Didn’t know upcycled fashion existed, you’re about to get a wake-up call. Face it, we all love to shop new clothes. But rarely do we think about where our new clothes, shoes, and accessories come from or how they are made. Not many of us contemplate How Fast Fashion Affects The World before we decide to buy those skinny jeans to match that blouse we just bought at Macy’s. After reading this blog, my goal is for each and every reader to shop conscientiously and before you swipe, think upcycled fashion.
Many garment workers die making clothes for fast fashion brands. Credit: SolidarityCenter.org/ The Crimson Connection
Without Upcycled Fashion, The Fashion Industry Might Just Kill You
We all know that the cars we drive, the fertilizers we use, and the energy we use to keep our homes cool during the summer can harm our environment. But I’m sure you weren’t aware that our shopping habits have the same impact! The clothing industry is the second-largest polluter in the world, right after oil (insert shocked emoji here).
Young workers at a garment factory in Dhaka give jeans a “distressed” look by spraying them with potassium permanganate, a toxic substance that can damage the human nervous system. Only one of the young men is wearing a protective mask. Credit: CBS/ Justin Redman
The fashion industry involves multiple supply chains of production, raw material, textile manufacture, clothing construction, shipping, use and then the disposal of the clothing. The carbon footprint of the fashion industry is massive. And I’m sure we all remember the Bangladesh Garment Factory Disaster in 2013, that leftover 1000 people dead. By being aware, we can take a stand to upcycle our clothing and not support Brand Names that source their apparel from high-risk garment factories.
When We Utilize Upcycled Fashion, We Are Keeping Our Air Clean
While most of the clothing from our favorite stores includes cotton, it can take over 5,000 gallons of water to manufacture a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. The pesticides used on the cotton farms, the toxic dyes used and the waste created can all result in negatively impacting our environment. And can stay on your clothes and your children’s clothes for up to 5 washes.
Photo Credit: Ecoterre
Think about how hard it is for you to keep up with the newest trends. When we finally hop onto the current trend, it’s time for a new one. This is called fast fashion. In order for the clothing to reach the retail store from across the globe, loads of clothing travels in containers fueled by dirty fossil fuels. Let’s look at the numbers. Over 20 billion new clothing items are brought to Americans per year and only 2% of those clothes are being domestically manufactured.
Because of Upcycled Fashion, We Have More Money
It’s not uncommon for shoppers to wear an item once or twice before throwing it away for next week’s style. Often due to the poor quality of the clothes causing them to fall apart after several washes. Unfortunately, we’ve all had this happen to us. From the 2015 numbers, The U.S. apparel industry today is a $12 billion business and the average American family spends $1,700 on clothes annually, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. When we add upcycled clothing to our wardrobe, we can get more variety, better quality and throw away less. The biggest reward is that we will spend less. Isn’t that what we all want, to spend less? Well, when we upcycle our clothes, we can save more and travel or spend time with our family. Did you ever think that upcycled fashion could give you more time with your family?
Photo Credit: Heather Christopher Travel
With Upcycled Fashion, We Are More Creative
There are many ways to repurpose every article of clothing in our closet to keep up with the trends. Welcome to your new favorite term: “upcycle”. No, not recycle, UPCYCLE! This means that instead of recycling, you convert old or discarded materials into something useful and often beautiful. Take your drab t-shirts and turn it into a beautiful maxi dress! Hipcycle explained the difference between recycling as such:
“Plain and simple, upcycling makes a positive impact on the environment. When you upcycle clothes, you remove items from the global garbage stream. Upcycling instead of recycling is good too; recycling requires energy or water to break down materials. Upcycling only requires your own creativity and elbow grease.” How do I start to upcycle fashion?” Take some time this weekend, grab a glass of wine, and go through your closet and your family’s closets. Use your creativity, or Pinterest, for some great ideas. There are a lot of DIY (Do It Yourself)Upcycle Fashion tutorials out there on YouTube as well. If you’re not so DIY savvy, check out your local thrift stores, like GoodWill, Plato’s Closet, consignment stores, or download the ThredUp and Letgo apps on your phone, Check out my favorite upcycled fashion projects I found on Pinterest!
