as of July 7th. Everything we bought had to be made in one of these countries and we couldn't spend more money on any item than the daily minimum wage in the country where it was made.

 

Country

Minimum Wage/10 Hour Work Day

China

$12.10

USA

$72.50

India

$2.50

Italy

N/A

Vietnam

$2.90

Cambodia

$2.80

Guatemala

$12.00

Indonesia

$5.00

Bangladesh

$2.30

Philippines

$7.20

Mexico

$6.50

Turkey

$32.40

Honduras

$10.90

Haiti

$3.60

 

Where We've Been Wearing

Here's the results of our ongoing clothing map survey that we take every morning to sign-in for class. As of July 15, the top three countries where our clothes are "made" are China, Italy and India. We were a little surprised to see Italy in the top three, until we learned that many clothing factories in Italy are Chinese owned.

 

Three Projects, An Experiment and Big Learning

It's a been a busy few weeks. We finished work on the Fishcake Projects. We started making custom aprons for our peers in the Punahou Master Chef class. And we've begun work on our final project involving recrafting garments from home and from Goodwill.

 

  
-Class Products on Display at Fishcake on Kamani St.-

 

We've also begun our experiment turning kombucha SCOBY into leather. We're really grateful to Oahu's Sky Kombucha for contributing the SCOBY. We'll begin drying some of the leather soon and at the end of class we hope to drink some fo the Kombucha.

 

-Hoping for something flower shaped from this great jar that Hugh and Melissa Mosher, members of the Punahou 'ohana, lent to the class.-

 

None of these projects and experiements would have been possible without our great community partners. This has been part of a big lesson for us in community building. What community are we designing through the prodcuts we create, sell and purchase? We've been thinking about this a lot lately and examining the shopping community on Oahu and the supply chain that brings those products to us here. We started this examination by watching the new documentary The True Cost of Fashion. We followed this up with a field trip to analyze different shopping environments, from the Ala Moana Center and JAMS WORLD to Patagonia and Goodwill. Students crafted reflections on these activities. We'll continue to discuss the impact of our purchasing descisions and how we produce and consume (and if we should use the word consume - to destroy or use up) as we delve deeper into our final project remaking used clothes.

 

The Truth Behind the Sale’s Rack.

Everything is not what it seems. Especially at the mall. When you walk into each store you get a different shopping experience. From the price tags to the service of sales people, each store gives off specific feelings that stick with each customer until the next time they take a trip to the mall. Whether its Balenciaga, with its intimidating employees and luxurious merchandise, or PacSun with it's discombobulated displays and groovy music. We were on the hunt to find to see if stores actually follow their code of conduct or if their employees are even aware of it. In Anthropologie the employee was very straight forward and didn’t stutter when informing us of their distributors, but American Apparel was on the contrary; when we approached the sales person she attempted to show us a dressing room and informed us of the current sale, when we finally asked if she knew their factory worker’s hours, she hesitated and said, “I don’t know, 9-5?”  
 

Now we gathered that there are many different kinds of employees; the ones that answer your questions, lie to your face or the ones who could simply care less. We encountered all of those while trying to find the truth behind the sales rack. Now what do you do when you're done with your purchases? Most people donate their clothes to charity or certain thrift stores. We explored Goodwill and purchased very usable items of clothing with an attractive price tag (four items for under 12 dollars). Although Goodwill has great intentions, and you feel geat for donating, you're actually doing something harmful to the environment and other people overseas. I know donated clothing is a great factor for disaster relief and it serves a purpose for many peple here at home as well, but 90 percent of the clothes we donate get "dumped" in countries like Haiti, Cambodia and across the Continent of Africa. The clothes that get placed in those countries are totally arbitrary. As we learned in the film, "True Cost," the clothing is a burden to the citizens of Haiti and other place. Ever since the wave of cheap clothing from the USA, sewing jobs dwindled. This led to families in debt and foodless tables. We know that this is not the intention of Goodwill and other charities. It's a symptom of the fact that the Goodwill store we visited in Honolulu receives donations from over 300 people on a daily basis. That's more than they can distribute locally. The root of the issue is the fact that there is so much clothing to begin with.

