Rapanui Blog

Rapanui is an Eco-Fashion company from the Isle of Wight, that makes Organic, Ethical clothing using Renewable Energy with award-winning traceability. Rapanui is about making eco-fashion cool.

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No Bikes Allowed

Category: Inside Rapanui

We had a friendly visitor dressed in a fluorescent jacket today. He told us that we had to remove the bicycle locked up on the lamp post outside...

There's about 8 of us here at Rapanui and whilst it's not every single day, for the most part four cycle to work, two bus it, one skateboards and one drives. In fact, we recently won the Wight Wheels challenge - Rapanui employees cycled more miles to work last year than those at any other Island business. Despite that, we've been unable to get that one driving addict to change: He's from the mainland and complains about the train being noisy. Working on him though.

Anyway, when the four cyclists ride in, we keep a couple of the bikes on a rack out the back, one of them we chain up to a post in the street and the other locks up round the front of the shop.

Sandown is a town where there's as many boarded up shops as there are takeaways. But it's our home, and rather than go to the mainland and run Rapanui, we decided to open up a fab shop and warehouse on Sandown high street. Do our bit to get the place going again.

It's been great to help share Rapanui and create opportunities for other young people on the Isle of Wight. Plus, it's quite funny watching the coach tourists trying to work out what EcoFashion means - and generally they're quite pleasantly surprised to see the yoof of today doing something new here. Every day we're reminded why we are here by the contrast of trying to think about the future - whilst living in an area that some say is behind the times. We want to be positive about the Island's future and contribute.

Some people don't share the same view. Today an official walked in our shop. It appears he'd been called in to investigate the fact that we had parked a bicycle outside. This, he says, is unacceptable and requested that it was removed immediately. We explained that we'd been trying to get a proper cycle rack for the town for some time: Bike mad Jack in the print shop has made a few calls to our local councillors over the last few months to get a proper covered rack made as he's worried about his bum getting wet. Either way, our request has not been taken up as yet - so we have to park our bikes on lampposts. Pretty standard move surely?

Not in Sandown. If you try to lock up your bike to a lamp-post, it is illegal. "Technically this lamp-post is road furniture, and this could be considered to be blocking a thoroughfare." So we asked for some advice to help us identify where abouts we COULD park our bikes. Jeremy Paxman style we tried this Five times. In return, he refused to tell us, five times. Tough stance these men with clipboards. He also said if we don't like that, we should take it up with our local council and that either way, "you can't park your bikes here from now on." As a solution, he suggested that Rapanui "advise their staff not to park their bikes near the premises - and leave the problem with them."

After about 5 minutes, the best on offer was leaving them in the motorcycle section of the carpark behind the town centre, or somewhere like that. Then after a few more minutes, we discovered that there was actually a 'hoop' in the high street for chaining bikes to, but he advised that we shouldn't put too many bikes on it. Now, we understand that you cant leave bikes if they're in the way of say, wheelchair users or prams. But there was room enough between the bike and the wall for two blokes (our designer and the fluro-jacket man) - to stand and have a pointless conversation whilst a third took a photo. It all seems a bit daft!

If you were considering visitng Rapanui on your bicycle, think twice before venturing out. It may be removed by a fluorescent man if it is locked to the wrong lamp post.

Ours wont' though, because we're leaving it there. We'll move it if our fluorescent jacketed friend can provide us with a safe place to park it - perhaps by converting just a single one of the car-parking spaces provided into a covered bike rack - but until then, we've gathered up all the locks we can find, and bolted that bike down like it's made of gold.

Hi sustainability, welcome to Sandown

Kate Humble in Orbit

Category: Ambassadors

If you've read the title and assumed we've sent the trendy natural history presenter into space, you're close but you're not right.

Kate Humble has done a lot for the natural world - bringing the great outdoors into people's homes on TV programmes like Springwatch, Autumnwatch and Wild in Africa. In the days of iPhones, festivals and non-stop party people, it's easy to forget that there's a world out there full of amazing things to do and see.

The Marine Conservation Society are a UK-based charity that looks after our marine and coastal environments. They do a great job and the results of their conservation work can be seen first-hand by coastal communities. At Rapanui we begun a partnership with the charity in our first year, making their t-shirts and also selling their prints on our online store to raise money for their campaigns. It's something we've stuck with for almost four years now and we don't ever want to stop.

Kate Humble does a lot of work as an ambassador for the Marine Conservation Society, so when we tuned in to her new TV show - Orbit - last night, we were stoked to see her wearing one of our MCS Save Our Seas Tops.

