WomenWeave Daily “Artisan Fashion” as “Slow and Sustainable Fashion” David Goldsmith 1 WomenWeave Daily: “Artisan Fashion” as “Slow and Sustainable Fashion” Copyright David Goldsmith, 2018. Front image and detail: General meeting to discuss issues and plans for WW. DG 2015. Department of Textile Management University of Borås SE-501-90 Borås, Sweden ISBN 978-91-88838-07-0 (printed) ISBN 978-91-88838-08-7 (pdf) ISSN 0280-381X, Skrifter från Högskolan i Borås, nr. 91 NMÄ NE RK A E V T Electronic version: S http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hb:diva-15108 Trycksak 3041 0234 2 3 Abstract As awareness has grown of the detrimental, often lethal, aspects of fashion production and use, so too has a global movement to diminish its environmental harms and mediate its social exploitation. In all types of commercial, academic, and popular discourse about fashion, words such as eco-friendly, green, ethical, fair, and slow -- the last being a catch-all term for all things “not fast fashion” -- are ubiquitous. These terms are meant to represent an array of ways of producing and using that are said or hoped to be sustainable. This research is primarily concerned with the social sustainability, or human development aspects, of artisan fashion, in the context of textile management. Artisan fashion is defined here as both product (such as a handwoven shawl), and as an evolving contemporary fashion system that typically employs rural artisans in the “developing world” to make products that are generally sold to urban, “developed world” consumers. Artisan fashion, which attempts to bridge old ways of producing with new ways of consuming, is positioned in this research as it has come to be viewed in the fashion marketplace: a subset of so-called slow and sustainable fashion. Though artisan fashion is emblematic of many slow and sustainable ideals, there is little academic questioning or understanding of how “slow” and how “sustainable” the stuff and the system that makes it actually are. This case study centers on WomenWeave, a medium-sized handloomed- textile making social enterprise in a quickly-changing small town in rural India. This producer, employing about 200 individuals, mostly women with low-education and little privilege, specializes in naya khadi, a type of apparel or furnishings fabric whose antecedent, khadi, is an integral part of the grand narrative of India’s independence movement. Founded by a “social entrepreneur” with deep and privileged roots in the community, the case is idiosyncratic, yet representative of a common market-based ideological approach to human development. A narrative, ethnographic methodology was used that included multiple field visits, observations, interviews, and participatory interactions with the case’s leadership, management, artisans, product designers, partners and experts, among others. The empirical experiences are presented, analyzed, and discussed through the lenses of Activity Theory, and an adaptation of Osterwalder and Pingeur’s Business Model Canvas. 4 5 While the nomenclature of “slow and sustainable fashion” is, at least for the Sammanfattning time being, rejected, the research shows that with professional management, the adoption of “global design” sensibilities, and other fast modernisms, the system Allteftersom medvetenheten om de skadliga, ofta dödliga aspekterna av achieves its local mission of providing incomes and fostering social inclusion. modeproduktion och konsumtion har ökat, har även en global rörelse för att minska miljöskador och kommunicera dess sociala utnyttjande ökat. I alla typer Key Words: Artisan Fashion, Artisan Textiles, Slow Fashion, Handloom, av kommersiella, akademiska och populära diskurser om mode, är ord som Heritage Craft, Artisan Economy, Social Enterprise, Khadi, Design miljövänlig, grön, etisk, rättvis och långsam – det sista ett begrepp för allt som Management, Fashion Management, Textile Management, Activity Theory, inte är ”snabbt mode” – allestädes närvarande. Dessa begrepp är avsedda att Business Model Canvas. representera en mängd sätt att producera och konsumera som sägs, eller hoppas vara, hållbara. Denna studie handlar främst om social hållbarhet, eller mänskliga utvecklingsaspekter, av handtillverkat mode, inom textilindustrin. Handtillverkat mode definieras här som både produkt (som en handvävd sjal) och som ett utvecklande modernt modesystem som använder hantverkare på landsbygden i ”utvecklingsländerna” för att göra produkter som vanligtvis säljs till urbana, ”västvärldens” konsumenter. Handtillverkat mode, som försöker överbrygga gamla sätt att producera med nya sätt att konsumera, positioneras i denna forskning såsom det har kommit att ses på modemarknaden: en delmängd av så kallat långsamt och hållbart mode. Även om