Emily's Farewell Coat
It had begun as the nice day off which had every promise of going right. Ria had just settled into her favourite chair to knit a new cardigan for herself, but all that changed the moment her circular needles snapped, dunking dropped stitches into her steaming cup of tea. Which would be why, around the time she should have been having a lovely lunch of roasted vegetables, she was instead drenched to the bone standing at the front door of the Textile Collective’s workshop, living proof that the new water-resistant coat fabric they’d been testing for Emily’s parting gift… well, wasn’t.
There exists some eye-watering statistics about the impact of globalised fashion industry on our environment, for example, how it makes up 10% of total global carbon emissions, or how it's the second-largest consumer industry of water—requiring 700 gallon to produce one cotton shirt and 2,000 gallons of water to produce a pair of jeans. The industry dries up water sources, pollutes our waterways, while 85% of textiles go to dumps each year. The impact is sobering.
In this story, I wanted to explore a social structure and a way of living that answers to this issue of clothing production—how we might locally produce clothing in a scalable way that respects craft and locality, but also sneakily examine what an ethical, collaborative human-AI relationship could look like. The backdrop is also a world where we no longer build dwellings that oppose Nature's tendencies, a world where the Rights of Rivers are respected.
Vivid Worlds was edited by Donna Scot. Stories by: Holly Schofield, Cécile Cristofari, R.J.K. Lee, Toshiya Kamei, Ana Sun, Rose Maxwell, Caolán Mac An Aircinn, Cecil Wilde, Sierra Bibi, Sue Oke, Corey Jae White, David Cleden, David Mancera, Kay Hanifen, Liam Hogan, Morgan Melhuish, Nicholas Jay, Rick Danforth, C. J. Hooper and Shanna Yetman. Cover design by: Paul Alex Condie.