The programme follows Kate and Dr Helen Czerski around the planet across one year learning about how our journey around the Sun affects the environment, the seasons and life. You can check out the clip on iPlayer here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/i/b01d7kd5/?t=46m42s

The MCS commented:

"It’s great to see Kate sporting the Rapanui t-shirt that has been raising funds for MCS on the high street. Kate, who has been a long-time supporter of MCS, was a strong voice for MCS during our campaign to secure Marine Acts in Scotland and the UK, which are now in place. She strongly supports our work to create a network of 127 Marine Protected Zones around the UK and has promoted our beach litter work too. Kate has narrated a number of films for MCS including our animated film ‘Turtles in Trouble’ which shows how small changes to our behaviour while on holiday can make big differences to the lives of those spectacular animals."

You can shop online for the Rapanui Save Our Seas tops here: MEN'S | WOMEN'S

Renewable Education

Category: Environment

Sometimes we don't like change in Britain. It's a good culture for preventing over-development, keeping our heritage intact and looking after our green spaces. But the same protective instincts sometimes hold us back from being open minded about new technologies and buildings that we need.

Our landfill sites are filling up and nationally, because of a range of variables coming together (Nuclear and Coal stations going offline, declining North Sea Gas, lack of Gas storage, unreliable international markets and slow renewable energy development) we're at a bit of a crossroads - where do we want our new energy resources to come from? What's the new way to deal with our waste?

It's a great opportunity to change things for good.

Many of the largest energy infrastructure projects (like the new nuclear builds) are decided at a national level. The decision making process is made at a different resolution to normal planning, where local opinions sometimes get lost in the scale of it all. Conversely renewable energy tends to be by nature a ‘distributed’ technology where lots of little developments add up to one big contribution. This creates a bit of a disadvantage: One decision at national level for centralised power (fossil fuels or nuclear energy); many smaller decisions at local level for renewable developments. Arguably, renewable energy as a whole faces more 'potential opposition' than fossil or nuclear power.

So we're at a crossroads, debating the future of our energy supplies - and the old way has the upper hand.

Imagine though, if the population all wanted renewable energy? Whilst our foreign neighbours have been generating their low-carbon power, we've been busy debating whether the stuff actually works: Our education system doesn’t have the dedicated renewable energy learning that other European countries have, so there are myths out there that need debunking. The cost of challenging myths falls to the renewable energy developer - and it is expensive. That adds to the cost of any renewable energy project: But it almost invariably leads to suspicion as the 'educator' is also making profit - a clear conflict of interest in the public's eyes and an argument the renewable energy sector can't win on its own.

As a result, this whole process in the UK is quite slow and expensive. In fact, for every Wind Turbine installed onshore in the UK something like £250,000 (depending on who you speak to)* must be put aside to pay for costs associated with the planning process. The lack of information, education and governance of communication is a key reason why green energy is more expensive in the UK than abroad.

When 101 Conservative leaders wrote to David Cameron this month stating that onshore wind was too expensive, and the policies need changing, they were right. But they missed the point – It’s about reducing the costs associated with public opposition - yet they stated that wind turbines are “unreliable and inefficient” - and to counter this, local planners should have more power to make permission harder to get for developers. They got it wrong: Dangerous words from people in power - but usefully they exposed a key issue underlying the expense of green electricity in this country: The need for more Renewable Energy education across all levels of our society, from school teachers to the PM.

A Different Road.

Perhaps this lack of knowledge, or the way the market is set up, leads to a disconnection between Britons and the technologies; seeing the developments as “alien” and profiteering. In contrast, Denmark’s policies encourage local communities to invest in renewable energy projects locally and dividends from the share of their success. The planning costs are minimal, and the people look after the turbines that they own, as they bring them a steady income.

Denmark has a huge percentage of its power derived from renewable energy sources and, take note - no problems with the price of its electricity.

Perhaps we should take a leaf out of Denmark’s book. We mentioned landfill sites earlier. Denmark faces the same issues as us - landfill sites coming to the end of their life and cities expanding. Looking to do something with their waste, they quite reasonably settled on the idea of an energy from waste plant in Copenhagen. Close to the city, and able to handle all types of waste, the facility will cut transport carbon emissions and reduce landfill, whilst providing base-load grid electricity.

But rather than propose the plans to the people – and incur the expense of a lengthy planning battle, they have launched a competition – engaging the community, asking the people what they would like the facility to be and they doing it. Waste-to-energy power stations are usually ugly eyesores, but this new power station is different: it is designed to blow smoke rings and double as a ski slope and will be operational in 2016. And because Renewable Energy is part of the culture in Denmark, the people are content for this new building to be constructed - just as, in the UK, we don't question why our coal power stations are there.

Whilst we fight against change, other countries are embracing it. Perhaps it’s time to stop and think: Could we be a little more open minded about this stuff?

*University of Exeter, Renewable Energy F802 Course Content, 2009.

Martin Drake-Knight is a designer at Rapanui and Graduate of the Renewable Energy School at the University of Exeter Cornwall campus, and Associate of the Camborne School of Mines

Who won Murray?

