February 2003 - Women's Wears

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The Women of Wearing Wool
Beauty School Fallout: Rebuilding Afghanistan, One Cut at a Time?

The Women of Wearing Wool
by Becky Brun

�The calendar shows us in all our flesh and glory,� says Geri Valentine, a 25-year member of the spinning group who posed nude for the 2003 calendar. By including women of all ages and shapes dressed in nothing but hand-spun and knitted accessories, the calendar commemorates what these women have celebrated for years: the �ancient art of spinning and the ageless beauty of women.�

Susanne Grosjean has been a member of the spinning group since its inception in 1972. �I had just completed instructing a spinning class,� she explains, �and my students didn�t want it to end.� On the last day of class, the assembly of four women in their mid-50s decided to meet the following week to continue spinning. �Someone volunteered their house and someone made a pot of soup. That�s how the tradition began.�

Thirty years later, the once small, intimate group has grown to include more than 25 members. �Last year, we had so many people that we could not all fit inside one house,� says Grosjean. �So we had to limit the number of members.� The casual group doesn�t collect dues, take minutes or publish a newsletter. �Once a year, someone writes down everyone�s name and phone number on a piece of paper,� Grosjean explains. �But that�s about as fancy as we get.� The group is currently made up of women aged 11 to 69 who rotate from home to home each week to eat soup, spin, weave, knit and, most importantly, talk.

�We share recipes, gardening tips, dyeing techniques and other helpful hints,� says Valentine. �But we also talk about our husbands, our families and what�s going on in town.�

�It�s become somewhat of a support group,� Grosjean adds.
Members often travel an hour and a half or take a ferry to get to meetings, which usually last all afternoon. All of the group�s members are organic gardeners, and most are self-employed as homesteaders, sheepherders, organic farmers, midwives and artists. These commonalties, as well as their love and appreciation for natural fibers and the health of the environment have held the group together over the years.

Women across the world admired the Wearing Wool calendar�s simple beauty and innate focus on the group�s strong, female relationships. �Many women have told us that they�ve been moved by the camaraderie that shines through in the calendar,� says Valentine. �Even though it wasn�t our intent, we showed how special this group is.� The ladies of Wearing Wool have worked on many projects over the years, ranging from spinning demonstrations at the county fair to yearly spinning retreats. It was at one of these annual retreats that the idea of the calendar unraveled. �We were sitting in the hot tub naked,� Valentine remembers, �when Suzanne thought up the calendar.� As they soaked, the women began discussing the common stereotypes that dominate our society and how they set unrealistic expectations for women in regards to ideal body types.

�I was talking about the beautiful models in some of our knitting books,� Grosjean recalls, �and then I said �We can do better than that.�� The women recalled a 2000 British calendar called the �Ladies of Rylstone� in which women between the ages 46 and 66 from a local chapter of the Women�s Institute posed nude - partially obscured by pearls, teacups and flowers - and raised a half-million dollars for leukemia research.

After a steamy brainstorming session, the women decided to adapt the Rylstone calendar idea to meet their own priorities: to celebrate their varied and voluptuous bodies as well as the beauty of spinning by posing in nothing but hand-spun wool. One of the founding mothers of the spinning group had recently died of cancer, and countless other members of the group had been affected by cancer in various ways. So they decided to donate 10 percent of the calendar�s proceeds to INFORM, an NY-based non-profit organization that works to prevent one of the root causes of cancer: industrial pollution. �Industrial pollution is one of the biggest reasons that cancer exists in the first place, and INFORM is investigating alternatives rather than looking for cures,� says Valentine.

Within a few months of the retreat, an anonymous member of the group loaned the women $25,000 for the calendar�s production costs, a photographer was hired, and half of the group volunteered as models. Once a handful of distributors had committed to promoting the project, photographs were taken, the final lay-out was completed, and 20,000 copies were printed. By December 2002, the women of Wearing Wool had sold 15,000 calendars through stores and via their Web site, earning them more than enough money to pay back their initial loan, donate $5000 to INFORM, and create a travel fund for Ireland, where about half of the group plans to learn weaving from traditional Irish tapestry makers this spring.

The calendar succeeded in raising awareness about ageism, sizeism and the somewhat forgotten value of wool. �In our calendar and through spinning demonstrations, we try to show and tell the benefits of wearing wool and supporting the farmers who raise it,� says Grosjean. A weaver and knitter by trade, Grosjean�s wool comes from sheep that Valentine raises on a 230-acre pesticide-free homestead. Grosjean hopes that the Wearing Wool calendar has helped influence consumers to think more about how what they wear affects the environment.