 

As a group we learned that there are different shopping and fashion environments. Throughout this trip, we became more aware of our clothing choices and how the overall environment of a store affects our feelings in our shopping experience. For example, snobby employees made us feel intimidated and annoyed, whereas open and friendly employees made us feel comfortable and happy. What we took away was a new found respect for sweatshop-free brands and a craving for fixing our clothing intead of continuously donating it.

Field Trip Q&A

          This week, we went on a field trip to Ala Moana, JAM's World, Patagonia, and Goodwill. We were also asked to go to 7 For All Mankind, Burberry, and Michael Kors. While browsing and collecting information, we were asked to consider the following questions:

          Q: How did the stores make you feel? Why?

          A: At first, we were unsure of how the sales people would react to us asking questions, so we were a bit shy. But after, they we very nice, so they made us feel welcome at their stores.

          Q: What did you learn at the stores?

          A: At 7 for All Mankind we found out that all of their clothing is made in the USA. They also get discounts at their store (Nice!). At Burberry, we learned that they invented the trenchcoat, and that their cashmere scarves take over a year to make. We think that this is pretty amazing; a scarf, not very big, can take a year to make? Wow. The sale people also wear the clothes their company makes. Burberry is also a British company. When we went to Michael Kors, we found out that they're required to wear their company's clothes.  Most of their clothes were made in China.  Some select merchandise was on sale, such as bags and shoes. Also, in JAM's World, most of their clothing, actually 95% of it, was made in Hawaii. I think that this is pretty cool, since this was one of the only stores that I've been to that sells clothing made in Hawaii. 

          Q: Which store had the most informed employees?

          A: In our opinion, Burberry's and Patagonias employees were the most informed because they even asked us if we wanted to know more about the company and it's products. (At Burberry, they even let us smell their new perfumes, and showed us some of their clothing.) At Patagonia, they also told us about the geese feathers that were used to make some of the jackets. Did you know that you can learn about the geese and their feathers and their journey from the beginning at the farm to the product at the store by scanning the scan code with your mobile device?

          Q: Was anything told to you that you questioned?  Do you feel that they told you the truth?

          A: Yes, because everyone answered right away and didn't hold back.  The sales people also were kind and seemed trustworthy for the most part.

         Q: How is this experience different from normal shopping?

         A: This experience was different because it opened our minds by having us ask questions.  Also, we weren't allowed to buy anything.  In a normal shopping trip most of us wouldn't even think about asking questions. 

        Q: What was it like shopping at Goodwill with $12 and the wage list?

        A: It was difficult searching for items in our budget.  We took advantage of the fact that some items were 50% off, and chose those to use. We also chose clothing with the most fabric, and the ones that looked like they could be transformed into a new piece. The wage list wasn't as big of a problem with the items that were 50% off.

 

