About Clothing, Fire and Ethical Fashion....

One hundred years have come and gone since the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire in New York City on March 25, 1911. Since then, we have been on a roller coaster ride of changes in the industry of clothing manufacture and have arrived at a point actually worse than where we started. Because the industry has shown no interest in evolving itself in a positive way and unions have transformed from apolitical entities into political powers feeding only the egos of their bosses, the mechanism for change lies presently within the hands of the consumer.

Fashion consumers are an interesting group. They are willing to starve themselves to ill-health and even death or self-destruct financially with insurmountable consumer debt. Curiously, as a majority, they drive a price-driven market fueling sweatshops and the institution of slavery. Misery must beget misery and, perhaps, this is an example. With society's increasing interest in all things "green", this is the perfect time to evaluate our thoughts about ourselves and our relationships to other people as we strive to save the planet. That is exactly why I always describe my work as both friendly to the planet and to humanity.

Knitting girl is the "face" of American textile workers at the turn of the 20th century. The majority of the laborers were young, immigrant females with little or no education and worked

long days in dangerous conditions for less than 25 cents/hour. Most of the 146 fatalities in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire were teenagers and women not unlike this girl.

Labor unions were becoming powerful in the textile industry and it is interesting to know that there was a failed attempt to unionize Triangle shortly before the fire. One of their biggest labor/management disputes was about fire safety. They wanted the fire escape door unlocked and the exterior fire escape repaired.

The fourth largest industrial accident in American history not only accelerated the causes of the labor unions but also inspired all levels of government to focus on labor and

occupational safety lawmaking. The result is that American workplaces are among the safest and fairest in the world. There is one problem with this utopia for workers, though. The manufacturing has moved out of this country to countries with less regard in the 21st century for their laborers than the greedy factory owners had for them in the 20th century.

This is the "face" of the 21st century international textile worker. Separated by a century of time and the distance across the international dateline, it is essentially the same face as knitting girl. Because we are growing in cultural and social maturity throughout the world, we have the opportunity to change this face. We need to decide as a group that whatever we want for ourselves, we want for everyone else.

I named my business after a French slang term which I explain in the blog header and I want to challenge the 'baisebeige' consumer, the consumer who thinks he or she is truly all that, to consider adopting alternate ways of acquiring clothing. Please consider buying clothing from only fair trade workshops in countries with positive human rights policies and practices, buying vintage or modern previously owned clothing, buying handmade clothing, or making clothing yourself. As a result, your style will shine and you will truly be beautiful beyond imagination!

About Competition...

I have a personal moratorium on competition. Competition is a limiting belief and is an affirmation of scarcity in our universe. We are too focused on winning and losing and being 'better than' those who are 'less than' which is wrong thinking. There is plenty for everyone. I tweeted exactly that in July and that tweet was cached in a live twitter feed in England about the season premier of Project Runway. I enjoyed that!

I entered a little competition last Friday not because I have changed my thinking at all, but because something I have done for years is relevant to this particular contest. The Rit Dye Company sponsored an 'Upcycling With Rit' contest where unusable things are given new usefulness using Rit Dye. I have been very loyal to Rit since I started making rag knits in 1982 because their products are easy to use and safe to handle in my kitchen. I can create appropriate fabrics from almost nothing and the company was very helpful and sold me some colors I was lacking for an intricate dyeing project for dance costumes in 1983. Their factory is located in Indianapolis and I am extremely loyal in supporting my local economy! Rit Dye is a brand that has been so important to fueling my fire for many years that I am proud to show my support for this product and possibly inspire others to think beyond conventional materials and blaze new trails!

CLICK HERE TO SEE MY CONTEST ENTRY!

This entry includes a tutorial on how to make this sweater. I will be including additional tutorials about designing and constructing with rags soon. This contest was a great first step on getting this part of the blog started and also helps me confront the issue of a different kind of competition - the business one. Again, I believe there is plenty for everyone.

