In collaboration with Jen Brownscombe (home renovator, organisational powerhouse and mum extraordinaire) and Callum Wallace (can-do, creative builder and ideas-man extraordinaire) we put together a wonderful team of painters, tradies, volunteers, family and friends to create Hummingbird Eco Retreat.

–

The owner of the property was based in Paris and the general manager had work commitments in the Amazon rainforest, so we took on the responsibility for the design, the decoration and the project management of the build, communicating across times zones and over oceans.

Felix (my son) and I travelled regularly between Melbourne and Red Hill to manage the crew of up to 20 tradies, before we moved onto the property full-time for the last four weeks of the build. By the last two weeks, Jen and her two daughters, Rani and Neve, had also moved in, as had Callum and his daughter Ava. With intermittent visits from Ostii (offering sustainability support & assessment); Sjaida (finishing touches and amazing attention to detail), Dominique (sourcing and sorting); Taron, Craig and Mick (building help); Remi (lifting, sorting, unpacking), Melissa and Jess (weekend childcare workers), Shafiq (the Afghani surrealist painter) and his team of six painters, five electricians, three friendly plumbers, two permaculture gardeners and a big dog called Whiskey. There was a wonderful sense of community and camaraderie!

Although not overtly requested, we gave ourselves strict sustainability guidelines within which to work. These included:

- using Australian-made paints with no Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs).
- using water-based, natural stains.
- using recycled and reclaimed timber
- supporting local artisans and small businesses.
- purchasing organic and natural products
- sourcing second hand, vintage and recycled objects
- painting, reupholstering and repurposing furniture and fittings already on the property

We designed each bedroom room around a unique theme, reflecting nature and the elements. The rooms are spread over three main buildings on the property, with each building having a distinct aesthetic feel. The top, more modern building carried the themes of air, wind, water, cloth and paper; the middle building is host to the sun, the moon, autumn, spring and star rooms; and the lower, stables-inspired building have a more masculine air as reflected in the room themes of wood, earth, metal, stone and fire.

Here are a few detail shots reflecting some of the themes, as seen through the talented eyes of Olga Bennett.

–

Textiles for all of the cushion covers were sourced from the wonderful, Melbourne-based printers Harvest Textiles and Ink & Spindle, alongside the lovely work of Bird Textiles from Byron. We used Rockcote ecosheen paint and render for the walls and ceilings.

You can see the full gallery of images and ‘like’ our work, over here.

Here’s a bit of Q&A blog-loving I recently received on the Recycled Fashion blog, accompanied by some photos from a refashioning workshop I held last year for the Whitehouse Institute of Design in support of a fundraising charity event for Prahran Mission – Mission 65.

An interview with The Sustainable Stylist

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Whilst browsing online for refashion workshops, I stumbled upon Kim Kneipp’s website. Kim, aka The Sustainable Stylist, is a sustainable designer, personal stylist and workshop facilitator from Victoria, Australia.

Kim is somewhat of a sustainable stylist guru, offering not only refashioning workshops, but other services including sustainable interior design, ethical shopping excursions, a ‘shop your own wardrobe‘ service, tailored alteration, wardrobe and space design and mental health projects.

Kim spares us some time to answer some questions for Recycled Fashion readers, regarding her work, her history, her values, and her future goals.

- -

Can you tell us about what you do?

I offer a personalised styling service with a focus on sustainability. Working with a client’s unique body shape and existing wardrobe, I alter, redesign and re-style their garments, offering tips and suggestions for how to maximise their cupboards full of ‘nothing to wear’ whilst flattering and embracing their figure.

I also provide clients with ethical shopping sources and help identify ‘missing link’ garments that can be added to their wardrobe to help broaden their style range. My emphasis is on developing and expressing a client’s enduring personal style, independent from the vices of seasonal trends.

I offer a similar service with space and interiors. Using a client’s existing objects and furnishings, I rearrange them alongside sustainably sourced and repurposed objects to create beautiful, personalised spaces.

On a really good day, I start with pinning and refashioning a client’s wardrobe and finish by rearranging their loungeroom and kitchen wares.

Tell us a little about your background?

I studied fashion at East Sydney Tech and spent the next ten years working in all sorts of roles within the industry, trying to find the little niche where I now belong. I worked in mass market product development, I designed for independent boutiques, I helped other designers launch their own labels, I worked with the Fat crew to create and launch their first in-house label, Prince Billy, I worked in fashion retail, fashion wholesale, and visual merchandising. I moved to Quebec then Montreal and worked in costume design and fashion education and facilitated clothing deconstruction workshops working with groups of people who were experiencing mental health issues.