Not A Typical Day At The Mall

On Tuesday morning, we took a trip to the mall to ask some questions you wouldn't normally ask. Our group, Kendall, Kaydi, Diana, and Camron, were asigned three stores. Forever 21, Bebe, and Balenciaga. In addition to our three stores, we also traveled to other stores as a class. Such as JAMS World, Patagonia, and last but not least, Goodwill. In the mall, Camron and Diana made their way to Bebe, as Kendall and Kaydi found their way to Forever 21. In Bebe, Diana and Camron felt curious as to what to expect, because they didn't know if the sales people would feel offended by us asking questions. At Bebe we discovored that the workers wanted to know what we were doing. They wear the clothes from the store, although they are not obligated to. In Forever 21, Kendall and Kaydi felt like the employees weren't very helpful, and didn't answer their questions clearly. They learned that most of the stores products are made in China, and that they put clothes on sale once they're out of season. In Balenciaga, Kendall and Kaydi felt self-concious because the workers kept staring at them. As soon as they walked into the store, one of the employees immediately told them that photography and vidoes were not allowed in the store. They went out without even finding any information, because they felt very intimidated. Camron and Diana went in to ask the questions instead. After they came out, they agreed that the workers were scary. They told us not to touch anything even though some of the questions required us to touch the clothes. Camron and Diana were told to just let the sales women answer the questions instead of looking around. This is some of the information we got from that store. Balenciaga sells mostly bags, which are made in Italy and France. They use sheep skin, goat skin, and calf skin to make some of their bags. Although they were intimidating, Balenciaga seemed to have employees that knew everything about their products, and the store. We all felt like every store told us the truth about their stores. This mall trip was different from normal shopping sprees because we all agree that we're not usually looking for what materials were used, and where the items were made. We are also are able to buy things at the mall. At JAMS World, we learned that most of the clothing was made in Hawaii. The workers at Patagonia were very helpful. They answered all our questions, and we learned that Patagonia is a mountain range in South America and that the reason the jackets were so expensive because of the lifetime warrenty. Diana didn't understand this because most companies make it so the jacket will break so the customer will have to buy another jacket. At Goodwill, we only had a $12 budget. We had to look at where things were made as well. Having a $12 limit was challenging, because there was so many choices, and big pieces of fabric were expensive (with only $12). Most of the nicer clothes cost around $7-$20 which really suprised us. Our group ended up buying 2 dresses, and a pair of shorts. We all agreed that this was not a normal shopping trip, but we learned a lot!

Ala Moana Experience

-How stores made you feel-why?

•American Eagle: They made us feel welcomed and appreciated us coming in. Sales people were friendly and manager was straight-forward. Store was bright and energizing. Displayed were neat and environment was appealing.

•Abercrombie: It was dark, music was loud, and smelled strongly of cologne and perfume. Workers were welcoming but didn't know where the clothes came from. Manager was untruthful about the sweatshops.

•Gap: Environment was clean-looking, modern, and simple. Sales people were kind but not as welcoming. They weren't truthful about the companies actions. 

 

-What you learned at each store

•American Eagle: We learned that they have sweatshops. Every week the shipments of new clothes range from 1,2, or 3 times a week. Most of their jewerly is made in China. Their Clothes is mostly made in China and India. Most of their pants are made in Bangledesh and Indonesia.

•Abercrombie:Most of their clothes are made in China and Taiwan. Materials are mostly cotton are polyester. Everyday from Monday to Friday they get 100-3,000 units. The style of clothing they sell are based on the mainland seasons. 

•Gap: Mostly use cotton for their clothes. Most items are made in China, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Indonesia. Most manufactors are in Asian countries. A lot of clothes are made in sweatshops. 

 

-Which store had most informed employees?

•American Eagle: Sales people weren't informed where their companies clothes were made, and all of the sales people told use to ask their manager. The manager knew where the clothes came from and was more informed then the sales people were.

•Abercrombie: Similar to American Eagle, sales people at Abercrombie weren't very informed about where their companies clothes are made, so they asked us to ask the manager. The manager knew where the clothes came from and was some what more informed than any of the sales people. It struck as interesting that in both American Eagle and Abercrombie, the information that managers had about the companies' manufacturing practices was not conveyed to the sales associates.

•Gap: As with Abercrombie and American Eagle, the sales people at Gap did not seem well informed, but the managers seemed to have a little more information. Still the what the managers said about sweatshops was confusing to us as we will explain in the next answer. 

•Patagonia: All the employees had a lot of knowlege about their company and the purpose of the resourcful 
 

-Was anything told to you that you question? Do you feel like they told you the truth?

•American Eagle: We feel that American Eagle told the truth, because the manager told us that American Eagle does use sweatshops. Yet she did not elaborate on this, merely saying "thank you" and stopped talking and left us.

