Our Mission
Our mission is to revive and modernize traditional natural solutions in engineering technical and outdoor clothing. We will be reading poetry, while doing it.
Outdoor activities are generally synonymous with a heightened ecological awareness among their practitioners, for the simple reason that they are in contact with nature, and for some, have been for long enough to witness the profound changes that human activity is producing.
Yet a National Geographic article by Freddie Wilkinson, dated November 2020, has finally validated the intuition we have already had for some time: technical outdoor clothing, through its method of production but also through the materials used, is a part of the problem.
Indeed, in this article reporting on the discovery of Micro Plastics at the summit of Mount Everest, Freddie Wilkinson writes:
« Synthetic fabrics constantly shed trace amounts of fibers as they're worn. One study found that a gram of synthetic clothing releases 400 microplastic fibers every 20 minutes of use, which could add up to a billion fibers a year for a coat weighing around two pounds.
The microplastics on Everest are largely made up of polyester, followed by acrylic, nylon, and polypropylene-materials all commonly used in outdoor gear. » {1}
Yet the race to Mount Everest comes with other memories regarding the equipment used by climbers : we have all seen the images of Sir Edmund Hillary’s expedition, but unfortunately the race for synthetic clothing was already well underway in 1953.
Other images come to our mind: the ones from George Mallory and Sandy Ivine’s expedition and we still don’t know if they reached the summit.
1924 - Everest Expedition Team - Sandy Irvine and George Mallory are the ones on the back row from left to right - Credit: John Noel.
In an experiment carried out in the mid-2000s, following the discovery of Mallory's body in 1999 and the study of his textile equipment, climber Graham Holland was able to test the different layers : composed of wool gabardine, cotton and merino wool, in real-life conditions. {2}
His conclusion is clear: « the clothing of the 1924 climbers George Mallory and Sandy Irvine would not have prevented them from reaching the summit, as many had believed. » In fact, the opposite was true, with greater ease of movement, due in part to lighter weight, and an absence of the itchiness as well as the unpleasant odors that often accompany synthetic gear.
These materials and fibres provided by nature have enabled us to live and survive in sometimes extreme environments since the dawn of time, in harmony with it and with respect for it.
As Gary Snyder says so well in The Practice of the Wild : « Nature is not a place to visit, it is our home.
Every home is a sanctuary to be protected, celebrated and admired.
C. Writings draws its inspiration from this shared admiration for the Greatness of nature and the Poets and Writers who celebrate it.
Each garment and good is meticulously created by skilled artisans, ensuring that every piece is a testament to both enduring style and a profound connection to nature’s elements.
By using natural fibers such as wool, cotton and linen, we are working toward a sustainable development while bringing back to life an era when the outdoors and fashion were wonderfully intertwined.
An era we believe should be a blueprint for a better future.
Help us finance the Research&Development of next pieces by investing in our first products.
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