3 Things: to Start Being More Eco-Friendly

Welcome back, dear readers, to this blog's newest feature: 3 things! If you're new to the blog, 3 things is a monthly feature, where I ask a group of people from different professions the three things involving their area of expertise. The idea is to connect more well-known people with their fans or public and get to know them a little better. Because, we all know how renowned people can seem quite out of reach at times. But, hopefully, by reading this feature, you will learn that they're actually human beings just like us, with comfortable habits and obstacles in their lives and we might actually get inspired by their answers. In commemoration to eco-month - you're probably sick of me reminding you this every other day but I will not tire of it - I've decided to ask a few people who are passionate about nature to answer this one question:

ANSWERS

Adithiyasanti Sofia (Marketing & Insight at LeafPlus)

twitter || linkedin 

- Ordering/taking food adequately. Sometimes, because we're hungry, we want to eat in large portions. But often we can't finish them and they go to waste. Without realising, the wasted food piles up into food if thrown away by many people. Aside from that, we don't know the detail about where the ingredients come from. The distance obviously matters and we as the consumer have indirectly imprinted carbon footprints which impacts the environment.
- Using or consuming local products. Be it food, accessories or beauty products. If we can help it, use local or domestic products. The carbon footprints the transportation of these items make have their own impact in the world. The carbon footprints produced by imported products will add to the footprints by local prodcuts, the negative effects will also increase.
- Bring reusable tote bags. Maybe it has been a habit of ours to ask for plastic bags when grocery shopping at supermarkets and think they can be reused. However, plastic bags take a long time to degrade - or even non-degradable at all! If this trash pile up and, even worse, make their way to rivers and seas, it will endanger the biotas in the water which becomes the protein for mankind. Wouldn't it be better if we play our roles to decrease the amount of plastic waste on earth?

Paramezwari Sugandi (Analyst at Greenworks Asia)

instagram || twitter || linkedin

1. Say no to plastic bags. Plastic is only used once or twice but it takes a long time to degrade. Also, a lot of plastics pollute the earth and get eaten by wild animals and they die because they can't digest it. That's why we should minimise the use of plastic by refusing to use plastic bags for shopping. Just say no if offered by the till, they don't mind. Bring your own bag from home to carry your purchased items.
2. Print on both sides. Try printing only when absolutely necessary. If you print on both sides, it reduces the paper usage by 50%. It's probably needs a bit more effort but it beats having to waste paper. There are actually plenty of printers which can have the settings to print on both sides now. Deforestation is a very real issue, which leaves a lot of regions in flood and drought, so make a habit of using paper accordingly.
3. Separate your organic and un-organic trash. Organic trash includes vegetables, food, etc. Un-organic trash includes plastics, carton, etc. Organic waste can be reprocessed into compost for fertiliser, while un-organic trash can be recycled. By separating our trash, we can also help the scavengers who usually separate the trash to get to the plastics and cardboard they can sell to be recycled again. So, aside from supporting recycling, we'd also do a good deed by helping them.

Sancaya Rini (Founder of Kanawida and Kana)

instagram || kanagoods || facebook

Clothes: Think not to be too royal in purchasing clothes. Don't purchase new clothes too often. Clothing items take a long process to make, which uses a lot of energy, water and the environment is much disadvantaged or damaged along the way. Think of that the next time you want to buy something.

Home: Start making our house more energy-saving, water-saving and manage our waste and garbage well. For example, when designing a home, do it by taking the climate into account, plant trees to provide shade and oxygen and design an eco-friendly way of disposing our wastes. Use materials which are easily recyclable.

Food: Start by consuming more environmental friendly products. Products which don't use pesticide, not using fertilisers which damage the soil and environment. If you have a little bit of space, grow vegetables or herbs hydroponically.

So how would you start being more eco-friendly?

Roadtrippin'!

Woohoo! It's time for a roadtrip! As you're reading this now, I will already be in Surabaya, where my grandparents live. They've missed me so and I feel likewise so I decided to pack my bags and visit them myself. It's been ages since the last time I was aboard a train in Indonesia so it was really quite a nerve wracking experience. My parents kept saying, "Be careful! This isn't Germany, it's Indonesia!" as if I wasn't anxious about the whole experience already. I love being at my Grandparents' home, it's filled with tons of memories: from their younger days, the start of my biological parents' love story, childhood memories of me and my cousins alike. As is with most grandparents' homes, their house is filled with some antique and unique knick knacks scoured from their youthful years. You've seen them before! I always love staying there, just hope I'm not going to be a burden is all. They were going to sell the house around a year ago but I firmly said no and all the stars aligned so they didn't have to. Anyway, look forward to more posts from the land of Surabaya.

