Old cloth, new clothes: six designers creating beautiful upcycled garments | Life and style
Making something new out of old clothing is a technically complex process. Sourcing, cutting and re-sewing textile waste requires more time, creativity and skill than constructing a garment from a bolt of new fabric.
Though the process is more expensive, upcycling has significant environmental benefits. It also gives people who struggle to find vintage – due to size or accessibility – a chance to shop secondhand.
But not all garments are upcycled equally. One of the most important pillars of circularity is keeping materials in circulation at their highest value – in other words: not ruining a perfectly functional garment by being too scissors-happy.
When upcycling clothing at scale, it is also important the materials being used are actually waste that otherwise be destined for landfill.
Despite these challenges, a growing number of designers are tackling fashion’s excessive waste problem head on, and creating genuinely beautiful garments from unwanted clothes.
Dresses from T-shirts and scarves: Conner Ives
Conner Ives made his first dress from upcycled T-shirts when he was 20 years old. Now the garment is one of the signature pieces in every collection he releases under his eponymous London-based label. T-shirts aren’t the only waste textiles he reuses. “Scarves, piano shawls, vintage sequin, denim and military blankets are categories we will revisit with a new shape season after season,” he says. Most of the Ives range is made from secondhand or deadstock pieces he sources through vintage wholesalers in the UK who import from the US.
Old jeans made new: ELV Denim
ELV Denim was founded on the principles of upcycling. In 2018, the brand’s
‘Critical’ public health info slow to reach New Brunswick parents
FREDERICTON, N.B. — By John Chilibeck
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, The Daily Gleaner
New Brunswick’s acting chief medical health officer was so concerned with the rise of respiratory viruses earlier this month he held a news conference — the first he’d hosted in months.
At the Jan. 9 presser, Dr. Yves Léger stressed the importance of flu and COVID vaccinations and to follow safe hygiene practices given the rise of RSV and Strep-A infections.
That week alone, five people in the province died from influenza and COVID, and six preschool children needed hospital treatment for the viruses, according to the province.
In the period just before that, between Dec. 10 and 30, a total of 26 New Brunswickers died from respiratory viruses, including a child under five.
And yet, a Jan. 12 letter Léger addressed to families of school communities talking about the steps people could take to safeguard themselves and others didn’t immediately go out to all schools.
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The provincial government sent the letter to the school districts, which were responsible for distributing them. Some schools didn’t send them to parents right away.
École Sainte-Anne in Fredericton, for instance, sent the letter to parents Jan. 18 – six days after Léger had issued it. The school is part of Francophone South School District.
Likewise, Anglophone South School District reported that four of its schools sent the notice out late, while Anglophone North School District told Brunswick News it inadvertently sent the notice out to all its parents on Jan. 18, due to a technical problem.
Brunswick News asked the Health Department last week why the notice did not go to all parents promptly and at the same time, given it was based on the advice of the chief medical health officer, who has a duty to
Rethink period-pushing pills, reduce training intensity and alter diet during cycles: Menstrual health advice for women wrestlers | Sport-others News
Lighter training workloads during periods, four different week-wise dietary patterns based on the menstruation cycle and avoiding period-pushing pills altogether are some of the changes India’s women wrestlers are incorporating to tackle the tricky challenge of training during periods.
A thoughtful and scientific approach to menstrual health of female wrestlers is helping many prevent injuries that occur due to brittle bones – a result of calcium loss.
Dr Samuel Pullinger is the head of Sports Science at the JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport, a training centre at Vijayanagar, Karnataka, where the country’s top wrestlers are camped. His team is helping women in combat sports train smarter and harder without compromising on health, he told The Indian Express.
Hansaben Rathore, a 19-year-old, from Depalpur, Indore, went through extremes as a young teen while training in her small town, with absence of knowledge, during her periods.
Dr Samuel Pullinger is the head of Sports Science at the JSW’s Inspire Institute of Sport, a training centre at Vijayanagar, Karnataka, where the country’s top wrestlers are camped.
“At my first centre, I was told not to land up at practice at all during periods because there was a God’s idol in the room. And at my second centre, the coach would say, “achha, problem hai? koi nahi,” and ask me to ignore cramps and pain and continue training at full tilt,” she recalls.
There was little discussion because she felt awkward. But after 6 months, the period pain became unbearable. “Muscle injuries happen because you feel weak. The other option of not training at all also wasn’t right as practice stopped. Here at IIS, our diet for every week is planned keeping in mind the cycle, and training on the first two days of the period is lighter,” she explains.
