rioots-Ratsch....What's that about?
After three years of printing steezy styles on secondhand shirts, we want rioots to be more than just another consumer choice. We want MORE! We want to actively engage with and change everyday structures that contribute to social and ecological exploitation in the textile industry.
rioots-Ratsch is a series of posts addressing themes around sustainable fashion, which we encounter in our everyday lives. But wait a minute… We’ll not just throw a bunch of facts and tips and tricks for how to be a better human at you. There’s already enough of that, and that’s not our role. We just want to chat! We want to hear your experiences, thoughts and opinions. And yeeeahs, your feelings are very much welcomed too <3 This dialogue will happen digitally, because we sadly can’t hang out with all of you.
Ratsching is easy: Every other week we’ll share an Instagram story about a topic, and ask you to share your thoughts. We will collect all of your “answers” and post them anonymously the following week as a collage on our feed and on our blog right here. Oh, and we’ll add our own thoughts on each topic :) We already prepared a bunch of questions, but if there’s anything YOU would like to chat about, just send us a message.
We’re very stoked! And you know what’s really cool? Through the comment-functions our conversations won’t stop after we post the collages :)
Be kind and stay tuuuned, we’ll start the rioots-Ratsch next week <3
Transparency
Through our activism in Fashion Revolution, we have become aware that many of these questions are unanswered and we are far from being a transparent project. With the following blogpost we will try to create clarity. It will be honest and detailed. If you have any remaining questions, message us. We want you to know what's going on behind rioots.
To the point:
- all our garments are second (or third, or fourth...) hand
- we strive for the same in all our materials, like fabrics, yarn and screen printing equipment
The journey of every rioots shirt begins at a flea market. Right? No, of course not. Our shirts, like the majority of all garments, are usually produced on the other side of the world under conditions that are harmful to humans and the environment. So how is our project any better? The basic idea of rioots is to boycott the miserable means of producing our clothes. We want to create awareness of how our consumption shapes the world in which we live. As long as we demand cheap fashion, it will continue to be produced prioritizing profits. If we are not willing to pay the true price for our clothes, other people and the environment must do so for us.
Even more, we want to show how much clothing already exists and what potential it has. We therefore find it absurd that so many social and ecological resources continue to be wasted on the production of cheap clothes. Rioots opposes fast fashion.
Up until now the white thread for sewing in our own label has always been a new purchase because we wanted it to be uniform. Although Grandma's sewing box is filled to the brim with sewing thread, would our promise of 100% second-hand fashion still be true? We ourselves are not sure about that. That's why from now on we will also get the sewing thread from the sewing boxes of our own Omis (and after that from flea markets). Worst consequence: It might just become a bit more colorful :)
We also purchased our screen printing equipment new. In retrospect, it would probably have been possible to find this used at some flea market or on eBay. Of course the production of such things needs a lot of energy and resources as well. But also in the future we will need new screens, paint and more. We will do our best to buy all these materials second hand as well. Especially with paint, this might be difficult, but you never know. By the way: more detailed information about the composition of the materials will follow.
The tiedye for our cool tiedye shirts were also new purchases. But at least we used the same dyes over and over again for 2 years. When we have used them up, we will switch completely to natural dyes like turmeric.
Finally, we want to give you an insight into our finances. What happens to your money? Have a look at a small overview of our expenditures from the years 2017 and 2018:
As you can see, we spend most of our income on materials (clothing, fabrics, yarn) and the screen printing equipment. We don't have a salary (yet?); all our income goes through Felix back to the project/company. A minimal part is used for food and beverages, for example when we cater our models and ourselves, present our project somewhere or similar. Additionally to our expenses, we also make sure to have some project savings.
Any questions? Let us know. Otherwise we hope that this first part of our Transparency blog series has given you an insight into the life of a rioots. Cheers <3
rioots got a bloooog!
As always we are looking forward to feedback and comments and hope you liked that (no thumb, but for real).
Love, your rioots team
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