xChange @ a-bridge

September 29, 2007 - September 30, 2007
Tags : | expressive arts | hatha yoga | music | Patrick Oancia | sustainability

produced by jayajaya and koko niwa

The future of fashion, connectivity, and sustainable culture starts here!! xChange is a series of actions to accelerate progressive change within ourselves and in the society by exchanging experiences, ideas, and energy.

Funky environment with art and light installations, dj, performance and more!

At this particular event, xChange will experiment "fashion swap party," the first one to be held in Tokyo on such a big scale! By asking everybody to participate in "exchanging" clothes, the idea is to increase consciousness about the environmental and social problems in the area of fashion - while having lots of fun and create a sustainable harmonious vibe! Please do not forget to bring at least one article of clothing to swap atxChange!

Advanced hatha yoga performance by Matej Jurenka

Light, visuals, decorations by Interstella

Interstella
Interstella are Richie and Mari. Interstella started when they met in 2002 and is an collage of analogue visuals made using macro lenses, prisms and crystals. Interstella's unique vj style includes live analogue visual interaction without the use of computers and real time refraction and projections. This is where the magic happens, as sounds waves create light waves from the micro to the macro cosmos, fusing colors and melting textures in synch with the music.

Dj Patrick Oancia (JayaJaya, Para Impacto)

Dj Richie (Interstella)

Richie came to Japan as Dj R1 in 1993 and played at some of the most colorful parties when the trance/techno scene was just beginning. Those early parties include The Twilight Zone, Key Energy, Odyssey, Horizon, Geoid, Vitamin-Q, Dakini and Anoyo. Nowadays Richie works as a freelance carpenter / furniture maker and builds huge kaleidoscopes and other objects in his spare time.

Dj John Connell (Grain Records)

EVERYONE!

Please bring as many items as you wish, but please remember, they should be clean (recently washed) and pretty nice looking so that other people might want them. The main purpose of the swapping is NOT to get rid of your old tired clothes, but to become creative, reduce consumption, become more conscious about fashion, find a lovely home to your precious garment, and have fun at the same time! Also don't forget to secretly bring an extra bag, so that you can bring home as many new items as you wish!

Any left over items will be donated to Fiber Recycle Network (FRN) in Kanagawa. (jimfiber.ld.infoseek.co.jp) FRN selects useful items and send them to the needed people in asian countries. The rest will be used either for clothes to clean up machineries or recycled for sponges in car trunks. So none of the items you bring in will be wasted!

< Contributing Designers for Fashion Swap >

Hikari

Made in Bali, Hikari’s clothes are inspired by music, travel and nature. Their recent creations include a clothing line using organic cotton and natural dying agents, by which they are further expanding their domain of activities.

InaRio

Using recycled-leather and manipulating it with painstaking work, InaRio is synonymous for its one-of-a-kind single piece skirts and other piece of clothing. In today’s world where the bond between the world of mankind and the world of nature has become weak, their aim is to make clothes which evoke animalistic instincts and traditional way of life.

LunatiCanapa

Designer, Keiko Tamura is responsible for LunatiCanapa, a brand whose clothes are made in her Hayama studio surrounded by mountains and the ocean. Most of her clothes are custom-made, employing hemp while establishing in her own style, divorced from the current fashion trends.

Nebulavo

Nebulavo is a women’s clothing brand designed by Megumi Oda. Her motto is to make a new type of clothing where she “remakes” clothes with the aim of recycling. Moreover, she employs natural materials through the incorporation of pre-existing hand-crafted objects and materials, which she encountered during her numerous trips. In today’s world where we have a flux of excessive amount of clothing, Nebulavo respects every single item and makes a conscious effort not to increase the amount of unnecessary clothes by avoiding mass production.

Punk Drunkers

Punk Drunkers are a unique group of creators who pursues originality and differentiates themselves from not belonging to any other generic categorization of fashion styles. Inspired by Severn Suzuki’s speech held at the 1990 Earth Summit, they are signified for their Eco-chan T-shirts, a hall-mark of their eco-conscious creations.

www.punk-d.com

Renature

Renature is involved in every aspects of their clothing from harvesting organic hemp cotton, deriving from their own hemp-farm in China, to making the final products. Its hemp is widely appreciated for its natural tones, softness and durability. Renature is also known for its extensive collaborations with out-door festivals, notably Fuji Rock Festival.

Yuga

A new clothing brand catered for babies which uses organic cotton from India and natural dying agents. Made in Japan of colorful colors, their e-shopping site on the web is very informative and useful. Check out their blog on their website where you can find updated information on organic clothing production and slow-life child bearing.

www.yugacolor.com

facts:

● Making one cotton T-shirt requires 10 table spoons of hazardous chemicals

●In Japan, per person, 10 kg of clothes are bought, and 9 kg is wasted annually.

●A baseball cap is sold $17 in the states. Merely 1.6 cents of the share goes to the producer in Bangladesh.

(Sustainable Planet: Solutions for the Twenty-first century)

While clothing is not typically thought of as a "dirty" product, like plastics or meat, a closer look reveals that this clean image is undeserved. From raw material production through dyeing and finishing, to transport and disposal, the apparel, footwear, and accessories industries are responsible for significant environmental degradation and social injustice.

Although cotton accounts for less than 3% of the world's farmed land, it consumes almost a quarter of insecticides harming the soil and the workers health. In the developing countries, garment workers often have to work under poor conditions with a low standard of health and safety. The problem with clothing production does not stop in the field. During the conversion of conventional cotton into clothing, numerous toxic chemicals are added at each stage - silicone waxes, harsh petroleum scours, softeners, heavy metals, flame and soil retardants, and ammonia - to name just a few.

Environmental impact does not end at the point of production. The globalization of the industry has led to increased pollution through long-distance transport. And eventually, the products enter the waste stream. Clothing footwear, and accessories are a staple of municipal landfills. In 2000 alone in the United States, 47.7 pieces of clothing items per person was consumed. In Japan, 1,117,000 tons of shoes and clothes are consumed each year, and 1,060,000 tons of them are thrown away.....

It's clear we need to get our relationship to clothes under control. And Yes! Ethical fashion (natural fashion or organic fashion, however you call it) is happening everywhere now from NY to Paris to London to Sao Paulo. So what is this all about? Ethical fashion corresponds to a modern, holistic, and ethical way of thinking. It is a manifesto by all the alternative people caring for the earth community and for the real "cool" and appealing future fashion. Ethical fashion is remodeling or remaking clothes to reduce excessive consumption, choosing products and fashion brands that uses natural fiber and less chemicals, and also recycling, in which we take responsibility for seeing each garment thorough its natural life.


Featured Artists


Location:

a-bridge
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