•Abercrombie: The group feels like Abercrombie was untruthful becasue the employees there told us that the company doesn't use sweatshops to produce its clothing. We did our own research and found out that in fact Abercrombie has a poor record of maintaining labor standards and there are many recorded instances of the comapny manufacturing in sweatshops.

•Gap: We think that the manager at the Gap store gave us false information about the working standards the company has. While she did say that the company uses sweatshops in other countries, she also said that the company pays and treats its employees well.  We are confused by what she meant, because no sweatshop can be like that. The very definition of sweatshop is that it has "that has socially unacceptable working conditions." (Wikipedia) From our research we believe that Gap is one of the worst compnaies when it comes to using sweatshops in its supply chain. Perhaps when she says the company treats its employees well, she is referring to employees in the retail stores. 

 

-How was this experience different from normal shopping?

•It was different because we were more concious of where the clothes were made and the material.

 

-What was it like shopping at Goodwill with $12 and the wage list?

•Shopping at Goodwill was hard with only $12 and the wage list. The wage list documents the minimum wage for a 10 hour work day ing the top 14 countires where the clothes we wear are made. The clothing we purchased at Goodwill could not be more expensive than the minimum wage in the country where it was made. It was hard finding items in the budget of a person working for minimum wage.

 

 

Around the World Peplum Top and Shawl

Travel. What do you think of when you hear this word? You may think of airplanes, cultures, etc. When we were asked to think of travel, the idea of postcards came into our minds, and the distances were had to go when we traveled.

 

 

 

-Jessi Modeling All of The Products-

 

Throughout the process of making the two garments in front of you, we were immensely inspired by the social media platform, Instagram. Many people use Social media to post their daily lives especially when they're travelling.  Instagram photos are based on the idea of "Artsy pictures and witty captions." This flowy peplum top is a perfect, day to night top, with crafty postcard-inspired details. Along with the shawl, this unique combination is perfection. But, it would be also great just by itself. We think that postcards are a great representation of the word "travel" because of the great ways they can be used to store memories from everywhere around the world. Made out of silk, this top is trendy and comfortable.

The shawl that you see portrays the tracks the traveller's memories they made around the world as they walked, ran, or simply rode. Throughout the whole course of "Future Fashion" our most worked upon subject was dyeing fabric. We've produced our own dyes and experienced the horrors and messes of dyeing as a beginner. When the word "travel" came to the table, we thought of dyeing techniques used around the world. The shawl is made from natural dyes pulled from fruits and vegetables from all over the world. Since the top incorporates a picture from Japan, we used the Japanese dyeing technique called Shibori. To do so, we stitched in the pattern we wanted and tied in beads for a more intricate pattern. The earliest artifacts of Shibori date back to the 8th century, so, we decided to tackle the timeless technique. This shawl will keep the traveller warm on-the-go or remind the consumer of their time travelling to distant lands.

Fishcake Project - "Bare-hug"

We designed a blanket and a pillow made for air travel. Our product is called the “Bare-hug”.Our blanket is made with pieces of pink and blue cotton t-shirts sewn together. We dyed the shirt pieces different colors with natural dyes we made in class. Once we finished dyeing our fabric, we pinned them together, preparing them to be sewn via sewing machine. Once our blanket was sewn, we began to work on the pillowcase. We used a soft jersey knit material to make it more comfortable to lie on. Since we also wanted our pillowcase to have a quilted design, we embroidered a quilt-like pattern onto the front. Our idea was to make our pillowcase reversible so there was also a more durable side. The fabric we used for the stronger side was the same pink cotton t-shirt we used for the blanket. After we assembled our pillowcase, we thought it would be convenient to have handles connected to the cotton side. That way, the blanket fits into the pillowcase, which then folds in half. The handles make it easier to carry around. Since we know (from experience) that it’s annoying to try and get the blanket to stay up on the airplane seats, we thought of having straps connected to the pillowcase. We made four straps out of the blue cotton t-shirts (two on the pillow, two on the blanket) that are attached by an buckles so you can adjust the length from the blanket to the pillow. To finish off our project we decorated the blanket with white footprints to represent traveling.

