Hello world, I'm Tomasino. This is Solarpunk Prompts, a series for writers where we discuss
solarpunk, a movement that imagines a world where technology is used for the good of the
planet. In this series, we spend each episode exploring a single solarpunk story prompt,
adding some commentary, some inspirations, and some considerations. Most importantly,
we consider how that story might help us to better envision sustainable civilization.
If this is your first time here, I'd recommend checking out our introductions episode first,
or this season's introduction, where we talk about what solarpunk is, why you should care,
and why this series came into being. Today's prompt is The Tailors. A new tailor joins a
distributed manufacturing, tailors are no longer just artisans, but educators, material and
sustainability experts, fashion designers, and translators of cultures. Making sure no
garment offends others from traveling. Seeing that they're much less traditional than their
predecessor, will they be accepted by the community? Which bold statement surprised everybody? It may
seem like a distant memory for many in the Western world, but the production of clothes was a common
home activity for all of human history, right up until the 1970s with the birth of fast fashion.
By exporting labor to exploited underpaid workers, primarily in Asia, retailers scaled up a massive
industry to replace the home sewer and local tailor. By the mid-1990s, we were already at
accelerated sense. The Center for Biological Diversity explains, the fast fashion business
model relies on the exploitation of resources and human labor to deliver garments following the
latest trends to its consumers at an unprecedented rate. Waste occurs at every stage of the garment
manufacturing process, harming wildlife, degrading land, and polluting soil and water. The industry
is now responsible for as much as 10% of global carbon dioxide emissions. That doesn't even begin
to discuss the human rights issues. According to a report by the European Environment Agency,
each garment we buy today is used on average seven times before it being discarded. Before fast
fashion, that was a very different story. Clothing was an investment of time and energy that warranted
upkeep. Higher quality, sturdier fabrics could easily last years before being mended into secondary
garments. It's hard to imagine any sustainable future where this type of industry still exists.
So what might we imagine instead? Now, before fast fashion, humanity put hundreds of years of effort
into researching and optimizing local sustainable solutions for clothing. Not only were the materials
and the methods considered, but they intersected and influenced cultural identity everywhere.
Whether the Scottish Kilt or the Ugandan Kanzu or the Chinese Hanfu, clothing is an expression of
identity. That is deeply connected to the people and history. Our future communities will still
be made of people and their cultural identities will continue to be formed from their shared
characteristics. Place of birth, religion or ethics, cuisine, social behaviors, art and values.
The way they dress themselves will grow organically from that place. We can think about what might
influence those choices based on our understanding of the history of textiles and our vision of a
solar punk environment. There are physical considerations, sustainable materials, recycling,
local climate and medical needs. There's also the social considerations, politics, personal
expression or ceremony. And finally, we need to think critically about the role of a tailor in
this type of community. What role do they play amidst all of our emerging technology? Beginning
with the material itself, what happens to synthetic materials? While useful, the industrial processes
used to create the textiles may not be available without a robust global supply chain. And even so,
they produce many harmful substances into the environment. Will natural fibers be able to
replicate the features we need in different environments? Is beeswax enough for waterproofing?
Will we need something more robust like bio-engineered silk? This could be a fun area of
development for a story, but be careful to avoid the trap of techno-solutionism. The silk won't
save the world, but the humans using it might. We also have mountains of disposable, fast-fashioned
garments that won't suddenly disappear from the world. Whether in storehouses or landfills,
there's a lot of material to deal with. The environmental cost has already been paid for
much of this material. Can we utilize it in a way that'll help our communities without further
harming them? There are already some efforts underway exploring that possibility. One prototype
project was the Loop Machine, that's three O's. The machine shreds old garments, spins the fibers
into yarn, and knits new materials. It was a demo project installation with H&M, who is also looking
into other recycling technologies, such as binding old textiles with wood cellulose.
Whatever the output of such efforts, whether it be a reuse or a new creation, we hope they'll
be designed to meet the specific climate needs of the community. We might not have to imagine
anything as robust as the Fremen stillsuits in Frank Herbert's Dune, but if our future communities
are living in harmony with their environment, they must surely dress the part. The multi-layered suit
in heavily air-conditioned offices should be a thing of the past. How will people promote air
circulation or retain heat as necessary? Here we encounter one of the first places where a
tailor's skills may become a necessity. The production of textiles is primarily a process
of technology, repetition, and patience. That technology might be as lo-fi as gathering milkweed,
or it could involve shredders or even 3D printers. Whatever the method, the rest is human power and
time. Creating a garment, though, adds an art and a science of its own. Three-dimensional structures
are created through joining, interfacing, cutting, and binding, all with an understanding of drape
and line, of silhouette and balance, and hopefully with an understanding of the garment's use.
