Ecouterre

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Raleigh Denim's all-American pride is on full display at New York Fashion Week, where the North Carolina-based label is showing its Fall/Winter 2012 collection. Fronted by husband-and-wife team Sarah and Victor Lytvinenki, Raleigh Denim offers a mix of classic denims, button-down chambrays, wax blazers, pleated skirts, and Japanese twill dresses. Until manufacturing shifted overseas, the Tar Heel State used to be the mainstay of American denim. Today, Raleigh's nine-person team has made it its mission to resurrect a fallow industry, one jean at a time.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Whatever you do, don't call Titania Inglis an eco-fashion designer. The 2012 Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation Award recipient prefers the term "thoughtful" by far. "Honestly, ["eco"] gets thrown around so much that I feel it's lost all meaning," she told Ecouterre during a visit to her Brooklyn studio, where she was preparing her Fall/Winter 2012 collection for its New York Fashion Week debut. "Thoughtful" should just about cover it. Crafted in New York City's Garment District from Japanese organic cotton, vegetable-tanned leather, and deadstock wool, Inglis's eponymous label is as much the result of careful deliberation as it is finely trained instinct, which she honed at Design Academy Eindhoven, the Fashion Institute of Technology, and during stints with Camilla Stærk, Jean Yu, and Threeasfour.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Spring is traditionally the season for new beginnings, so it's only apt that Eileen Fisher—both the designer and the brand—is tweaking its comfort-driven, trend-adverse lineup in time for clearer skies and fairer weather. The forecast? A broader commitment to both environmental and social issues. A lifestyle champion at its core, Eileen Fisher is fueled by a desire to "empower the well-being" of not just its producers and customers, but also that of the community at large. Ecouterre dropped by the Eileen Fisher Creative Center in Manhattan on Tuesday for a tête-à-tête with Fisher and her team, who have helped the brand transcend the sum of its products.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Fresh from Peru's Sacred Valley, Awamaki Lab returns with a second collection of knitwear that bridges the divide between modern design and Old World craftsmanship. As part of a four-month residency, recent Parsons graduates Courtney Cedarholm and Andria Crescioni uprooted themselves to historic Ollantaytambo, where they worked with a cooperative of Quechua women weavers to develop garments using traditional Andean textiles and techniques. The 13-piece capsule line, which launched at a trunk show in New York City on Friday, will be on view at the Textile Arts Center through Monday.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Hard to believe, but Carrie Parry launched her eponymous label barely a year ago. (We wrote about her debut collection in April.). The Central Saint Martins graduate isn't luxuriating in her salad days, however. Already, Parry has amassed a number of accolades that belie her youth, including the Ethical Fashion Forum's 2011 Innovation U.S.A. Award, a coveted spot at Designer & Agents' Green Room, and the chance to participate in the Green Fashion Competition at Amsterdam Fashion Week as the sole American finalist. So how does she do it? Ecouterre dropped by Parry's Brooklyn studio, just before she zipped off to the Netherlands, to find out.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

As Japan struggles to recover its footing in the wake of 2011's devastating tsunami and earthquake, the country wishes the world to know that its legendary textile mills are open for business. The inaugural Japanese Textiles Trade Show, organized by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) in New York City on Thursday, featured 16 companies long lauded for their peerlessly executed silks, knits, and woven fabrics. Among the businesses most adversely affected by the disaster was Fukushima Senkou, a Honshu-based mill that has been creating low-impact yarns using eco-friendly dyes for more than 50 years.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

For a slow-fashion practitioner, Julia Ramsey leads life at a breakneck pace. Coming off a one-year residency at the Textile Arts Center, the Brooklyn designer is packing her bags for Philadelphia, where she'll take up the mantle as Anthropologie's new head sweater designer. Somehow, between gasps for air, Ramsey managed to squeeze in a showstopping installation of crocheted wedding gowns at the Hilton New York, produce a series of dramatically oversized knits, and stage an "experiment in material estrangement" in her Park Slope neighborhood. Ecouterre paid a visit to the Textile Arts Center's Artists in Residence show to catch a glimpse of Ramsey's "Pelt" collection, as well as pick the designer's brain on how clothing relates to shelter.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

If the huddle of artisans making product on the showroom floor didn't clue you in the first time, Project is an entirely different kind of trade show. Its "Made by Project" pop-up exhibit, which ends today in New York City, enlisted iconic and emerging heritage brands such as Barbour, Martin Greenfield, Oak Street Bootmakers, Victor Osborne, Dedegumo, and Metsa to prove their mettle with live—yes, live—demonstrations of their handiwork. Ecouterre snuck behind the scenes for an up-close-and-personal look at the future of craftsmanship.

