An Interview with Charlotte X.C. Sullivan
By Molly Grazioso
Cover photos: Jacket made with milkweed batting as insulation (left), jacket prototype used cupra for the inside liner and a wax based cotton for the outer shell (right). Photos by Nick Tenney.
Harvesting milkweed floss at Borderview Farm, Alburgh, Vermont. Photo by Francis McGill.
As one of Middlebury’s Social Entrepreneurship Fellows, I am pursuing a comprehensive project on sustainable fashion (right now, I am working on creating an upcycling studio for students to use starting next fall) and I am lucky enough to have Charlotte X.C. Sullivan as one of my advisors. Completely coincidentally, Charlotte has experience working with sustainable fashion initiatives, so she has been critical in helping guide my work and introducing me to resources and other valuable opportunities in the field. At Middlebury, where fashion often gets treated as a less serious academic discipline, I was extremely fortunate to find someone like her to help ground my education and bring my ideas to life. For this reason, I wanted to introduce her to the Clover community in hopes that her experiences can inspire awareness about sustainability in fashion and show students and community members that there are multiple ways to get involved in this sort of work at Middlebury.
To facilitate this introduction, I interviewed Charlotte about a research project she co-conducted on milkweed textile innovation. You can read our conversation here:
Clover: What inspired your research project? How did it start?
CS: My research project, called May West, began in 2015 while I was working at the Queens County Farm Museum in New York City. I was thinning our stand of milkweed in one of our many pollinator meadows and was marveling at the texture and beauty of the milkweed floss, which is that parachute material connected to the seeds to help them distribute via wind. After enlisting the assistance of a local textile artist, I began to research milkweeds material possibilities.
Clover: What is milkweed, and how can it be used in clothing or textiles?
CS: A native North American plant, milkweed has a symbiotic relationship with the monarch butterfly, an iconic pollinator species sadly on the decline. As many as 1.8 billion additional stems of milkweed plants are needed in North America to bring the monarch butterfly population back to a sustainable size. Female monarch butterflies exclusively lay their eggs on milkweed leaves, and the caterpillars before metamorphosis only consume milkweed. Magic! Since milkweed is a very brittle fiber (compared to wool which has more crimp) in my R+D I found it very difficult/near impossible to spin into yarn or thread. So, in collaboration with a family business based in Nebraska, I was using it in a batting* form.
*Batting is a sheet of material that provides insulation and cushioning between the top and bottom layers of fabric. It creates dimension in addition to providing warmth.
Milkweed pod going to seed at Queens County Farm, Floral Park, New York.
Clover: What are some of milkweed's benefits as a material to be used in clothes?
CS: As a fiber, milkweed has outperformed feather down and wool for warmth, is naturally water repellent, and buoyant. Establishing a commercial application for milkweed could help generate a market opportunity for the plant, thereby enhancing its growth. This type of new material development is important to solidify regenerative agricultural systems, help build our domestic fibershed, and ensure rural economies are resilient and healthy like the landscapes they are a part of.
Clover: So, overall, what did May West entail?
CS: May West was a milkweed-based design project that lasted for 5 years. During this time, my collaborator and I designed jacket prototypes that used milkweed batting as its primary source of insulation. We had a lot of success working on this project, including winning awards in start-up competitions and being selected to participate in a Techstars summer accelerator.
Jacket made with milkweed batting as insulation (left), jacket prototype used cupra for the inside liner and a wax based cotton for the outer shell (right). Photos by Nick Tenney.
Clover: At this point, do you have any plans or goals to continue working with materials like milkweed in the future?
CS: After 5 years of material research and development, I realized the most important aspect of the project for me was environmental restoration and conservation, rather than being a sustainably-made jacket designer. So, for example, I am currently the recipient of an USDA EQIP (Environmental Quality Incentives Program) grant, which will allow me to receive federal funding to plant pollinator friendly plants (like milkweed, but others too!) on the land where I live in Starksboro. While I may use milkweed floss for personal or small scale projects (like using it for making my own pillows) I will likely not be pursuing anything larger scale. The priority for me at this point is following the science of what truly is most needed to help preserve the monarch population, which in addition to planting and conserving more milkweed, also involves working to eliminate pesticides that are eradicating milkweed.
Clover: If students or other readers are interested in textile innovation or other topics in sustainable fashion, where do you recommend students go for resources?
CS: Lots of resources exist for students interested in this area. Middlebury students in particular should email me to learn more about sustainable fashion and other social entrepreneurship opportunities at Middlebury and beyond, but all should also check out some of May West’s mentions in the media:
Fashionista article
Across the Fence episode (major throwback but filmed at Middlebury!)
We’re thrilled to have Charlotte as a resource on campus, and we encourage readers to connect with her to learn more about her work. The conversation about sustainability in fashion is just getting started, and we have lots of work to do. So, let’s get started.
Charlotte X.C. Sullivan is an artist and designer. She co-founded the Frontier Fellowship with Epicenter, a rural design resource center in Green River, Utah. For several years she worked at Queens County Farm, the longest continuously operated farm in the state of New York on the largest tract of undisturbed farm land left in New York City. She is a graduate of Bennington College and received a Next Economy MBA from LIFT Economy. Currently she helps facilitate Social Entrepreneurship programming at Middlebury College.
You can connect with her via email (cxsullivan@middlebury.edu) to learn more about sustainable fashion and other social entrepreneurship opportunities at Middlebury and beyond!