Eco Fashion World

The economy may be hurting world wide, but those that love Hermes are still buying. In fact, Hermes has resorted to breeding its own crocodiles on farms in Australia to meet the demand for its exotic bags. It is reported that Hermes makes around 3,000 crocodile bags every year and demand continues to grow while the crocodiles are not readily available to fill orders. It can take three to four crocodiles to make one Hermes bag, so the move to use their own farms makes sense.

While politicians in The Netherlands and other countries are pondering upon laws that will prohibit breeding animals for their fur (yes, this is the good eco news we wanted to share with you!), Hermes seems to wander off completely from any sustainable exercise. And some people don't mind at all, look at Victoria Beckham wearing her Hermes Birkin croc bag with pride. We know that croc bags can last for decades so one could argue about the ethics of buying them. But still, with the great offer in eco handbags nowadays, we wonder when Vic will pick up on the real trend.

It's always great to soothe your eco fashion conscience with a consumer buy that benefits charity. You can go ahead with the funky second collection of 'Designers against AIDS' tees available at H&M stores around the world since the beginning of this month.

Following the success of Veja’s Novo Mundo(s) exhibition by photographer Florent Demarchez, photographic exhibitions are proving that a picture tells a thousand words, as more companies frame their sourcing journeys. A joint collaboration between fairtrade and organic cotton companies Liv, who provide a fantastic home wares and fashion line, and Piccalilly, favored for their colorful, polka dotted kid’s range, showcases travel photographer Mark Ingram. On a whistle-stop tour around rural India Ingram different aspects of the growing, ginning and looming of the cotton, Ingram has captured. Launched at an exclusive event at Notting Hill’s trendy bijoux Indian restaurant Malabar, with the Fairtrade Foundation’s Harriet Lamb in attendance, the exhibition is due to visit many of Liv and Piccalilly’s stockists across the UK, including Skipton and the Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

On the occasion of the UN Year of Natural Fibers 2009, Helvetas organizes the World Organic Cotton Congress this September 21-25 in Interlaken, Switzerland. The congress provides a unique platform to practitioners of the whole textile value chain to discuss and learn about innovations, challenges, successful business models and to establish new partnerships in the field of organic and fair trade cotton. Partners in the congress are Organic Exchange, the Institute for Market Ecology IMO, International Trade Centre ITC, Max Havelaar and the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO.

You want to trade not aid, really, you do, but sometimes life gets in the way and you end up buying regular bananas and coffee and picking up some last minute party jewelry in a high street store…

The wife of French president Nicolas Sarkozy, ex-model and singer Carla Bruni, will be dressed by Dior and ModaFusion this year! On December 23rd the First Lady officially opened the France year in Brazil in a slum in Rio de Janeiro. The event was organized by ModaFusion, a French-Brazilian association that develops eco fashion collections with women’s cooperatives in Rio's poorest neighborhoods. While enjoying the catwalk show, Carla Bruni fell in love with the bamboo creations of ModaFusion. Her choice will definitely boost the Ethical Fashion Show taking place in Rio in June 2009. This event will bring together ethical designers from mainly Latin-America and will be realized by ModaFusion. 

It sounds like the strangest thing ever, but Chilean designer Alexandra Guerrero makes clothing out of cigarette butts. The Mantis Project began when Alexandra was preparing a graduation thesis. Ever aware of the vast amount of cigarette butts in the city of Santiago de Chile, she started thinking about what could be done with them and came up with a way to mix the tissue of the filter with natural wool to create a rustic-looking thread that could be knitted into all kinds of garments. She got help from environmental engineer Carolina Leiva who conducted a study to make sure that the purified butts were safe to use. The purification process begins with the cigarette butts going through autoclaves. They are then washed in a polar solvent and go through the autoclaves again. After that they are rinsed and dried, and, finally, shredded to create a wool-like material. The end-result textile contains 20% recycled-cigarette filter material with which the designer has produced a vest, a poncho, a dress and a hat. Of the 5,000 cigarette butts she has recovered from the streets so far and turned into this exciting material, Guerrero has even been able to mix it with soap to make an exfoliating product. It might not be the ultimate solution to the huge problem of cigarette litter, but neither is it a bad way to raise awareness about what can be done with otherwise dreadful waste material.

From Treehugger.

Two new eco-materials and sustainable textile showrooms were launched in New York and London as part of a dual international effort to encourage sustainability in the world of fashion and textiles. The two new locations were launched as part of C.L.A.S.S.– Creativity, Lifestyle And Sustainable Synergy, an initiative co-founded by Giusy Bettoni and Sandy MacLennan which is designed to support creative and innovative design in eco-textiles through new materials.

