Clothes that change colour according the acid rain?

New Year, new ideas! This might sound like a science fiction movie, but it is a real project, made by a real fashion designer. Dahea Sun, a Korean born, based in London has developed a type of fabric that indicates the level of pH contained in the rainwater.

The famous song “Purple Rain” is totally in line with this concept! The fabric is dyed with pigments called ‘anthocyanins’ usually found in some vegetables such as red cabbages, eggplants and blackberries. That’s why the collection has a beautiful palette of purple colours.

The acid contained in the rain can be a threat to public health. She believes that fashion has a direct link with the environment and I totally agree with her. With her new collection she want to raise awareness and responsibility regarding global warming issues, but in a poetic and sophisticated way. The collection is lovely and I really like the shapes, colours and textures used by her.

She also developed an app for smartphones which potential wearers can upload and record rain pH readings online to create a worldwide database of real-time environmental data.

To know more about her project and how does it really works; I invite you to visit the websites below:

Sun Dahea  &   Rain Palette

Last Minute Xmas presents!

Xmas is almost there. Have you bought all your presents? Not yet? Here are few great ideas for eco-friendly Xmas gifts.

Watch made from sustainable wood. We Wood plant a tree for every watch sold. I love the idea and they have really cool designs. Available in some watch shops across Australia you can also buy online. I don’t know if you can get it in time for Xmas, but it is worth checking out their website.

You buy a watch, they plant a tree.

Recycled skateboard jewellery can be a really cool and original eco-friendly gift.Vibrant colours, resistant material and beautiful designs, I really like the whole concept. Available in USA, Canada, Australia, Netherlands and Belgium; MapleXO really rocks!

In the same theme, I also found iPhone and iPad cases made with recycled skateboards. Grovemade also have cases made with bamboo that you can personalise the way you want.

If you are looking for something different and useful, I think that’s a really cool gift!

Check out their website

Do you have a musician friend or your partner is a music fan? What about offering something made with recycled vinyl records? You can find clock’s, bowls, coasters, plates, all kind of things made with old recycled vinyl records. That’s groovy man! Check out these ideas!

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/record-coasters

http://www.uncommongoods.com/product/record-bowls

The website NOVICA in association with National Geographic has a really cool section of eco-friendly gifts that you can purchase online. They offer products made by many artists from around the world. I selected one Brazilian artist that makes handbags with soda can tops. It is really cool to see how many things you can make with such a small and insignificant item. It literally transforms bin to beauty! You can also read the full story about each artist.

What about giving a wallet made with real fire hose?

Such a strong material, it was a really clever idea to re-use it making the Ted coin wallets. You can find them online at the Ecoutlet website or on the Ted website.

Related articles

• Eco-Friendly Holiday Gifts for Green Thumbs! (inhabitat.com)
• DIY Gifts You Can Make Yourself (inhabitat.com)

Cork handbags

Check out these handmade handbags made with cork fabric. Cool, chic and sustainable! If you love bags you will fall in love with them!

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Ryan Greer is an artist located in Brooklyn, New York and he produces some wonderful bags made with cork fabric. Click here for more info.

Campaign to push organic cotton as sales rise

Campaign to push organic cotton as sales rise | Environment | guardian.co.uk.

Recycle your t-shirt and be fashionable

Summer is almost there. Instead of shopping for new clothes, what about recycling? I found these 2 videos where you can learn how to turn your old t-shirt into a pretty cool and trendy top or how to make a funky dress. So let’s do it?

For more tips, visit Paris Heroin Stars and Ray Baby Ray

Fashion is going green

You might have heard about organic cotton and hemp fabrics being used in the fashion industry, but have you heard about fabrics made from PET plastic bottles, or from milk? These are just a few sustainable textiles that are starting to be used in the fashion industry.

The milk fabric is not a new invention. It was created during the Second World War by a German biologist and fashion designer Anke Domaske. To create the fiber, liquid milk is dried and its proteins extracted. The separated proteins are then dissolved in a chemical solution and placed into a machine that essentially whirls the fibers together. The fibers can then be spun into yarn and woven into fabric. The process is quite long, but the milk fabric has some great advantages. It holds dye, is breathable and it captures the moisture to make skin tender and smooth.

Another way to go green in fashion is to use recycled materials. You can find some brands online that produce clothes and accessories using a large range of recycled items, like bags made with old advertising banners, or recycled aluminium can pull-tabs. There is also an American brand called Harvey that uses car seat belts to make their eco-chic bags.

In 2009 the American agency Cone Communications raised some questions regarding how high was consumer interest in environmentally friendly products purchasing despite the bad economy. Here are some interesting results from the Cone Consumer Environmental Survey:

• 35 percent of Americans have higher interest in the environment today than they did one year ago.
• 70 percent of Americans indicate that they are paying attention to what companies are doing with regard to the environment today.

Stella McCartney new eco-friendly collection

Aware of this new consumer behaviour and interest, luxury brands are also going green. Some iconic brands are adopting eco-fashion style in their new creations. In 2012 Stella McCartney launched her brand new eco-friendly collection of sunglasses. She also created an eco-friendly lingerie collection that is made with organic cotton. Check out the green blog from Stella McCartney. Another new player in the eco-friendly scene is Gucci. The luxury brand launched a range of sustainable shoes called “Sustainable Soles” in June 2012.

