#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «
Text
>> no one can top our DM for our Saturday games, where I play Eliyen, NO ONE CAN
They send us actual lore documents. Physical lore documents, and I was the first to get mine send to me. She put code in!!!!! That we decoded together on call as a group because it went right past me!!! They're so well made and so cool AND I LOVE THIS CAMPAIGN SO MUCH
#» at the campfire [ooc] «#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «#YOU DONT KNOW HOW AWESOME HE IS#BEST DM EVER#ITS SO COOL
4 notes
·
View notes
Link
Fashion is finally waking up to sustainability – but the lexicon surrounding eco-friendly and ethical fashion is fraught with inaccuracies. In ‘Get Your Greens’, Vogue explores how the industry is advancing towards a greener future.
Fashion has always had a weakness for oxymorons. Take “athleisure” – that peculiar clash of athletic meets sweat-free casual. Ditto “affordable luxury”. Its latest self-contradictory crush? “Vegan leather”.
Otherwise known as synthetic leather, it used to be colloquially identified as (insert sniffy voice here) “pleather”. It is mostly made from polyurethane, a versatile polymer made from fossil fuels, or polyvinyl chloride (PVC), another form of plastic, and was formerly derided as cheap – the “skinted” alternative to “minted” butter-soft lambskin.
by ELLIE PITHERS
But with the industry’s move away from fur – Gucci, Michael Kors, Giorgio Armani and Ralph Lauren are just some of the luxury brands to have gone fur-free – comes a reassessment of other animal-based products. In particular, the production of leather has come under increased scrutiny.
Nearly half of Net-A-Porter’s buy for Nanushka this autumn comprises vegan leather pieces.
Animal rights campaigners point to the harsh treatment of animals farmed in industrial processes. Environmentalists point to the greenhouse gas emissions associated with raising livestock, of which leather is a byproduct – agriculture, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, is responsible for up to 18 per cent of the total release of greenhouse gases worldwide. Then there is the deforested land on which those animals often graze, and the giant vats of hazardous chemicals in which the leather is tanned (very often, these are subsequently dumped into rivers).
Yet the alternative faux leathers come at a significant environmental cost. Both polyurethane and polyvinyl chloride must undergo chemical processes to make them flexible enough to mimic leather: the former involves painting liquified polyeurethane onto a fabric backing, which requires a toxic solvent to render it fluid; the latter requires placticizers such as phthalates, which are also toxic. Both derive from fossil fuels which, when burnt, release materials such as ash, nitrogen and carbon into the atmosphere, which contribute to acid rain (as well as lots of other horrible things). And both take hundreds of years to biodegrade in landfill – a fate they are arguably more likely to meet, because the cheap, faux leather jacket you snagged for a fiver at Watford market is far less likely to be handed down through generations as an heirloom. (Besides, this country sends over 300,000 tonnes of clothing to landfill every year.)
Topshop's "vegan leather" shoe collection was released in April.
That hasn’t stopped numerous fashion brands bandying around the term “vegan leather” with increased enthusiasm. I’ve lost count of the number of press releases dropping into my inbox in recent weeks screaming about these so-called sustainable leather alternatives. Presumably that’s because consumer interest is at an all-time high. Lyst reports that over the past six months, searches for vegan leather have increased by 119 per cent. Meanwhile, the term “vegan fashion” has been responsible for over 9.3 million social impressions.
Stella McCartney Is Looking For Green-Minded Collaborators To Radically Shake Things Up
Marks & Spencer has observed particular success. Searches for “vegan” fashion doubled on its website last year, and it has increased its vegan footwear offering as a result. In April, Topshop launched a Peta-approved vegan leather shoe collection comprising 12 shapes developed in its factory in Spain, touted as “100 per cent non-animal and non-fish glue”. Even Dr Martens offers a 100 per cent vegan leather alternative to its classic 1460 leather boot.
