Welcome to “Textile Talk” – a series of blog posts that take an in-depth look into textiles beyond the market hype. By coupling on-the-ground interviews with multidisciplinary research, S4 uncovers what sustainability really means when it comes to clothes.
This month is devoted to a 3-part series on bamboo fiber.
It’s known as Phyllostachys heterocycla pubescens to the nerds, Moso to the hipsters, Mao Zhu to the showoffs, and “hairy bamboo” to the smart asses, but to the conscious clotheshorses, bamboo was being hailed as one of the finest sustainable fibers on the market. With more than 2.5 billion people eating, sleeping, sitting, wearing and doing who knows what else with bamboo, it is no wonder why it had quickly become the Clark Kent-turns-Superman of the green world.
From designers taking a “weave-it or leave it” philosophy to entire nations praising it as the next “green gold,” it is no surprise that bamboo has shed its sobriquet of “poor man’s timber.” Some garmentos were even claiming that it would take over the textile industry as the #1 fiber (watch out cotton!) When something this big enters the green scene, scientific scrutiny can be as crippling as Kryptonite.
Bamboo provides vital biological and ecological functions that extend into the economic and cultural fabric for many people in the developing world. Being able to define what sustainability is to a designer or what sustainability is to whole communities without undermining cultural and moral values is going to be a true challenge. How we define and market “sustainability” for design lines or trade talks will surprisingly find us asking the same types of questions. After all, if sustainable design and sustainable development is really the humble goal and not just hype, then we need to listen to the science over the deafening bombination of green buzz.
S4 prefaces these queries by delving deeper into the issues in this three part series on MOSO.
Every Friday at 3PM we’ll launch a new part to the series.
Series 1.1 will address the “Big Picture” by covering bamboo use, forest management and sustainable economic development (April 15, 3PM EST).
Series 1.2 takes bamboo down to a design level. Topics will include: textile challenges, quality, processing, and technical properties (April 22, 3PM EST).
Series 1.3 will demonstrate more clearly how the macrolevel converges with consumer market trends, introducting inter- and intra-market demands, marketing claims and standards. Plus: A photo bonus feature showcasing how the textile has been used in design (April 29, 3PM EST).
If you have any questions about bamboo fiber, be sure to tune in here and send your questions our way. If there is sufficient interest, we’ll do a 30-minute informative and interactive live-streaming session on Friday (May 6, 2011).
How do you get in on the podcast for Textile talk? Online here or a number to call in?
Really looking forward to this! Thank you for taking a look at the macro and micro levels of the fiber, and how it contributes to sustainable economic development (something I’m looking forward to hearing about.)
Hi Shannon, depending on interest – we might livestream it and have people ask questions as we’re discussing. Depends on people’s interest to our posts… So let us know!
Just to be clear, the Textile Talks are only blog posts at the moment? I’d be interested in a call or recorded discussion to download later!
Hi Jaime –
The Textile Talk on MOSO will be a 3-part series on the blog, S4, but we’re collecting people’s interest in having something more interactive the following Friday after the last series, so thank you for expressing your interest in the program.
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/08/bamboo.shtm
I am developing samples from bamboo/spandex and was sent the above link by a company that manufactures sustainable and organic fabrics after a request for bamboo swatches. It is about lawsuite against companies who have claimed bamboo as sustainable, antybacterial and so forth; I believe it is worth looking into it, for the sake of claims that designers and manufacturers would make of their bamboo fabrics and garments.
Hi Detelina,
Thanks for your response. This is precisely what the article highlights and encourages transparency in labeling and independent third-party testing for appropriate marketing. Please tune in this Friday, April 29th for our final installment on the MOSO series.