Communication Outputs

Chic&Ethic Project


Purpose

This project is implemented concomitantly in seven different countries. The diversity of cultures, perceptions and experiences will enrich the projects' final outputs, but at the same time a common effort is needed in order to converge to the same ideas and core concept.

This document should help the communication responsible from each Partner organization to conceive the creative outputs within the Chic&Ethic project, in harmony with its values and by following a unitary concept.

The main outputs are of the project are:
1. The Clothing Collections
2. The Website: www.chic-and-ethic.org
3. The Final Event

Aim

These three outputs aim at transmitting to its public social, ethical, ecological and cultural values within clothing industry, to informally train the designers in order to create more responsible clothes regarding environmental and social principles and to make them aware of the sustainable solutions in the textile field available on the European market.

Objectives

O1: Elaborate technical sketches for each designer clothing project which should consist in drawings with the clothes ideas, specific details about their dimensions, volumes, colours and photos with samples of the materials chosen for their clothes.

O2: Conceive the story behind these clothing creations by using photography or video, trying to illustrate in a creative way the “collections’ life cycle” starting with the primary materials selection, the designers' working space, designers in action, the interaction with the consumers at open-markets or in clothing shops etc.

O3: Write articles for the website in order to present in details the Partner organization, the designers portfolios, instructive materials relied to the ethical clothing industry.

O4: Organize the final event with all its phases: defining the concept, finding practical solutions for the logistics, editing the contents, preparing the promotion campaign and disseminating the final results.

Target public

Chic&Ethic project has three different target groups:

Primary Public: The 42 designers recruited in the project and any other fashion designer interested to join Chic&Ethic network and willing to enlarge its knowledge toward sustainability in the textile industry.

Secondary Public: Consumers from all seven countries, interested not only in fashion, but searching also for a healthier and responsible way of living;

Stakeholders: SMEs, NGOs and Universities heaving a significant know-how in the textile field, willing to join the Chic&Ethic network in order to start new partnerships, implement new projects in clothing field or promote their specific products and services on the Chic&Ethic website.

Call to action

Our communicational efforts aim to influence, stimulate and change the public as following:

Designers will make accounts on the virtual community where they have the space to publish a professional portfolio, add articles about their work and waiting to be chosen by the partners - the only authorised in publishing the designers' articles on the website's sections - and posting on the Boutique section their clothes having an ecological or social added value.

Consumers/ casual users of the website will subscribe on the community in order to follow the designers' discussions and activity, they will add comments on the website, will buy ethical and ecological clothes from the Boutique and will learn how to differentiate the conventional clothes from the ecological/ethical ones, and they will also volunteer in the projects launched within Chic&Ethic network.

Stakeholders will join the virtual community, contribute with articles/photos/videos on the website's sections, they could populate the Boutique section with responsible clothing items, and they will propose new projects for the Chic&Ethic initiators or join into the ones launched within the network.


Key messages

The core message of the project is: improving the social status of the people employed by the textile, clothing and design industries and reducing their impact on the environment.

The sustainable values promoted by the project to its public are:

a) Care for nature:
- reducing the energy use from clothes washing/ drying/ sewing and all other process-making phases involving energy use;
- reducing greenhouse gases emissions from the materials and final products transportation to the distribution chains and processing fossil fuels into synthetic fibres;
- saving water resources excessively used in growing the plants (e.g. cotton) and in washing/painting the clothes;
- diminishing the toxicity from fertilizer, pesticide and herbicide use from the plants growing, painting and treating the materials with chemical substances;
- textile waste drew by the fast and discount fashion that obliges the retailers to change collections too often;

b) Care for society:
- good working conditions in accordance to the employees rights: a proper level of salary, legal work load, health & safety policy statements, equipment provided to do the job, avoiding child labor, practicing the equality principles etc;
- free market access, transparent information and trade terms for farmers and workers, fair trade partnerships based on trust and respect;
- animal welfare and non-exploitation of their skin and fur in making garments;

c) Care for cultural heritage:
- enlivening old practices and techniques for creating garments as loom weaving, manually interlacing, crocheting, embroider, natural painting recipes;
- actualise traditions in the contemporary life by using old motives and themes with profound symbolisation in a certain culture and combine them with the new trends in fashion;
- value the artisans work by encouraging their products on the market;

Tone of the message

The project is based on environmental, social and cultural issues that our societies confront nowadays: the large import volumes coming from China, India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka on the European market, the social and ethical challenges triggered by the working conditions, child labor and sweatshop conditions, excessive use of the natural resources as water and energy, high amount of waste generated annually by the textile industry, high toxicity due to the clothes treatment and painting with chemical substances and the list can continue.