On the surface, it doesn't seem wise to give my secrets away. It, however, makes perfect sense to me. I do not believe that you actually own any thing. I also know that the things I make fall into the category of objects resistent to commodification. This is not something that can be reasonably produced in a factory exactly like this. Things that will evolve from this sharing will make my product more desirable because it is in fact infused with the peculiarities of the maker. This was a basic premise of the Situationist International Movement and this link connects to an article connecting Situationist International and Punk.
The Consul is a particularly good glimpse into the life of S.I. founding member Ralph Rumney. I also recommend reading punk productions that explains the evolution and influences of punk with discussion about Situationist International. Both books are available at Amazon.com and I have included links below for your shopping convenience.

I have a regular Baisebeige Studios Amazon store which I am cloning and restocking with merchandise relevant to blog posts. The first store with mask - making materials can be accessed through a link in
'Happy Halloween Part I'. The current store is in the sidebar of the blog and contains tools and materials for DIY Rag Knits. Of course there's plenty of Rit Dye there. I also have specialty tools such as very large diameter knitting needles and ecofriendly materials to substitute in case you are lacking garbage fabric and junk yarns to upcycle. I think it's important to maintain the earth - friendly spirit of these articles. From my own Amazon shop I was able to obtain the 'holy grail' of rag knitting tool! I absolutely love these bamboo size 35 circular knitting needles, shown below. It is also possible to enter all of Amazon.com from my shop and do your 'one stop shopping'. At the top of the menu on the left side of the page, click on 'Powered by Amazon.com' and you will recognize everything!

Happy Halloween Part Three

The grand finale of the Halloween merriment at Baisebeige Studios is the Bag Lady Bus Tour. This is the second oldest AIDS fundraising charity in the United States and has raised more than $1 Million dollars. This was the 30th anniversary of the event. Click on the link below to see Coby Palmer, creator of the Indy Pride Bag Ladies, recollect about the event.

COBY PALMER ON THE INDY PRIDE BAG LADIES

Coby Palmer is my esteemed client Miss Blossom

who is known on the bus and throughout the entire city as Queen Mother Blossom. You know she had to wear her crown with this year's gown. In honor of the Bag Ladies on the Half Shell 30th anniversary, she chose to wear a blend of creamy whites and plenty of pearls.

This gown was made from upcycling two dresses with additional fabrics added. One dress was a dress so old that it would be considered vintage. The only salvageable part was the section of the skirt covered in fringe and beaded corded lace. The center section of the vintage lace was in good condition and could be removed from the old dress bodice intact. A new dress bodice was spliced onto the reused skirt with overskirt attached.

The overskirt is two layers of identical shape but different volumes of glitter dotted tulle and chiffon. The tulle is gathered into the seam and the chiffon is pleated and gathered into the seam. The skirts were attached to the bodice with the consideration of the overall visual effect dictated by the vertical placement of the original lace. Luckily the lace was almost exactly long enough to extend up to the new neckline. We had some pretty vintage bead fringe on a satin ribbon that perfectly covered the gap. Judging from the overall appearance of the garment, assorted sizes of vintage pearl beads were added by hand to the bodice.

There was a little trickiness to the splice because the skirt was about six sizes smaller than the new bodice. The size difference was corrected by pleats and gathers on the bodice and enlarging the skirt with a gusset at the center back. The zipper already attached to the bodice was reused and extended down into the skirt. The overskirt system has an opening concealed by pleating at the center back. I was able to avoid putting a seam down the center back of the train.

Little bits of elastic helped finagle the dress splendidly together.

The first stop of the Indy Pride Bag Lady Bus Tour is Monument Circle, the heart of Indianapolis, for a photo opportun

ity on the steps of the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It was exciting to see three large tour coaches driving onto the Circle. I can remember the very old days when there was one chartered city bus with the destination sign reading BAG LADIES!

Just like the old days, the interior lights are on so the big hair and sparkling jewels can be seen by on-lookers. These girls like to make a spectacle of themselves!