 

Our experience working on this project was interesting but nerve-racking. It was nerve-racking thinking of judges grading it against professional designers, but overall we had a lot of fun creating and designing. Even though it was a lot of fun, we faced some difficulties along the way. When we were making footprints to design our blanket, it was hard to keep the person balanced. It took a while but we cleaned up the footprints and the ended up looking nice. Overall we all learned a lot and had a great time doing it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Postcard Peplum and Shibori Shawl: Almost done!

This is the update from the last blog post, "Shawl gone Awry."

The second attempt of dyeing our Shibori Shawl went well, it looks amazing! We have made beautiful progress on our top and we are now planning on making a belt out of the shawl. We're on schedule and feeling great!

 

Barf Bag

This week in our future fashion class we have been working on a new project. We split into three groups assigned to design and create a product that can be used for and that is associated with the idea of travel. Our group has been making a travel kit created to look like a barf bag - popularly affiliated with airplane and boat rides. Through this process of creating a travel kit my team (Camron, Ellie, Mahea, and Makena) fought, fell off of chairs, and most of all, had fun. Although, we did have some MAJOR set backs, like our focus, it has taught us much about timing, team work, and being on task. Much work has gone into creating this bag. Our team made a layout with which we cut white drop cloth that had been recycled and given to the program from the elementary art class at Punahou. We also made use of our layout by cutting out pieces of plastic that we used to give the bag more of a plastic barf bag look. After dyeing the white drop cloth with the natural dyes that we had previously made as a class, we sewed the plastic and cloth together. In addition to the bag we thought it would be cool to add two sewed-in pockets made specially for phones. We embroidered both pockets, one with the words accept and another with decline. The purpose of the pockets is to hold your phone, but also to have the option to place your phone in the pocket that will block your calls automatically so you and your phone can take a break. We are able to disrupt calls with our decline pocket with a special copper material that we have sown into our pocket. Not only did we make pockets but we also decided to add in three bags made to carry small items such as toiletries. We hope this bag could one day be sold in traveling stores and ultimately help people on there traveling journeys. But above all we hope for our travel kit to be enjoyed as much as we enjoyed making it. I am so proud of all the teams for completing one of our first big projects in less than a week. Congrats to all!

 


-Embroidering the Zip Lock Pockets-

 

-Sewing on the plastic-

 

-Pin A Little Diamond Head To it!-

 


-Buckle Up! Take a Risk. Time Flies.-

Shawl Went Awry

Throughout the whole course of "Future Fashion" our most worked upon subject was dyeing fabric. We've produced our own dyes and lived through all the horrors every beginner dyer could possibly experience. It is quite evident that we have gained some confidence in the field of dyeing. Lets face it, we gained confidence that should not have been gained, we became cocky. We were assigned to make a product that portrayed our thoughts on the word "travel." We thought and thought and we ended up coming up with a peplum top made of post cards. To go along with the ever-so-eclectic top, we decided to make a shawl that had shibori patterns in the pattern of tire tracks. We spent a lot of time stitching the patteren in, our patience dwindled stictch by stitch. When it was finally time to dye our masterpeice, we had little to no patience left, we were told to put a couple of coats of dye on our fabric...but we went and did the opposite. Our main objective was to get it done, not to do it thoroughly. We did it all in 15 minutes, at the time we were proud but when we came back the next day, we were baffled. What the heck was this faded rag infront of us?! It had an uncanny resemblence to a piece of clothing found in your Grandma's attic; dingy and faded. To fix this mistake we chose to dye it again with sun-dye, hoping it would end up darker. With the awful sight of a faded fabric fresh in our minds, we decided to drench it in dye. Go big or go home, right? As I write this the fabric is in the midst of drying, all fingers are crossed.  Overall, we have learned MANY things! We will definitely not make this mistake again. So what is the moral of the story? you could say "listen to your elders!" but that only covers a sliver of the probelm, so, here's the moral: slow and steady wins the race. No matter how overused the phrase is, it's overused for a reason.