Your inspiration behind The Sustainable Stylist?

I returned to Melbourne in 2007 with my newborn son Felix and realised I couldn’t go back into the fashion system as I’d known it. I’d spent years working exclusively with second-hand garments and my own frugal approach to fashion purchases felt discordant with the costs I needed to ask to produce my own collections locally and ethically. I was also shocked that after only 3 years away most garment production had gone offshore, local factories were closing down, disposable, ‘fast’ fashion had become common place and the world was going through economic upheaval.

I had spent years supporting nana-fashion and the make, do and mend mentality of the 1940’s by looking stylish on a shoestring – simply altering and refashioning my op-shop purchases. After an influx of requests and enquiries I realised other people were willing and eager to do the same and that given the state of the economy, the timing was right to try to encourage others to slow the frock-up too.

What does the word sustainable mean to you?

Within the context of my business, I use the word sustainable to express our relationship to the earth’s resources and our relationship to self.

I think of sustainability as living within our means and reducing the gap between a ‘need’ and a ‘want’. In a fashion context, I believe we can do this by reducing consumption, understanding our body type, making considered, quality purchases and making our existing clothing work for us.

A sustainable style also includes sustaining ourselves. It encourages accepting and dressing for the body we have today, and allowing our clothing to reflect and compliment our personality and physical essence. A sustainable style embraces the physical, practical, financial and environmental realities of today’s lifestyle

Treading gentle steps on the self on the earth.

Of all the services you currently offer through The Sustainable Stylist, which is most popular?

My shop your own wardrobe package is definitely the most popular!

This is where I turn up at the client’s house and spend around 3-4 hours doing a comprehensive wardrobe blitz – identifying what works and what doesn’t, taking photos of new style combinations and pinning and reworking the garments that aren’t flattering their figures. After this session I follow up with a mini look-book of their new styles and offer style notes on what works best and what’s best to avoid – I try to always explain why styles do and don’t work so that the client can then confidently make their own shopping decisions.

It’s an amazing service to be able to offer, as I am entrusted with the privilege of exploring a client’s sartorial history whilst enhancing their personal style. And I get such great feedback about the compliment and confidence they receive!

What is the future of The Sustainable Stylist?

As the business – and my son – grows, I look forward to exploring and altering more wardrobes whilst expanding our interiors portfolio. I’m excited about setting up a shop front and studio where my team can expand and we can work, play and showcase our services and wares.

 

Someone recently referred to me as a ‘mumpreneur’. As flatteringly daggy as I find this word, I think the same title applies to Erica from Recycled Fashion. A mum with a passion for quality, stylish, recycled wears, Erica keeps a well updated, inspiring blog and is also the co-founder of a collaborative blog called Refashion Co-op – a international site where creative folk can share their reworked op-shop finds. Erica is also one of the intrepid tour guides offering style support through Melbourne Op Shop Tours. Busy lady!

Thanks for the interview Erica, you can read the full blog post and see the photos here.

An old-fashioned guest house from the 1930′s, the property has been lovingly and kookily developed by Zalan Glen over the past 20 odd years, showing his love for South East Asian colour, architecture and lifestyle. Zalan eats a raw-food vegan diet and asks his guests to respect a vegan diet whilst on his property. I wrote more about this back here.

I don’t practice a vegan diet, so this was a huge shock for me – particularly because I’m an avid baker and was accustomed to the traditional use of eggs, butter and milk in my baking. Ever-willing to accept a challenge I started hunting and testing recipes online and was gifted with some lovely vegan (and gluten-free) baking cookbooks that totally transformed by knowledge and palette for baked treats. The most outstanding of these books came from a boutique bakery in Seattle – The Flying Apron Bakery.

Suddenly I was seeking out chickpea flour and brown rice flour and different types of oils and natural sweeteners; I was discovering how versatile this style of baking was – being able to replace maple syrup with rice syrup or fruit juice – and not using sugar at all. And the flavours were incredible! I would do ‘blind tests’ with friends, not telling them that my treats were both gluten-free and vegan and the reactions were still full of praise and compliment!

Regular vegan cooking and yoga retreats are held at Hepburn Retreat Centre, co-facilitated by yoga teacher, Ostii Ananda and vegan foodie extraordinaire, Alexis Pitsopoulos. After the success of my newfound, flavour-full vegan baking prowess, I was invited to run baking workshops during their 3-day retreats.