We strive to Make A Difference in the world every day through our clothing lines. I was recently featured on Making A Difference,an afternoon radio segment hosted by Suzanne and Shadow at Z88.3 in Orlando, Florida. It served as a good learning experience for Aly Lewis, who has been working with Treasure Box Kids as the public relations liaison intern for Treasure Box Kids. Making a Difference is a short afternoon segment that airs every Tuesday at 4:55 P.M. The segment features local business people or volunteers that are truly making a difference in the community and in the world. It was an honor to be featured in one of the segments this past month. You can listen to my interview here:
Higher viewing quality available by clicking the settings symbol in the video and changing the Quality to HD.
Being able to share what my company does to Make A Difference on this segment was a unique experience. It was a fun and exciting thing to be able to share my experience as well as my passion for helping people with my fellow listeners of Z88.3. As heard in the interview, I touched on the efforts that Treasure Box Kids as a company is making in the local community and the great strides that we have made in Kenya to help women who are in need.
From Left to Right: Shadow, Carolyn Bailey, Aly Lewis, Suzanne
The process was so much fun and went by smoothly! Aly and I arrived at the studio at 1:00 P.M. We were warmly greeted by different staff members, all as friendly as the last. The reception room was very comfortable and pleasant. When Suzanne and Shadow were ready for us, we followed them back into one of their recording studios. They showed a great passion for the good of the community and also showed genuine interest in the things I was saying. It was heartwarming to see the kind of a family setting I’ve imagined while listening to their radio station.
Make A Difference With Z88.3
I have been a regular listener of Z88.3 for a few years now. I spend a great deal of time driving in high-stress traffic situations on my commute in the mornings and evenings. This radio station helps make the commute less stressful, through their music that is very calming, uplifting, and inspirational. The hosts remind me with their encouraging words that I am not alone on this journey of life.
It was a blessing to have been a part of the Z88.3 family during my interview experience. I can’t thank Suzanne and Shadow enough for giving me the opportunity to share my ability to Make A Difference on this afternoon segment!
It’s vital to know that teaching kids sustainability is important on the international stage. By implication, it’s important in the national and provincial arenas too. The next generations are the key to sustainability. Their education on sustainability is crucial for the development of sustainable planet. So, what can we do for kids? Kids love fun. Kids love outings. We can make teaching kids sustainability fun, especially easy to do while on outings. You can do some preparation by reading books, pamphlets, and internet articles from reliable sources. To learn ways that you can volunteer with your family to create teachable moments you can look at our post- Three Volunteering Activities for the Whole Family.
Picture courtesy of http://ecomerge.blogspot.ca
Teaching Kids Sustainability: Through Nature
Information gleaned about the natural world and sustainability can provide a basis for teaching kids sustainability. The experience of the natural world, seeing the natural world, smelling the air and the dirt, seeing the integration of communities into nature and vice versa, and seeing the places that living beings thrive.
You can go to a local park and examine some of the flora and fauna of the area. Even with this taking a bit of time to catalog things in the local area, you can seem like a demi-god with the level of knowledge about the natural world with the kids. You can involve other parents, other kids, and make it a community event. These are the ties that bind.
Education, fun, and sustainability can be ‘part and parcel’ of that as well. Some of the practical principles for a wide variety of outings: know your stuff, know the area, know the plants, have an itinerary, bring snacks, take into account the limitations of children’s attention span, try to involve other kids and parents, involve community, and do multiple events at different areas throughout the local region.
Picture courtesy of http://www.funderstanding.com/
Teaching Kids Sustainability: In Your Home
How does this look in a practical sense? Well, you can take the kids out even into your own garden. You can teach them about cold composting. You can teach them about the quicker hot composting. You can even teach them about those gross little red wiggler worms that assist in making the composting happen faster.
You can take them to a neighbors, or a community, garden to learn about plants and their lifecycles. Maybe, you can even start a community garden. Some of the prior practical principles can be part of this. It’s all in fun. It’s all for the kids. In addition, you might gain a little bit out of it too.
For instance, you can learn a little more, have fun with the kids, and take advantage of the incredible natural resources that Canada and North America in general have to offer us. And you can do it with the respect and sustainable intent that is required for not only our own but the next generations.
And don’t forget, have fun while teaching kids sustainability!
Talented Orlando kids model an assortment of the Treasure Box Kids Made in the USA line on May 21st, during our Birthday Party and Capri Set themed photoshoot.Treasure Box Kids chose the Winter Park Village for its photoshoot location. The models were given a variety of props to set the perfect scene. Each model, in their carefully handcrafted style, had their close ups in front of the camera. Take a look at our TBK Fashion Show-Behind the Scenes for another look at some of the featured dresses that were worn at the photoshoot.