The tailor is the expert and educator. It's they who will be able to recommend the right materials
and educate on how to care for them. In measuring a client for just the right fit, we can imagine a
specific tailor with the same meditative carrying qualities we might find from the T-Monk in Becky
Chambers' Monk and Robot series. A tailor is an innovator, creating patterns like the greatest
of artists, not just to be seen, but to be worn and used, and then mended and used again. Surely
they will have taught their community well, and now everyone knows the basics of mending and
maintenance. Now our tailor serves four main functions, educating, taking on or assisting
with harder projects. For example, a fire brigade's uniform, guiding community on appropriate
garment adoption based on the need and environment, or creating totally new patterns. A tailor is a
powerful addition to a community, not just as a resource, but as a human being that knows them
and their needs. The attention of a tailor brings the opportunity for personalization.
Do you need a medical mask to be worn at all times, or maybe only during the seasons for your allergies?
There's nothing wrong with that. We could incorporate them into a standard outfit
so that you don't look off to your community. Do you need to use a specific material for
undergarments? Can do. Do you have an implant requiring a small battery pack? We can add small
pockets into all your shirts or trousers. If someone is missing a limb, maybe their outfit
could accommodate that. Being asymmetrical, or putting pockets only on one side, or featuring
some additional straps for balancing the weight of backpacks and bags. Personalization can be even
more though. It can be more than customizing your needs, it can reflect who you are. In the globalist
but post-capitalistic world of Terra Ignata by Ada Palmer, it is customary to reflect your
political allegiances, ideologies, and stances on preferences through your outfit. Some people put
patterns representing their personalities in their sweaters, and others mark their favorite
movies or interests by their shoes. Wearing a sash of a specific color is a global sign of belonging
to one or another legal order, letting everyone know what to expect just from the wearer. This goes
beyond just ceremonial garb of judges or lawmakers. Everyone expresses themselves this way daily.
Does your solar punk world have such a societal, regional, or global symbol? Your tailor could
explain to you that wearing a green armband says that you're purely vegan, while a lavender one
marks you as someone who enjoys lab-grown meat. Do bracelets with gold rings mean that somebody is
polyamorous and open for dating? Do such symbols differ in different regions? Could that spark a
ridiculous misunderstanding between travelers who haven't consulted their local tailor before
embarking? Wearing a mouse suit like Markia was a fan of the 2046 reboot of that movie,
some communities though might see it as highly problematic. The explorers hat might look fancy,
but very offensive to people whose ancestors were colonized by the British Empire. Our own world has
tumultuous discussions about cultural appropriation between different nations,
traditions, and ethnicities. What if your cool fish symbol is actually a holy icon for a Shinto
believer? A good tailor should be aware of those and make sure that you understand the context of
what you want to wear. Now so far we've spoken mostly about the everyday wear, but every profession
might need a work outfit, whether it's for working in the field, a hospital, or a steel mill.
A tailor can help them recommend sustainable solutions. Do we need leather padding, some
antibacterial coating? Does it need to be replenished every week? Or how should we wash it?
Consider also non-professional wear. Someone traveling very far away using airports, blimps,
or long-distance trains might not want to expose everyone else to their community's biome.
Wearing a traveler's mask, a cloak, or some traditional outfit might signify that someone
is a long way from home and let the local community know that they might need hospitality.
It could even introduce a whole set of new rituals and symbols.
A tailor's influence is not a minor thing, nor do they act in a vacuum.
Remember, the styles from the 1940s came from war rationing and military uniform patterns.
Those of the 1950s were in reaction to Christian Dior's silhouette-breaking styles
that were in reaction, again, to those wartime styles. Everything comes from somewhere,
in reaction to something else. How might the development of a Solarpunk community
directly lead to style changes? In addition to finding harmony with the environment, Solarpunk
is still a vision of the future that embraces smart uses of technology to make lives better.
Your Solarpunk world might choose to selectively employ electronics in the clothing and in the
design as well. Even today, some universities are working on heart monitoring, sweaters,
and armbands which could alert a hospital in case of a serious problem. What we're often not
considering is daily usage of such garments. How do you clean it? How do you repair them?
If a wire breaks, what do you do? A good community tailor will not only work with a doctor
or an engineer but gladly teach you how to take care of your smart garment. Finally,
while the focus of this episode is clothing and tailors, you can apply similar perspectives to
multiple trades and artisans in your Solarpunk future. You can't count on AI to replace a good
optometrist or a 3D printer to be a substitute for a blacksmith and a plumber. In the second book of
presents a glimpse of such crafts in a Solarpunk community where gray water and white water
plumbing with natural filtration systems is something a local expert can tend to effortlessly.
How might your craftspeople work with these new technologies in a way that
remains sustainable to meet the needs of their community? Think for a moment about your own town
and the people around you doing that job today. What sort of people are they? Now imagine their
lives in 20, 40, or 60 years. How will the worker today influence those starting out in that
Solarpunk future? I hope this prompt inspires you to think deeper about the creative people
all around you and how they may influence the world of tomorrow right down to the shirt on
your back. Until next time, I'm Tomasino. Hope you have joined me for the next episode. The
ambient.