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You can’t move forward without knowing where you’ve been. Peruse our end-of-year roundups below and vote for your favorite post—or least favorite, as the case may be.
TOP WTF FASHION AND BEAUTY STORIES >
TOP BIZARRE ECO-FASHION STORIES >
TOP RECYCLED FASHION DESIGNS >
TOP WEARABLE TECHNOLOGY CONCEPTS >
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The readers have spoken! Make way for the most awe-inspiring, heart-rending, game-changing, mind-boggling, and cutting-edge eco-fashion stories of 2015, as chosen by you.
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Read the rest of 36 Eco-Fashion Predictions for 2016
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Read the rest of Meet the Winners of the 2015/16 EcoChic Design Award
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For as long as she can remember, Sarah Corbett has been fighting for social justice. Growing up in an activist family, she experienced firsthand how energy-intensive, frustrating, and ineffective conventional campaigning and protesting can be. In her search to engage the public more respectfully, she founded the Craftivist Collective to channel the meditative crafts of embroidery and cross-stitch into vehicles for change. What started out with a few miniature protest banners, earnestly rendered with messages such as “Now’s the time to act for justice” and “Be the change you wish to see in the world,” has since exploded into a global movement more than 1,000 members strong. It’s easy to “pick up the thread,” as Corbett describes it. Would-be “craftivists” can even purchase ready-to-stitch kits at the group’s online store. Ecouterre caught up with Corbett to learn about this new form of “gentle protest,” how crafting can lead to a more mindful approach to activism, and the role craftivism can play in promoting a more ethical fashion industry.
Read the rest of The Craftivist Collective Wants to Change the World, One Stitch at a Time
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Photos by Heather Stilwell
The phrase “sweatshop labor” conjures up images of factory settings in faraway lands with row upon row of machines operated by young women, all working long hours for poverty pay to earn profits in the millions for the Western garment and shoe companies they stitch for. You might think of factory disasters, such as the 2013 Rana Plaza factory collapse, in which over 1,130 workers were killed, or the 2012 Ali Enterprises factory fire, where 254 workers lost their lives. But you probably won’t think of a woman, whom we’ll call Jyoti (all names have been changed to protect workers’ identities), sitting bent double on the floor of her home, hand-stitching leather uppers for shoes to be sold on U.K. high streets.
Read the rest of Meet the Invisible Women Who Stitch Your Shoes
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Read the rest of 7 Eco-Friendly Fabrics That Will Disrupt the Luxury Fashion Industry
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Read the rest of 7 Things to Know About H&M’s 2016 Conscious Exclusive Collection
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Read the rest of Brave GentleMan’s Unisex Fashion Features Vegan Wool, Faux Leather
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Read the rest of H&M’s Anna Gedda: Fair Wages Are Something the Whole Industry Must Drive
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One of the biggest misconceptions about living a greener life is that you need a lot of time and money—two luxuries not a lot of people have. Case in point: the clothes we wear. Like “fast food,” “fast fashion” provides a fix that’s at once cheap and quick. But like, say, the pink-slime that tries to pass itself off as a quarter-pounder, any initial thrill soon wears off. As deeply unsatisfying as disposable clothing is in the long run, however, a large swath of the population still believes it cannot afford the time, effort, and budget to shop more ethically. The good news is this is simply untrue. Here are five myths about sustainable fashion we’re going to bust.
Read the rest of 5 Myths About Sustainable Fashion Debunked
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Read the rest of Demestiks New York is Sticking to Manhattan’s Garment District
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Transparency enables brands and retailers to know their supply chain, engage with their suppliers, and improve the environmental and social impacts associated with the production of their products. Only through knowing can you effectively enact change. Fashion is a global network, with millions of people involved in the production of apparel. From farming the cotton, weaving it into fabric, dyeing it to give color, and sewing the fabric to create a garment, each stage in this long production chain, is completed by different groups of people, often in different regions and even different countries.
Read the rest of How Can We Create a More Transparent Fashion Industry?
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Contrary to what Gwyneth Paltrow might have you think, you don’t need a bank account the size of Gringotts to be a conscious consumer. When it comes to cultivating a more mindful closet, less, as they say, is more. Don’t believe us? Check with the experts. Here’s the best advice we’ve heard from some of the people who know best, from legendary British designer Vivienne Westwood to the head of the Catholic Church.
Read the rest of How to be a Conscious Fashion Consumer: Advice From the Experts
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Ecouterre is a media sponsor of the EcoChic Design Award
Clothing, like people, can contain multitudes. Take Esther Lui’s upcycled looks, for instance. Inspired by Hua Mulan, the bold woman warrior of Chinese legend (and at least two Disney movies), the 2015/16 EcoChic Design Award finalist transformed surplus fabrics and clothing labels into garments that embody both strength and tenderness. Lui was initially iffy about using textile waste as a resource. Her time with Redress, the competition’s organizer, however, was a revelation. “Before The EcoChic Design Award, I had no interest in eco-fashion because I thought it would be really hard to make beautiful clothes from waste,” Lui, an assistant at a bridal design house in Hong Kong, where Redress is also based, told Ecouterre. “But then I became inspired by how designers could use textile waste to design new clothes, and I started testing different textiles and drawing sketches to see what worked for me.”
Read the rest of Inspired by Mulan, Esther Lui’s Upcycled Garments Embody Gentle Strength
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Life doesn’t always go the way you expected. Born to Korean parents and raised in Brazil, Jussara Lee embraced her love of tailored clothing from a young age. After a transitory period that saw her shipping her designs to the likes of Barneys, Berdorf Goodman, and boutiques as far away as Hong Kong and Japan, Lee decided to refocus on craftsmanship. Her bespoke business in New York City’s West Village values simple lines over ostentation. Believing that too many possessions can weigh you down, Lee creates bespoke, no-fuss staples that are made to last. Increasingly, her tack has been to “preserve and conserve,” whether it’s through the use of vintage mother-of-pearl buttons or by turning cutting-floor scrap from one garment into ruffles on another. We caught up with the veteran designer to learn more about her pivot into “zero waste,” her yen for collaboration, and why she chooses to keep her label small.
Read the rest of New York City’s Jussara Lee Turns “Zero Waste” Into an Art Form
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Ethical fashion. Green fashion. Sustainable fashion. Eco-fashion. Isn’t all just clothes? Well yes…and no. Confused? Take a deep, cleansing breath. We’ve dusted off some of our favorite posts from the Ecouterre archives to bring you up to speed on the social and environmental scourge that is “fast fashion,” with a side of how to dress like you give a damn. And watch this space for breaking news and other industry developments; there’s plenty more where this came from.
Read the rest of Ethical Fashion: A Beginner’s Guide
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