#like the post alone tells you so much about how racism pervaded our social and economic ecosystem

[tim-hoe-wan]

I haven’t even opened the topic yet and literally can’t help yourself

[dapperandwoke-blog]

Dapper and Woke Spotlight: Benjamin Saccaggi, The Green Tailor

(Image: Benjamin Saccaggi in a navy blue blazer with a red scarf, a tailor’s measuring tape draped on his shoulders and scissors in his breast pocket)

One of the great things about both online style circles and online activist circles is the ability to see what’s going on in other countries, letting that inform and enrich your own experience so you don’t either get settled into provincial thinking or despair from a feeling of isolation. Thanks to a Facebook style group I frequent, I found Benjamin Saccaggi, a South African tailor who blogs about sustainability, fashion, and their intersection, styling himself The Green Tailor. Someone else blogging about how to make looking good an act of doing good? I had found a kindred spirit on another continent, so I had to find out more about him! Luckily, Benjamin was available for a little chat over e-mail and now you all will get to read it if you just keep scrolling!

A: First off, the basic biographical details: Name, business, base of operations?

B: Benjamin Saccaggi, The Green Tailor, Pretoria, South Africa.

A: Were you born/raised in South Africa?

B: Yes I'm born and bred in South Africa. I grew up on a farm in a very rural part of SA, and moved to a small town as a teenager. From there I moved to Johannesburg to study, and then to Pretoria to work.

A: How long have you been running your business?

B: The business has officially been going since 2014, though I started sewing when I was 6 and have been making money with fashion for as long as I can remember.

A: Which came first, your interest in environmental activism and sustainability, or your interest in style and clothing, or did they develop at about the same time? What was the inspiration to combine the two?

B: Before starting this business I was heavily involved in human rights activism. I studied law and worked for a time for the Legal Resources Center. Although I've always loved fashion and clothes, I believe my life's mission is in social activism. I’ve worked on so many projects in the past I can barely count them, but one thing that kept cropping up throughout was the issue of poverty. The world's a mess because people don't have enough money to sort out their own problems, and so they have to rely on the charity of others, and those others are thin on the ground, I can tell you.

In December 2013 I got fired from my job as an archaeologist at the University of Pretoria (that's a whole 'nother story) and had to make a very fast plan to earn a living. I turned to my skill of tailoring, and the rest is history. It set me thinking though... I managed to go from a great salary with an overseas trip a year to unemployed in 12 days, and didn't skip a beat because I have (if I say so myself) excellent sewing skills.

Of course there are other factors involved, and I owe everything to my network of family and friends, but surely (I believe) this skill can make a huge impact in people's lives. I could go on forever about what sewing can do for someone, but in short I'll say that no-one who can sew is ever without work! So my first priority is really to use the business to transfer tailoring skills to more and more people, giving them the tools to sort out their own lives so they needn't rely on charity. From there it was a simple knock-on effect to environmental consciousness, and I think the two (environment and social) are really two sides of the same coin when thinking about problems of the fashion industry.

(Image: Sewers at work in Benjamin’s shop in Pretoria)

A: Can you talk a little about how you've seen the two interact in your experience? One concept that's now starting to enter into the discussion in the United States is the concept of environmental racism, basically how non-white communities can really feel the brunt of bad environmental policies, for example the Dakota Access Oil Pipeline being re-routed through an are primarily populated by indigenous first-nations people. What have you seen and dealt with?

B: From an industry perspective, I think social and environmental problems stem from the same desire to produce as much as fast and as cheaply as possible. Polluting a river or employing children are part of the same strategy to cut down costs, and part of the same disregard for future consequences.

Locally, I'd say the most obvious interaction of social and environmental problems relates to the geographic programs of apartheid. Most sewers live on the outskirts of the city (in formerly coloured areas) and spend the majority of their wages on transport to and from work. With the little money that remains, we're using paraffin heaters, chopping down local bush to burn to keep warm, and buying the cheapest clothes available.

A: I think the environmental consequences to fashion aren’t on a lot of people’s minds. What were some environmentally harmful practices you observed in other businesses that you were hoping to target/combat in yours?

