CROI

Bucharest is now a bustling city, whose legend is based on a rescue and a love story and its name can be translated as “The City of Joy”. Established on a swamp, several lakes and slow, sinuous rivers, it grew spontaneously, chaotic, naturally. Yet, surrounded by concrete, glass and steel, traffic and tall buildings, the heart of nature is beating undisturbed. YES ! We have a delta, an ecosystem recreated on an abandoned site. Hundreds of species of plans, insects, animals, 90 species of rare, protected birds are living among us. Nature knows what to do and as long as we don’t interfere, it can heal itself and flourish. Our city delta is here to remind us that we are part of a fragile but enduring system. And keeping nature in balance with technology is up to us. Technologies can be and must be clean.

We just have to return to that ancient wisdom, which states that it’s worthy to worship only those sources of energy that are never to end: sun, wind, waves and creativity.

And for us to never get distant, we keep these energies embroidered on our shirts.

Ecologist by profession, Maria can name how many benefits come from wearing long-lasting clothes. Durable, offering thermal comfort, they are clothes created to take care of us ! And they don’t require so much care. Less washing, less detergent, less ironing it means less impact on our resources and respect for water. Water is the source of life and must be protected, of we want life to continue on this planet. Let’s celebrate life with a glass of clean water !

photo: © Raluca Savulescu

Our grandmothers had superpowers. They could measure without tape, cut without scissors and they could write without ink. With needle and thread, they wrote on fabric, using a visual alphabet, made out of symbols. Inspired by nature, they didn’t just described what they could see, but the laws of nature, which rule us all. Laws which, if respected, are meant to keep us in balance; connected with mother-earth, with our mothers and their mothers and with ourselves.

Keeping in mind what really matters, storing information to pass it along with experience to future generations (to make their life better) is our biggest responsibility. We think we solved it now, as we can store huge quantity of knowledge in artificial memory. But the challenge remains: what is really important, what really matters? Selecting what is relevant will make the difference, as well as what we chose to ignore.

Now, the superpower is to decide which side you want to be on. You chose to ignore or you chose to get involved and stand up for life and inform others.

The real superpower is to give a damn.

photo: © Raluca Savulescu & Mihaela Contiu

First time you are born as a consumer. Helpless, you need to be fed and cared for; you need affection, attention and energy, information and education. Your mother and then, if you are lucky, all society is there to protect you. You go to school, you graduate, you earn, you buy, you get a loan to buy more …

But then, at some point, it might happen to you again. You are born again. As a contributor, a creator, a protector. The circumstances change and you see the same world from a different angle: from above.

The new you will be independent, stronger, aware and will be there for others.

Values are changing and are better defined. Eventually you find a goal, a mission and a path to follow.

It’s a winding path but now you can see what it’s leading to. It’s a path of heroes. It’s the initiation journey and it’s no return.

photo: © Raluca Savulescu

All the clothes in the world, all labels and all fashions cannot cover a body without a soul.

What you wear is said to be a statement, a visual message for what people can expect of you. The fashion industry has made many of us to believe that social status, wealth and well-being is expressed in what we wear: from their offer, of course. It’s the power of “look how many things I can buy”.

And now, again, in the post-consumerism era, we understand that the power is “look how many things I can do”. And even more important: “look how many things I can buy but I don;t, because i don’t need to”.

Understanding and extracting the real needs is a process of getting to know yourself while learning your needs are everyone’s needs. The need to belong, to make yourself useful, to offer and protect – are more important than the ‘need’ to go shopping for all sort of excuses.

So yes, want them all: the journey, the earth, the stars, the rivers, the flowers, the birds and the bees and the human touch, the balance, the energy, the dream. But they can be all on one shirt. That is the Romanian concept, to have the whole world with you and to remember your role in it.