handtillverkat mode är symboliskt för många långsamma och hållbara ideal, är det akademiskt bristfälligt ifrågasatt och förståelse är låg för hur ”långsam” och ”hållbar” dessa produkter och system faktiskt är. Den här fallstudien fokuserar på WomenWeave, en medelstor handvävningsbaserad textilproducent som samtidigt är ett socialt företag i en snabbt föränderlig liten stad på landsbygden i Indien. Denna producent, som sysselsätter cirka 250 individer, mestadels lågutbildade kvinnor med få privilegier, specialiserar sig på naya khadi, en typ av kläder eller inredningstyg vars föregångare, khadi, är en integrerad del av den stora berättelsen om Indiens självständighetsrörelse. Grundat av en ”social entreprenör” med djupa och privilegierade rötter i samhället är fallstudieföretaget idiosynkratiskt, men ändå representativt för ett gemensamt marknadsbaserat ideologiskt tillvägagångssätt för mänsklig utveckling. En narrativ, etnografisk metodik användes som inkluderade flera fältbesök, observationer, intervjuer och deltagande interaktioner med fallstudieföretagets ledning, managers, hantverkare, produktdesigners, partners och experter, bland 6 7 annat. Det empiriska resultatet presenteras, analyseras och diskuteras med Acknowledgements hjälp av aktivitetsteori och en modifierad modell av Osterwalder och Pingeur’s Business Model Canvas. I have to first thank the Swedish system for funding this research and Medan nomenklaturen för ”långsamt och hållbart mode” avvisas, creating the opportunity for learning more about our world. There are a lot of åtminstone för närvarande, visar studien att med professionell ledning och people to thank in the academic realm. Thank you to all of the many colleagues management, anammandet av ”global design” känsla för mode och andra at The Swedish School of Textiles for your encouragement, kindness, and snabba moderniteter, uppfyller systemet sitt lokala uppdrag att tillhandahålla curiosity over many years. My supervisor during the first part of this project, inkomster och främja social integration. Simonetta Carbonaro, inspired me, guided me, and made me think differently about the world. Without her vision and an in just time push, I would not have Nyckelord: Handgjort mode, hantverkstillverkade textilier, långsamt mode, started. Lisbeth Svengren-Holm, my supervisor for the second part of the handvävning, kulturellt hantverk, hantverksekonomi, socialt företagande, khadi, process, helped me to find and refine what it was that needed to be discovered. Design Management, management inom modesektorn, management inom Without her pull and patience, I would not have finished. Thank you Otto von textiltillverkning, Aktivitetsteori, Business Model Canvas. Bush, Clemens Thornquist, Mathilda Tham, and Kirsi Niinimäki for reading and questioning this work at various stages, and giving important advice. The New School in New York helped by covering some travel costs, and I am appreciative of supportive colleagues there. It is clear in the text that there are so many people to thank who are connected with the case who shared their time, knowledge, and lives with me so openly and graciously. I hope I have conveyed something of their reality. I am grateful for dear friends and families who helped me through this, including those who understood why it took me so long and those who got vexed and pushy. Special thanks to Tamara, Amira-Sophie, Siw, and my PhD candidate-colleagues at UB. This book is dedicated to two people in Maheshwar who were named Ganesh. One Ganesh, as a young man helped the Holkars to launch the Rehwa Society, and later became a respected and loved master weaver. I remember fondly how he and his family hosted me the first time I visited Maheshwar. The other Ganesh was a joyful and talented student who was part of the promising Batch #8 of students at The Handloom School, who disappeared from our lives in a matter of a few seconds. Both were good, true to their namesake, at removing obstacles, and showed a beautiful courage about trying new things. 8 9 Table of Contents 3.7 Summary .......................................76 4. The Research Approach .................................77 Abstract .................................................5 4.1 Ethnography/Narrative, AT, and a Business Model ......80 Sammanfattning ..........................................7 4.2 Why WomenWeave and Only WomenWeave? ..........88 Acknowledgements ........................................9 4.3 The Empirical Experience .........................91 Prologue: The Local Gandhi ................................15 4.3.1 Core Groups of People .....................92 1. Introduction ...........................................19 4.3.2 Research Roles ...........................94 1.1 The Personal Connection ..........................20