B: The biggest thing I notice is that people are unaware of how terrible their clothes are. Not just the environmental and social cost, but simply how badly they're put together. Today we focus heavily on mending clothes and alterations, since making the clothes you already have last as long as possible is definitely the most sustainable thing that can be done.

Internally, my pet hate of the industry is how poorly sewers are paid, and that there's little to no learning opportunities at work. I pay my people the highest rates of anyone I know, and we have dedicated times each week to learn new skills so that one doesn't get stuck in a rut.

(Image: One of Benjamin’s employees seated on a chair with a dark-grey striped blazer he’s sewing)

A: Tell us a little bit more about your employment practices versus trends you notice elsewhere in South Africa. Obviously the legacy of apartheid can still be felt in many segments of South African society, how do you think this might manifest in the fashion/clothing industry?

B: I'm still quite new and small in business, so a lot of this is at the moment just a dream… But a trend I find abhorrent is that sewers/tailors are considered, treated and paid as unskilled labourers, often even less than domestic workers and gardeners. They have little to no interaction with the rest of the business (marketing, design, even seeing the clients, let alone speaking to them) and are generally not expected to advance in any way. So you're employed at a certain skill level, you work at that level till your health gives out, and that's that, next person takes your place. There's no training, no advancement, and no benefits, since most of the contracts are 'casual labour' paid per day or 'independent contractors' paid per garment.

There's a lot more I could say but I'll leave it there. In my business, I'm paying the highest rate of anyone I know for sewers, we have dedicated times to practice and learn new skills, and I lend out my sewing manuals for them to study at home. Everyone is also welcome to use my studio over the weekends (which no-one has so far) or during lunch to complete their own projects (I have SUCH a pimp studio with such awesome machines so this one gets taken advantage of a lot).

A: Can you talk a little bit about how your focus on sustainability pervades your style choices and your work? I loved the posts on your blog about applying a Japanese wabi-sabi aesthetic to repairing clothes and also the wonder of thrift shopping (a lot of my clothes are thrift right now), but how else does your attention to sustainability influence your work?

I think you've already nailed down my response to this question pretty well. I encourage mending and especially making the mend beautifully visible to celebrate how old the garment is. Menswear (at least the more formal side) is also already well designed to alter over time. For example, bespoke jackets have around 20cm extra fabric hidden away in the seams that can be let out if someone gains weight. This again helps the garments last longer. Besides that, I'm always focusing on quality construction and fabrics to ensure the garments last as long as humanly possible.

(Image: Benjamin, in a tie-die blue and white blazer that looks VERY much like a button-up shirt I own, sitting next to one of his employees cutting fabric) 

A: What are some styles you particularly like in terms of design, shape, or accessorizing?

B: I fluctuate widely in what I wear. I'm an outdoors kind of guy, so ripped shorts and thread-bare tees are what I generally wear when I don't have to 'be presentable'. I feel fashion is all about expressing what you're feeling at the time, and mostly I just collect random vintage pieces and throw them together any which way I please. I suppose, in general, I'm a bit conservative and opt for classic suit styles, but it's really mood dependent.

A: Do you have any particular favorite designers right now?

B: I'll always love Gareth Pugh, and Jonathan Anderson is someone I can never take my eyes off of. Locally Amanda Laird Cherry is probably my favorite established designer. The new comers I love are Rogue and Floyd Avenue.

A: Do you ever notice any kind of racial stratification in style trends? I.E. Certain ways of dressing are characterized as more classy because they're associated with whiteness, or the other way around?

B: It's difficult to say really since I live my life behind the sewing machine and don't really know what's going on 'out there' all the time. I'd say there's a definite movement away from 'standard western styles' like the regular suits etc. and a push towards a more Afro-centric aesthetic. The best example of this is the proliferation of shweshwe and other African fabrics into the standard suits. I think this trend will continue as we grow our local industries and support our local designers.

A: To wrap things up, what’s something that gives you hope for the future?

B: I'm a generally optimistic person, so am on all fronts very excited about the future. I think my main energy comes from working with local talent, seeing just how much amazingness there is here in Africa that the rest of the world is yet to even conceive.

(Image: Benjamin in a dark gray suit, reclining over a pile of fashion magazines and books)

You can find Benjamin on instagram at @TheGreenTailor