The whimsical idea has brought these women from northern Maine more attention than they�d expected. �One day, a member of the group brought the National Examiner to a meeting,� says Grosjean, �and there we were right next to Oprah and Elvis.�

Yet, despite their fame and small fortune, the ladies have declined many pleas for a 2004 version of their Wearing Wool calendar. �We were spending more time each week talking about the calendar than [we were] spinning,� Valentine notes. They have opted to leave the business world behind and focus entirely on the hobby that first brought them together. NG

Becky Brun is a freelance writer in Portland, Ore.

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Beauty School Fallout: Rebuilding Afghanistan, One Cut at a Time?
by Gina Daggett

�When you are hungry, what do you care about beauty?� asks Zieba Shorish-Shamley, spokesperson for Women�s Alliance for Peace and Human Rights in Afghanistan. �Women in Afghanistan need midwives, then mascara. They need food before they need foundation.� Many disagree, and a new beauty school moving into Kabul will encourage Afghan women to put away their burkas and apply lipstick. The Body & Soul Wellness Program (BSWP), which aims to teach local women Western beauty techniques while instilling strong, independent business principles, is slated to open in February of 2003. In addition to providing money for education, funds will also be available to help graduates to open their own salons. The BSWP will teach Afghan women basic haircutting techniques, coloring, perming, makeup application, manicures and basic bookkeeping.

Patricia O�Connor is co-organizer of the project and says that beauty salons are nothing new in Afghanistan. �During the Taliban rule, women continued to operate underground beauty salons, even though in doing so they risked being beaten and imprisoned.� Even in refugee camps, women opened makeshift salons under tents.

In addition to teaching beauty techniques, the BSWP hopes to infuse fiscal responsibility and business principles into the curriculum, which will be geared toward the local culture and market. O�Connor goes on to say that when it comes to improving life in Afghanistan, �Anyone who is intelligent understands that if we don�t help in a way that makes [Afghans] self-reliant, then we are wasting our time.�

The BSWP was inspired by the work of Mary MacMakin, founder of Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation Support for Afghanistan (PARSA). MacMakin has been training widows to be self-sufficient, dispensing educational materials to orphanages, and distributing medical supplies in Kabul since 1996. O�Connor found out about MacMakin through Terri Grauel, the co-founder of the BSWP, and says, �I was really moved by the fact that Mary was helping Afghan women�her devotion to help others and make a difference is inspirational.�

The BSWP is financed by American money, and makeup suppliers like Revlon, Est�e Lauder and MAC have generously donated cosmetics - including nearly over $25,000 worth of foundation. Moreover, Vogue magazine�s generous cash donation covered the construction of the school.

Run under PARSA�s umbrella, the BSWP hopes to help the overwhelming number of women who are currently begging on the streets. Many of the women who will come through the school are illiterate and currently unable to make money. �What kind of businesses can you set up that gives [women] some kind of financial freedom so that their children can go to school?� O�Connor asks. �The thing about the beauty industry is that you can do well, be taught the technical and creative skills, and yet be illiterate. The curriculum is very visual.�

The BSWP is more than a school where women learn how to cut hair. �These women have been tortured, abused and oppressed,� says O�Connor. �To have other women work on them and touch them is a wonderful thing to achieve, but at the same time you can show them ways to gain economic independence.�

Will the program infringe on Afghanistan�s culture? Many critics say yes. The controversy surrounding the infusion of Western beauty ideals has sparked debate both in the United States and abroad. Shorish-Shamley says, �Just because we were 24 years at war does not mean that we are not good enough to be beautiful.�

Opponents believe the BSWP is like putting the cart before the horse and a low priority compared to the basic needs of rebuilding a country ravaged by years of civil war, Soviet invasion and allied attacks. Others believe the donations from the beauty corporations represent a conflict of interest. When asked if she felt like these donations were motivated by the marketing departments or by the goodwill of these suppliers, O�Connor says, �If a company�s only reason to help a charity is to promote its image, I think, eventually, this kind of strategy would backfire.�

The CEO of MAC agrees: �The Program is generic and talks about makeup fundamentals. It isn�t about the brands. We didn�t do this to penetrate the market. Our involvement was purely humanitarian.� He adds, �If there is a marketing benefit at a later date, that would be nice.�

Currently, there are 30 beauty schools in Kabul. A spokeswoman for the Afghanistan Embassy in Washington D.C. contends that even though the BSWP will be the first American-run school, it will not be introducing anything new to Afghan women. �Afghanistan was westernized before the Soviet invasion�and I�m not concerned about this at all.�

Both sides of the debate raise a similar question: What does it mean to be beautiful? Although O�Connor is aware of the unmet basic needs within the war-torn country, she is excited about helping the women build a world for themselves. She explains, �Everyone feels better when they have an education.� In the end, she would like the BSWP to be �used as a model to open similar programs in other cities in Afghanistan or even other countries throughout the world.�

For more information about PARSA and the BSWP, visit: http://www.parsa-afghanistan.org and http://www.bodyandsoulprogram.org. NG

Becky Brun is a freelance writer in Portland, Ore.


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