Eco-Fashion is More Than a Passing Trend

Will Online-Only Fashion Shows Replace Runways at Fashion Week?

by Brit Liggett, 01/27/12 filed under: Eco-Fashion News, Featured, New York Fashion Week

KCD wants to revolutionize the runway, and you can watch it all unfold on your laptop or iPad. The public-relations powerhouse, which manages high-end labels such as Gucci, Versace, Alexander McQueen, Alexander Wang, Chanel, and Diane von Furstenberg, announced Monday that it will produce a number of fashion shows in a purely digital format. Coming on the heels of a recent show date “crisis”—a result of Milan pushing back the dates for its September shows—KCD is pitching the invitation-only Internet platform as an alternative to the increasingly crowded schedules that pull editors and store buyers in multiple, often opposing, directions. (Cue the usual gripes about aching feet.) Set to launch during New York Fashion Week, Digital Fashion Shows will debut with Prabal Gurung’s inaugural ICB collection on February 15, although his signature label will appear more conventionally on the catwalk.

TOMS Shoes Introduces Print-Clad Ballet Flats for Spring

by Yuka Yoneda, 01/26/12 filed under: Eco-Fashion News, Eco-Friendly Shoes

Just when you thought TOMS couldn’t get any more awesome, the philanthropic shoe-and-eyeglass company is launching a line of cute-as-heck ballet flats, just in time for spring. Guaranteed to put a bounce in your step once the frost thaws, the comfy looking “Paris” slippers come in an array of on-trend prints, from a funky leopard to a lively indigenous weave. And if there wasn’t already plenty to love, for every pair you buy, TOMS will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. We’re getting happy feet just thinking about it.

+ Ballet Flats
+ TOMS

Behind The Seams

Carrie Parry Heads to Amsterdam for Green Fashion Competition Finals

by Amanda Coen, 01/26/12 filed under: Behind the Seams, Eco-Fashion Brands, Features, Interviews, Women's Eco-Fashion

Wearable Technology

U.S. Military Develops High-Tech Undies to Monitor Soldiers’ Vitals

by Bridgette Meinhold, 01/26/12 filed under: Eco-Friendly Underwear, Featured, Wearable Technology

Photos by the U.S. Dept. of Defense

Military intelligence just got a whole lot smarter with a new breed of under-armor that monitors soldiers’ vitals during combat. Developed by U.S. Army Medical Research and Material Command and the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center, in collaboration with Foster-Miller and Malden Mills Industries, the “wear and forget physiological sensing system” uses gel-free sensors to form an electronic network that monitors respiration, heart rate, body posture, and skin temperature. Unlike current monitoring systems, which typically involve bulky chest straps attached to a tangle of electronics, the high-tech drawers are designed for comfort. Using computer algorithms to extrapolate the data, the technology could identify critical casualties, as well as train and recruit personnel for missions.

Greensleeve: A Plastic-Free iPad 2 Sleeve Made With Zero Electricity

by Ecouterre, 01/25/12 filed under: Eco-Fashion Brands, Eco-Friendly Accessories

The Greensleeve iPad 2 case by Gone Studio is devoid of many things. Clad in all-natural wool felt with a steel-button closure, it’s completely plastic-free, a conscious decision by LEED-certified designer George Elvin in the aftermath of the Gulf Coast oil spill. The case is also made entirely without electricity—by Elvin himself, in fact—on a 1935 foot-powered Singer sewing machine in his Indianopolis studio. Still not impressed? Elvin assembled the machine himself from salvaged components. It lives!

+ Greensleeve $29.90 at Amazon
+ Gone Studio

UN Global Compact Launches First Industry-Specific Initiative for Fashion

by Amanda Coen, 01/25/12 filed under: Eco-Fashion News, Featured

As the impact of climate change becomes more difficult to ignore, advocates for a more sustainable fashion industry are finally getting the legitimacy they seek. The United Nations announced Tuesday that it was joining forces with Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE), a joint initiative by the Nordic fashion industry to address socio-environmental issues, to develop the first sector-specific initiative under the Global Compact, which helps businesses align their operations with fundamental principles of human rights, labor, and the environment.

