Women play a significant role in today’s wool scene. Many of the farmers I interviewed and surveyed during my PhD research were women. This led me to wonder what role women played historically on farms. For my PhD research, I looked at “The Wool Grower” digital archives during 1830 to 1855. There were little to…
Category: clothing
Making it With Wool
Surrounded by a vibrant New Orleans energy, Make it With Wool (MIWW) fashion finalists presented their vast creativity during this year’s national fashion show. From well-tailored garments to hand-knit sweaters and dresses, the fashion show provided a glimpse into the inspiration wool can ignite. New York’s own Haley Smith won first place during the New…
Fashion Research Inspired by the current Border Crisis
With current calls for warm clothing donations to the asylum seekers reaching the San Diego-Mexico border, I became interested in learning about the availability of affordable clothing retailers throughout Southern California. The fast fashion model of accelerated clothing production and consumption has made clothing more accessible and lower priced. In this short research, I sought…
NY Make it With Wool Competition
With strong roots in the Northeast, the Make it with Wool Competition continues to inspire innovative design with wool. This year, Haley Smith, a primary collaborator in the New York Regional Yarn Sourcebook and a junior in Fiber Science & Apparel Design at Cornell, won first place! What a great way to celebrate fiber arts,…
Farm-to-Fashion Pop Up!
Aligned with localism and slow fashion, I have devoted the past 5 years to explore New York farm-to-fashion during my graduate studies at Cornell. This has led me to meet many members of the fiber community including farmers with sheep, alpacas, and goats, as well as fiber mill owners, and designers for yarn, fashion, and home textiles….
New York Regional Yarn Sourcebook & Make it with Wool
Over the past few months, I worked with a team of designers, fiber scientists, and educators to develop a New York Regional Yarn Sourcebook to increase the visibility of diverse farms and stimulate greater interconnections between local farms and designers. The book features 17 sheep, alpaca, and goat farms that I’ve previously visited, and several…
Hidden Alpaca & Sorting Fibers
Now that the snow is gone and it is shearing season, I started to sort fibers as part of my fiber apprenticeship in a path to become a Master fiber sorter, grader, and classer. I have collaborated with Carol Haff of Hidden Alpaca Farm to sort and grade her alpaca’s fleeces. Her farm is in…
Green Eileen Take Back Program & Higher Ed
Watching sustainable fashion and textile initiatives emerge to address pre- and post-consumer waste issues provides hope that closed-loop, zero-waste fashion will be the norm in the future. Over the past few months, I have been able to learn more about the Green Eileen take back program, a recycled clothing intiative of the sustainable women’s wear brand…
Yarn Love Challenge
Touching my fibers for most, if not all of the year, led me to realize how much I really love fibers! The Yarn Love Challenge on Instagram has opened my eyes to a world of fellow fiber enthusiasts who also love their fibers! I wasn’t able to keep up and post every day in February, but here are my…
The Many Lives of the Fashionable Pussyhat
When I first heard of the Pussyhat project in late 2016, I was excited to create for a cause as part of a global community empowerment initiative. I decided to create my Pussyhats with upcycled yarns-salvaged from an old sweater that sat in my closet for several years. I knew the sweater had a higher calling, and…
Fiber Quality for Scaled Production
I previously talked about my experience taking the Basic Fiber Sorting and Grading class. More recently, I took an adventure to SUNY Cobleskill to take the Advanced Fiber Sorting and Grading Class. It was great to be surrounded by people who love fibers as much as I do! I’m so happy that I received more exposure to…
Tour de Fleece 2016
This was my second year participating in the annual Tour de Fleece (July 2 to 24). As bicyclists in France spun their bicycle wheels, hand-spinners spun fibers on drop spindles, and spinning wheels throughout the world! It was all captured on Ravelry through various groups such as the ‘Rookies,’ ‘Sprinters,’ and ‘Climbers.’ There were also several independent…
New York Wool Socks!
My first One Year One Outfit pieces for 2016 are hand-knit socks! I’ve wanted to learn how to knit socks for several years, and am excited that I was finally able to take a sock knitting class using the Rose City Rollers pattern. I made several mistakes on my first set, but felt a lot more confident on my second set. It was…
Exploring NY Wool Manuscripts
I’ve been looking at New York wool historical archives at the Division of Rare & Manuscript Collections at the Kroch Library in Cornell. I’m looking at historical documents when New York wool when it was at its peak in the 19th century. So far I’ve looked at the Simon Newton Dexter North Papers (1848-1924). He developed…
Celebration of Ag and #FashionRevolution
I am lucky to participate in a Sustainable Fashion exhibit in the Jill Stuart Gallery. It was coordinated by the College of Human Ecology Green Ambassadors at Cornell University. The Exhibit includes student, faculty, staff, and local community member contributions. Since my focus on Sustainable Fashion is the intersection of New York fibers and fashion design, I included my…
HELEN TREJO 