Esta es la versión inglesa de mi boletín, puedes encontrar el mismo texto en castellano aquí
How do you name an idea to make it come true?
The conversations with myself and with others to give this project a name were long. Yes, I already had Un Armario Verde, but for me the app project had to have a one-word name and its own identity. Thus the blog and the swaps are Un Armario Verde and the app and the newsletter is Guardarrr.
“Guardar” is a Spanish verb that has many meanings: to store securely, to retain, to take care of, to keep and maintain, to watch over and uphold.
Hence “Guardar” is a description of the main functionality of the app: to be a tool to collect and preserve information about our garments and habits of use.
“Guardar” is half of the most beautiful synonym for the word “closet”, the place where you keep your clothes – the wardrobe (o guardarropa).
To “guardar” is to be guardians of our belongings, it is to take care of them so that they clothe us and cheer us up for a long time. It means promoting awareness and changing our relationships with inanimate objects.
To “guardar” is also to be guardians in a broader sense, to be guardians of the ecosystems, societies and economic systems that we want to flourish. It is about that often repeated aspiration to be the change we want to see in the world.
And the final “rrr” is a salute to the riot grrls and their creative, home-grown, feminist subculture. Guardarrr was born as a basic spreadsheet and with the desire to approach sustainability in textiles from an anti-capitalist and DIY angle, looking for the simplest and most actionable individual solution in the face of a global crisis.
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I continue with my search for films that reflect our daily relationship with fashion, sewing and work. This week I recommend Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris (1992, Anthony Pullen Shaw) which talks about the power that fashion has to awaken the heart, the dreams and the will to live even if all that beauty later does not fit very well in our day to day. Although irrational, this urge must be recognized and deserves a place in the lives of people who feel it. If you have trouble finding this 90s version of TV, wait a while, a new version of the same story is about to come out: Mrs Harris Goes to Paris (directed by Anthony Fabian and in post-production).
When people who are really trying to be sustainable say “We’re ahead of the pack, but brands in general are so behind, so that’s not saying much”: Our Quest for Circularity
George has two very good points: (a) a focus on consumer behavior when it comes to the climate crisis is mostly a distraction from the actual culprits, and (b) fish are wildlife and not food: Sea Change
How does garment pricing work? Elizabeth Suzann had a great article on this, but their blog is gone, so you can click on Christy Dawn’s section “Why does this dress cost X?” instead (it’s not directly linkable). The original Elizabeth Suzanne graphics was this:
+ This painting: (in Spanish) Mujer saliendo del psicoanalista (1960) by Remedios Varo (1908-1963).
And that’s it for this week! I hope that you enjoyed reading and would be very happy to hear from you, regarding the name I’ve given to this endeavor or anything else… in the comments below, via Facebook or Instagram, or via e-mail at luize.ratniece [a] gmail .com
Guardarrr is a weekly bilingual newsletter dedicated to sustainability and mindfulness in fashion. It is written by Luīze Ratniece, a sociologist and textile activist based in Barcelona. Guardarrr is both a tool for reflection and a crowdfunding channel for the wardrobe tracking app that Luīze is building. If you read this newsletter and value it, please consider going to the paid version to fund this project for a monthly equivalent of a coffee + pastry. Each subscription warms my heart immensely and helps going on, thank you so much for being here with me!
