Photo via Mitchell Whitelaw
Last week when we
saw this amazing bracelet modeled after weather patterns in the designer's hometown, we were inspired. Created by
Mitchell Whitelaw, the bracelet uses a natural system as the source for the shape, pattern and structure. What other pieces of jewelry have been created using earthly patterns and inspiration? Without having to search long, we found some incredible items!

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Humane Society President Wayne Parcelle, Designer Charlotte Ronson, Cool vs. Cruel competition winner Ingrid Bergstrom-Kendrick at the Bowery Hotel, NYC. Credit: Emma Grady
Designers
Charlotte Ronson,
Victoria Bartlett,
Elizabeth Olsen, fashion photographer
Nigel Barker, and Papermag's
Mickey Boardman came out to support the Humane Society of the United States' (HSUS) 5th Annual
Cool vs. Cruel awards ceremony in New York City last night. The Bowery Hotel was packed with animal lovers and celebrities alike to view the fur-free fashion designs by student finalists from the Art Institutes. Click through for photos of DJ
Sam Ronson, Nigel Barker, and the finalists' fashion designs.
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Ryann spring/summer 2010. Image courtesy of Origin 23
Ryann, a sustainable and fair trade fashion brand based in New York, has modernized Revolutionary antebellum southern style for spring/summer 2010. Designer Raina Blyer doesn't believe in fashion trends; they lead to cheap, throw away clothing--a point we couldn't agree more on. She creates garments made with
organic cotton bamboo, hemp, recycled fibers, ahimsa silk, linen, organic wool, soy fiber, and belts made with fish skin from Canadian canneries. Click through for our
spring/summer 2010 preview.
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Photos: Otto International
The German mail order company
Otto Group, who quietly rival Amazon.com for their international coverage, found that simple white long-sleeved cotton shirt was responsible for 10.75 kilograms of CO2 and other greenhouses gases during its production lifecycle.
Ecotextile News has reported that the largest proportions of CO2 emissions were linked to the consumer use phase, i.e.: washing, drying and ironing. For example, using a tumble drier each time you launder add 7 kilograms to the shirt's carbon footprint. But that's not the half of it....
[Image removed]
"Corporations are real weenies," he says. "They are scared to death of everything. My company exists, basically, to take those risks and prove that it's a good business." This is Yvon Chouinard, founder and CEO of Patagonia, the $ 270 million USD outdoor clothing talking to U.S. News who just included him in their 2009 list of
America's 25 Best Leaders.
Yvon knows about risk. Both personal (climber, skier, white water paddler, surfer). And corporate. In 1972 Yvon told rockclimbers there was a more environmentally sound way to protect themselves on rock routes that didn't require bashing metal pitons in and out of the rock. At that time he was making his money selling pitons. ...
Image from goodone
This small version of
Estethica was an opportunity for designers to show their stuff in an intimate setting after the hype of
London Fashion Week. Given the current economic climate there weren't many new labels, but rather this was a celebration of our favourite eco designers who keep on working.
Goodone is a fashion label working in hand-picked recycled jersey. They get their colourful stretchy jersey fabrics from ends of rolls and factory ends. The whole product is made within a 4 mile radius of London so their carbon footprint is lower than low. The designer is committed to green fashion and showing that it can exceed expectations. ...
Nau pop up shop in SoHo, NYC. Credit: Emma Grady
Activewear clothing company
Nau opened their pop up shop in New York City last night with the help of musical guests
Zee Avi and
Will Dailey. The fete featured Nau's spring 2010 collection along with styles from Horny Toad, Freitag,
Toms Shoes,
Timberland, and Stewart+Brown. We've declared
The Time as Nau before, this time Nau is a New York City minute. Click through for photos.
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Photos: Common Soles
Thongs, Flip Flops, Jandals, or whatever they are called on your beach, are the sort of casual footwear that most people don't pay much attention to. After-all they are rather ubiquitous in any sultry clime. But Common Soles have taken it upon themselves to see flip-flops as a vehicle for good works.
They use 4% from the sale of each pair to buy school books for the children of the women who make their thongs in India. And soon they also hope to release a line of footwear that also include eco-benign materials, like the prototype seen above....
Image via Lav & Kush.
Meet
Lav & Kush: the flirt of sustainable fashion. The company believes in having it all: not compromising style while being aware of their environmental footprint. With every item in the collection embracing pretty, feminine details such as gathers, ruffles, and pleats while using eco-friendly fabrics, they are designed with the urban woman in mind.