Rathore has competed during
‘Digitising’ your wardrobe can help you save money and make sustainable fashion choices
Spring is traditionally the season for a good clean – and maybe a clear out. Taking stock and having a bit of a declutter can freshen things up domestically.
One popular new way of doing this involves targeting your wardrobe by making digital inventories of your clothes – and then tracking what you wear. You note the price, brand and category of your garments (and shoes and bags) and then record how much use they get.
The idea is that having this information can then lead to better choices in the future, whether that’s saving money or having a more sustainable approach to fashion.
And better choices are needed. The clothing industry in Europe is ranked fourth in terms of its detrimental environmental impact after housing, transport and food.
Clothing is heavily underused, with the number of times a garment gets worn reportedly decreasing by 36% globally between 2000 and 2015. In the UK it has been estimated that 65% of women and 44% of men have clothing in their wardrobe which they are yet to wear, while one survey found that many women consider garments worn once or twice to be “old”.
This article is part of Quarter Life, a series about issues affecting those of us in our twenties and thirties. From the challenges of beginning a career and taking care of our mental health, to the excitement of starting a family, adopting a pet or just making friends as an adult. The articles in this series explore the questions and bring answers as we navigate this turbulent period of life.
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U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and The Rockefeller Foundation Partner to Accelerate the Adoption of Food is Medicine in Health Systems
WASHINGTON | January 31, 2024 ― The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and The Rockefeller Foundation announced a new partnership to accelerate the adoption of Food is Medicine in health systems. Through this partnership, HHS and The Rockefeller Foundation aim to improve health outcomes and health equity by engaging a broader public audience in understanding nutrition, accelerating collective understanding of Food is Medicine interventions and their impacts, and exploring strategies to scale successful Food Is Medicine programs to more eligible Americans.
“We know good food is the foundation of good health, and study after study has found Food is Medicine interventions can make people healthier while reducing health care costs,” said Dr. Rajiv J. Shah, President of The Rockefeller Foundation. “I am proud The Rockefeller Foundation will be collaborating with HHS to help improve health outcomes and advance health equity by ensuring Food is Medicine interventions reach those who stand to benefit from them most.”
While Food is Medicine programs are widely recognized as powerful interventions, they only reach a fraction of those who could benefit. Through a public-private partnership, HHS and The Rockefeller Foundation will exchange information and ideas to:
- Advance and leverage research design and findings through knowledge to produce definitive evidence on clinical health outcomes, cost effectiveness, and optimal program design.
- Engage a broader public audience in the meaning and value of FIM interventions and resources.
- Support Food is Medicine adoption by identifying opportunities and barriers to support greater uptake and scaling.
- Ensure Food is Medicine supports diverse individuals and communities with a focus on health equity.
“HHS and The Rockefeller Foundation are working together to accelerate food as medicine adoption in various health systems and communities. We are eager to build on this dynamic opportunity and we anticipate powerful outcomes through collaborative
Don’t have a family doctor in B.C.? Here are your options
From ERs to UPCCs and 811, here’s where else you can get care in B.C. if you don’t have a family doctor.
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Nearly one million people in B.C. don’t have a family doctor — roughly one in five.
Health experts say having a primary care provider is better as they can get to know you and your medical history, monitor changes in your health through the years and provide continuity of care.
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The B.C. College of Family Physicians suggest ways to look for family doctors, including:
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Make all health records paperless, accessible to patients digitally by 2028: report
Nicole Ireland, The Canadian Press
Published Tuesday, January 30, 2024 10:08PM EST
When 30-year-old Greg Price had testicular cancer in 2011, his journey through the health-care system was plagued by a lack of communication between primary care doctors and specialists, leading to delays in diagnosis and treatment.
Previously healthy and athletic, Price died at age 31 – just over a year after a routine physical to renew his pilot’s licence found that a tube in his testicles known as the epididymis had thickened, which can be a symptom of testicular cancer.
Over the course of that year, Price, who lived in Acme, Alta., had lab tests, saw several doctors at walk-in clinics and was referred to three different urologists but none of them had the full picture of Price’s symptoms.
At one point, a primary care physician faxed a referral to a urologist’s office but the urologist was away so there was no response.
“Greg’s medical history was scattered in bits and pieces across different charts in the places where he had sought treatment,” says a report issued Tuesday by Public Policy Forum, a non-profit group that brings together experts to tackle and advise on significant public issues.
The report cites Price’s experience as a tragic example of out-of-date health records management in Canada and failure to harness digital technology to ensure a patient’s complete health data are available to all members of their care team.