People need to hear the good news!
They are more receptive to the positive information, to the practical solutions, which can be found in their proximity. We must not burden our public with unpleasant information, to blame them for having a big ecological foot print, but to encourage them to adopt more responsible day-by-day practices, favourable to the environment and society, to teach them about the instruments needed to do this improvement and to give them good examples to follow.

Timeline of the Activities


1. The Technical Sketches
Activity Description Deadline
Drawings with the clothing collections The drawings are preferably to be made in a graphic design program as Corel Draw, Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop in order to be published on the website;

The designers have already started this job on paper, but they have to transfer their work on computer; AUGUST 2010
Technical information about the clothes All the details about the sizes, volumes, colours, shapes, fibbers should be mentioned on the sketch;

The size of the clothes should be chosen for the persons who will come at the final event. These persons are going to wear the clothes during the event;
OCTOBER 2010
Samples of the materials used for the clothes The designers have brought samples at the first two workshops. These should be somehow added to the sketches and a possible idea is to photography them or to represent them in a graphic design program;

There should be also added explanations about the source of the materials, to show their ecological or social certification, if any, and other informative details about their environmental or social added value; OCTOBER 2010
Photos of the final creations The photos together with the sketches will be published in the Creations section from the principal menu on the website; MARCH 2011



2. The Story of the Collection
Activity Description Deadline
The general concept of the photo-story The concept has to include some of the process-making phases, without disclosing the professional secret;

The story should include images with the tailors, their workplaces, the clothes in different phases of creation, the primary materials procurement, and the plants from which they are made, if possible.

The partners have the option either to make a single photo-reportage for the entire collection or to create 6 “small stories” for each designer.
SEPTEMBER 2010
The written story The photos should be accompanied by a small article (maximum 1 page) to be published on the website;

If you decide for a single photo-story, then you have to write one article, otherwise each photo-story should be followed by its one article. FEBRUARY 2011
The photo selection For the final selection are needed around 50 pictures with the minimum resolution: 3872 x 2592 pixels, 300 dpi;

The coordinator will choose 15-20 photos and edit them for the final material;

APRIL 2011
The final photo-story For the final event we are going to project one material from each Partner country. In order to do that we have to define the proper resolutions for the projection, to compile the pictures with the written story; MAY 2011



3. Website – launching date: 1 October 2010
Activity Description Deadline
Presentation of the Partner Organization Each partner has a specific place to publish a presentation about its activity in the textile field, past projects and specific products/services that he wants to promote to the public. The presentations will be published in the Partners section, from the secondary Menu and the products/services in the Boutique section created specially for clothing products promotion. AUGUST 2010
Designers' Portfolio The designers have an entire section in the first menu in order to promote themselves;
Their clothing collections will be published in the Collection section which is placed also in the first menu. AUGUST 2010
Articles for the News section The website will be launched promoting news about the partners, thus it is needed to create small articles (half page) concerning their activity at the moment which could present an interest for the public; SEPTEMBER 2010
Instructive materials in the sustainable clothing industry The Partners as well as the designers can publish pedagogical document (labels/etiquette, guidelines, reports, videos) in order to educate the consumers to easier recognize the responsible clothes; OCTOBER 2010


3. Final event
Activity Description Deadline
The general concept
We have to define first how the final event will better respond to our expectations:
- What do we want to show to the Romanian public?
-Do we want to enlarge the target public of the final event with online activities also? (eg:videos etc)
- How do we want to present the project main outputs? OCTOBER 2010
The main content of the event The clothing collections – we have to decide who is going to wear the clothes;

Do you think it will be possible to bring all the designers at the final event or not?

The photo-stories – one responsible from each Partner Organization will present the Story of their designers' collection, while projecting the photo-story;
OCTOBER 2010
Logistical solutions for organizing a responsible event Reper21 will coordinate the final event, but with the partners' help in finding the most responsible solutions as:
- the space for the event
- healthy catering
- eco-responsible printed materials
- a music selection
- the list of European guests MAY 2011
Communication campaign The event is going to be promoted in all seven partner countries. For that we need to put in common all the communicational means of each organization as media partners and personal websites;

The important points to think about are:
- The outdoor campaign;
- Online campaign: web banners and announcements;
- Press releases;
- Articles on the Partners' websites; JUNE 2011
Results dissemination After the final event we are going to design and print the final brochure of the project which it will include beside the designers collections, the story of the final event.

Each partner has the freedom to organize events in parallel with the one in Romania. Depending on each case, we can also help them with materials and ideas for the general organization of its event. JULY 2011