Mariclaro Upcycles Car Upholstery, Air Bags Into Durable Carryalls

by Jasmin Malik Chua, 02/02/12

Mariclaro, recycled air bags, upcycled air bags, eco-friendly bags, sustainable bags, eco-friendly backpacks, sustainable backpacks, recycled bags, upcycled bags, Toronto, Canada, eco-fashion, sustainable fashion, green fashion, ethical fashion, sustainable style

Where do exploded air bags go to die? If you ask Mariclaro, they don’t. The Toronto-based accessories label salvages truck tarps, leather upholstery, seat belts, bicycle inner tubes, boat sails, and yes, exploded air bags, to create a range of road-tested laptop sleeves, messenger bags, briefcases, and backpacks. Of the materials that comprise each piece, roughly 99 percent was landfill-bound, according to co-founders Sven Schlegel and Willa Murray, who intercept the materials within 300 miles of their workshop. (“1 percent is made of notions and our logo, still unavailable in recycled,” Schlegel says.)

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Made in Forest Hills: MoMA-Inspired Bow Ties Recycled From Trash

by Amanda Coen, 01/17/12

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Represent Your City with Hanger 3′s Recycled Subway Token Necklaces

Represent Your City with Hanger 3′s Recycled Subway Token Necklaces

Fashion and transportation history collide with Hanger 3′s line of quirky necklaces, which designer Dustin Wood fashions using vintage subway tokens from around the country. Representing cities from Conestoga, PA, to Beaumount, TX, each piece of ephemera bears a unique, city-specific design, …

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Ivano Vitali Creates Zero-Waste Garments From Recycled Newspaper Yarn

Ivano Vitali Creates Zero-Waste Garments From Recycled Newspaper Yarn

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Hot Off the Presses: Necklaces Made From Vintage Letterpress Type

Hot Off the Presses: Necklaces Made From Vintage Letterpress Type

Typography geeks, wordsmiths, and lovers of the alphabet will fall for the charms of Gwen Delicious, a Canadian accessories label that fashions necklaces from vintage printing-press type. Burnished with scuffs and other imperfections that make each piece unique, the repurposed brass blocks are strung from a gunmetal chain and secured with …

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Fonderie 47 Recycles Confiscated AK-47 Rifles Into Luxurious Jewelry

Fonderie 47 Recycles Confiscated AK-47 Rifles Into Luxurious Jewelry

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Upcycle Broken Christmas Lights into Sparkly Holiday Accessories

Upcycle Broken Christmas Lights into Sparkly Holiday Accessories

MATERIALS AND SUPPLIES

Old Christmas lights
Pliers
French hooks
Necklace chain
Jump rings
Thumbtack
Wire and beads (optional)

TO MAKE EARRINGS
1. Remove lights from Christmas strand. Take your tack and poke a hole through the plastic end part of the light.

2. Thread a jump ring through the hole.

3. Thread the French hook through the jump ring and close up with a pair of pliers. …

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18-Year-Old Creates Couture-Inspired Bustier From Recycled Drink Cans

18-Year-Old Creates Couture-Inspired Bustier From Recycled Drink Cans

Eighteen-year-old art student Hannah Sykes isn’t one to color within the lines. And boy, has it paid off. The budding designer, who unveiled a gleaming couture-inspired bustier made from repurposed drink cans, snagged first prize at a competition that encourages canned-beverage aficionados to get creative with their …

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JoannaJohn Turns Vintage Dowry Quilts Into Vibrant Reversible Jackets

JoannaJohn Turns Vintage Dowry Quilts Into Vibrant Reversible Jackets

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Lexus Fashion Workshop Turns Recyclable Hybrid Parts Into Haute Couture

Lexus Fashion Workshop Turns Recyclable Hybrid Parts Into Haute Couture

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Valérie Pache Creates Whimsical Dresses From Recycled Paraglider Sails

Valérie Pache Creates Whimsical Dresses From Recycled Paraglider Sails

Valérie Pache is the wing beneath our wings…paraglider wings, that is. The French designer turns castoff parachutes, retired paraglider sails, and end-of-roll fabrics into sartorial flights of fancy. “This material is there, there’s a lot of it, and it’s free,” Pache says in a video interview with Shamengo. “And to offer it a second life—a good life—is something I can really put a lot of myself into.”

