Read the rest of Wool & Prince Claims Its Shirt Stays Fresh for 100 Days Without Washing

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PALM LEATHER \pä(l)m ˈleT͟Hər\

n 1 a: A sturdy textile created by Studio Tjeerd Veenhoven in the Netherlands using the leaves of the Areca palm (Chrysalidocarpus lutescens). b: Made by soaking the plant matter in a special biological solution that leaves it supple and pliable. c: A biodegradable, 100 percent vegan material with some of the properties of animal leather and rubber. 2: Natural variations in color provide plenty of design potential. 3 a: Suitable for a wide range of products, including bags, footwear, and journal covers. b: Opens opportunities for artisans in South India, where the leaves and the skills to manipulate them are common.

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When a loved one passes away, it is difficult to pin down feelings and emotions generated by a host of memories. Through a multimedia piece entitled “Traces of You” by Zubin Pastakia from the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design, digital information and social networks chronicling the life of the departed are integrated into materials that explore the grieving process. Using a combination of GPS and tagging data, the movements of the deceased are stitched as a memory-trail by those left behind into a tapestry. An email application archives past conversations, and an ambient display object is able to light up when the name of the departed is mentioned or referenced.

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Photo by Samatoa

LOTUS FABRIC \lōtəs ˈfabrik\

n 1 a: Hand-woven Cambodian/Burmese textile derived from the discarded stems of the lotus plant (Nelumbo nucifera), an aquatic perennial with long filaments that is sacred in parts of Asia. b: Once used to make the robes of high-ranking Buddhist monks. c: Looks and feels like a blend of linen and raw silk. d: Naturally breathable, waterproof, wrinkle-free, and stain-resistant. 2: Virtually zero-waste: leftover components are used make lotus teas, infusions, and flour. 3 a: Popularized by Awen Delavel, a French fabric designer who established the Cambodian Lotus Center in Battamabang to streamline its production. b: Gained the interest of couture houses such as Loro Piana, which is looking to import lotus yarn to Italy to make suits.

[Via Source Intelligence]

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Nike has thrown in its lot with one of the world’s most stringent textile standards for environmental protection, health, and safety. The sportswear giant announced on Monday a new strategic partnership with Switzerland-based Bluesign to “accelerate the supply of sustainable materials and chemistries” for use in Nike products. The agreement, according to Nike, will allow its global supply chain, which spans nearly 50 countries and more than 800 contracted factories, to access Bluesign’s key assessment tools and data at an “unprecedented scale and pace.”

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Our oceans are full of trash and debris, but now a new consortium of European companies and NGOs have a plan in place to collect that debris and recycle it. Aided by the European Centre for Nature Conservation (ECNC), plastics manufacturer Aquafil and sock maker Star Sock have announced a new initiative that will collect debris, especially fishing nets, and transform into new nylon for textiles. Since 2011, The ‘Healthy Seas, a Journey from Waste to Wear’ initiative has already collected 16,000 tons of pre- and post-consumer waste and turned it into new polymers and yarns.

Read the rest of European “Healthy Seas” Initiative to Turn Used Fishing Nets Into Socks

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Bacteria is a problem, but antibiotic resistant bacteria is an even bigger problem. Now researchers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm have created a more eco-friendly antibacterial fabric that can control bacteria but won’t leach into the environment and create resistant strains of bacteria. A simple fabric of cellulose is laced with antibacterial polymers that attract and then kill bacteria on contact. The material would be especially helpful in hospitals or for water treatment and with a few more modifications, it can be disposed in a safe way just by burning.

Read the rest of Swedish Scientists Create “Eco-Safe” Antibacterial Fiber

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Denim made from sustainable wood pulp, rather than cotton, could be the key to reducing the jeans industry’s sizable environmental footprint, according to a fashion student at Heriot-Watt University. Dawn Ellams, a Ph.D researcher at the School of Textiles and Design in Scotland, developed her “no-cotton” jeans using eucalyptus-tree pulp, which is spun into a cotton-like yarn marketed under the trade name of Tencel. She also used digital-printing technology to replicate the stone-washed effect denim aficionados crave. Despite their physical similarities, Ellams says her “wooden” jean uses only a fifth of the water, energy, and chemicals required by its conventional counterpart.

Read the rest of Could “Wooden” Jeans Reduce the Denim Industry’s Carbon Footprint?

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A new textile developed in the UK can make your workout a little less sweaty. Called Inotek, the process amps up textiles’ ability to absorb sweat, in effect pulling it away from the body- leaving you clean and dry. Developed by MMT Textiles, Inotek can benefit athletes, gym fanatics, and those moving from hot to cold environments.