Nanushka's vegan leather is REACH-certified under EU regulations, which mitigates the effect of harmful chemicals.
by POPPY ROY
Net-A-Porter.com has also seen increased pick-up in sales of faux leather. At its autumn/winter 2019 trends presentation, global buying director Elizabeth von der Goltz flagged how Ukrainian brand Ochi’s faux leather shirt (£470) almost sold out in its first two weeks on sale. Nanushka, a Budapest-based label that is another star brand for the retailer, has made its name with the “Hide”, a vegan leather puffer jacket owned by every Instagram influencer worth their salt, along with its “Taurus” vegan leather maxi dress.
Moda Operandi's fashion director Lisa Aiken in Nanushka's Chiara vegan leather trench coat
Nanushka’s vegan leather is made from polyurethane and polyester, though designer Sandra Sandor is at pains to point out that it is REACH-certified under EU regulations, which mitigates the effect of harmful chemicals. Subsequently, nearly half of Net-A-Porter’s buy for Nanushka this autumn comprises vegan leather pieces. “The fabric feels so supple and amazing, you’d never know the difference,” says Von der Goltz.
by SOPHIE SLATER
Stella McCartney agrees: she launched her eponymous label in 2001 with “vegetarian” principles (she has never used fur, leather, skin or feathers). Since 2013 she has used “alter-nappa” for her best-selling Falabella bag, shoes and ready-to-wear – a blend of polyester and polyurethane with a recycled polyester backing. Her faux leather has eco-credentials: the alter-nappa coating is made with 60 per cent vegetable oil; her polyurethanes are water-borne and solvent-free, meaning they’re less energy- and water-intensive and made without toxic solvents. Her website cites a statistic from Environmental Profit and Loss (EP&L) that “using recycled polyester instead of Brazilian calf leather, for example, creates 24 times less of an environmental impact”. But even she has had to acknowledge “that the synthetic alternatives we use are not without environmental concerns”. She is looking into lab-grown leather as an alternative.
The result is one big game of fashion whack-a-mole – you cut out one toxin over here, and it emerges again several steps later down the supply chain. As a journalist and a fashion-lover, I find myself casting around for an easy equation to adopt when weighing up a purchase. Should I save up for a much-lusted after Givenchy leather blazer, at £3,174, knowing I will wear it for life – or the faux leather Low Classic alternative, at £355, which I may well go off in several months’ time? Should I indulge my animal-lover instincts in favour of a synthetic alternative that may well have a far harsher impact on the environment? What about microfibres? What about fossil fuels? What about shipping, and packaging, and dry cleaning?
MOTHER OF PEARL
31 Aug 2018
There are always trade-offs to consider. Amy Powney, creative director of Mother of Pearl, is particularly torn on the leather debate. “There are some big issues in the production of leather [but] I do think that “vegan leather” is a marketing disaster,” she says. “Brands and suppliers are jumping on this term to associate with an ethical movement, which instantly makes the consumer feel good. But if you are buying faux leather, you need to consider you are buying plastic.”
At Gabriela Hearst's New York store, with reclaimed oak flooring, the lights dim automatically. No synthetics or chemicals were used in its construction.
READ NEXT
6 Documentaries On Sustainability That Will Make You Think Twice6 Documentaries On Sustainability That Will Make You Think Twice
by SUSAN DEVANEY
She has recently been investigating “best practice leather” as well as vegetable-tanning, which uses natural tanning agents, largely because it’s far more durable than the current faux leather options on the market. “Because the other question is, which one lasts longer?” she says. “If you buy leather goods from a brand that has high standards and ethics of leather practices, and you look after your purchase, leather can last for a really long time.”
