On tuesday 29th of April 13.30 GMT+1 Pamoyo will be on the European cultural TV station ARTE during an item on Eco Fashion in Berlin on the Lifestyle Magazine Program Chic . The other labels in the item are Slowmo and Magdalena Schaffrin. The program will be online until one week after broadcasting. Check it out!

Cecilia Palmer is a young, Swedish woman living in Berlin. She studied courses in sustainable engineering and arts in Sweden and France, gathered environmental practice through organic gardening and worked for a few NGO's as creative director.

Cecilia, why did you start Pamoyo?

“Some say design is only about surface. I say design is about everything you express. Pamoyo is designed with depth, with an urgency. It’s not just clothes, it’s about styling a better world. I wanted to create an experimental, creative label that combines social values, fair production, and respect for the environment with an artistic drive. For me Pamoyo is a way to find out ways to be both creative and sustainable, and for small designers that’s not all that easy. It’s a lot of pioneering, a creative research.”

What inspires you?

“I’m inspired by things going out of line, by irregularities, sticking out, imperfection. I like playing with culture, mixing and remixing styles cross borders of subcultures and styles. With Pamoyo we sample as with music. Style elements from vintage clothing are put in a complete other context. A men’s suit can end up in a cool summer dress you wear on the beach. In the future we want to implement that concept on a larger scale, in a way that it’s economically sustainable.”

What’s your vision with Pamoyo?

”I want to involve a lot of people to give their creative input, Pamoyo is going to be a laboratory for innovative ideas and sustainable production method. On a rather small scale we try out new design and production concepts.”

Can you give examples?

”We make the designs and patterns of our clothing Open Source. We don’t make designs to protect them, but to spread. The designs and patterns can be found on our website, and anyone can share it and use it. In this way, someone can take an idea or design and build on it. We want to make it possible to build upon each other’s work in such a thing as fashion design, and we’re planning to make a community platform out of that.”

Fashion 2.0?

Yeah, we do this because creativity is something enriching. When you collaborate with others, the chance to develop great things is higher.”

This interview may be used for editorial purposes, as long as the source is mentioned.

Frans Prins is a dutch guy living in Berlin. He studied Humanistics and is managing the Grass Routes Foundation.

Humanist, environmentalist, cultural creative, LOHAS?

“The popularity of green living, of LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability), is a sign of our time. That people on such a large scale are committed to the world they live in, that people are conscious about their planet, is an enormous revolution that does not have it's equal in human history. It's a great chance to change things on global scale. And this time it is consumers, active citizens, social entrepreneurs and web-users who create it. Like we do with our fashion label Pamoyo.”

What's your drive behind creating Pamoyo?

“The social and environmental impact of conventional clothing production is still deadly shocking. Pesticides kill thousands of people yearly. With the rising social and environmental awareness of consumers the topic is also hitting the fashion scene. Using sustainable textiles like organic cotton is the only alternative.”

Why organic cotton?

“Last year I visited the organic cotton farms in Uganda and Turkey where we currently have our cotton from. Farming life in Africa is quite traditional and poor, and organic helps the farmers and their families a lot. The extras earned through the production can be used for sending their kids to school or building a roof on their house. Organic in this areas is really the best because it’s close to the way production is done for ages. It combines old practice with new scientific knowledge. What’s more genius than using red peppers to keep away the insects?”

Can cotton be sustainable?

Well, organic makes a lot of difference, but growing cotton in general uses a lot of water which in some regions cause a environmental damage. Next to organic cotton and recycled vintage, we are going to work with other organic materials as well. There is more and more good qualities of sustainabally grown textiles like nettel, linen, hemp, bamboo.”

What's your vision for Pamoyo?

“Pamoyo is a social label. We are building up a strong collective of young designers who give their creative input. I would love to involve some designers from Africa as well, and to set up some cool projects with a mix of environmental protection and a creative, sustainable development. The future is in local production. In self-sustaining buildings. In totally new ways of sustainable living and producing. It would be interesting for us to create a vertically integrated production chain where everything from seed to fashion endproduct is done at one place. Using cradle to cradle, generating our own energy for production. A good mix of traditional and hyper-modern techniques.”

This interview may be used for editorial purposes, as long as the source is mentioned.