Reflective Blog

Dear reflector,

Today I’d like to tell you about Dalia – my new assistant and co designer, to whom I’m really grateful! Dalia just joined us, but she’s already made my work a lot more efficient, and much more fun! It’s such a pleasure to work with somebody with similar thoughts and values, but not without integrity and new ideas.

Dalia was born here in Gothenburg, Sweden, only 27 years ago. She just completed her BA of design and technology in Manchester, U K. She’s specialized in Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Rights in the fashion industry. She’s always been interested in sustainability, and just like me she likes genuine, minimalistic design with nice details. We’ve known each other for several years, and Dalia has always shown real interest in what I do. In other words she’s perfect for Reflective Circle!

As my assistant Dalia is involved with pretty much everything I do - from designing of course, to regular administration and every day communication with manufacturers customers and photographers. She tells me she’d probably be bored with “only” designing all day long. Suits me perfectly!

Dalia has worked as a trainee at a shoe manufacturer in England, where she learnt a lot about the industry. The experience of working in a larger company is very useful, Dalia says, but your creativity as a designer tends to die if you stay too long in a big organization. That’s one of the reasons why she’s now with us. I better make sure she has lots of artistic space as Reflective Circle continues to expand! 

More about Dalia when I tell you about our recent trip to London.

Until then – Stay reflective!
Josefin

Dear reflector,

Why aren’t there any ecological, fashionable shoes? I wish I new. For some reason shoes seem to take very modest place in the world of sustainable fashion. A big, depressing problem, if you ask me.

A good thing is that Swedish media seems to be waking up. Our local morning paper just found a terrible, toxic truth when letting a laboratory analyze a number of different shoe labels. All shoes contained heavy metals like chrome, cadmium and lead as well as about ten different kinds of toxic solvents and a number of fluorides. In other words, conventional shoes cause contact allergies, and also have a very negative, environmental impact when thrown away.

If I can’t find any eco shoes I simply go vintage when showing my collections. That way I know that at least I’m not adding anything to the toxic shoe circus. Currently there are a couple of green labels that I like, so I’ve listed my favorites:

First of all I simply have to mention actress Natalie Portman’s amazing vegan shoe line, designed with a little help from Te Casan. Portman’s collection has a cool, couture feeling to it. Quite unique, in other words.

Otherwise I really like British ´Sui Generis´ by Beyond Skin - especially their new, rural, romantic collection.

Veja is quite big in France and now also available here and there across Europe. An almost infinite variety of nice sneakers.

And we have Bourgeois Bohème. I can’t say I’m in love with all of their design, but some of it is really cute.

Green, Swedish shoe design is not easily found, but there are some nice things at Berthas Eko.

Finally, I really like Green Shoes and their every day collection of sandals, simple shoes and boots.

All labels mentioned are sold on line, if you can’t find them where you live.

Good luck, and stay reflective!
Josefin

The Swedish organizations Fair Trade Center and Rena Kläder (Clean Clothes) just released a report about the sportswear industry, focusing on the three biggest Swedish companies Intersport, Stadium and Team Sportia. For some reason these manufacturers seem to be slow starters when it comes to corporate social responsibility.

For years ago FTC scrutinized the sportswear companies for the first time, apropos this year’s Olympic Games in China:
“A worker making Adidas shoes in China has to work for more than four months to be able to buy a ticket to the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games” was one of the conclusions then.

FTC/Rena Kläder means that lousy labor conditions have been one of the big, structural problems of the international sportswear industry. This is still the case, even though several of the international manufacturers are becoming more aware and transparent. Unfortunately the three Swedish companies have not reached the same level. FTC/Rena Kläder even reveals that the three companies became less and less willing to answer questions!

The new report reveals that the international as well as the Swedish companies have learned how to identify problems, but not how to deal with them.

According to FTC there are several, main structural obstacles that have to be addressed in order to make real changes, like:

• lack of respect of the freedom of association
• unsatisfactory employment deals,
• minimum wages that are too low
• environmental dangers

As long as the sportswear industry doesn’t address these issues the companies won’t be able to take their full corporate social responsibility. The FTC and Rena Kläder report stresses that this especially concerns the three Swedish companies, since they’re far behind the international average.

The report also contains very good advice to consumers interested in green sportswear.

So go ahead and read it, while waiting for the new Reflective Yoga Collection!

http://www.fairtradecenter.se/
http://www.renaklader.org/

Stay Reflective!
Josefin

Dear reflector,

New York was absolutely great, fantastic and amazing!

A friend once told me that New York City it is the place for the restless, the rootless and the different. No matter who you are or how you look, you’re welcome here. I can easily agree with her. Walking along the streets of Manhattan, experiencing the urban vibe and seeing all the different faces, I got a soft feeling of being included in the community.

My new friends Styrbjörn and Jessica from Valentin & Byhr stayed at the Chelsea Hotel. As you may well know this legendary place has hosted many well known artists, musicians and actors.

The walls are covered with paintings, pictures and dedications from people like Bob Dylan, Janis Joplin and Arthur Miller – before and after they were famous. To me the hotel is like the essence of the city, and I’ll definitely stay there during my next visit.

New friends! Styrbjörn and Jessica from Valentin & Byhr, the advertising agency behind our folder.

Me on the balcony at Chelsea Hotel

The stairs, inside Chelsea Hotel

And the fashion show went really well! I’m as happy with the setting as I am with the choreography and the models. They turned out to be just perfect: very reflective with their strong personalities and natural beauty. I especially appreciate that they appeared as individuals and not as anonymous dolls. They managed to unify the feeling of Reflective Circle with the feeling of New York. Go ahead and check it out in this clip, made by Anna-Karin – a Swedish journalist in New York:

A few pictures from the fashion show:

My friends from Saab and I were all impressed by the organization of the New York Car Salon. It is a pleasure to work with people at a certain professional level. It seems to me that truly successful people don’t have the need to compete. They’re aware of their value anyway!

Me and Göran Andersson from Saab

I had the opportunity to talk to media as well. Of course I enhanced the fact that our collection is made of a hundred percent ecological cotton, which actually is something unique! In the EU for example, the label “ecological” sometimes means that a garment contains as little as ten percent ecological material. I talked a lot about the cooperation between Saab and Reflective Circle, which also is unique. See for yourself, right here:

What more? The party was just great! And lots of love to all new and old friends: Styrbjörn and Jessica, Göran, Anna-Karin and Gunhild – a wonderful, Norwegian Yogini who interviewed me. I’m very happy to have met you all!

Until next time - 
Stay reflective,
Josefin