How eco-fashion offers a renaissance for different Tunisian brands
The sun is setting by the time Tunisian designer Chems Eddine Mechri reaches the breezy, seaside town of Mahdia. He has spent half your day traveling in the scorching heat in pursuit of the precious, handmade materials he requirements for his upcoming cold months collection.
With a 200-kilometer street trip from Tunis arriving at a finish, the designer knows just the area: the basement of a blue-lit workshop, hidden away in the labyrinth of Mahdia’s old medina, where silk weaver Mohamed Ismail’s spinning wheel still is going at full speed.
In a globalised world dominated by fast fashion brands such as for example Zara, H&M and Topshop, Tunisian designers like Mechri are increasingly going back with their roots, embracing local artisans and environmentally conscious elements.
Thanks to North African nation's age-out of date textile-building traditions, Tunisia is a good fit in for the eco-fashion they would like to champion. Ismail has been spinning locally sourced wool and cotton, together with silk thread imported from China, going back 47 years.
"This work is in our blood... it’s in our DNA, ” Ismail says as he unwinds a crimson silk yarn in his workshop. "It’s intergenerational, and for my family, this work is very valuable to us.”
Back in the administrative centre of Tunis, Mechri and his dressmaker sew mutually a gown from scratch for his fashion brand Nee. They incorporate a shimmering pink and gold classic fabric found in Tunisian embroidery with a mesh material from the 1960s.
Both were deemed unsellable by the merchant Mechri bought them from.
"They (didn’t) match the tastes of the day, ” Mechri said. "And that’s why they (the fabric merchants) demand us, the designers... to provide another life to these materials.”
Just about the most polluting industries
The US$2.6 billion (RM10.7 billion) textile industry is a pillar of the Tunisian economy, employing 160,000 persons and making roughly 25% of the country’s total exports, according to estimates by the Oxford Business Group.
However, fashion has become the polluting industries in the world, responsible for creating 10% of skin tightening and globally, based on the World Lender, and tens of millions of a great deal of clothing is discarded each year.
Mechri and other designers have considered the eco-friendly practice of "upcycling” - taking old or undesirable resources and turning them into something new and present day by incorporating high-quality fabrics.
Mechri mixes old fabrics with the craftwork of artisans across Tunisia - from embroiderers found in Tataouine, on the border of the desert, to seamstresses found in Bizerte found in the country's north.
Fashion brands in the West are getting seriously interested in upcycling, too, including American manufacturer Bode and Hotel, a Danish-French manufacturer founded by Alexandra Hartmann.
"People are needs to realise the negative influence of this desire to constantly consume on a regular basis without taking a step back, going for a pause to reflect and have questions about the environment and the future of humanity, ” Mechri said found in his Tunis boutique as attire on the racks behind him shimmered and rustled in the touch.
"Fashion is an intelligent way to fork out homage to local materials.”
The desire to honour one’s ancestry was equally vital that you Hassen Ben Ayech, a 26-year-old former computer scientist. He founded the fledgling high-end manufacturer Bardo with the exhibit intent of reviving Tunisia’s heritage and classic crafts in "a time of uncertainty and fear of environmental doom, in conjunction with the slow loss of life of small pockets of customs when confronted with globalisation”.
The brand’s first collection evokes imagery from the famous Bardo palace in Tunis and the era of the beys, the rulers in the Tunisian monarchy that was abolished in 1957.
"We wanted to get back to a period that is normally overlooked and steer clear of the cliches, ” Ayech said. "We wanted to show that there surely is more to us than kaftans, (also to) dive deeper into our history and identity.”
In 2018, Riad Trabelsi relaunched his French-Tunisian brand Basscoutur to prove to the industry that sustainable fashion can be done on a wider scale. The manufacturer has a growing clientele in Japan and South Korea and can soon launch in Italy.
"We’re seeing this concept turn into normative. If it’s certainly not sustainable, it’s not awesome, ” Trabelsi said.
He feels his patterns reflect the complexity of the present day Tunisian diaspora: "My identification is complex - I have a Tunisian father, a great Algerian mother, meanwhile I was created in France. I draw all my DNA out of this incredible mix... I am frequently evolving, reconditioning myself and my knowledge of my Tunisian heritage each day.”
Using storytelling
Sofia Guellaty, a Tunisian style journalist and the founder of Mille World, an online system spotlighting Arab youth lifestyle, arts and manner, said these brands "are employing the storytelling of where they come from to try to make their garments stick out".
"Tunisia is accurately on the mood plank: the natural shapes, the stunning, raw, organic elements. They are what the foreign and local market segments want," she said.
Guellaty notes that a lot of Tunisians, still enthusiastic by the novelty of fast manner brands that only started starting to be available locally during the last decade - aren't so eco-conscious.
Still, she's noticed more adolescent Tunisians embracing their cultural identity and embracing local makes. Ayech says Tunisia’s still-flourishing textile sector represents hope for those swept up in the country's ongoing financial crisis, which includes been exacerbated by the coronavirus pandemic.
"The industry sustains a lot of families with a reliable income also in remote areas and without usage of advanced schooling, ” he said.
Businesses that strike a harmony between ethical professional practices and community-driven craftmanship give Tunisia "a anticipation of a better tomorrow”. - AP
Source: www.thestar.com.my
