Dualité

Every so often at my blog, I get requests in writing about a new designer for sake of promotions. But as I’m still in the course of developing a certain point of view, I decided to put one of them to the test by asking some more serious questions. I get tired of run of the mill “So what’s the name of your brand? How did you become a designer?” yadda yadda, they can sum that up in a nice little biography for all I care.

After being happy to find out about my Ecco sandals’ provenance, I wanted to know if clothing brands would do the same in revealing where their clothes were made and what were their ethical standards.

Well, Toronto-based JUZD (pronounced “joost”) Bamboo is a particular case – it’s an unknown urban street wear designer that has been recently picked up by Holt Renfrew. I asked them a couple of serious questions and I was surprised by the thorough responses and learned a thing or two, it gave me some hope that there are brands out there who aren’t afraid of answering questions that are really relevant to the fashion industry. Jing Liu, Chief Designer of JUZD, happily answered my questions. Read on:

Q: Where are the clothes made (in Canada? China? India?)? And if you’re outsourcing overseas, is JUZD upkeeping labor law standards and why not keep jobs (and quality control) here in Canada?

It is made in China. China has the most advance textile technology and spends a lot on research and development. In addition the supply and qualityof bamboo is plentiful in China. It is made in a city that is rated as one of the ten best cities in China. However a lot of the assembly is here in Canada and  all the staff and contractors (excluding some designers) are here in Canada.

I have visited the factories and the technology required for creating these clothing is very advance. The facilities are clean and staff are treated well. My mom used to work in a clothing factory here in Toronto and honestly the facility in China is much cleaner and I would say safer.

From a personal standpoint I was born and spent most of my early childhood in China. This is one way for me to give back to my people.

(Dahlia’s note: As an Asian person, I’ve heard of “giving back” to our mother country very often from other asians in different businesses. There’s much sense of pride in giving back to your home country, and to hear that from a designer is pretty interesting to note.)

Q: How is bamboo fabric “eco-conscious” (i.e.: Aren’t bamboo trees part of the environment? How does it compare in being eco-friendly from the likes of cotton or wool?), and with so many brands pulling the eco-friendly card on consumers, what makes this brand stand out?

Bamboo is the most sustainable plant. It is consider a grass and grows up to one metre within 24 hours (Dahlia’s note: this is actually confirmed on Wiki if you were skeptical). It reaches maturity in just six months. Bamboo is antibacterial so it does not require pesticide. In fact the antibacterial characteristic is transferred when it is made into a fabric so it kills body odour and bacteria. It can grow in almost any environmental and soil condition. When cut it regenerates itself, this is seen when you cut a bamboo stick, it will grow on both ends. Growing bamboo actually enriches the soil unlike cotton which takes nutrients from the soil. Lastly bamboo consume four times more carbon dioxide than trees which creates a cleaner environment.

You can find our research article on bamboo here: http://www.juzdbamboo.com/benefitsofbamboo.php

JUZD is different in that we are not about jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon. The use of bamboo is secondary to the design philosophy of respecting nature and the power of the human. Another big difference compare to other “eco” brands is that JUZD designs are edgy, aggressive, and fashionable. This targets a segment of consumers that have been traditionally ignore by eco-conscious brands. Lastly a great amount of attention is paid to the quality and standard of the clothing pieces hence creating pieces that are luxurious and comfortable instead low cost and low quality.

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Now I know you’d have to be hardcore granola and a major treehugger if you really want the nitty gritty about the provenance of bamboo fabric. So I found a site that pretty much will answer most of your questions about it.

To sum it up, bamboo itself is way more environmentally friendly than growing cotton or any other textile plant, and it has loads of benefits. The only reservation one might have is how it is actually produced (not labor wise, but how it’s made in the factories) that may be criticized. Now this goes well into the textile industry and I certainly don’t have much say on ethics in creating fabric (that’s a whole other realm altogether). Just know that the fashion industry is whole lot deeper than people are led to believe