It fulfills founder Angela Saxena's childhood dream: to design luxurious and practical clothing for women and to make a positive difference in the world. In other words, not only does Lav & embrace the eco-fashionista, but it also utilizes both classic and modern influences designed for the contemporary woman, fusing beauty and comfort for everyday-wear....
SANS spring/summer 2010 collection. Credit: SANS
Pratt Manhattan Gallery is presenting "Ethics + Aesthetics = Sustainable Fashion," an exploration of sustainable practices by American fashion designers, beginning November 20, 2009. The collection centers on three themes, "Reduce, Revalue, and Rethink" and looks to eco-fashion visionaries--Alabama Chanin,
Bodkin,
Loomstate, SUNO, SANS, and more--as the leaders of the pack in pushing
green fashion to the forefront. Click through for photos.
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Images via Gabriel Dishaw
Are these the dream sneaks for green geeks? Maybe. They're at the very least a cool creation by
Gabriel Dishaw, junk-metal artist extraordinaire, who fashioned these shoes out of pieces of computers and typewriters, with only glue and metal bending techniques to keep the pieces held together. ...
R4 Fashion event in Toronto, featuring Thieves. Image courtesy of R4 Fashion
R4 Fashion and
Sustainable Technology Education Project (STEP) at the University of Waterloo, are bringing top Canadian designers together for a runway show and competition to showcase sustainable design and raise environmental awareness. Canadian designers
Aime by Monica Mei,
CARRIE by Carrie Hayes,
Cherry Blossom,
Thieves by Sonja den Elzen,
Heidi Ackerman, and
Rachel Jasmine Chan, will show pieces from their collections and create a garment from an unexpected material--waste, paper, and whatnot--click through for details and a fashion preview, in photos. ...
Credit: Airwalk
Airwalk recently launched
Doing Your Part, an online fundraiser for
Surfrider Foundation and
Music for Relief. They are donating a dollar for every visitor to their site--until they reach $10,000--to the California-based environmental non-profits. Choose your favorite charity, after the fold....
Barney's Simon Doonan and Sesame Workshop's Gary Knell at Fashion Delivers/ K.I.D.S. gala in NYC. Credit: Thomas Iannaccone, Via WWD
Fashion Delivers, a non-profit organization that supplies victims of natural disasters with donated product, and
Kids In Distressed Situations, Inc. (K.I.D.S.) raised almost $1.2 million dollars at their annual
charity gala in New York City Thursday night. Find out which Sesame Street Muppet in attendance asked "If a vegetarian eats vegetables, does that mean a humanitarian eats..?" After the jump. ...
Credit: Dave Askins, homelessdave.com.
You don't need electricity to do the laundry. It's as easy as riding a bike.
My wife's 90-year-old aunt still washes her laundry by hand, and dries it with a wringer.
God bless her. But if you're a little busier, you can keep your clothes clean with pedal power.
GreenovationTV has a segment on the low-tech solution....
Image via Orianna Helms.
You head off to the local market with your grocery list in hand...and then you get there and realize you
forgot your bags reusable bags! It's happened to all of us and darn, isn't it so frustrating? Not to mention that so many stores give us money back now if we bring our
reusable bags. It would be so much easier if we had a little reminder as we walked out the door, which is exactly why we need these cute
DFTB tags....
One dress, 365 days. Credit: The Uniform Project
You may remember Jasmin's post on
The Uniform Project: One Dress, 365 Ways to Wear It back in May. Booklynite
Sheena Matheiken's has made it half-way through the year--191 days on Saturday, to be exact--in one dress and with the help of vintage she's perfected the art of accessorizing. This weekend New Yorkers can borrow Sheena's style--she'll be dressed by rising star
Raffaele Ascione-- and dress in black with vintage flare--like the invite suggests--click through for the invite. ...
Curatorial spring/summer 2010. Credit: Well Made Phrase
Following the success of LA-based
Popomomo,
Lizz Wasserman has transformed vintage and deadstock fabrics into contemporary designs under the label
CURATORIAL. Lizz hand picks the vintage fabrics--that follow suit with season trends in patterns and color--and designs one-of-a-kind and limited edition pieces at lower price points. ...
Image courtesy of Lav & Kush
Candian-based
Lav & Kush is showing relaxed dresses--ideal for day and travel--in colorful prints that follow trends in sustainable fabrics--Modal, Tencel, soy, bamboo jersey--for
spring/summer 2010. We talk shop with Designer Angela Saxena--currently showing her designs at
Vancouver Fashion Week--on innovate fabrics, fair trade, and fashion--after the jump--and show photos from her collection. ...
We'll be working on better category archives soon. In the meantime, take a look at the
if you really want to dig around, or use the search box at the top of the page.