The designer Gabriela Hearst, who breeds grass-fed, free-range cattle on the family ranch in Uruguay, is of a similar opinion. “I would be willing to use vegan leather any time, but I haven’t found one that biodegrades 100 per cent,” she says, over the phone from New York. “Everyone talks about lab-grown leather, which sounds very exciting, but is still in its very early stages. A true luxury customer knows what quality looks like – you can’t fool them. What I can do, however, is try to use things that already exist – dead-stock, bi-products. It’s a complicated issue but I focus on the waste aspect: I know that when the organic cattle we breed is sent to the slaughter house, 99 per cent of it gets used and nothing goes to waste.”
The designer Gabriela Hearst on the family ranch in Uruguay.
In the past year, Hearst has successfully switched all her packaging to compostable and biodegradable alternatives, including recycled cardboard hangers. She is in the process of re-routing delivery processes from plane to boat – no mean feat, given that one needs to build in an 8-12 week window of delay into the production schedule. “But it’s good for business,” she insists. “Shipping by boat is cheaper than shipping by plane. I’m looking at my buying orders, cutting them down, too. Being less wasteful saves you money.”
H&M's latest Conscious collection makes use of Piñatex - a leather substitute made from discarded pineapple leaves.
More good news: a new crop of viable leather alternatives is in production. H&M’s latest Conscious collection, a sustainably-minded capsule, makes use of Piñatex, a fibre made in the Philippines from discarded pineapple leaves to make faux-leather. Frumat leather made from apple peel won the Green Carpet Challenge awards in Milan in September, and sustainable denim brand Boyish is planning to use it in its autumn/winter 2020 collection. Mylo, otherwise known as mushroom leather, was debuted by start-up Bolt Threads in 2018, and is made from lab-grown mycelium, the root structure of fungi.
Livia Firth's Met Gala 2017 dress was designed by Laura Strambi and made from Piñatex, a leather-like material made from discarded pineapple leaves.
So, will we soon be toting funghi-based Fendi bags around town? Not quite. As Honor Cowen, a north America-based consultant at sustainability consultancy Anthesis, tells Vogue: “New vegan leather products that are bio-based offer alternatives, but need to scale considerably (and resourcefully) to be able to compete with the plastic market.”
The fact remains that we all need to buy less, and buy better. “Look for signs of quality and durability. I have a limited number of leather items in my wardrobe, all of which have been in my possession for a long time and will be worn or used until they break irreparably,” says Cowen. Powney agrees. “Whether you’re buying real or faux leather, make sure it’s of high quality, that you look after it, and only buy what you really need from brands that genuinely care.” Ask brands for information. Study those composition labels. In 2019, the best any of us can do is to be well educated.
0 notes
Text
>> campaign things under the cut
FINALLY had the next private sesh with my DM! have written up notes once again, here are more of my favorite lines
" My love, I have never felt this helpless, this… lonely."
"It filled me with dread and anxiety that I no longer feel now that I’ve severed my connection to the Weave."
"I’m as free as I ever was, I think."
"But I will play along for now, at least until I get you back, my love."
"I still am; nothing will stop me from getting you back."
"[...] and my weapons have been unkind to me [...]"
"I’m not yet confident or familiar with my new abilities, it makes using them rather difficult."
"I didn’t think I’d relive the day of my murder today, but there it was, coming back to haunt me."
"Death no longer has a claim on me, it seems [...]"
"Ami said that “plans generations in the making are coming to fruition” and I’m questioning how much of my life has been my conscious choice, and how much I’ve been puppeteered by forces foreign to me."
"It’s such an odd feeling, knowing Ami is doing so much for me, is so patient with me."
#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «#» a personal anecdote [eliyen] «#dantana is an npc we've only heard about#the reveal that he was there WAS THE BIGGEST SHOCK
0 notes
Text
>> campaign things under the cut ect ect
right, so, I have private sessions with my DM atm because,, well, Kaspan died (it's a whole thing lol if i care to talk abt it i will at some point) and Eliyen is currently DESPERATE to bring him back, so she's split from the party and allied herself with a Narminian (alien person from our DM's homebrew) who promised her he can bring him back if she helps him. I'm currently taking notes on that session, and here's some of my favorite lines, all of them along the lines of "Eliyen loves Kaspan so SO MUCH":
"My dearly beloved Kaspan, if you read this, I will have passed on, beyond the point of no return. Mourn not; my soul is not worthy of your grief."
