2025
Sustainability & Us
The slow fashion movement aims to break cycles of waste and overconsumption on our planet, respecting the environment, animals and people.
Simone Howard handcrafted crochet bags & accessories are created with eco friendly, sustainably sourced high quality natural yarns, and unusual often discarded vintage fabrics and finds.
As an example she has recently sourced and purchased exquisite skeins of vintage gold and platinum yarns in Japan.
Such attention to detail combines with Simone’s expert craftsmanship to guarantee for her customers and clients many years of use and enjoyment of their chosen item.
An excellent way to embrace slow fashion is to choose sustainable and responsibly sourced materials.
For a more thoughtful and responsible way of engaging with clothing and accessories, why not consider:
What are the raw materials, and how are they sourced?
What manufacturing processes are involved?
Are all of the above conducted in an environmentally and socially responsible manner?
Simone uses natural raw materials - for example, sustainably harvested and handspun hemp yarn from a rural village in Thailand - in combination with exquisite silks and other finds from Indonesia, Japan and France - to make her creations. Most of her work is created on demand, minimising wastage. Unused yarn is wound into small balls and often forms the basis of a new concept of woven or crochet artwork.
Slow fashion as a movement is one that emphasises a conscious approach to fashion consumption.
It stands in contrast to fast fashion, which is characterized by rapid production cycles, low-cost materials, and a focus on trends that often lead to environmental degradation and labor exploitation.
At its core, slow fashion promotes the idea of quality over quantity.
Slow fashion encourages consumers to invest in fewer, high-quality items that are designed to last.
By choosing slow fashion, prioritizing sustainability, supporting ethical production and mindful consumption, individuals can play a crucial role in transforming the fashion industry into a more responsible and environmentally friendly sector.
Simone lives with her husband in a mud cob home they built themselves using raw materials from the property on which they reside. Similarly her studio was made using mud cob techniques. Solar power is employed upon their property.
Hand dyeing of yarn using flowers collected from the Blue Mountains, New South Wales, Australia. Here the flower heads are added to not quite boiling water, and allowed to steep for several minutes. Where the natural dye touches the yarn, it dyes a beautifully rich yellow orange that fades in and out when the yarn is unwound to be dried.
The purpose of simonehoward.com is to create a place where the hand weaving and crochet of cloth is explored, and a love of ecofriendly and sustainably nature fibres is fostered.
I have journeyed far in my six decades - in distance, and in my creative experiences. In addition to exploring crochet, weaving and natural fibres of every description and origin, I have journeyed into architecture, fine art, visual arts, photography, education, the spinning and dyeing of yarn using natural fibres, drawing, painting, exhibiting, travel …and sculptural form. Sculptural form is the one that really stuck. The elements of technique, form, function and aesthetic considerations, and how one can meld all of these elements to make something lasting and beautiful resonates with me on a deep level, creating and displacing space, communicating the rhythms of nature.
Nature and natural fibres and yarns are dynamic and in a state of constant change. This is, in my mind, the soul and heart of creativity.
Creativity is a wonderful journey that encourages and demands my personal and artistic growth, as I conceptualise and make pieces that can be intrinsically understood through their own sculptural and decorative form.