Threadless Zombie t-shirt // thrifted denim jacket + skirt // Lazy Oaf socks // Converse shoes

For a while now, I've been wanting to create a roadtrip outfit but I never had the chance, for some reason. Funny, really, since I travel quite frequently. But I guess I'm just the type of girl who doesn't dress up to spend hours in a train or a bus or something like that - unless, of course, there's a promise of going sight-seeing right after. I just don't see the point of dressing up quite nicely only to spend what-feels-like-an-eternity on a moving vehicle by yourself. But, I guess, now that the time lapses, I don't see why I shouldn't try my hand at this. At first, I was going to just put on a pair of pants, as you do when you're going to move around a lot. But not many of my pants fit me snuggly anymore now and I hate wearing the same stuff over and over again on the blog. So here's to my comfiest skirt! Converse is an obvious choice, so is the t-shirt. The jacket tied to the waist, I feel, is a rather roadtrip-appropriate dress code, don't you?

Ethical Fashion: Behind The Scenes with Kana

As you should know if you've been following this blog for at least a year, I am an advocate for ethical fashion and original branding. This meaning that I support brands which are made without harming the environment and their workers as well as have their own original designs and not irresponsibly steal other people's work and blame it on their suppliers, as some retailers do. Seeing as it's eco month on the blog this March, I thought I would talk about one ethically made brand that I've been quite fortunate to get to know a little bit this past month. If you've been following me on instagram - and here too, actually - you would have heard of this brand. Let me introduce KANA for those of you who don't know who they are. Kana is a local Indonesian clothing label, which carries plenty of ethically made sartorial pieces using our traditional batik technique and natural dye, extracted from indigo plants. Therefore, the production process takes a long time to finish and their products are obviously not mass-produced. The other day I managed to sit down with their founder, Ms. Sancaya Rini, for an interview. Enjoy!

How and why did you start KANA?

Well, first, I had a fabric label business named Kanawida, which means 'colourful' in Kawi (old Javanese). We made plenty of fabric using batik technique and sold them to people. But we never processed them into clothing items and soon our customers asked us to turn them into clothes. Apparently, the name Kanawida was already taken for a fashion label so we settled for KANA instead. It was later on found out that KANA means 'beautiful' in a lot of languages, Korean, Japanese, Arabic. When my son decided to help me, we decided to come up with a way to make batik clothing pieces more adaptable for younger generations. And so we adapted a Japanese-esque aesthetics using our traditional wax-resist dyeing technique.

Why do you use natural dye?

At first, when I started learning how to batik at the Textile Museum, they taught me using chemical dye, which was cheaper. When I tried to apply the technique at home, my husband scolded me. He said, where would we throw away the waste? It would obviously pollute our groundwater. Not only that, the chemical substance isn't good for the hands. They made mine very itchy. So I asked my teachers if there was another way or another ingredient I could use. They referred me to natural dye. Our batik artists used to use natural dye, actually, but then the Dutch came, started buying our batik, they took our books on natural dye and insist we use the chemical dye they brought from Holland, such as naphthol, which still gets exported to our country until now while it's banned in the European countries themselves. 

How do you know what can be used as natural dye?

People ask me all the time if I have a secret recipe or technique in turning plants into natural dye. My only secret is trying everything out. At the Textile Museum, they informed us on where to buy natural dye, which plants can be used to extract what colour and where to get them. But the information is strictly regional, focused in Jogjakarta, which means plenty of these plants are hard to find elsewhere. But we're all surrounded by nature everywhere so I just tried out everything, from the grass on my lawn to the tree barks on the side of the streets. Soak them, boil them, mix them with other ingredients, grind them, juice them, anything. I observe nature and pay close attention to fruits' or leaves' dyeing potential. Basically, everything can dye. But you have to determine which will be more efficient and which will not.

How long does it take to finish one item?

It all depends on how difficult the patterns and the cuts are. In average, the batik-ing takes 1-2 days. A simple pattern usually takes a day but a more complex one takes around 2 days. Afterwards comes the dyeing which depends on how dark the colour will be. It usually takes around 5-6 days. It doesn't matter if it rains because the dye will not get washed off by the rain. Then comes the sewing. Our seamster can finish around 12-15 items a day, depending on the style of the items.

What is your opinion about batik in today's fashion industry?

These days younger generations seem to misunderstand batik. They only regard batik as traditional patterns or motifs. But it's actually a process, a wax-resist dyeing technique. They see textiles with traditional patterns and think they're batik, when they were actually printed. I hope that by seeing the simple batiks, they will be more curious to learn more about traditional batiks. So that not only the older generations will understand them. Aside from that, I feel like batik is a little forced sometimes. For example, there is a region in Indonesia which doesn't have the batik tradition in their culture and all of a sudden they're asked to make batiks as an icon of their region, such as Papua Batik. They've never made them before, so they wouldn't understand! They have their own technique of resist dye, using sap per se. That should be developed instead! We should develop our fashion industry using the culture roots from each region from across the country. In fashion, batik has been relatively widely used now. But, if you're talking business, the biggest fashion retailers who are involved in pure business no longer use authentic batik, they simply print batik patterns on fabrics, not even using metal stamps or canting anymore. Where will we take our batik culture at this rate?

Lastly, why do you think people should buy ethical fashion products?