Aside from the wonderful baking, the retreat in itself is incredible! Alexis who has been cooking and preparing food with Zalan from the opening days, is a wealth of knowledge and culinary inspiration, and a quiet expert on edible plants. He has been profiled in The Age and on Costa’s Garden Odyssey and runs edible weed walks in Daylesford through the Neighbourhood House. Ostii offers a flowing vinyasa yoga practice that suits all levels of experience and is infamous for his rice and quinoa porridge.

Now back in Melbourne-town, away from any vegan dietary specifications, I still only bake vegan, gluten-free recipes, enjoying the light, nourishing flavour, and happy to know that I’m making another small step towards a more ethical diet.

Here are some photos taken during one of the vegan cooking and yoga retreats by photographer Philip Werner.

Images clockwise from top left – Ostii’s yoga class, cooking with Alexis, happy retreat participants with Alexis and baking with me.

For more information about vegan baking and the vegan cooking and yoga retreat, check out Yoga and Meditation Retreats Victoria.

This was the last workshop I ran from my studio up near Daylesford before I relocated back to the big smoke. I still haven’t announced workshop dates for this year, but if you are interested simply send me an email and I’ll add you onto my mailing list.

Wardrobe Re-Worked!

Thursday, March 31, 2011

I saw an advertisement from my local neighbourhood house for this “the Sustainable stylist Re-Work You Wardrobe” and I was compelled to go.

I went along to the 5 hour class with my back pack full of old clothes, clothes that I no longer wore but did not want to throw away. Clothes that I knew had the potential to become something else but also needed someone with more vision than me.

Kim Kneipp’s class was a wonderful way to spend the day.

I met three really lovely women who were all of like mind when it came to their clothes – that is, we needed help with re-working them into something ace, something we would wear a lot and something we saw no point in adding to the masses of clothing that become landfill when no longer fashionable-fitting well-or longer our style.

We were all welcomed into Kim’s studio, warmed by the burning fire and shared enthusiasm of each-others soon to be ‘new’ clothes’.

I required some ‘help’ and this is where Kim’s class fitted in nicely to the mysterious ways of the world.

I absolutely love the idea of shopping within my own wardrobe and re-working what I already own.

Thanks Kim and thanks also to Claire, Louise and Sue.

I can’t wait for the next sewing day.

before and after images of Pippiwillow’s tailored coat

(this is a slightly abridged copy of Pippiwillow’s post – to see the full post and more images click here).

Images of the Mission 65 refashioning workshop 2011. You can read more about it here.

I ran my first ever refashioning workshop for the Prahran Mission in 2002, as part of an arts programme they were running at the time, called Second Story. Using garments from their op-shop, I worked with a small group of people who were experiencing some degree of mental illness – showing them how to unpick and refashion their selected piece into a textile sculpture, garment or piece of wearable art. This project was a total revelation to me, showing me a context where playing with frocks could offer social, emotional and therapeutic benefit to all of us involved – and it paved the way for the mental health arts project I was later funded to run in Québec, Canada.

So you can imagine my eagerness last year when the third year styling students at the Whitehouse Institute of Design asked me if I would run a refashioning workshop for them for a fundraising event the were organising to celebrate the 65th anniversary of Prahran Mission! Woo hoo, I was going full-circle, in celebration of the year Prahran Mission opened their doors and the year Christian Dior introduced full circle skirts!

Mission 65 was a celebration of post-war glamour, with an abundance of colourful skirts, red lips, perfectly coiffed hair and carefully altered garments to achieve the new silhouette. Staged within the red velvet walls of Red Bennies the event was a roaring success with everyone looking spectacular in their New Look inspired attire.

As well as running a workshop, I joined a host of Melbourne’s great designers including event co-hosts Jenny Bannister and Philip Boon, A.Concept, Madam Virtue & Co, Candice Deville, Clemente Talarico and Kara Baker to donate a refashioned garment to be auctioned on the night.

Here’s the frock I made from a men’s double-breasted suit jacket:

for great coverage of all the garments on show check out Style Melbourne.com and Fashioning.com

I fell in love with Olga’s artistry when she first came to photograph the temporary studio I had set up in Hepburn Springs. Aside from having a wonderful sensitivity towards space and the dance of light, Olga lives an inspiring ethical life – effortlessly practicing all of the principles of which I write. She shops locally, organically and in season, she rides her bike (and doesn’t own a car), she supports local and ethical design and she is a practicing artist with great style.

Here is a little blurb on her book, taken from The Design Files.