Read the rest of New Biomimetic Fiber, Inspired by Pine Cones, Keeps You Dryer, Longer

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Fruit of the “bastard hogberry” plant.

Inspiration can strike from the unlikeliest of places. Take the amusingly named bastard hogberry plant, for instance. Indigenous to South America, the fruit of the Margaritaria nobilis evolved its vibrant blue hue to entice birds to gobble it up and facilitate the dispersal of its seeds over a wide geographic area. By identifying and replicating the structural elements responsible for the fruit’s color, scientists from Harvard University and the University of Exeter managed to invent a new kind of photonic fiber that shifts from red to blue—and several colors in between—when subject to pressure.

Read the rest of Harvard Scientists Create Smart Fiber That Changes Color When Stretched

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In arid areas, clean flowing water is always in short supply. However, once temperatures cool at night, mists and fogs nourish plant and animal life. Inspired by species of beetles and spiders that have adapted to gather droplets from the air, a team from the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) and the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (PolyU) have developed a cotton fabric coated with a special polymer that collects and retains moisture. The team, who will publish their results in the journal, Advanced Materials later this month, found that with the coating the fabric was able to absorb 340% of its own weight as compared to 18% without the polymer. Up to 93 degrees Fahrenheit, the material strongly attracts water. Once above that threshold, the microstructure changes, becoming completely closed and releasing pure water wherever it is placed.

Read the rest of Water-Harvesting Cotton Could Help Sustain Agriculture in Arid Places

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Great Britain is revving up for the biggest celebration of wool the world has ever seen. Come March, the Campaign for Wool, with the help of veteran interior-stylist Arabella McNie, will transform the West Wing of London’s Somerset House into a veritable wooly wonderland. “Wool House” is set to comprise seven individual rooms, each showcasing the fiber’s versatility in the realms of fashion, art, home goods, and interior design. Contributers include knitwear impresario Donna Wilson, hotel design director Kit Kemp, and rug-weaver Roger Oates, who will exhibit exclusive room sets alongside a giant installation by acclaimed Dutch tapestry artist Claudy Jongstra.

Read the rest of Campaign for Wool to Host World’s Largest Showcase of Wool

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Read the rest of Australian Designer Turns Salvaged Paintings Into Sci-Fi-Inspired Jackets

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ZPAGETTI \zpə-ˈge-tē\

n. 1 a: A super-bulky yarn, comprising 92 percent cotton and 8 percent elastane, made from the remnants of garment manufacturing. b: Produced by Lion Brand Yarn in the United States. c: Because of the repurposed nature of the material, each colorway is limited edition (and available at random). d: Suitable for knitting, crocheting, jewelry-making, and other forms of crafty tomfoolery.

+ Zpagetti $8.99 per skein

+ Lion Brand Yarn

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KUBA \kü-bä\

n 1 a: Geometrically patterned cloth traditionally woven from raffia-tree leaves by the Kuba people of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. b: Naturally colored fabric created through a labor-intensive process of hand-dyeing using mud, indigo, or the powdered bark of the camwood tree. c: Typically created by Kuba men on a single heddle loom, then embroidered by women and children to create an uncut or cut-pile appearance (the latter resembles velvet or velour). 2: a Traditionally worn during ceremonial events, primarily funerals, but also found in tapestries and home goods. b: Includes symbolic patterns that indicate a person’s social and marital status, age, and even attributes of a person’s character.

[Via Cloth and Kind]

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Amazon.com, Leon Max, Macy’s, and Sears have agreed to pay a combined $1.26 million in fines after the Federal Trade Commission charged them with marketing products as bamboo when they were actually derived from rayon. While so-called bamboo textiles are often promoted as environmentally friendly, the chemical-intensive process for manufacturing rayon—even when it’s made from bamboo—is far from “green,” according to the federal agency, which sent a business alert in 2009 advising manufacturers and sellers not to label or advertise a textile as bamboo if it wasn’t made directly of bamboo fiber (“rayon” or “rayon made from bamboo” are the preferred terms.)

PREVIOUSLY ON ECOUTERRE: How Eco-Friendly is Bamboo Fabric, Really?

Read the rest of FTC Fines Amazon, Macy’s, Sears $1.26M for Mislabeling Bamboo Textiles

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Your car and home aren’t the only sources of greenhouse-gas emissions. Clothing has an ecological footprint of its own, as well. But African-grown cotton might have a considerably smaller impact on the environment than conventionally grown cotton, according to an independent study commissioned by Cotton Made in Africa, an initiative of the Aid by Trade Foundation to help African smallholder farmers improve their lives through trade rather than handouts. Compared with Pakistan-grown cotton, Systain, an independent consulting firm based in Hamburg, found that cotton cultivated on the continent emits 70 percent less carbon. It also saves around 18,000 liters of water per kilogram of cotton lint.