Category: Inside Rapanui

Who won Murray the Cotton Monster?

It's time to say goodbye to our small, scary recycled friend - and let him go and live with one of our customers. But who?

If you didnt see the original post, we've been searching out a new home for Murray the Cotton Monster. When we were doing some research on waste recovery, we stumbled upon Cotton Monster - a site by Jennifer Strunge. She's an artist / maker and creates monsters from recycled clothing and linens. Each monster is proper scary, unique and handcrafted.

It's a great example of what you can do with a t-shirt, rather than throw it in the bin, and Jennifer has managed to build a small business around reclaiming, recycling and turning fabrics into long-lasting gifts. We sent her some scrap fabric and tees to see what could be done with our old fabrics and a month later, this came back - so we decided to give him away.

Here's the best of the entries....

John who thinks Murray would make an excellent Wind Farm Planning assistant, and and Abby Hennings who thinks Murray could keep her warm at night.

David in Belfast who says he'll give Murray the love and care he desperately needs... Gem Lawrence who managed four party-photos despite hating having her photo taken.. Leila who says she feels like a monster in the mornings and Rob Simms standing outside a TYF shop.

The lads: Sam Hart and his wolfpack, Ben Mason and his most flattering photo Matt Friday in Berlin and lee Hawksworth, his wife and his incredible anchorman moustache.

Team Harwood and team James, Rapanui training camps.

Cat McGovern's stripey socks, Vlad Burac and big Mike, Ben with a tee from the early days, Yoga Will Save the Day in the park, Team Day and Big George's taking a nap with his platypus...

All worthy entries.

But there can only be one winner, and that had to be Michael Stephenson, who was bold enough to try and incorporate a puppy in his photo and went the extra mile to stage this demolition. Well done everyone for getting involved.

So long Murray, we'll miss you...

Photo of the year

Category: Information

Nikon / Surfing Australia photo of the year.

There's a lot of "photo-of-the-year" prizes around at the moment - Great for lunch breaks. It's amazing how even in today's world, where everyone can have an HD, onboard headcam and home editing software that you could do your own Star Wars on, the still image still has the power to blow minds.

This shot, by Ray Collins is one of those occasions.

Madness.

Climbing into Spring

Category: Information

Winter, It's tough. Cold feet, rain and greyness: A tough look to shake off.

It's not long till it's over though, and so we thought we'd share this visual metaphor - like this inspirational tight-trousered sunglass wearing 80s mountaineer, we're about to climb into the sunlight of spring. One last push .. HNGHGaaargh

Russell Brand, not again

Category: Ambassadors

Russell Brand has been tearing up our t-shirts again.

Going to have to have a word next time we see him.

You can get your own Lightning Bolt T-shirt here: and recreate the Russell Brand look at home.

Afraid you'll have to rip your own sleeves off though...

Oil Drilling at Home

Category: Environment

Northern Petroleum Plc were awarded the rights to carry out oil drilling operations in two areas off the shores of the Isle of Wight this year.

The area to be evaluated runs along shoreline of the Island on the South West side, along the line of the Military Road and go out into a large triangle in the channel. This covers most of the most commonly surfed area of the Isle of Wight and is in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and a Heritage Coast area.

This is not good news according to stakeholders of the local marine environment, including recreational near shore water users, who say they are disappointed that rights had been awarded to prospect for Oil in the AONB.

The Isle of Wight Surf Club:

“Island Surfers including Surfers Against Sewage, the Isle of Wight Surf Club and Wight Surf History are disappointed to see oil exploration taking place on the Isle of Wight, in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. We hope the strongest possible safeguards are in place to prevent any damage to the environment, beaches and recreational coastlines on the island.

We call all the whole Isle of Wight surfing and beach loving community to be vigilant for any pollution in or damage to the coastal environment, beaches and surf spots arising from this project. It’s vital that the whole community engages with any new consultation processes for associated onshore infrastructure, new or related oil drilling projects. It is within public consultation frameworks that SAS supporters and the wider public can officially voice their concerns."

From our part, we think that it's worrying that in the same Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, we struggle with the acceptance of renewable energy but continue to look to polluting and finite sources of energy such as oil.

The Isle of Wight is well known nationally as being a "time warp" place that's a few years behind the pace of the rest of the country. It's nice to live here but sometimes on important issues we can get left behind a bit. For example, one of our most successful community groups is an anti-wind turbine campaign outfit called thWart, who recently shut down a few wind turbine applications on visual impact grounds - and the fact that they were near to an AONB. When asked by the local paper, they declined to comment on this oil drilling platform planning approval inside an AONB.

Fossil fuels are polluting, finite and expensive whilst renewable energy is sustainable, non-polluting and is responsible for a lot of local jobs on the Island.