“Environments started as a little self-indulgent project.” Olga explains… “I decided to get in touch with a few creative people whose work I’ve been admiring for ages, and asked if I could come around and take some images of their studios…. While focusing on the details of the space and behind the scenes moments, I was hoping to capture the person who works in the space, without necessarily pointing my camera at them directly. I’ve been always inspired by documentary photography in my work and I tried to document those spaces as they are: messy, ordered, casual.”

Needless to say, the book was such a visual treat, that it very quickly sold out!

You can see more of Olga’s beautiful photography on her website and discover more on her blog. AND Stay tuned for some very beautiful photos Olga recently took of a big interior design project I also finished last year!

Olga’s photos of my studio also gained the attention of the ever-inspiring Pia Jane Bijkerk many moons ago. If you haven’t heard of this incredible lady, please also check her out her blog. A stylist, photographer and fellow book publisher, when Pia first contacted me she was living on a house boat in Amsterdam, after living and working in Paris. She has now moved back to Sydney – and has recently published her third book, ‘My Heart Wanders‘ visually documenting her journey.

Such a lovely compliment to have two incredibly inspiring ladies documenting and commenting on my work! Thank you! xx

- -

More photos by Olga Bennett of my temporary design studio in Hepburn Springs, as seen in her Environments book.

Despite the normal, vain critiques I have in seeing myself on the screen (why didn’t anyone tell me my lipstick needed refreshing?), it’s great to see the refashioning movement gaining momentum. I was also excited to see my upside down and reversed jumpers promoted! If you haven’t heard of the Thread Den before, I highly recommend you drop in for a visit. Alongside a boutique of local-made fashion and accessories, they also offer ‘sewing classes and social sewing events’. Check out their timetable here.

This is part of a lifestyle show called Guide to the Good Life, hosted by Nicky Buckley and Andrew Gaze. I used to love watching Sale of the Century when I was a little girl, so I was quietly excited to hang out with Nicky for the day. Even if she didn’t pronounce my surname correctly…in case you’re wondering how to pronounce it, it’s Ka-nipe.

It would seem an entire year has almost lapsed without an update on my makings and doings, so here is a little show and tell of what kept me away from this screen.

Back in March, I was interviewed by Natalie Craig and photographed by the very talented Meredith O’Shea for the Sunday Age, M Magazine.

I’m always thrilled to have my work listed alongside Ellie Mucke – my favourite Melbourne-based sustainable designer. To coincide with finishing my year without shopping in July last year, one of the first ‘new’ garments I treated myself to was one of her beautiful shirt-dresses.

With my son not yet at school, and my primary focus still at home,  I haven’t yet done any active marketing of my services.  This article was a wonderful reminder of the broad reach of marketing, with many new clients and projects that came my way!

A special thank you to Meredith O’Shea for initiating this story. Meredith has a lovely studio gallery on St Georges Road in North Fitzroy. You can drop by to see her photos or have a good look here.

And here’s the article by Natalie Craig:

A mini triumph

The Sunday Age
Sunday March 13, 2011
Natalie Craig

- -
Armed with a pile of clothes she no longer wears, Natalie Craig turns to some creative Melburnians for help – and finds everything old is new again. I empty two garbage bags of crushed clothes on the bed and look sheepishly at “sustainable” personal stylist Kim Kneipp. She’s here to help me “shop within my wardrobe” by mending, refashioning and splicing my old clothes to make flattering new outfits. But looking at the pile of fabric from my more promiscuous fashion days – a printed kaftan, a brown vinyl mini – I’m certain this lot is destined for the op shop. “Looks like we’ll have to go shopping for new clothes?” I ask Kneipp hopefully. “Not yet – there’s nearly always a way to save something,” she says. “Giving it all to Vinnies isn’t really the solution.” Kneipp says about one-third of clothes donated to charities is deemed unwearable and sent to landfill – the refuse of an industry geared to rapid turnover. “Fashion is responsible for amazing waste,” she says. “But we still need an element of fashion . . . clothing is not just about protection, it’s self-expression.” Kneipp, who formerly designed for hip Melbourne label Fat, offers personal styling (including all alterations) and refashioning workshops through her business Frockerphiliac. It’s one of several Melbourne enterprises encouraging people to develop a personal style while avoiding waste and mass-produced fashion. As Kneipp says, it’s a movement to “slow the frock up”. High-end designers are working with recycled garments; and workshops at this month’s Melbourne Fashion Festival will teach hoarders how to rework their old clothes and jewellery. Meanwhile, the Clothing Exchange, which organises public clothes swaps, has flourished since starting in Melbourne in 2004 and now runs monthly swaps in every state capital. “It all comes back to that wartime motto, ‘Make do and mend’,” says Kneipp of the trend. “It’s not hippie, it’s just living much more as our ancestors did, only using what’s in your means.” Indeed, I am fearful at the start of our refashioning exercise that I will end up looking like a beatnik. But after two hours of pinning, tucking, tweaking and pulling, Kneipp manages to come up with a solution for almost all my old clothes, which are nothing like the hippie patchwork dresses I had in mind. The waistline on the vinyl mini, for example, was up around my chest and made me look like an apple with legs. Or “a bit young”, as Kneipp says tactfully. But Kneipp showed me how, with the addition of a thick black band at the top of the skirt, she could lower the waistline and make it knee-length. Her vision is not at all hippie: I could see the skirt hanging on the racks at Fat. She also shows me how we could turn the kaftan into a strapless top, transform dresses into well-cut skirts, and turn low-cut blouses into backless tops. Kneipp’s principle of stylish saving is similar to other Melbourne designers. Ellie Mucke, who makes “slow fashion” women’s garments from old men’s shirts and pants, says she throws away almost nothing. “I make a thing called the ‘T-lace’, a necklace out of cotton-elastane T-shirts . . . The waste from those has now turned into a newer style of necklaces and earrings,” she says. “And I’ve got a bag of tiny little scraps that I’m going to stuff into cushions.” Mucke is collaborating with jeweller Emma Grace on an exhibition for the fashion festival of recycled garments, to be displayed at Kyneton’s Stockroom gallery. Mucke and Grace will also hold workshops at the Stockroom on reworking old jewellery and clothes. “Selling a service instead of a product and educating people to do it themselves was a way to do something sustainable from within my industry,” says Grace, who also runs regular “Fix Your Loot” jewellery workshops. “The surprising thing about (the workshops) is they seem to lift people’s confidence . . . they go away and tell everyone, ‘Look, I made this!’ ” North Fitzroy jeweller Angela Clark has also branched into workshops and holds a fortnightly “PhD – Projects Half Done” – night for errant beaders. Her Boutique Beads shop houses multicoloured beads, including oddities such as skull-shaped beads, and odd vintage pieces such as belt buckles and dress clips, which she fashions into necklaces. She says workshops encourage people to be more considerate about what they buy. “It’s part of a push to retrain people to think about what they’ve got and appreciate the smaller things and how they can be used.” Kneipp agrees. “So many people have guilt purchases, and clothes with swing tags still hanging in their wardrobe . . . But there are ways to use what you’ve got, and you can end up with something that feels like it’s brand new. You can still get that shopping buzz, without the guilt.”

© 2011 The Sunday Age

locally manufactured low or zero VOC finishes natural fibres recycled materials vintage pieces energy/water efficient appliances and fittings Good Environmental Choice Accredited (GECA) products 

Photos of Hummingbird Eco Retreat interior refit, 2011 – by Olga Bennett.

More images coming soon!

In collaboration with the Daylesford Makers Market we’re holding a frock swap & chop on Saturday 2nd April in the Daylesford Town Hall.

Not only can you bring along your old, unworn quality garments to exchange for someone else’s wears, we will also have sewing machines and capable alteration folk on hand, ready to help you pin, tuck and take in your ‘new’ garments.

Most of us have swapped clothes with close friends in the comfort of our lounge rooms, but organised clothing exchanges are changing the way it’s done, opening the doors to community and making new friends as they walk out in your old outfits.

If you haven’t been to one before, here’s how they work:

- you bring along up to seven garments that are clean and in good condition
- in exchange for your garments we’ll give you seven buttons
- you drop off your garments and then allow one hour for us to get them hung & sorted

Then the try-ons and the frock swap begins!

- for each garment you find and love, you simply exchange one button
- you go home with a ‘new’ pre-loved wardrobe, for the cost of a gold-coin donation
- you and your neighbours look great at no extra cost to the earth

In keeping with my love for refashioning, we’re offering the added bonus of encouraging everyone to make their new garments truly fit. Instead of grabbing that exciting ‘new’ garment that you love but will possibly never wear because it’s not quite right, we will have sewing machines set up and a few alteration folk on hand.

I will be offering complimentary style and alteration recommendations, showing you how to best pin and alter your garments to suit your form, giving suggestions as to what best flatters your figure. We will have sewing machines threaded and ready for you to then have a go. If all goes to plan there will also be other alteration professionals on hand, offering their paid services.

So rummage through your wardrobe, wash those unworn clothes and come along to swap them for something exciting and new.

I hope to see you there!