Carlie Ballard. Hand-woven, timeless luxuries for the creators, travellers, and protectors of our planet.

 

 

 Carlie Ballard creates timeless, hand-woven luxury and bespoke pieces, designed to be worn across seasons, borders, and boundaries. The effortless designs and careful tailoring are made to empower the dreamers, artists, and women nurturing the next generation and the planet. All custom fabrics have been hand-loomed with organic cotton and dyed with Oeko Tek certified dyes by sustainably employed artisans in Hyderabad, India - weaving the spirit of the artists into each piece. This ancient artform is , and has been passed down from generation to generation. It’s slow clothing to inspire a new world.

  

 

 

 

Creating pieces with purity, authenticity, diligence, care and honesty is what the world needs more of. 
Less is so much more. 
Hand-Loom Fabric

Clothing contributes over 8 percent of all greenhouse gases and, if things continue as is, by 2050 more than 25 percent of the entire global carbon budget will go to this one industry.

Quantis completed a study in 2018 highlighting for the first time that the process within the clothing supply chain that creates the largest carbon footprint is in fact at the mills where the fibre is spun and the yarn is woven into fabric.

It's a whopping 75% of the entire lifecycle of the garment!

So what we now know is that addressing sustainability must be done first and foremost with fabric and what energy is used to create it.

You can read the full study here : Quantis

This important study has truly answered so many questions around what is the best place to start when it comes to conscious production. Three quarters of a garments impact is in the making of the yarn and fabric!

Our affinity with ikat has always been lead by the cultural heritage, it’s importance as a strong employer in rural settings (by keeping families together in their village), the beautiful hand-made nature of the craft and of course the beauty of the fabric being woven by traditional handlooms in people’s homes where electricity is scarce or completely unavailable. 

These points are not to be sneered at, however to have data on the true impact of this phase of the production of our fabric just elevates its beauty, ingenuity and craft to another realm.

We are so elated to also now offer our new collection in 100% GOTS certified organic cotton and dyed with Oeko Tex certified dyes.

To be able to offer this fabric in our collections that has such a minimal impact on the planet is truly a rewarding one.

IKAT

Pronouned ee-kat means to tie or bind yarn. Our GOTS certified organic cotton yarn is stretched out and the design is carefully drawn across the yarn by our artisan partners Natural loom Fabrics in Telangana, India. Then the artisan binds the individual yarns (often with discarded inner tyre tubes) to  follow the design. The yarn lengths are immersed into our Oeko Tex certified dye bath where the bound sections don’t absorb the dyes, and the process continues with new tying in a different section depending on how many colours the design has.

Once the dying phase is complete the dyed yarns are then carefully placed onto a handloom where the weaving stage begins.

The weaving co-operative we work with has 11 weaving couples + other women working on tyeing the warp to weaving, re filling the weft yarn and shuttles.

All weaving is done in the homes of the co-operative couples as such no electricity is available. Purely made by hand and human skill and energy.

 

 

 Cut Make Sew

Introducing our new manufacturing partner, Women Fiber to Fashion - a social enterprise dedicated to empowering marginalized and oppressed women and girls across India. Founded by social worker Ravi Shankar Kumar and his lawyer wife Sudha Singh, Women Fiber to Fashion works with handloom weavers and informal sector embroidery artisans in Delhi to provide them with skill development and livelihood opportunities.

At Carlie Ballard, we are committed to working with manufacturers who share our values of sustainability and social responsibility, and Women Fiber to Fashion fits the bill perfectly. Additionally, their efforts to promote the development of social enterprises in the textile/fashion industry aligns with our goal of creating a more equitable and inclusive industry.

We are excited to partner with Women Fiber to Fashion for our upcoming collections and are proud to support their mission of enhancing the social and economic lives of women and girls in India. Together, we hope to create beautiful and sustainable clothing that makes a positive impact on the world.

    Packaging and Aftercare
    Mail Bags
    We use Paperpak durable paper satchels. These can be recycled in your home recycling bin, composted or put in your worm farm. And they are made from sustainably managed forests. After much feedback and from our own experience we feel these are the best option at the moment to continue the circularity of the postage packaging. Please share your thoughts and ideas with us as we are always looking to improve.
    Packaging
    As consumers we have become overwhelmed by packaging. It's lovely, I get it, but ultimately it needs to be thrown away or recycled at best. So we have decided to reduce reduce reduce the need for over packaging. The idea of sending in a lovely box sounds wonderful but for us this means more carbon, more recycling and more management at your end for it's end of life. So we hope our less is more approach to packaging is a refreshing new experience.
    We wrap our garments in Ecocern brown paper which is 100% post consumer recycled paper collected from local households and industry. And they are 100% Australian owned. 
    Included in our package is a postcard to keep as a mini artwork.
    Garment Aftercare
    This is an opportunity for you to reduce your garment's environmental footprint by following some simple steps. Over washing of garment's, or using dry cleaners can mean our garments can create a huge environmental footprint from laundering alone!
    GINETEX, the international association for textile and garment care labels has released a trademarked symbol called 'Clevercare' which offers sustainable garment care information to reduce the impact of the laundering processes.
    These are their 5 simple steps to clever and sustainable garment care:
    1. Don't wash your clothes too often.
    2. Lower the temperature when machine washing.
    3. Think of reducing the amount you use a dryer.
    4. Ironing only when necessary.
    5. Use dry clean only when absolutely necessary.
    You can read further about these steps at the Clevercare website.
    Mending
    We also encourage mending! We now include a swatch of fabric with each and every piece we send out. This is to keep for any mending your garment may need in the future. A tiny hole at the knee doesn't mean your garment needs to go to landfill. Mend it instead. We're currently working on some mini how to video's to help you mend your way to a sustainable and lasting wardrobe! We also include a spare button, because sometimes they do go missing!

     

    Advocacy

    Carlie is also a sustainable clothing advocate and a founding director of  Clean Cut Fashion Association, Australia's Ethical and Sustainable Fashion Association. The CCFA is the Australian fashion industry body addressing the future of fashion through sustainable and ethical practices.
    Clean cut launched in 2014 at MBFWA  marking a historic shift in the Australian fashion landscape. From the launch event Clean Cut Fashion has hosted annual seminars discussing topical issues on sustainability in the fashion landscape on the MBFWA schedule.
    Clean Cut is taking a hiatus while the founders are all enjoying motherhood.