Disturbing Video Reveals Child Laborers Picking Cotton in Uzbekistan

by Jasmin Malik Chua, 01/25/12 filed under: Eco-Fashion News

In a video shot secretly by human-rights activists and obtained by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Uzek service, young children are seen toiling in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields. The Uzbek government forcibly sends upwards of 2 million children—some as young as 7—to work in the fields for 10 hours a day, for two to three months each year, according to the Responsible Sourcing Network, which rallied more than 60 of the world’s leading apparel brands and retailers in October to boycott cotton knowingly harvested using child laborers in the Central Asian nation.

The Big Idea

Chanel Builds Life-Size Plane for Spring 2012 Paris Couture Week Show

by Brit Liggett, 01/24/12 filed under: Eco-Fashion News, Spring/Summer 2012, The Big Idea, Women's Eco-Fashion

Photo by Olivier Saillant for Chanel

As if fashion wasn’t already synonymous with environmental excess. Karl Lagerfeld commisioned a life-size aircraft to house Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2012 couture show inside the Grand Palais in Paris on Tuesday. Subtlety has never been the designer’s strongest suit—this is the man who flew a 265-ton glacier to the City of Lights on a whim, after all—but the display of such extravagance in a depressed economy feels gauche even by the most liberal standards. Set designers didn’t just spend five days constructing the plane (or at least, the innards of one) from anodized aluminum. They also outfitted it with an extra-wide 164-foot aisle, 180-degree swivel seats for 250 high-profile guests, double-C monogrammed carpet, a holographic cockpit, and a slatted roof that revealed a vista of clouds. Mon dieu!

Behind The Seams

Marcia Patmos Takes Us “Behind the Seams” With Her Eco-Friendly Knits

by Amanda Coen, 01/24/12 filed under: Behind the Seams, Eco-Fashion Brands, Interviews, Women's Eco-Fashion

Kinabuti: African-Inspired Fashion That Bolsters Nigerian Communities

by Kirin Rinehart, 01/24/12 filed under: Eco-Fashion Brands, Fair Trade, Featured, Women's Eco-Fashion

New Hampshire Considers Perfume Ban for State Employees

New Hampshire, whose state motto is “live free or die,” has a new champion in state representative Michele Peckham, who thinks that her constituents should live free of the consequences of other people’s poor decisions. The politican is the primary sponsor of House Bill 1444, a piece of legislation that would ban state employees from wearing perfume or scented products on the job, particularly if they deal with the public. “It may seem silly, but it’s a health issue,” Peckham tells the New Hampshire Union Leader. “Many people have violent reactions to strong scents.”

Japanese Textile Mills Mount Comeback After Tsunami-Earthquake Disaster

“Real Housewife” Compares Fox-Fur Bikini Treatment to Cure for Cancer

If former Real Housewives of New York City star Cindy Barhop didn’t think she was in enough hot water, the spa owner now compares her fox-fur bikini treatment to a cure for cancer, according to The Cut. The semi-permanent procedure, which involves affixing neon-colored fur or feathers to one’s ladyparts, are only designed to last three days—more if you avoid washing your nethers (sexy!). “It’s like buying an extra set of lingerie or a fun shirt a different pair of glasses,” Barshop, who runs Completely Bare on Madison Ave., says. “This is that fun thing that gives you a little pick-me-up.”

7 Eco-Friendly (And Mostly Vegan!) Winter Boots to Conquer Snow, Slush

ALL-WEATHER WARRIOR
Even the icy plains of Hoth wouldn’t pose a challenge for the Nupste Fur IV by The North Face. Tootsies remain dry in a water-repellent sheath of down-insulated, recycled-polyester ripstop, while ankles stay extra-snug in a faux-fur swaddle of 100 percent recycled PET.

Note: May contain goose down.

+ Nuptse Fur IV …

Run Your Own Garment Sweatshop With This Online Strategy Game

Sweatshop isn’t your average online cow-clicker. As its name implies, the game places you on the floor of an offshore factory that cranks out merchandise for high-street retailers in the West. Your job as manager: to hire workers to assemble hats, shoes, bags, and shirts at various speeds according to their skill level (or lack thereof in the case of the child laborers you also employ), all while keeping your corporate masters happy by raking in the big profits.