In light of that, perhaps it's time for a rethink about what we want the future of this Island to look like. As with all success stories, it's important to embrace change, to try to work with it and make it what we want: To build a sustainable future rather than oppose it. Otherwise what the next generation inherits might be too far behind to put right.

Rapanui vs. Countryfile

Category: Good Causes

Countryfile. Got to be up there with the best of them in the Sunday-night tellybox rankings.

And it's about to get better, as this Sunday (the 12th of Feb) the Beeb are broadcasting an episode from the Isle of Wight, the greatest county in the land.

There'll be Country speed dating and campervan tours, but the episode comes to a climax when Ellie Harrison (presenter) gives surfing a go at our most popular West-coast beach, Compton. Not sure if they thought about the fact it is Febuary and really really cold, but to be fair they all got out there - cameraman included.

The Isle of Wight Surf Club is one of the oldest surf clubs in Europe - the Island has been surfed since the sixties - and thank's to Paul Blackley, a local surfer, all of the Island's surfing heritage has been recovered and collated in one place - the Wight Surf History Project.

The Isle of Wight Surf Club had been disbanded for years by the time this came along but with Surfing becoming more and more popular, Rapanui decided to reinvest some profits in it as a community project. Now with a solid membership, a series of competitions and tournaments plus a learner-programme that took 90 beginners surfing for free last year, the Surf Club resurgence is going strong. There's a handful of surf businesses and a dedicated bunch of individuals involved in running the club now and we're stoked to have been able to help get it back on it's feet.

It was on the Wight Surf History Site that the story of Archie Trickett and his home made surf equipment that the BBC found their story. Archie was a pretty smart chap by all accounts and made himself a surfboard and wetsuit by hand - you couldnt buy them back then. With his wife, Betty, they built a wooden house and spent weekends surfing at compton, driving their by motorbike with the surfboard on the sidecar.

Archie passed away recently and Paul at Wight Surf History wrote a moving piece. Many of the younger generations of Island surfers would not have known Archie, but his story touched a lot of people. It might have been the fact that he had hand made all his boards and suits, or the fact that he'd been out braving the cold alone for the last 50 winters:

But this slice of history related to many in the beach car park and touched a part of surfing that's buried deep beneath all the technical suits and brand-names: the freedom, peace and enjoyment spending time at a special place on our coast. His story takes us back to the origins of surfing on the Isle of Wight, and the origins of why we started surfing in the first place.

The best part is that Archie never threw his old stuff away, and Betty was enthusiastic to share his story with others. So the Isle of Wight Surfclub helped put together a day for Countryfile: The Island's best surfers took Archie's old board out in the waves again. It was really quite a special day to not just have some living history there, but to try it out first hand and bring it back to life.

The Episode is on this Sunday at 7PM, BBC 1 - definitely worth a watch.

Win a Cotton Monster

Category: Customer Care

WIN A one-of-a-kind Rapanui Cotton Monster. GRRR!

It's important to know where your clothing comes from and how it was made, because if you don't know, you can't make good choices about what to buy. As well as Traceability, we should think a lot about what to make the clothing from and how much energy is used across its lifespan.

The way to make clothing with the least impact is to not make it at all of course - to not dispose of it to start with, and instead to continue to use it - but the reality is that most clothing in today's world is thrown away then replaced, for a number of reasons that are deeply engrained.

Therefore it's important for 'sustainable clothing' to have considered where the clothing goes to at the end of its life, and work towards a goal where the lifecycle of clothing, including disposal, is improved.

The disposal stage is something we're only just getting started on. There are many routes - first, we could try to make clothes that last forever. We could also make clothes from materials that are perpetually recyclable, cradle-to-cradle style. Or we could make clothing that fully biodegrades in the ground, going back into plants. Luckily by using more natural and organic materials, it's this route that we're probably closer to than most. Alternatively we could find a good use for the waste stream, like making t-shirts into shopping bags or... monsters.

The reality is that there's no golden bullet to solve the problem - good design, using biodegradable or recyclable materials, making things that last, and if there is waste from this economy, finding a suitable use for it - it's all worthy work for companies trying to be more sustainable. It's about getting a bit more of all of these things. Sustainability, after all, is about working towards a better future.

Okay, now how do I win the monster?

When we were doing some research on waste recovery, we stumbled upon Cotton Monster - a site by Jennifer Strunge. She's an artist / maker and creates monsters from recycled clothing and linens. Each monster is proper scary, unique and handcrafted.

It's a great example of what you can do with a t-shirt, rather than throw it in the bin, and Jennifer has managed to build a small business around what most companies consider a waste stream. Reclaiming, recycling and turning fabrics into long-lasting gifts. We sent her some scrap fabric and tees to see what could be done with our old fabrics and a month later, this came back. Totally awesome.

Meet Murray. He's the nastiest recycled monster in the land. He lives under beds and is awake at night.. in the darkness.. and only interested in one thing - eating little children.