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101 Hilarious Ways to Reuse Your Ex-Wife’s Wedding Dress

101 Hilarious Ways to Reuse Your Ex-Wife’s Wedding Dress

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Bullets2Bandages Recycles Fired Military Ammunition Into Jewelry

Bullets2Bandages Recycles Fired Military Ammunition Into Jewelry

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Lisa Våglund Upcycles Festival Tents Into Stage Costumes

Lisa Våglund Upcycles Festival Tents Into Stage Costumes

Music festivals create more than merriment and boozy afterglows; they also generate a prodigious amount of trash. Lisa Våglund, a recent graduate of the Danish Design School, pitched a solution, transforming discarded tents from the Roskilde Festival—one of the six biggest annual music festivals in Europe—into stage costumes for singer and festival staple Kissey Asplund.

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7 Last-Minute Halloween Costumes Lurking Inside Your Closet

7 Last-Minute Halloween Costumes Lurking Inside Your Closet

WHERE’S WALDO
Be the lovable guy everyone is searching for by donning a few simple pieces you probably already own.
COSTUME COMPONENTS
Red-and-white striped shirt
Jeans
Red beanie
Black-rimmed glasses
Camera with strap
Cane (an umbrella would also work in a pinch)…

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Manolo Blahnik, M. Patmos Make Eco-Friendly Shoes From Waste Tilapia Skins, Cork

Manolo Blahnik, M. Patmos Make Eco-Friendly Shoes From Waste Tilapia Skins, Cork

A eco-friendly Manolo Blahnik shoe isn’t something we expected to see in our lifetime, but stranger things have happened. The luxury shoemaker, name-checked by Sarah Jessica Parker on Sex and the City, has teamed up with award-winning designer Marcia Patmos to create a collection of sandals for spring. Made from discarded tilapia skins, cork, and raffia, the two styles—a double-strap flat and a sophisticated open-toed pump—will be available in a combination of electric blue, black, ecru, and fluorescent yellow.

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Stefanie Nieuwenhuys Recycles Wood Chips Into Snakeskin-Like Couture

Stefanie Nieuwenhuys Recycles Wood Chips Into Snakeskin-Like Couture

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Artist Billie Achilleos Turns Louis Vuitton Bags Into Amazing Animal Sculptures (Video)

Artist Billie Achilleos Turns Louis Vuitton Bags Into Amazing Animal Sculptures (Video)

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Make Do and Mend, World War II-Style (Video)

Make Do and Mend, World War II-Style (Video)

“Make do and mend” was an oft-repeated mantra in 1940s Britain, when manufactured commodities were in scant supply and clothes rationing became a vital part of the British war effort. Coinciding with a Board of Trade exhibition at Harrods in London, the Ministry of Supply produced a clip that demonstrated the new “substitution and conversion” economy, including a patchwork dressing gown made from scrap material, a shift-dress derived from old plus-four trousers, and a baby cot improvised from sackcloth slung between a …

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Mark O’Brien Makes Cardboard Shoes From Recycled Beer Packaging

Mark O’Brien Makes Cardboard Shoes From Recycled Beer Packaging

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Uses for Spare Buttons #912: Build Your Own Sith Lord

Uses for Spare Buttons #912: Build Your Own Sith Lord

Well played, Noah Scalin. Impressive; most impressive.

+ Star Wars Remix

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New Balance Creates NewSky Sneaker From 95% Recycled Plastic Bottles

New Balance Creates NewSky Sneaker From 95% Recycled Plastic Bottles

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Knit From Undies, Antoine Peters’s Knicker Dress Reimagines the Everyday

Knit From Undies, Antoine Peters’s Knicker Dress Reimagines the Everyday

One way to make sure celebutantes keep their panties on? Make them wear a dress composed entirely of underwear. Designer Antoine Peters gathered as many unmentionables as he could, cut them into strips, and knitted a thigh-grazing shift designed for flashing in public. Peters salvaged every component, leaving almost zero waste behind. “From a distance, you see an elegant dress,” he tells Ecouterre. “But up close you experience the surprise that the dress consists of knickers only.”

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Papier Couture’s Lia Griffith Makes Stunning Gowns From Recycled Paper

Papier Couture’s Lia Griffith Makes Stunning Gowns From Recycled Paper

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California Designer Creates Flamenco Dress From Recycled Magazines

California Designer Creates Flamenco Dress From Recycled Magazines

Adam Neeley put his jeweler’s tools aside to pull together a dress for Laguna Beach’s second annual Festival of the Arts. And not just any dress, but a floor-length flamenco gown fashioned from the pages of Vogue, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, and Glamour. Inspired by all things Latina, Neeley constructed “Novella” from more than 1,000 hand-folded paper fans, which …

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