The forum says it is “sounding the alarm about Canada’s chronic, subpar performance on data, the vital currency of a digital-age system.”
The report calls for all health records to be paperless and digitally accessible to all members of a patient’s care team by 2028, noting that a first step
Kristin Juszczyk’s clothing line doesn’t stand alone in NFL fashion
In February for Black History Month, USA TODAY Sports is publishing the series “29 Black Stories in 29 Days.” We examine the issues, challenges and opportunities Black athletes and sports officials continue to face after the nation’s reckoning on race following the murder of George Floyd in 2020. This is the fourth installment of the series.
This week Kiya Tomlin posted a message on TikTok and her words, despite such a short video, said so much.
“Kiya Tomlin here,” she started. “Wife of 27 years to Pittsburgh Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. So all this talk about where is all the really cool licensed NFL apparel for women. I just have to say: Been here, been doing that.”
The video then switched to images of women wearing Tomlin’s NFL inspired designs. The message was powerful and clear.
“After seeing all the commotion about Taylor Swift,” Tomlin said in an interview with USA TODAY Sports, “I just wanted to say, ‘I’m here. I’ve been doing this. Here’s my work.'”
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I’m the guy who wears his pajamas into the grocery store so fashion isn’t my thing but by all accounts Tomlin’s designs, including her NFL licensed apparel, are stylish, and high quality. Also, her track record in this space is lengthy, starting in 2014, and she says her products are cut and sewn in America. She’s a small business success story.
So why have so few people heard of what she’s doing? That’s a great question and the answer is nuanced. But it cannot be answered without the context of the story of Kristin Juszczyk.
She is the wife of 49ers fullback Kyle Juszczyk. Kristin, too, started a clothing line and like Tomlin, she was able to get
Why L.A.’s battle against a deadly disease relies on unpaid volunteers
As evening fell in her Glendale apartment, Dara Bruce fed her pet rats George and Fred, poured herself a glass of water, and dialed a complete stranger to discuss the dangerous virus detected in his blood.
“Is now a good time to talk?” she asked.
Bruce is a volunteer in the enduring fight against hepatitis C. The stealthy killer claims the lives of roughly 14,000 Americans each year, even though it can be readily cured with a few months of pills. Many people have no idea they are infected, going years without symptoms before the blood-borne virus devastates the liver.
Yet public funding to combat hepatitis C is so scant that in Los Angeles County — an area more populous than many states — the crucial work of contacting those who are infected is being done by unpaid emissaries like Bruce through a fledgling initiative called Project Connect.
A partnership between USC and the county public health department, Project Connect trains volunteers to call people who have tested positive for the virus to make sure they know their results and encourage them to get the medication they need.
Sitting behind her desk lined with anatomy textbooks — the artifacts of the master’s degree in integrative anatomical sciences that she had just earned from USC — Bruce double checked that she had the right person before giving him the news. His reaction made her brighten.
“Oh, beautiful!” she exclaimed after the man told her he had been treated. “I love to hear that.”
It isn’t something she hears a lot. Among those contacted by Project Connect through mid-January, less than a third had been treated. That echoes the dismal statistics across the U.S., where only about a third of people who test positive start treatment within a year.
Across the
Celiac Canada releases country’s first food guide for health-care facilities: Andrew Coppolino
A new guide to help health-care facilities when it comes to addressing the needs of people with celiac disease is a welcome step for Kitchener’s Linda Sill.
Her mother was diagnosed with celiac and Sill says she struggled to get staff to understand how serious it was when cross-contamination happened with food.
“I wish my mother’s care home workers had the guide,” Sill said. “This guide could save thousands of lives.”
Since her mother’s death, Sill has become an advocate for awareness about celiac in health-care settings and says the new Celiac Canada guide is an important education piece.
Celiac Canada released the new guide last month and the group says it will be an important resource for health-care providers, food nutrition workers and food service employees as they care for patients in hospitals and long-term care facilities.
One in 100 Canadians have celiac, a disease that has as many as 200 symptoms and remains an under-diagnosed condition, the organization says.
Celiac Canada, a volunteer-based, federally registered charitable organization, was founded in 1973 by two Kitchener women who recognized the “vital needs” of people suffering from celiac disease, the association’s website says.
Distributed in co-ordination with Sysco Canada, a global food service company who will share the guide with its institutional customers, the document is touted as Canada’s first gluten-free food service training guide that seeks to improve patient health and saves lives.
Guide meant to help busy institutional kitchens
Doris Foster is lead author of the guide and a registered dietitian, former administrator of hospital nutrition services and a board member with Celiac Canada. She is