"[...] I could hardly refuse, for I am, my love, desperate to see you again, desperate for you to live again. To fix what I have wrought upon you."
"I had feared for nightmares… I still do. I know not how to comfort myself without you by my side, my love."
"I’m not sure what I feel, or if I made the right choice. But, my love, it is to return you to the living. For you, I’d risk it all."
#» at the campfire [ooc] «#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «#i love eliyen#and she loves kaspan <3#i love the moral implications that will probably pop up soon#regarding her helping a narminian who's goal is to (probably) take over the material plane#ah to have someone love you so much they'd doom the world for you <3
0 notes
Text
YELLS IT’S DONE
I spend 15h over like,,, 5 days on this damned thing AND IT’S FINALLY DONE!!!
It’s Eliyen with some flower language! Dark red roses, bleeding heart, gloxinia, for unrequited love and white roses, pink & red carnations, purple lilacs, white lilies for unconditional love!
#» at the campfire [ooc] «#» what a gorgeous painting [art] «#» a personal anecdote [eliyen] «#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «#YELLS#THIS TOOK SO LONG BUT IT’S SO WORTH IT
0 notes
Text
>> Eliyen/Kaspan musing under the cut
Do you think he could love you, if he knew? If he was well? If his memories didn't slip from him by the second? It's not that you don't love him as he is; you do. You always will. But it's hard, isn't it? You two banter, even in geunine moments, that the lines blurr, and it's hard to know what he means and what he jokes about. If it wasn't so; if he was well again, if his memory stayed with him, do you think he'd still be there? Do you think he could love you, as you are? You, who takes lives not because you must, but because you fear the consequences more than the guilt.
How much is there that you wish to say? How badly do you want to grab his masked face, tell him to look at you and just see? See how much he means to you, how dear he is to your heart. How badly do you want to tell him, all of it? That you'd forsake your own happiness, your own soul for him. That you'd follow where he goes, even if it spelled out your doom. And don't you want to tell him? Tell him how your heart aches for him, how he's captured you, mind, heart and forsaken soul. And don't you just want to hear him say it? Don't you just want him to tell you he feels the same? That he adores you. Even if it was a lie.
But you're already resigned to your fate. You see your doom as inevitable, know this won't, can't last much longer. You are mortal; he is undead. Fate will surely tear you apart one way or another; perhaps sooner, perhaps later. It was never meant to last. It was never meant to be. Yet, here you swim; in a sea of unrequited, or unclear love. Your heart yearning and aching and reaching for something that will never be yours.
If, at least, you could die by his hand, perhaps then, you could die a happy woman. Knowing your last moments were spent in the arms of someone you so deeply adore.
#» some have said that about me… [musings] «#» so ive heard… [headcanons] «#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «#cw death#i love eliyen's unrequited love theme#her and kaspan are just so#ugh i love them#if only i was brave enough to talk with kaspan's player abt all my thoughts lolol
0 notes
Text
>> Campaign musings below the cut
We had a moment last session were Eliyen and Kaspan had a little back and forth about sleeping arrangements and Kaspan mentioned that Eliyen "knows how he feels about shared beds" or something along those lines, implying he prefers sleeping by himself.
Meanwhile, I've had a headcanon for Eliyen that she tends to seek comfort with Kaspan a lot, specifically, she tends to just crawl into his bed when she's had a nightmare and needs to be close to someone.
Now, Kaspan disliking (or saying he dislikes) sharing a bed with Eliyen really doesn't negate this for me.
It adds onto it.
The amount of times she's come to him at night and muttered something along the lines of "I know, just let me", or he'd be like "alright, but this is the last time" and then it isn't, it never is, because Eliyen has nightmares very regularly, and she always seeks comfort, she can't be alone with it. Not anymore.
