Synopses & Reviews
A new "farm-to-closet" vision for the clothes we wear — by a leader in the movement for local textile economies.
There is a major disconnect between what we wear and our knowledge of its impact on land, air, water, labor, and human health. Even those who value access to safe, local, nutritious food have largely overlooked the production of fiber, dyes, and the chemistry that forms the backbone of modern textile production. While humans are 100 percent reliant on their second skin, it's common to think little about the biological and human cultural context from which our clothing derives.
Almost a decade ago, weaver and natural dyer Rebecca Burgess developed a project focused on wearing clothing made from fiber grown, woven, and sewn within her bioregion of North Central California. As she began to network with ranchers, farmers, and artisans, she discovered that even in her home community there was ample raw material being grown to support a new regional textile economy with deep roots in climate change prevention and soil restoration. A vision for the future came into focus, combining right livelihoods and a textile system based on economic justice and soil carbon enhancing practices. Burgess saw that we could create viable supply chains of clothing that could become the new standard in a world looking to solve the climate crisis.
In Fibershed readers will learn how natural plant dyes and fibers such as wool, cotton, hemp, and flax can be grown and processed as part of a scalable, restorative agricultural system. They will also learn about milling and other technical systems needed to make regional textile production possible. Fibershed is a resource for fiber farmers, ranchers, contract grazers, weavers, knitters, slow-fashion entrepreneurs, soil activists, and conscious consumers who want to join or create their own fibershed and topple outdated and toxic systems of exploitation..
Review
"Rebecca has made an
incredible contribution to the slow fashion movement through her
organizing and advocacy work with the Fibershed organization. I'm
thrilled to know that this work is now available to a broader audience
through this thoughtful book. May we all learn from her wisdom,
research, and knowledge as we create even deeper connections between
farms, fiber art, and fashion." Katrina Rodabaugh, author of Mending Matters
Review
"Collectively, we've been
slowly waking up to the urgent need to farm our food in ways that
restore and regenerate soils and whole landscapes; create connections
between people, land, animals, and seasons; and rebuild local economies.
Fibershed turns our attention to a parallel, equally urgent frontier: our clothes. We need this book, and we need it now." Nicolette Hahn Niman, author of Defending Beef
Review
"This is an important book. It is bold, practical, optimistic — a vision of how things must be." Kate Fletcher, professor at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion, University of the Arts, London, UK
Synopsis
A new farm-to-closet vision for the clothes we wear--by a leader in the movement for local textile economies
There is a major disconnect between what we wear and our knowledge of its impact on land, air, water, labor, and human health. Even those who value access to safe, local, nutritious food have largely overlooked the production of fiber, dyes, and the chemistry that forms the backbone of modern textile production. While humans are 100 percent reliant on their second skin, it's common to think little about the biological and human cultural context from which our clothing derives.
Almost a decade ago, weaver and natural dyer Rebecca Burgess developed a project focused on wearing clothing made from fiber grown, woven, and sewn within her bioregion of North Central California. As she began to network with ranchers, farmers, and artisans, she discovered that even in her home community there was ample raw material being grown to support a new regional textile economy with deep roots in climate change prevention and soil restoration. A vision for the future came into focus, combining right livelihoods and a textile system based on economic justice and soil carbon enhancing practices. Burgess saw that we could create viable supply chains of clothing that could become the new standard in a world looking to solve the climate crisis.
In Fibershed readers will learn how natural plant dyes and fibers such as wool, cotton, hemp, and flax can be grown and processed as part of a scalable, restorative agricultural system. They will also learn about milling and other technical systems needed to make regional textile production possible. Fibershed is a resource for fiber farmers, ranchers, contract grazers, weavers, knitters, slow-fashion entrepreneurs, soil activists, and conscious consumers who want to join or create their own fibershed and topple outdated and toxic systems of exploitation..
About the Author
Rebecca Burgess, M.ed, is the executive director of Fibershed, chair of the board for Carbon Cycle Institute, and the author of Harvesting Color.
She is a vocationally trained weaver and natural dyer. She has over a
decade of experience writing and implementing hands-on curricula that
focus on the intersection of restoration ecology and fiber systems.
Burgess has built an extensive network of farmers and artisans in the
Northern California Fibershed to pilot an innovative fiber systems model
at the community scale. Her project has become internationally
recognized with over 53 Fibershed communities now in existence.
Courtney White is the author of Grass, Soil, Hope and Two Percent Solutions for the Planet.
A former archaeologist and Sierra Club activist, White dropped out of
the "conflict industry" in 1997 to cofound the Quivira Coalition, a
nonprofit dedicated to building bridges between ranchers,
conservationists, and others around practices that improve economic and
ecological resilience in western working landscapes. He lives in Santa
Fe, New Mexico, with his family.