Here's what $1 MILLION dollars of FUN raising looks like and the party has just begun. Queen Mother Blossom looks just stunning in her gown front and center where she likes it best. That's fine with me because there's nothing I love better than a great idea that makes tons of money and is tons of fun to do. It's also very cool to see Blossom style inspiring the younger Bag Ladies. They have all come a very long way from their shopping bags stuffed with thrift shop dresses. We all dream of a day when AIDS is curable and the Bag Ladies will retire from service but we praise and bless them for being here now.

Here is another view of the dress. I am just al

ways so relieved when the ones that have to fit properly do fit properly. It was also good to see that the actual three dimensional placement of everything was as good as it was in theory. While I was taking these photographs, someone in the crowd was just gushing positive comments about the dress. I couldn't resist and had to say, "I MADE that dress." I got an unexpected hug from a stranger and a sense that one of the attractions of the event IS the wild costumes. This supports my theory that when you know the contents of your psyche and express that through behaviors including dress, you become a more radiant and powerful version of whom you are completely!

THIS STORY HAS A POST SCRIPT!

Queen Mother Blossom was recently spotted at a high society party in Indianapolis and she was wearing this lovely dress! This picture was in the Indianapolis Star Talk of Our Town society news column on (Queen) Mother's Day 5/8/2011! Her loyal dressmaker is thrilled!

Happy Halloween Part Two

Getting my Etsy shop open and getting a clue about marketing an online retail store were the first tasks of the season. I chose to start with my decorated masks because they are familiar and because they connect with the season. I tested my system of connecting the merchandise with a blog post with additional information about the merchandise, created an online source of materials in an Amazon.com store for the convenience of blog readers wanting to try making decorated masks and actually transacted an Etsy sale! I learned how to promote both my product and my content. I even had the unexpected opportunities of being included in treasuries happen.

I feel confident to put my shop on autopilot for awhile and shift my attention back to the sewing room for the annual ritual of costume making. In 1985, Coby Palmer, Indianapolis floral designer, asked me to make his Halloween costume and I do remember saying, "yes" but do not recall saying "until death do we part!" In 1980, Coby founded the second oldest HIV/AIDS fundraising charity in America, Indy Pride Bag Ladies, which was all of the assistance in our state at the time. In the late 1980's the Damien Center opened to provide programs and services designed to empower persons to overcome the challenges encountered when living with HIV/AIDS, so they can remain independent and productive. The two organizations partner to raise funds in October and a new event called, The Grand Masquerade was launched. This image is from, 1988, the first year of this event. This is where you meet my client, Miss Blossom!


Miss Blossom is a true product of Coby's psyche. My client is a flashy, red-haired sassy Southern belle of a babe with definite ideas about dress. First and foremost, she HAS to have the biggest dress at the party! It's a big plus for me that she knows her way around a fabric store. The truly fascinating aspect of her wardrobe is these clothes are upcycled from vintage clothing. This dress was built out from a shift which became the lining of this costume.

The party theme this year was The Sorcerer's Spell and she wanted to be a pink witch. We upcycled a long black dress and maroon cape for the occasion. It looks like she and her girlfriend are having a grand time! But, the party's not over! Next weekend, the Bag Ladies have a very unique fundraising event and you'll get the "low down on that big gown" after that party's over. She has to make an entrance with the element of surprise and, well, I have sewing to do!

Etsy Networking

[AUTHORS NOTE: Instructions on to make decorated masks and a link to supplies you may need are found in my earlier post Happy Halloween Part I below!]

I made my first Etsy sale yesterday and I can officially say that my dream of having an Internet retail business has become quite real. I committed to this many months ago when I registered myself as an Etsy seller and bought the proper licenses to do business. I am, however, not a naive person who believes that you just put stuff for sale somewhere on the Internet and magically wake up wealthy!

I spent a lot of time studying models of Internet businesses created by computer programs and made my own real business based on that. I have an Etsy shop and I am able to drive business into the shop by my social networks and blog. I also have monetized my blog and my Twitter account for secondary income. I also studied Etsy marketing in specific. Today, I tested this theory with very favorable results!