First of all, in a small industry like the batik industry, it will provide jobs for the craftsmen and -women. And fairly too! They will work with us happily, free of oppression. I'm very honest to my workers; if an exhibition didn't go well, I will let them know. If I'm collaborating with a designer, I will let people know who make the designs, I will respect their works. If someone wears or uses someone else's design without crediting them, that is no longer ethical. We also treat the items - the fabric - with care. If we want to make a certain item, we cut the fabric according to the pattern as efficiently as possible so as to cut down the waste as much as possible. Sometimes I sew the rest of the fabric to turn them into scarf, tablecloths or drapes. 

Kanawida || Kanagoods

Last month on Indonesian Fashion Week and last weekend at Pop Up Market Indonesia KANA have exclusively introduced their newest SS 2015 collection. Aside from working as an independent label, KANA have also collaborated with a number of other local clothing brands, such as Bluesville and Bobobobo.com. If ever you feel like spending your money on something worthwhile and incredibly chic, you should start thinking to invest on ethical labels such as this. Not only do they use environmental-friendly materials and dye, they also accommodate and support young craftsmen and -women who are good and passionate about what they do. So let's be more fashionable with a conscience!

P.S: This is NOT a sponsored post!

Blue Is the Colour of the Universe

On Friday the 13th, I went to Pop Up Market Indonesia held at Lotte Kuningan, Jakarta. To be honest, I didn't have any other agenda going there at first but to interview the lovely Ms. Sancaya Rini, founder of Kana, but then she asked me to help tend her booth because she had an urgent business. So that's how I ended up being an impromptu tenant for the day. Thank you so much to everyone who came to check out the brand and even some who bought our items. I say "our" but I'm not exactly part of the Kana group. I'm just an advocate for ethical fashion and I would love it so much if you guys start considering spending a little more for high quality and good ethics. The interview - and some behind the scene shots - will be available on the blog on Tuesday so stay tuned! Uh...what else is new? Word of warning: I don't think I will be making illustrations of my outfits anymore. Or at least not for the next couple weeks. I feel like I keep playing catch up with myself and that's when I know I need to manage my time a bit better. Aside from that, I'd like to work on some new mini projects and I can't do that if I have to come up with an outfit illustration every four days. But I will still post outfits, so don't worry.

Monaco dress (Sis's) // Pimkie skirt // tights from Ebay // mks ankle boots // C&A hat // thrifted purse

When I first saw Steffy of Steffy's Pros and Cons wearing this, I thought "I WANT THAT!" I absolutely adore the brocade, rococo-style pattern and material. It makes the wearer look positively regal, without being over-the-top and still in keeping with time. Also, when I was at pop up market yesterday, I think I stole the show with my dress. Everyone was staring at it as opposed to the products I was trying to sell. That's a backfire right there. Tante Rini likes it very much too! She keeps touching it and saying how beautiful it is. I almost claimed that I made it myself - but I didn't. Just one tiny little detail that I wish I could alter: the length. While it's very flattering and cute and comfortable, the length is much too short for me. That's why I wore a skirt underneath it, to add to the length a bit - and, guess what, it also give a more girly look to the dress! It's also definitely no coincidence that I wore blue to see Kana's booth. I'm cheeky like that. If you guys happen to know where I can find good, adorable brocade dresses or fabric, please let me know!

Pecel (+ Other Easy Indonesian Vegan Recipes)

One of the ways you can contribute to nature and the environment is through food: by choosing to go vegan, by choosing to eat only organic food, by not supporting plantations and farms which uses chemical products and cruelty towards animals. Today I've decided to introduce a traditional Indonesian vegan recipe. It's true that, in our culture, we eat a lot of meat. I mean, A LOT. But, we also tend to stick to the "4 sehat 5 sempurna" diet, so we tend to eat a lot of veggies as well. Therefore, we have plenty of traditional recipes consisting strictly of vegetables and vegan-friendly products. There is a wide variety to choose from - in Java alone! - but I'm going to introduce to you today a recipe that is so common and simple that you can subtract and add the ingredients and it will become a whole other dish from this archipelago of a country.

Ingredients 

• 1/4 kg green beans
• 2 bundles spinach
• 1/4 kg bean sprout

For the sauce:

• 1 oz. brown sugar
• 5 cloves garlic
• 10 chilli
• 3 cm sand ginger
• 500gr peanuts, fried/roasted
• 5 sheets lime leaves

1. Purée all the ingredients for the sauce using ulekan (pestle and mortar) or a blender
2. Boil or steam the vegetables until they're a little less stiff
3. Strain the water and put the veggie on a plate
4. Add hot water to the sauce and pour them on the plate, to taste
5. Mix them all together
6. Selamat menikmati!

Add tomato, potato and cucumber and it's called Gado-Gado. Add tofu and vermicelli noodles and it's called Ketoprak (don't use lime leaves in the sauce). Eat the vegetables raw with the sauce and it's Karedok.

Tips: Use pestle and mortar instead of a blender to purée for best quality and taste. Steam instead of boil to keep all the vitamins in. Add the hot water little to little to avoid the sauce from becoming too runny. You can eat it with kerupuk karak (as pictured above) and/or rice, if you feel the need for more carbs. Green beans contain vitamin D, spinach contains iron, bean sprouts contain vitamin A, C and carbohydrate and the peanuts contain protein. With such healthy nutritions, who says you won't be okay without meat? Lass euch schmecken!