In conjunction with the New York showroom launch in December a discussion took place between model and eco-consultant Summer Rayne Oakes and Barbara Kramer, Co-Founder of Designers & Agents, among others. The focus of the discussion was The Tipping Point: What is the current state of sustainable fashion? How has the current economic downturn affected designers, retailers and consumer spending? And how do we create pathways toward change?

“Clearly, eco-textiles are at the heart of this much-needed change in the industry. New ideas and progress are born from the creation of innovative, inspiring and high-performing materials. As we come together to push for this change, we have to reach a critical mass – we need to create pathways and allow for synergies to take place between people, ideas, products and businesses,” said Bahar Shahpar, eco–designer and C.L.A.S.S. New York consultant.

The showrooms feature a carefully sourced collection from natural fibers, yarns and fabrics made from renewable resources to technologically advanced performance fabrics with sustainable attributes. For more information on the events visit www.c-l-a-s-s.org.

Ok, so we’ve published our share of less “fashiony” items over the past week, with the Primark Protest, the ethical fashion seminar and the launch of a user’s guide to ban the plastic bag, there’s been a lot to report! But here’s one more occasion to flex your inner activista (after that, we promise, it’s all back to organic sparkles and bamboo frills), today is international Buy Nothing Day. The campaign started by the famous Adbusters organization has now spread to the whole world and gives us a much needed 24 hour break from shopping. For those of us caught in a cycle of consumption so deep and dark that we can’t even think of what to do on a day without shopping, or simply if we feel like causing some harmless trouble, both websites have whole lists of suggested Buy Noting Day actions. Although I personally wouldn’t cut up my credit card just yet, the suggestion for throwing a temper tantrum or starting a conga line in the middle of a store sound like a good deal of fun. We also congratulate small shop owners who are taking a stand by closing their stores on the “first day of Christmas shopping”, choosing to follow their beliefs even if it means loosing a bit of revenue. So if you’re in Toronto, today’s not the day to pop into the vegan shoe store Left Feet or the fabulous eco boutique Heart On Your Sleeve, as they’ll be closed to mark the event, their owners probably walking nearby malls dressed as consumer zombies!

PRIMARK is currently bragging about its recent media cover up and this is your chance to protest against that! Campaigning organization Labour Behind the Label and Tara and Stacy from Blood Sweat and T-shirts will lead a stunt in telling PRIMARK that the crisis for workers is not over.

The country where Mahatma Gandhi once created a revolution by wearing a simple locally hand woven cotton garment called the Khadi as a sign of independence is still a leader in terms of textile innovations. From high tech weaving to rediscovering ancient dyeing traditions, India has some interesting new answers for eco fashion design.

Yes, it has come to this…despite our best intentions we are forced to give some credit to the new 90210. Sometimes a golden nugget really can be found in the most unlikely places: in this case the latest episode of the series, "Model Behavior”. We’ll spare you the details but basically one “Debbie” (Lori Loughlin) is given the opportunity to shoot a fashion show for Nylon magazine, and this is where the eco chic twist comes in, the brand on the runway is none other than fashionably green favorite The Battalion. Designing sisters Chrys and Linda Wong (aka: the Bat and Lion, hence the name) are on a crusade against the sloppy casualness that has invaded West Coast dressing. Understanding the need for comfort and lush materials, they have been designing a line of contemporary urban clothes made from bamboo and organic cotton that does not compromise on design.

If there ever was an ethical style issue that has penetrated mainstream consciousness in the past 20 years, it must be the use of fur for fashion. From PETA’s sexy “I’d rather go naked than wear fur” campaigns featuring nude models and actresses (who have since often been spotted with the dreaded pelts on their backs), to the sabotage of Donna Karan’s catwalk show a few weeks ago in NY, this issue never fails to fuel hot controversy.

Not on the wall but on your back comes this new eco bag by Stella McCartney. Bags made of recycled materials are not a new concept, but have you ever seen a design like this? With X-mas approaching Stella might have envisaged streets full of reindeer, but American animal organizations don’t think that’s a very romantic picture. Even though it’s made out of recycled polyester and other ‘green’ materials.

We gotta give it to Project Runway for forcing their contestants to be creative with unlikely materials, last season saw them making dresses out of supplies found in the Hershey store, not so sustainable in itself, but it goes to show that you really can create stylish garments with just about anything.

This 5th season of the successful show, premiering tonight on Bravo , looks like it’s going to have some real green cred. First of all, one of the contestants, Oregonian Leanne Marshall, already designs her own eco-conscious line Leanimal . Although not 100% sustainable yet, the designs incorporate such textiles as hemp, bamboo and organic cottons. Marshall’s style is inspired by her favorite designers, Rodarte and Martin Margiela, with sophisticated embellishments and layered asymmetrical construction, but also an awareness of the body and movement inherited from her ballet background.