Cute Girls Modeling Treasure Box Kids Styles
Orlando Kids Model at Winter Park Village
We chose the Winter Park Village for our monthly photoshoot due to the playful atmosphere and Regal Cinemas for their decorative party room. The girls were styled and photographed outside in the courtyard where the they played with a life-size chessboard and also in the Regal Cinema’s party room.
Amid all the inevitable excitement from our models, there is much to be done the morning of a photoshoot. Tasks not limited to, getting all the dresses steamed to perfection, making sure that all the needed props are in order and entertaining for the girls. Most importantly making sure our TBK models are taken care of and ready for their time to shine. After arriving, models were immediately styled and ready for their close up. Our Treasure Box Kids interns assisted with steaming the garments and dressing the models as well as assiting the photographer. After a morning filled with giggles, excitement and laughs the photoshoot was wrapped up and a huge success.
Treasure Box Kids thoroughly enjoyed working with the mothers and their daughters during this photoshoot. A huge thank you to them for their participation and awesome cooperation throughout the shoot.
On the Lookout: Orlando Kids Model for Treasure Box Kids
Treasure Box Kids will be having monthly photoshoot and fashion shows one Saturday a month and are looking for fresh new faces to showcase our fashions. We would love to have the opportunity to work with more young models and will be posting information about casting calls soon. If you would like further information to be directly emailed to you, please email us at contactus@treasureboxkids.com.
Open to diversity, TBK wants to see every kind of fashionista in our clothing. If you are interested in your child participating in our future shoots or fashion shows, we will keep you updated on when and how to be involved. We enjoy seeing our Orlando kids model so be sure to stay tuned to our various social media channels for updates on future modeling opportunities!
The popular pattern, polka dots, have seemingly been around forever. The pattern has been spotted (no pun intended) as early as 1867 on Flamenco dancers, depicted in the paintings of Fredric Bazille and in the 1920’s collection of Carolina Ferrera. The term polka dots was first used in Godey’s Lady’s Book in its 1857 issue. It’s assumed the popular European dance the Polka is where the pattern received the origin of its name. To learn more about other current clothing trends read: Kids Fashion Trends Spring 16.
Picture from www.123rf.com
The Start of Polka Dots
The girls polka dot dress trend exploded in the 1950’s. The trend was seen on fashionable celebrities to housewives. The pattern gave its female wearers a look of wholesome femininity with a dash of girlishness. The popularity of the pattern tapered off at the end of this era. The trend never really disappears but rather casually shows up each decade with a new twist.
picture from www.halloweencostumes.com
Polka Dots Use in Current Fashion
Although this ageless trend is mostly synonymous with children’s clothing, the patterns popularity has made its return to the adult fashion world. The trend has found its way back to high fashion in top lines like Marc by Marc Jacobs and a signature look on the likes of Fashionista Alexa Chung. European Childrenswear designers have already opted in to the craze and American Childrenswear designers are sure to do the same. Don’t be surprised over the sudden influx of this playful pattern on shoes, accessories and apparel in your favorite children’s stores in the upcoming season.
Black and White Capri Pants Set from Treasure Box Kids
What Does Wearing Polka Dots Print Say about you?
Statistics show that little girls and women alike adore the fabric. Although in recent years the print has become more popular in Men’s fashion, it’s not as popular as it is with females. Scientifically, the reason girls polka dot dresses are such a big hit is because visually girls tend to respond towards attention to detail. This is why the kaleidoscope of rounded dots in various sizes is extra appealing. Believe it or not studies show that lively and energetic people tend to gravitate to the fabric and are wonderful multi-taskers.
picture from www.dhgate.com
How the Pattern is Currently Worn
Replacing the very Minnie Mouse esque look of old, there are more modern ways to wear this classic print. Now, Designers go for creative and bold looks, utilizing fluorescent colors in a rainbow spectrum. The polka dot print is usually paired with abstract patterns and solid colors. One thing is for sure there’s NO wrong way to wear this versatile pattern. We have recreated this trend in our Pink Polka Dot Girls Birthday Dress. Go for a more fashion forward look this season by including polka dots apparel in your children’s wardrobe, or even your own!
Pink Polka Dot Girls Birthday Dress from Treasure Box Kids