What began as a way to spiff up for Museum of Modern Art gallery openings is now on the verge of becoming a bespoke bow-tie business. Nicholas Ruiz, who founded Made in Forest Hills, is a Florida native with a deep love for his Queens neighborhood and a passion for reviving what other people consider trash. After graduating from Drexel University with a degree in design and merchandising, Ruiz found work at MoMA's department of special programming and events, a position that surrounds him with ongoing inspiration. You might even say that Picasso sparked his first project.

Photo by Astrid Arndt

Laduma Ngxokolo may only be 24 years old but the designer has already drawn critical praise for MaXhosa by Laduma, a burgeoning menswear label that celebrates the Xhosa heritage of South Africa with its vibrant, boldly patterned knits. Crafted in Port Elizabeth from a locally farmed and milled blend of merino wool and kid mohair—all the better to counter the region's soaring unemployment rate—the multihued sweaters and vests feature eye-popping designs based on recurring motifs in Xhosa beadwork, such as the zig-zag, axe, arrow, and diamond.

The so-called "trashion" movement started long before sustainable fashion was en vogue, and Ivano Vitali, of all people, should know. After all, the Italian artist dabbled in mammoth-size tapestries made from castoff newspapers, plastic bags, eggshells, and aluminum foil as early as 1974. Three decades years later, Vitali devotes his attention almost exclusively to recycled newsprint, which he tears into strips and skillfully twists into balls of yarn without the addition of glue, coloring, or silicone. Using humongous custom-made wooden needles and hooks—some as long as 8 feet—Vitali knits and crochets the unconventional fiber into garments that are as functional as they are theatrical.

Coco Rocha may only be 23 years old, but the Canadian supermodel certainly isn't twiddling her thumbs between runway appearances and photo shoots. Together with Senhoa, a California-based nonprofit that supports victims of human trafficking through income-generating opportunities and programs for social integration, Rocha has developed a collection of seven jewelry pieces, handcrafted by the same women Senhoa is seeking to rehabilitate and empower.

Clean air regulations may have slashed emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide over the past 30 years, but acid rain remain a very real—and dangerous—public-health phenomenon. To help people visualize air quality at a glance, Dahea Sun, a textiles student at Central Saint Martins in London College of Art and Design, is developing a series of dyes that responds to the changing pH of rainwater. Dubbed "Rain Palette," the project harnesses water-soluble pigments known as anthocyanins—naturally found in red cabbages, blackberries, and eggplant—to provide a haunting representation of our polluted atmosphere.

In an industry where cookie-cutter mass-manufacturing is the rule, Monisha Raja is on a mission to preserve indigenous Indian craftsmanship. Love is Mighty, her line of vegan, artisanal shoes, fuses Old World textiles and traditions with a modern twist. Driven by her passion for both aesthetics and ethics, Raja marries polyurethane "leather" with rare vintage fabrics, woven recycled plastic, and vegetable-dyed jute and cotton canvas to create her cruelty-free pumps, ballet flats, and ankle booties. "Love Is Mighty exists from a desire to create beauty and a harmonious world without harming any living beings, bridging the world of ancient mastery and modern design," she tells Ecouterre.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

As New York City's Garment District struggles to maintain a foothold in the fashion industry, David Gensler, founder of the Keystone Design Union, a Brooklyn-based design consultancy, and apparel label Serum Versus Venom, has it figured out. As the mastermind of Brooklyn Sewn, a new in-house fashion atelier in Williamsburg, Gensler is working to keep the tradition of creating high-quality garments in Gotham alive. By offering everything from pattern-making to small production runs, Gensler is banking on the ethos "if you build it, they will come"—"they" being local designers and brands looking to produce their wares on a small, accountable scale.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Procrastinators, rejoice! Here's a do-it-yourself ribbon brooch that's so easy to make, it'll take only 20 minutes from your holiday schedule. Embellished with found objects like feathers, sequins, and other assorted doodads, it becomes a one-of-a-kind treasure that looks good pinned on anything from dressy to casual. And just in the St. Nick of time, too. Now who wants more eggnog?

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

The best business ideas begin with a moment of serendipity. For Mikuti founder Erika Freund, it was a stack of banana-bark bracelets, purchased on a trip to Tanzania in 2009, that sparked her "socially active" accessories label. Overcome with the deluge of interest—strangers were accosting the then New York University student on the street—Freund realized she could not only bring a desirable product to the masses but also support the skills and livelihoods of the talented craftspeople she encountered. And she was right. Mikuti, which means "dry leaf" in Kiswahili, is making brisk trade in its artisan-made jewelry, branching from banana bark to include recycled aluminum, local Tanzanian textiles, and other sustainable materials.