I relisted my Etsy merchandise which is a powerful marketing tactic. This keeps my merchandise nearer to the top of Etsy searches and therefore more likely to be viewed and purchased. The first things I put in my Etsy shop are masks and a collar which I categorized as fantasy merchandise. Because Halloween is rapidly approaching, there is an increased demand for these items.

Shortly after being listed, I received notification that the mask above had been included in an Etsy treasury called "Undiscovered Beauties!" What a lovely title! The treasury had been created by another new Etsy seller, laceratedpixie, to help other new Etsy sellers get a first sale. I couldn't let her down and this is great content! I posted it in all of my social networks and was in the process of making new posts after a few hours lapsed when I discovered the post in Twitter had been retweeted! I was in the process of writing a thank you tweet when another tweet proclaimed the piece had sold! Wow! This was exactly how I envisioned my marketing would work.

I am very grateful for laceratedpixie independently executing an idea to help other sellers. This is an ideal way to do business. I believe there is enough for all of us at Etsy and we will gain so much more by cooperating than by competing. Apparently many others share that vision and the Everything Etsy Blog has started a new social network called Etsypreneur. It is an experiment and already positive results are showing as we support each other. As each individual shop grows to be the best version of itself it can be, the whole organization will radiate an increasingly positive image. I am looking forward to a wonderful and long relationship with Etsy!

This story has a post script! The new owner of the mask sent me a lovely thank you message with a big surprise! She had posted the image on Indiana's biggest environmental website, A Greener Indiana!

A Brief History of Rag Knits

In my first post I said that the history of textiles is the history of people. Similarly, a person's history can be entangled in the webs we weave, or, in this case knit. I started knitting as a small child when I became fascinated by seeing other people knitting in public places. I spent some birthday money at age three on a child's knitting craft kit. Until that point, I had thought of myself as being the same as other children. All of a sudden I realized that I was a member of a minority of left-handed children and all of a sudden I had some problems I never knew I had!

I had learned to make things up to that point by observation and observation was not serving me well at all here. I had pictures to observe that were created for the benefit of right-handed persons. So, I had to seek assistance from others and others weren't very helpful because they also were right-handed. Curiously, I had spontaneously developed reading and simple mathematics skills so I continued my search at the public library. They had a fine collection of knitting resources all of which were written for right-handed persons. I did persevere and by complete accident, I discovered that by observing illustrations in a mirror I could finally make sense of the process.

I noticed knitting everywhere and it had truly become a passion. I was however continuously challenged by any new knitting-related activity so between the mirror and trial-and-error I made knitting work. In the third-grade, I invented a crochet fabric that resembled knitted fabric and designed produced a tam complete with a pompom for sale to friends.

Many years later, I chose textile and clothing design as a career and, of course, knitting would play a significant role. In the 1980's the choices for knitting yarns had started to somewhat bore me. In college, I learned that a rule of thumb definition for a textile fiber was something that was at least 1000 times longer than its width and could bend back on itself without breaking. I started to play with that idea. I had also been haunted by the image of Anne Frank unravelling knitted things to make new things. Somehow, The idea of creating knitting fiber from used fabrics evolved. The sweater above left is one of my first rag knitted garments made from strips of  a parachute. It was shown at a fashion show produced by a punk rock clothing store and many of the punk rock clothing store models refused wear it in the show because of "too weird" reasons.

The punk rock clothing store hired me so I decided to flunk out of Purdue University with a B+ average and move in with a band called the Zero Boys for a few weeks until I got more settled in Indianapolis. In less than two years, we truly advanced from being the people to ridicule to being the people who were becoming cultural role models. This photograph is from a fashion show that was produced by the Indianapolis Marion County Public Library for a special program they sponsored to connect fashion and music in late 1983. This rag sweater was made entirely from my discarded fitting muslins from one-of-a-kind clothing sewn for customers.

