Social Fabric on St. Patrick's Day
March 11, 2010
March Newsletter: Focus on Green
Lead Story.
Fashion with a streak of the Milky Way.
Each February 2nd Punxsutawney Phil may seek his shadow to foretell Spring, but this year he saw a vision on the façade of St. Patrick’s Old Cathedral in New York’s Little Italy, a Milky Way of dancing crosses and figures framed in a constellation of bright white images in fields of red and purple. This was a moving painting with meaning. The small steps made toward sustainability and socially-conscious apparel make a milky-way-big impact on the lives of native Americans on the North American continent. It also is a step toward realizing we share a common fate.
February 2nd happens to be the same day as Candlemas, forty days after Christmas, and a celebration meant to bridge winter and spring since Roman times and that it did. Participants were assembled to recall the religious holiday when the Christ child is presented in the temple after the Jewish custom of blessing the firstfruits of the womb, in Rome the blessing of candles was also the date of Rome’s most popular of feasts, a carnival of candles and hospitality. Playing on the reflections produced by Social fabric™ Goods of Conscience caught the rites of spring by combining the procession of a fashion show, a candlelight vigil and a unique outreach to benefit Mayan children in Guatemala with uniforms made the Goods of Conscience workshop in the Bronx of Social Fabric™.
The Candlemas celebration wove together local arts for a global benefit: hand-dipped beeswax candles from the Fellowship Community in Rockland County that support a home for the elderly, the dancing of the Omega Group led by Mignon Gillen and Sandra Rivera, as well as the growing number of devotees of the fashions made from Social Fabric™. The illumination of the Old Cathedral launched a campaign to align the preservation of ancient weaving arts and the pre-Columban communities that still populate the lush hill country in the volcanoes of Guatemala with forward-looking experimentation with traditional weaving arts meeting new needs. A short film of the event is available on the following link: http://web.me.com/patcorbitt/GOODS/Video.html.
This event made Mission Guatemala: Uniform Project a reality. Fr. Andrew traveled to Chicacao, a village in Guatemala, delivering fifty uniforms in fifty satchels, monetary contribution toward food and medical aid and school supplies to the children. This incredible gesture supplies these children with not only a chance to attend school but instills them with the pride to wear clothes made of their own cotton. This event received much attention in the village and beyond. CNN in Guatemala covered the distribution of the uniforms. More work will be done in the coming months to complete this project. The school, one of many in the villages, is the palm and plastic covered porch of a generous man in the villiage. It is just the beginning of an outreach for the many who need a tangible sign of their heritage as well as real assistance.
We would like to thank Maeghan Reyes and Graciela Asturias for their great help in organizing our event.
Finally, Goods of Conscience’s Spring line is currently underway. Our safari dress is featured in the current (March) Harper’s Bazaar. Fr. Andrew returned from Guatemala with a new selection of handwovens in Spring colors, a citron color made of chiles, a turquoise with an indigo wash that is so vibrant it lights like a midnight sky, a color from coconut husks and avocados. A trim higher cut skirt with a saucer of a bone button will be featured in Lucky Magazine. Stay tuned for new profiles in the spring line: a cabana shirt, a classic military jacket, the new Antigua jacket that will be featured in Vogue.
During the Guatemalan visit the Holy Father addressed the need for peace in Guatemala. He interestingly mentioned Social Fabric.™
Guatemala's spiritual strengths should counter social ills, Pope tells envoy
February 08, 2010
Meeting on February 6 with a new ambassador from Guatemala to the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI spoke of the country's "abundant spiritual heritage," and particularly the Marian devotion that has characterized the people of Guatemala. These strengths, the Pope said, should help the nation to "counteract other factors which cause the social fabric of Guatemala to decay, such as drug trafficking, violence, emigration, insecurity, illiteracy, sects and the loss of moral reference among the young generations."
Articles:
New Products : jacket folio, a wallet for inside the coat with a cord for keys. $35
Green tie for St. Patrick’s Day. $55
Events:
Mass in the Irish Language: Holy Cross Church 9AM March 13th, 2010 Rumson, New Jersey
Sample Sale at Holy Family March 18th. Come and browse through some of our samples at reduced prices for the faithful. 6 to 8PM.
Retreat St. Mary Church Grand Street New York City. 12PM to 4PM March 20, 2010
Below is penned by Melissa Wasserman, an undergraduate at Iowa State University in Ames Iowa and will intern for us here in the Bronx and in Guatemala this coming summer. She is half Guatemalan and half American.
Weaving is a very important aspect to the culture of Guatemala. It is a way for the indigenous women to maintain their heritage and traditions in an increasingly globalized economy. It is also a form of artistic expression for the women and gives them a creative outlet.
Through weaving they are able to tell their history and current stories from the present. The stories are told by weaving certain symbols and uses of color that come together to tell stories and maintain the culture and identity of the Mayan people. One symbol is the quetzal which is the Guatemalan national bird and very important within Guatemalan culture. According to legend, in 1524 Pedro de Alvarado, leader of the Spanish Conquistadores, killed the Maya chief Tecún Umán. The quetzal landed on the chest of the dying Tecún Umán and absorbed his blood onto his breast. Today the quetzal sports a scarlet breast symbolizing the liberty of the indigenous people of Guatemala.
Another symbol used is zigzag lines, which can symbolize a serpent, hills, or the ups and downs in a person’s life. Color is also used to bring meaning to the weavings based on what different colors represent. For example white is usually seen as something pure and red is used to signify love or a strong bond between two people.
Villages also have their own traditional design and color that is unique to that village. This method can be used to differentiate one village from another based on the color and symbols the women wear in their dress. One example is San Lucas Tolimán where the traditional weaving is red and white with symbols of birds. This makes it possible to recognize where someone is from based on their traditional dress from that particular village.
As the world becomes more globalized many people choose to no longer wear their indigenous dress. The men no longer wear the traditional dress at all. It is also said that the current generation will be the last to use the traditional dress. Many of the meanings behind the colors and symbols are also being forgotten.
This leaves it up to the women to promote and maintain their culture through their weavings. Yet many of these women struggle to sustain their families through weaving because it is becoming increasingly less appreciated and valued. This is why it is so important that the women are given fair values for their work so that they can continue to maintain the Mayan culture and traditions.
I became interested in Guatemalan textiles throughout my frequent stays in Guatemala, where my mother is from. I grew up surrounded by Mayan friends who wore their indigenous dress. As I grew older I learned how to weave on a back strap loom while listening to different women talk about their weavings and the history behind them. I also noticed the struggles they faced in maintaining the art of weaving in their families. It is a goal of mine to design with Guatemalan textiles in the future so that I may bring more value and new ideas so that the women can continue to weave. This is why I chose to study apparel design at Iowa State University and work with Goods of Conscience In the future I hope to work with the women of Guatemala to improve their sustainability from their weavings.