#» some have said that about me… [musings] «#» a personal anecdote [eliyen] «#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «#» at the campfire [ooc] «#» so ive heard… [headcanons] «#THEY'RE SO YOUR HONOR THEY ARE#they bicker so much in campaign but they CARE about each other#THEY DO SO MUCH I SWEAR#eliyen gets worried when Kaspan gets hurt#kaspan gets worried when eliyen gets hurt#THEY ARE SO
0 notes
Text
>>I said I'd talk about Kaspan and Eliyen, and I WILL talk about Kaspan and Eliyen
This is campaign specific stuff, so I'll put it under the cut
For some context, Kaspan is a PC in our campaign. He's a dhampir with severe memory loss/issues, due to him traversing the Deadlands, which is a very toxic wasteland in the south east of the continent. He can briefly regain memories by consuming human(oid) flesh.
Him and Eliyen met some years ago, when he first became a dhampir and slaughtered everyone in a run down bar. She let him do it and intented on killing him in turn, but when she couldn't, they decided to travel together. They've since figured out that Eliyen's music calms his bloodlust too, and Kaspan as a device that plays some of her songs.
SO
I can only really speak on Eliyen's feelings towards Kaspan, since it's not my place to speak on another player's character.
Eliyen adores Kaspan, ridiculously so, much more than she lets on. She often feels he's the only one who understands her situation; he needs to kill to keep his memory, she needs to kill because of her pact. They're in a similar situation, Eliyen really can't tell anyone else about it without receiving harsh judgement or death right then and there. She clings to Kaspan, as he's been one of the only constants in her life since her pact with Azar. A light, of sorts, a source of comfort. Someone to confide in. Someone who isn't judging her for what she does.
In Eliyen's view, Kaspan kills out of necessity, and she kills for "selfish" reasons; she could just leave her debt as is and take the torture in the afterlife instead of ridding 1000 people of their lives. Yet out of fear of it, she does it anyways. Because of that, she views herself as a monster, as someone to stay away from. And she's so stunned that Kaspan is still with her, because, technically they don't really need each other anymore. Kaspan has the recording of Eliyen's songs to keep his bloodlust at bay, and Eliyen doesn't really need to be protected, she can defend herself just fine. Well, tbf, Eliyen needs Kaspan for emotional support and comfort, but she'd be relatively fine by herself. She just couldn't bring herself to leave him, even if she knows (thinks) he'd be better off without her.
She also doesn't really let on how much she adores Kaspan, partically because she thinks no one could love a monster like her, and partically because Kaspan is probably going to live a lot longer than her. He's ageless, at this point, he might just live forever, while she, now that she had to trade in her elven form for her tiefling one, will live 80 - 100 more years at most. She'll age and wither away and die, and she can't do that to Kaspan. She can't reveal how she feels and then eventually just leave him behind. I think her plan for the time being is fulfill her pact, get her revenge and reunite with her daughter so she can retire.
I've,,, been writing on this for so long I kinda lost the point lmao. Point being, Eliyen really adores Kaspan but would never let it on, not in a way he'd realize. Or maybe she already has, once or twice, but he's just forgotten, which is a thought I really like. The thought of her going "you'll forget in a few days time, and that is fine, just know that I adore you, much more than you may realize" and then she watches as the memory of it fades from him. Idk. I like them, they're a tragic duo, and I think they can only end in tragedy.
#» some have said that about me… [musings] «#» a personal anecdote [eliyen] «#» the ashes formerly known as green [campaign things] «#» so ive heard… [headcanons] «#» at the campfire [ooc] «#cw cannibalism#cw death#cw murder#cw memory loss#this is so incoherent lmao#i just love kaspan and eliyen as a duo#theyre just#ugh theyre everything#they have such a dynamic
0 notes
Last Seen Blogs
