Angel Chang weaves the future with indigenous textiles
No plastics, synthetics, fossil fuels, or electricity were used to make Angel Chang’s latest zero-carbon Spring 2023 womenswear collection, “Weaving the Future With Indigenous Textiles”.
For the past decade, Angel Chang has worked in the mountains of Guizhou, China developing a zero-carbon collection produced without using electricity by the hands of indigenous artisans there. Her designs manifest the environment in which they are created: quiet in their simplicity and (symbolically) as monumental as the terrain.
As a zero-carbon womenswear line handmade by indigenous mountain tribes in rural China, Chang’s own ancestral roots trace back to 14 generations of Chinese herbalists, and her artisans — ethnic minority grandmothers in Guizhou Province, rural China — espouse a similarly focused craft. The manufacturing process takes a minimum of six months (from growing the cotton to the final sewing of the garment).
©Angel Chang
“For me, I feel it’s easy to be part of the fashion system because that’s where I received my training,” Chang said. “I know what the industry can and cannot do and the levers to push it forward. To be more sustainable, my advice would be to reconnect with nature and learn how clothing was made before the Industrial Revolution 200 years ago. Clothing has historically been made in a sustainable way, and we can revive these traditional practices that are healthier for ourselves and the planet.”