10 Eco-Fashion Garments Inspired by Nature and Biomimicry

June 12, 2012, 7:00 am

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Anything you can do, Ma Nature can do better. That’s not to say you can’t crib from the best, of course: adapting biological principles to solve design problems is as old as civilization, whether it’s studying birds to enable human flight, modeling skyscrapers after termite mounds, or creating leaf-like solar cells to boost the output of photovoltaics. “Biomimicry,” a term popularized by Janine Benyus in her 1997 book, Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, mines billion-year-old adaptation strategies to craft a more sustainable future. Here are 10 examples of how the fashion industry draws cues from life to innovate and awe.

Photo by Shutterstock

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Do Clothing Donations Actually Go to People in Need?

June 15, 2012, 11:24 am

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Photo by Howard Lake

The following is an excerpt from Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion (2012, Portfolio/Penguin) by Elizabeth L. Cline

Since the end of the 19th century in both Europe and the United States, philanthropic groups have been involved in the collection and distribution of clothes to the poor. The Salvation Army started up in the United States in 1870, at a time when the U.S. population was less than 40 million and almost all clothing was still handmade. It wasn’t until the late 1950s that charities opened retail outlets, and their income began to come primarily from the sale of used clothing. Charitable clothing donations from that point were used indirectly, by first selling clothes and then using the proceeds to fund charitable works. This is how clothing donations function today.

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5 Ways to Recycle an Old Necktie Into a Last-Minute Father’s Day Gift

June 16, 2012, 5:00 am

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14 Eco-Friendly Bikinis, Swimsuits to Dive Into for Summer

June 26, 2012, 5:00 am

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How Do We Break Our “Fast Fashion” Addiction? An Interview With “Overdressed” Author Elizabeth L. Cline

June 29, 2012, 10:00 am

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Elizabeth L. Cline spent more than three years probing the underbelly of the American fast-fashion industry. Her discoveries, prompted by an epiphany over the absurdity of $7 shoes from Kmart, led her to write Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. More than an exposé, it’s also the story of how we went from a society of make-do-and-menders to a nation of addicts caught in an endless vortex of overconsumption, waste production, and post-purchase malaise. We chatted with Cline about how disposable fashion is anathema to our economy, our environment, and our psyches, and the concrete steps anyone can take—yes, even you—to break the buy-and-toss cycle many of us find so impossible to escape.

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Eko-Lab Fuses Art, Fashion, Sustainability in Brooklyn’s Backyard

July 2, 2012, 11:00 am

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Photos by Amanda Coen

Located in New York City’s Brooklyn Navy Yard, Eko-Lab is equal parts ethical apparel company and experimental art house. Combining the talents of Melissa Kirgan, Xing-Zhen Chung-Hilyard, and Jennifer Wen Ma, the label transforms organic fabrics and vegetable-based dyes into wearable conversation pieces. Eko-Lab was once a cornerstone of Ekovaruhuset, a fashion collective that included Johanna Hofring, Mika Machida, and Meiling Chen. Since the group disbanded, however, the trio have found a home among the dozen startups supported by the Pratt Design Incubator for Sustainable Innovation, an initiative founded in 2002 to launch and grow social and environmental enterprises. Ecouterre hopped on the L train to Eko-Lab’s studio to learn more about its unique brand of alchemy.

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14 American Designers Tell Us What “Made in the U.S.A.” Means to Them

July 4, 2012, 5:00 am

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14 Eco-Fashion Essentials for Your Summer Festival Getup

July 10, 2012, 12:00 pm

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Dare To Go There: 6 Eco-Friendly Ways to Mix Neons With Prints

July 16, 2012, 10:50 am

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We saw it all over the runways at last season’s Fashion Week: neon colors and prints; but what if you dared to pair these two trends together? Have no fear, it can totally be done. Remember fashion has no rules! We’ve put together a couple of on-trend neon & print-mixing looks from our favorite eco designers with some helpful tips for the daredevil in you willing to take the fashionable leap.

This content series is brought to you in partnership with smartwater. smartwater, good taste travels well. To learn more click here.

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American Apparel in Talks to Design 2014 Olympic Uniforms for…Russia?

July 17, 2012, 10:00 am

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U.S. athletes won’t be the only ones brandishing the “Made in the U.S.A” label at the 2014 Winter Olympics. An unlikely champion has emerged in the form of another competitor: Team Russia. Although the U.S. Olympic Committee, together with Ralph Lauren, have pledged to produce their opening- and closing-ceremony uniforms domestically, the Russians have been in talks with Los Angeles-based American Apparel to design their Olympic kits as early as 2011, according to the New York Post.