Putting Inspiration into Practice

Hi!

We were out and about last Friday drawing inspiration from the Powwow murals. We also visited Fishcake and stopped by Hawaii Fashion Incubator's Co-op space to hear about the fashion initiatives in Hawaii and to learn from innovative designers working on a collaborative collection - much like we will do! Students also get pretty hands-on learning sewing techniques and practicing their patterning and cutting skills.

 


-We Quickly Found Out Sewing Is Not As Easy As Some Of Us Thought It Might Be-

 


-Hearing About Turning Inspiration Into Design From Henry Navarro-

 


-Fishcakes' Awesome Designs-

 


-Powwow, Where Imagination Meets The Walls Of Reality -

 

This week we've been working on three projects to submit to the Fishcake Wanted Design competition. Designs include a useful and playful twist on the Barf Bag, a better in-flight blanket and an interactive postcard dress. Check them out on display at Fishcake from Monday the 29th through August 16th and wish us luck in the competition!

 

-Product Design in Progress-

Jersey Knit Horrors

Cutting is a simple skill that you learn in preschool, but when it comes to cutting Jersey-Knit fabric it's a whole different story. My partner and I had to cut out patterns from this fabric and had a difficult time doing so. We nicknamed this the "annoying fabric" and I'm sure many wouldn't beg to dffer. After a hard, and long session full of frustration and agony, Ms. Liz and Mr. Branson came to our aid and did the rest for us. On this topic, Brandy Melville is a brand that uses this fabric. They are known for crafting it into collared tee shirts that feel like clouds. We have it easy as consumers of this brand. All we do is pull out a couple of Benjamins' and boom! we have a new (and did I mention soft) tee shirt. It's a knit fabric (so its super stretchy) and hard to work with, which makes it a pain to cut. I have great respect for Brandy Melville factory workers and others who have to handle this troublesome fabric.

 

 

We're up and running

We've started the class with two busy days. On monday we introduced ourselves and learned about textiles. We ginned cotton and learned about the history of the cotton industry. Did you know that our dollar bills are made form cotton? We learned that it takes over 700 gallons of water to produce enough cotton for one t-shirt. That's a lot. In fact, cotton is the world's thirstiest crop. We also learned about how silk is produced. We boiled silk cacoons until we could brush away silk threads with tooth brushes and find the one true thread. After we made cotton and silk threads, we looked at the difference between weaving and knitting. In addition to cotton and silk, we learned about wool and synthetic fibers. We tested the fabrics that we will use in class over the next few weeks by burning them and noting how they burned in order to determine which fabrics were made from which fibers. We also made yarn by cutting up used clothing and decorated our scetchbooks that were made by for our class from recycled cardboard.

 


-Ginning Cotton-

 


-The Silk Cacoon and The Worm Inside-

 


-Burn Tests (This One Was Polyester)-

 


-Our Recycled Sketchbooks-

 

Today, Tuesday, June 16th, we learned about dyeing clothes. Did you know that dyeing in the fashion indstry is one of the world's largest water pollutants? It doesn't need to involve toxic pollutans though. We made purple and red dye with cochineal, which is a bug. We practiced different techniques to apply dye to the fabric, including using batik wax to make fun designs. We made a bunch of swatches, or small test strips of fabric. We experimented with some dyes that react in different ways to the sun. We also made dye out of food scraps from community businesses, such as Serg's and Andy's Sandwich's in Manoa, and we peeled grapes and oranges (and ate them) to make dyes. So many colors from food!

 


-Getting Messy with Cochineal and Things We Found Outside-

 


-A Little Bit of Everything-