Read the rest of African-Made Cotton Has Smaller Ecological Footprint, Says New Study

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Did you ever think you’d be wearing plants while hanging ten? Outdoor adventurist brand Patagonia has been making strides with their experimentation with eco-friendly wetsuits. They’re latest line borrows from the plant world- replacing petroleum-based synthetics with bio-materials, making the world’s first plant based wet suit.

Read the rest of Patagonia Unveils World’s First Renewable, Plant-Based Wetsuit

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Affordable clothing doesn’t just mean price, but also durability. UK retailer, Marks & Spencer understand the value of a buck, and are turning to technology to make their school uniforms even more durable. Their Stay NewTN technology uses an enzymatic bioblasting process to keep clothes looking as fresh as the first day of school.

Read the rest of M&S Uses Enzyme Technology to Keep Uniforms Looking Like New Longer

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Make do and unmend? Meet the “un-knitting” machine, a pedal-powered apparatus designed to recycle unwanted knitwear. The curious contraption is the brainchild of Imogen Hedges, a London-based product-and-furniture designer who discovered that charity shops sometimes spend hours unraveling sweaters by hand. “They can make more money out of selling the wool than they can from the sweaters,” says the Kingston University graduate, one of a select group of student designers exhibiting at the The National Centre for Craft & Design this month.

Read the rest of Pedal-Powered “Un-knitting” Machine Unravels Sweaters to Recycle Yarn

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Tobacco, as it turns out, is good for more than a smoke. According to one North Carolina company, the plant can also be harnessed as a sustainable, cost-effective resource for the apparel and home-goods industries. Because tobacco is cultivated only for its leaves, tobacco farmers typically throw away hundreds of millions of tons of agricultural waste each year. Through decades of research, however, Suzanne DeVall, founder of Ploughboy Organics, uncovered the plant’s untapped potential, not only as a nontoxic dye but also a fiber that blends well with yarns such as cotton, wool, silk, and cashmere.

Read the rest of Ploughboy Organics Turns Tobacco Waste Into Nontoxic Textiles, Dyes

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Controvery, schcontroversy. As the biggest global user of certified-organic cotton for the second year running, H&M has plenty to crow about. The revelation comes courtesy of Textile Exchange, a nonprofit organization whose Organic Cotton Market Report looks back on 2011 as a “year of contradictions” filled with peaks and valleys. Among the high points? H&M, which not only maintained its position as the No. 1 buyer of certified-organic cotton but also increased its use of the white stuff by nearly 100 percent in 2011.

Read the rest of H&M Still World’s No. 1 Buyer of Organic Cotton

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HAGFISH SLIME THREAD \ˈhag-ˌfish ˈslīm ˈthred \

n 1: The fibrous protein component of the defensive slime of the hagfish (also known as Hyperotreti), an eel-shaped bottom-dwelling marine animal that is the only known living organism with a skull but no vertebral column. 2 a: An affordable, sustainable alternative to oil-based polymers as discovered by Atsuko Negishi, a researcher at the University of Guelph in Canada. 3 a: A member of the “intermediate filament” family of proteins, with remarkable mechanical properties that rival those of spider silk. b: Has the potential to be isolated, purified spun, and woven into high-performance biomaterials.

[Via Ecotextile News]

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Thanks to a fast-fashion based industry model, coupled with consumer desire to pay the least possible price for product, we have been left to deal with over-consumption, waste, and a plethora of “Frankenstein” fabrics.These low-grade, synthetic and petroleum based textiles are on the rise with stores like H&M and Forever 21 knocking off larger design houses as well as indie designers.

Read the rest of The Monster Challenges of Cheap, Low-Maintenance “Frankenfabrics”

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The original blue-jean company is making efforts to turn its iconic garment green. On Tuesday, Levi Strauss announced the launch of “Waste<Less,” an upcoming collection of denim that incorporates post-consumer waste, specifically plastic bottles and food trays. Set to debut in January, the line of skinny jeans, straight-fit jeans, and trucker jackets will comprise a minimum of 20 percent recycled content, or the equivalent of eight 12- to 20-ounce bottles per jean. The entire collection is expected to utilize over 3.5 million recycled bottles, according to Levi’s.

Read the rest of Levi’s Launches New Waste<Less Jeans Made From Recycled Plastic Bottles

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