Magpies & Peacocks 501(c)3 non-profit design house rallies the fashion & culture community behind arts and sustainability and have created numerous programs designed to reach out to the young designers, artists, industry professionals and marginalized communities.
As the global consensus on climate change rises so does the urgency and scale of action required to keep our planet safe. Immediate action is demanded of the fashion & textile sector as major contributors to the problem, calling for fashion stakeholders – from raw material producers, textile & apparel manufacturers and fashion brands – to identify areas for action, to develop a coherent and unified position on climate change mitigation and to scale up their initiatives in support of a more robust sustainable and ethical industry.
Magpies & Peacocks is actively part of this movement because a concerted effort across this sector can; significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by reducing mass production and transportation; reduce resource depletion and landfill volume by creative circular reuse of existing materials; reduce land and waterway pollution from pesticides, micro fibers and factory run off by rigid supply chain transparency; and reduce human/animal rights abuses by enforcing a living wage and ethical oversight.
We now buy 400% more clothing than we did a decade ago, keep it for a third of the time and send 85% of it to landfill. Almost all of that material can be reused. It is essential that it be separated from the waste stream and be re-manufactured in to new products. Waste as a resource – just as it is with glass, plastic and cardboard, so it can be with textiles. Help us lead the way in circular textile design – to facilitate environmentally friendly manufacturing locally and stand with us as an advocate for your planet!
Your donation is greatly appreciated and will:
Help fund our workforce development program - the MAKR Collective - which is an community economic empowerment Initiative. Participants are taught how to be an independent entrepreneurs and gain in-person earning potential with creative tools and skill building across multiple tracks including sewing, warehouse management, retail, events and even barista skills.
How can you help…
Pay for the cost of one participant in the MAKR Collective program which includes sewing machine, sewing station + tool kit and needed consumables?
Contribute towards the salary for a maker or retail graduate of the MAKR Collective program?
Set up and fit out a sewing station for our MAKR Collective participants, community members and emerging designers?
Partially fund the cost to run our post consumer textile library – collecting, curating and sorting textiles for reuse, presenting a major resource to designers, artists and MAKR Collective participants + graduates in our creative community?
Fund one week of community sewing classes to underserved and marginalized communities?
Partially fund our internship program which employs students from local universities who want to have a career in sustainable fashion and art?
Fund the creation of a new sustainable clothing or accessory collection?
Contribute to supplies needed for one MAKR Collective participant and one emerging artist | designer in our residency program?
Partially fund salaries for our program coordinators and instructors (we couldn't do this with our awesome tribe!) plus general operating expenses of our non-profit and its program?
With laser focus on the urgent need for responsible, fashion production, sourcing and end of life garment reuse, our non-profit design house aims to create sustainable opportunities through our programs - Workforce development, Artists in Nesting, Post consumer textile library, and our long term partnerships with businesses, schools, arts and culture leaders and the fashion industry - in order to open the doors for emerging creatives to expand their circularity knowledge and their community engagement, while growing a sustainable business for People, Profit and Planet.
By being a responsible ‘conscious consumer’ you can help too. We all wear and purchase clothes and as the decline in locally produced clothing gave way to globalization there was a reduced need for domestic hand skills. Schools started trading-in creative classes and home economics, and we inevitably saw a steep decline in making, repairing and caring for the things we own. It is time for textile production to move back from fast, cheap and disposable, with a return to a vibrant, creative and local industry providing workplace opportunities and environmental solutions at a community level.
Magpies & Peacocks model rests on four pillars: Collaborate, Create, Educate and Invest – building creative connections between businesses, donors, artists, designers, educators, consumers and non-profits. Magpies & Peacocks is made possible through the generous donations of our supporters and those who believe in the future and sustainability of arts education and fashion. Magpies & Peacocks is run entirely on volunteer power, but we can’t continue our programs without contributions from those in the community to support our operations. To date Magpies & Peacocks has diverted over 195 tons of waste textiles from landfill and created over 10,000 unique, zero waste, up-cycled and small batch re-manufactured clothing and accessory pieces entirely from waste material collected by the organization.
FABRICS FOR FAMILIES – HOLIDAY DRIVE
In partnership with Laura U Design Collective the Fabrics for Families Holiday Drive is dedicated to providing basic necessities for women and children facing domestic violence, or otherwise unsafe conditions at home. Magpies & Peacocks will use discarded fabric samples and scraps to make beautiful individual toiletry bags that will be stuffed with supplies - and your donation of $50 will pay for a bag to be donated to a local women’s shelter.
When women arrive at shelters, they are faced with the insecurity of a temporary living arrangement. By providing toiletry bags for shelter guests, we give them a grounding reminder that they are valued and deserving of something to call their own. The holidays present a mix of factors that can contribute to heightened emotions and subsequently violence. Financial stress, alcohol abuse, and more time at home can be a toxic combination. Our goal is to provide some sense of ownership during a difficult time. Toiletry bags filled with items women and families really need can make a huge difference in their shelter experience.