Soon after this show, my work was unanimously accepted by the jury for an upcoming show, Wearable Art '85 at the Indianapolis Museum of Art. The burgundy and black dress was one of the pieces shown at the museum and was made entirely from upcycled scraps from my studio. I was already toying with the idea of a zero waste clothing company even before anyone ever said those words. I guess you have to live with textiles for awhile to really understand the mess they make. Also, if you have become that cozy with textiles, you probably love them all the way down to their tiniest pieces. The clothes on the right of this photograph were from a line of clothing I made and marketed in Midwest also in 1985. I think, now, that it was truly miraculous that I did as well as I did at time. In 1985, recycling garbage was unheard of. Wearing clothing made of recycled materials was not done!

So, I am truly not apologetic about making some noise about what I love to do and I am prepared for anything that might happen as a result. This artist noticed my sweaters and commissioned this dress as a result. This piece was a deviation from what I had usually done because it is all new fiber and fabric. I knitted it in the round starting with irregular shapes very much like the first sweater in this story. The only seams are shoulder seams. This 12" dance single was on the Billboard charts during the summer of 1986.

I am looking forward to beginning again with this project because this is a point in time to embrace upcycled clothing and accessories. There is a  larger audience receptive to the idea of wearing clothes made from these techniques and to reuse of materials in general. Plus, new textile fiber products made with friendliness to the environment and to humanity are emerging constantly. I can't wait to upcycle those scraps in my 21st century zero waste studio. 

Happy Halloween Part One

Halloween is the ideal time of the year to express yourself through dress especially if you make elements of the costume yourself. I have always enjoyed designing and making crafts for this holiday. Grasping the opportunity for self-expression is both healthy and fun.

I have been making Halloween items to sell for more than 25 years. It is an ideal way for me to use my really awesome lifetime collection of quality junk. I have the habit of collecting unusual materials and objects for clothing and accessory design. Most of the oddities that end up in my studio are salvaged and discarded items. Because they appear in small and unreplentishable quantities, they are ideal for using in one-of-a-kind Halloween pieces. I have rescued these materials from the ultimate destination of the landfill so I certainly intend to upcycle them into something functional!

These decorated masks were some of my earliest creations sold during the 1980's. Usually, I cover the mask with lace or an interesting knit fabric. This reduces the "cheesiness" of a bare plastic mask. Unfortunately, most masks are made of plastic. If you can find a lame or satin mask backed with buckram, you are truly lucky and you can skip the lace layer. The top mask is one of the nicer vintage ones so I could sew decorations directly onto the mask. Remove the elastic or ribbons before decorating the mask.

Some tips to remember when covering the mask include:

• Cut the lace fabric a little bit larger than the mask and in approximately the same shape as the mask.
• Spread a line of glue around the entire mask. Use something like a contact cement which will adhere to plastic and most fabrics.
• Fold the lace over the mask, working back and forth alternating between opposite sides. Do not stretch the fabric too tightly.
• Do the eye openings last. Cut a slit the length of the eye opening, apply glue on the back of the mask and fold the fabric over to the wrong side of the mask.

When the mask has dried completely, you can decorate to surface with objects from your own collection of awesome junk. Any small, light weight object is good for this. I have used beads, sequins, glitter, ribbon and cord, seashells, buttons, feathers, plastic and metal trinkets and seeds. If the edges of the mask and the eye openings are less than perfect, camouflage those areas first. Glitter and sequins are good choices for this. When attaching items to a mask, I use a white glue that dries clear. You can be liberal with applying this kind of glue because it will be invisible when dry. Attach the elastic or ribbon and you're done.

KEEP IN MIND THAT IT WILL TAKE SEVERAL DAYS FOR THE MASK TO DRY!

ARE YOU LACKING SOME NEEDFUL MASK-MAKING SUPPLIES? For your convenience, I have created a mail order catalog of supplies available at amazon.com and by clicking BELOW on "buy supplies now" you will be connected directly to this source. The amazon.com logo on the catalog pages will connect you directly to everything amazon to continue your shopping.

BUY SUPPLIES NOW!

OVERWHELMED? Here is a link to my Etsy shop section with handmade masks! Click on Baisebeige on Etsy to shop now!

BAISEBEIGE ON ETSY