“Closet Swap” iPhone App Encourages You to Trade Clothes With Friends

Swapping clothes? There’s an app for that. If you’re looking to spruce up your wardrobe this year, “Closet Swap” allows you to trade castoffs with your friends without the hassle of hosting a physical party. Whipped up by U.K.’s Channel 4, the easy-to-use tool encourages you to upload pictures, tag existing Facebook photos, and build a virtual closet for sharing and swapping with your cronies. You can even telegraph a Fashion SOS from your phone, smoke-signal style, to request a pencil skirt for a last-minute job interview or snag a pair of leopard-print pumps for a weekend shindig.

“Shed Me” Clothes Reduce Need for Laundry by Shedding Like Snakeskin

Katie Ledger wants you to make like a serpent and molt—the layers of your clothes, that is. Inspired by the way a snake sheds its skin, London College of Art student envisions garments with layers that slough off without the need for frequent laundering. In addition to slashing the heavy energy burden that washing and drying entail—an average laundry cycle uses up to 40 gallons of water and 5,500 watts of electricity, according to the U.S. Department of Energy—Ledger’s “Shed Me” project imagines clothes that change color and even style with the removal of each successive layer.

Recycle Your Marks & Spencer Clothing at Oxfam, Get £5 Off Purchase

American retailers take note: Marks & Spencer may have joined the ranks of Patagonia and Uniqlo with its own clothing take-back program, but it isn’t doing it alone. The British department store has teamed up with Oxfam U.K. to help underprivileged communities worldwide. Simply bring any store-branded garment, shoe, or bag into an Oxfam shop for “recycling” and you’ll receive £5 off when you spend £35 or more on clothing, home, or beauty products at M&S. To help you visualize the impact of your contribution, M&S created a nifty little app that posts a piece of trivia for every article of clothing you drop onto a mannequin. Donate a blouse, for instance, and Oxfam gets £5 to buy a container for four families in Nigeria to collect water and keep it free of diseases. Drop off a purse and Oxfam has an extra £16 to protect a hectare of Colombian rainforest. (And yes, that’s Twiggy smiling at you from the top of the page.)

Wool’s Carbon Footprint Up to 80% Smaller Than Previously Thought

The carbon footprint of wool has been grossly overstated, according to a consortium of Australian woolgrowers, scientists, and carbon specialists known as the Wool Carbon Alliance. The group, which claims that recent advances in methodology have resulted in estimates up to 60 to 80 percent lower than previously indicated, wants to challenge existing notions about wool carbon using “current and relevant” science. “We are finding that the wool fiber production systems, based on renewable grass and natural vegetation, complement current demands to reduce carbon emissions,” announced Martin Oppenheimer, chairman of the alliance, on Tuesday. “Wool is part of the natural cycle of water and carbon that can impact climate in a positive way.”

Julia Ramsey’s Dramatic Knits Meditate on Our Relationship With Clothing

World’s Largest Garment Made From Golden Spider Silk Goes on Display

Before anyone asks, no, it’s not bulletproof. But that doesn’t mean that the glistening yellow cape—the world’s largest garment made entirely from spider silk—isn’t a massive feat of engineering to be marveled (it is and you should). Now on public display for the first time at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the textile gets its unearthly gleam from the undyed filaments of the golden orb spider, a species of arachnid commonly found in Madagascar. Girl power can be taken literally in this instance: Only the females produce the coveted silk.

“Made by Project” Brings Artisanal Craftsmanship to Life in NYC

MIAmobi’s Smartphone, Laptop Cases Keep Data Safe From Prying Eyes

If Big Brother has you on the defensive, you’re not alone. With radio-frequency ID, Global Positioning System, and Wi-Fi location tracking on the ascent, privacy in the digital age has become an increasingly tenuous concept. To keep your data safe from hackers, advertisers, and identity thieves, MIAmobi has designed a “SilentPocket” line of cases that uses nano-silver technology to block any electromagnetic transmissions from your smart devices, credit cards, or other RFID-embedded items—no battery removal, required. Bonus: They also liberate you from the constant barrage of unwelcome calls, status updates, and text messages without the need to power down.