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But eco-fashion is more than that; in my view eco-fashion is all about creativity. You can transform your old clothes and create something totally new and fashionable.  You can make a funky bag with your old jeans, or a pretty cool bracelet or necklace with some seeds or buttons. It’s up to you to be original, go wild and create your own green style!

Click here to download the survey.

I selected this post to be featured on Environmental Blogs. Please visit the site and vote for my blog!

 

 

Related articles

• Brit Designer Eco Lingerie – Stella McCartney ‘Stella’ Collection Features Eco-Conscious Creations (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
• EcoFabrik Joins FashionHaunt to Bring Eco-friendly Products to the Customers of FashionHaunt; FashionHaunt Welcomes Sellers to Sell Eco-friendly Products on the Site (virtual-strategy.com)
• A Clothing Line Made From 100% Recycled Trash (psfk.com)
• A New Lingerie Line for Stella McCartney (fashiontv.com)

Looking for environmentally friendly clothing? Check this out!

Greenlight Apparel is a Canadian brand that supplies running and fitness apparel. They supply clothes that you can use for running, walking, yoga and other physical activities. I came across them in an article in the magazine “Runners World”.

Greenlight Apparel has created a business model that aims to do business in an environmentally friendly and ethical way. The famous quote: “Give a person a fish and they will eat for a day, teach them how to fish and they will eat for a lifetime.”  This is how they sum up their business model. They have committed to donating 25% of their profits to organisations like the Women’s Microfinance initiative, which provides individuals around the world access to financial services and education.

Well done Greenlight Apparel!

Let’s do something good!

Looking for new glasses? Do you live in USA or Canada? So why not contribute to the Warby Parker project: “Buy a pair, give a pair”? For every pair of glasses that you buy, they provide a pair of glasses to someone in need.

Approximately one billion people don’t have access to affordable glasses. Poor vision can cause severe learning difficulties at school, find a job or simply perform in the everyday life. Warby Parker helps people to find clear vision and it has a real impact into people’s life. Moreover the company is carbon neutral! So I totally support the cause sharing their website in my blog and I hope you will also share it with your friends. A great project like this deserves attention and support.

http://www.warbyparker.com/

Sustainable textiles

The fashion industry is the second largest user of water in the world. Petroleum is one of the toxic materials used to produce synthetic fibers like polyester and nylon. Sheep, alpaca, llamas and other wool-bearing animals contribute to the production of methane gas, a major greenhouse gas.

Over 90 million items of clothing end up in landfill sites all over the world each year.

This is why some textile and fashion industry players are trying to find ways to make their production more sustainable and less harmful to the environment, wildlife and human population.

Some companies have come up with very innovative ideas of producing fibres. Many people have heard about organic cotton and hemp, but there are many of other types of textiles produced with other materials such as PET bottles! 

This year the Earth Summit in Rio had some bad press, but one clever project was agreed between Italy and Brazil. TRACES is an Italian-Brazilian innovative project on carbon footprint survey and social environmental impacts in the fashion industry. The aim of the project is to reduce the social and environmental impacts caused by fibre production for the textile industry.  This collaboration also involves the brand Osklen that is internationally recognized for its design and alternative raw materials.

Together with Instituto-e the project will work on new ways to produce textiles. Instituto-e is a Brazilian organisation that promotes an environmentally friendly economic development in Brazil. The label of e-fabrics® defines the use of the following sustainable materials: organic and natural cotton, recycled cotton and PET, ‘pirarucu leather’ eco-jute, organic silk.

If you are wondering what ‘pirarucu’ is…it is a fish that you can find in Amazonia and it is mostly used as a food. The problem with this fish is that its skin can be harmful for the environment causing biological pollution when disposed of the landfill. Here using the skin as a textile is very beneficial for the environment and the local population creating jobs opportunities.

Pirarucu

 

Plastic bottles represent more than 30% of waste collected in Brazil. 

The project will aim to reuse them producing fibres for the textile industry. If you google ‘PET textile’, you will see that the concept is not totally new.

However in this project it will not only help the environment but also promote ethical work giving women from disadvantaged areas an alternative source of income.

The project has the objective of further the use of sustainable raw materials in order to protect biodiversity and improve social conditions. If this project continues it will be a great step forward for the fashion industry. I really hope that both governments will keep their commitments to this amazing project.

And you know what? I can’t wait to buy my “pirarucu” leather jacket!

Related articles

• Cotton, organic or not? (sustainableandfashionable.wordpress.com)

H&M is investing in sustainable fabrics

I am glad to see that big fashion brands such as H&M are introducing sustainable materials in their products. I am still quite skeptical regarding their prices. How can they sell their products so cheap and provide good work conditions in their factories? I know they produce in large scale, but is the volume enough for them to make money and to provide good working conditions? I am not sure, but at least they seem care about the environment.

As consumers we have access to information that we never had before. Internet has contributed a lot to this. Many consumers also care about where and how goods are produced, what the working conditions are and what environmental effects the manufacture can cause. We have the power to contribute to the success or failure of a product.

The marketing department of H&M understood that consumers today have voice and they are broadcasting this viral campaign talking about their sustainable actions. In my view using social media marketing is a very good way to get in touch with customers and improve the brand image. I would say touch down for their marketing team!

Sweden is one of the most eco-friendly countries in the world, so it is not surprising that this great marketing initiative mixing sustainability and fashion comes from a Swedish brand. Have a look at the video.