Akademik

n.

The region that produces the fibers and other raw materials for the clothing used by a person or family. Also: fibreshed.

If you've never heard the word "fibershed" before, you aren't alone. It wasn't in the local lexicon until a year ago, when West Marin textile artist Rebecca Burgess made it up.

Now, it's on the lips of the kind of environmentally conscious fashionistas who filled Toby's Feed Barn in Point Reyes Station this month for the first ever fibershed fashion show.

—Paul Liberatore, " West Marin textile artist is a fibershed fashionista: http://www.marinij.com/lifestyles/ci_18141696?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com," Marin Independent Journal, May 26, 2011

What is a Fibreshed? Like a watershed — where all the water from an area feeds into a local body of water, a fibreshed is an area where all the fibre, producers, products and people work together. I hope to connect fiber farms, dye plants, textile mills, fiber artists, designers, weavers, felters, spinners, seamstress (and others) to produce items made from locally grown, milled, designed and sewn fibres.

—" Welcome: http://saltspringfibreshed.com/," Salt Spring Fibreshed, May 2, 2011

The Fibershed Project is a challenge: To live for one year, in clothes made from fibers that are solely sourced within a geographical region no larger than 150 miles from my front door; this includes the natural dye colors as well!

—Rebecca Burgess, " Fibershed: http://www.rebeccarburgess.com/fibershed," Rebecca Burgess, March 15, 2010