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Fashioning Change: 60,000 Eco-Fashion Interventions and Going Strong

July 25, 2012, 2:00 pm

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Fashioning Change has come a long way. Since it launched last fall, the online marketplace has conducted nearly 60,000 “green shopping interventions” by helping consumers recreate name-brand looks using sustainable and ethical brands. Its flagship product is “Wear This, Not That,” a web-based app that compares two similar styles—the status-quo option versus an ethically made alternative—with comparable price points. Bullet points below each look explain the sustainable (or not-so-sustainable) practices behind the brand. More often than not, the obvious choice is the better choice, both socially and environmentally. We tracked down Kestrel Jenkins, a former writer at Ecouterre and the product and sourcing coordinator for Fashioning Change, to learn more. Plus, scroll down for an exclusive 25 percent discount on all Afia products.

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9 Edible Fashions Inspired by the Culinary Arts

July 31, 2012, 6:54 am

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Food and fashion may seem like unlikely bedfellows but a new generation of designers are trading in their cutting tables for stovetops. Welcome to the intersection of haute couture and haute cuisine, part of a brave new world where clothing can be made without cloth and textiles are, quite literally, good enough to eat.

This content series is brought to you in partnership with smartwater. smartwater, good taste travels well. To learn more click here.

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6 Eco-Friendly Ways to Beat Common Summer Skin, Hair Complaints

August 7, 2012, 11:00 am

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Is New York City’s Garment Center Worth Saving?

August 14, 2012, 1:00 pm

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At this very moment, thousands of people in Midtown Manhattan are designing and manufacturing apparel all within a 10-block radius in New York City’s Garment Center. The innovation, opportunity, and jobs that the Garment Center provides is essential not only to the New York City economy but also to the American fashion industry as a whole. In this 100-year-old neighborhood, the trim-and-fabric suppliers, pattern-makers, sewers, pressers, and finishers act as a self-sustaining ecosystem, providing support for established and emerging designers all over America.

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14 Eco-Friendly Backpacks That Deserve an A+ in Style

August 15, 2012, 5:00 am

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14 Eco-Friendly Back-to-School Fashions That Make the Grade

August 21, 2012, 5:00 am

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9 Eco-Fashionable Garments Inspired by Architecture

August 22, 2012, 5:00 am

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Fashion and architecture are more than casual acquaintances. Both disciplines entail filling voids with contours, swoops, and planes, albeit on markedly different scales. Sometimes, however, the cross-pollination of concepts is intentional. As fashion terms like “draping,” “weaving,” and “pleating” propagate throughout the architectural world, and methods of building construction incorporate themselves into garment-making, the relationship between the two grows more intimate by the day. From bridge-like pumps to a hat based on the London Zoo’s penguin exhibit, here are nine examples of their love affair.

This content series is brought to you in partnership with smartwater. smartwater, good taste travels well. To learn more click here.

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Make Over Your Back-to-School Wardrobe With Natural Dyes (DIY Tutorial)

August 24, 2012, 11:00 am

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Welcome to “Local Color,” a new column by author and textile artist Rebecca Burgess.

The dry summer afternoons of Northern California have inspired the spray of the hose, colanders full of freshly harvested blackberries, and post-lunch respites under the shade of fully laden walnut trees. These are the days we spend together as families and friends, savoring the last moments before the school doors open. To honor the threshold between dirt and desks, I came up with a do-it-yourself back-to-school wardrobe project for the children who come to the “farm camps” I help host. It’s an easy, and instantaneously successful T-shirt makeover that will mask all plum and watermelon juice stains that may have accumulated over the last few months.

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7 Eco-Friendly Accessory Designers at the New York International Gift Fair

August 27, 2012, 5:00 am

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Organic by John Patrick Brings the Urban Commune to Spring 2013 New York Fashion Week

September 6, 2012, 5:00 am

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Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Crisp but never starched: John Patrick brought Organic’s signature toss-on-and-go aesthetic to New York Fashion Week on Wednesday morning with a parade of linen trouser suits, translucent drop-waist shirtdresses, puff-sleeve bonded-cotton sweaters, floral lace shorts, and giant flatform rope sandals in a freshly laundered palette of oyster, navy, and black. Inspired by the idea of the “urban commune,” his Spring/Summer 2013 collection is “not body conscious but conscious of the body,” Patrick says. “They’re like Rice Krispies,” a front-row guest quipped backstage. “Just pour and add milk.” (Full review to follow.)

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