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

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)

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)

Around the world eco-friendly glasses

Being shortsighted, I wear glasses all the time.  Glasses are also a very fashionable accessory that we can match with our clothes, style and mood of the day.  I see lots of people using only the frames, without the actual glass.  Personally, I don’t really like that, but fashion is all about taste and thank God we all have different tastes!  I admit that mine are not eco-friendly, but when I bought them I didn’t know about these great ideas.  You can be sure that my next glasses will be ultra eco-friendly and trendy!

The Canadian brand ICU Eyewear offers eco-friendly reading glasses made from reclaimed plastic, recycled metal and sustainable bamboo.

Quite famous in the USA, the brand has received editorial compliments from some iconic fashion magazines such as ‘Vogue’,  ‘O’, the Oprah magazine and the National Geographic ‘Green Guide’.

 

And what if your glasses were made from timber?  Herrlicht is a German brand 

that offers wood frames crafted by hand.  Nice, original and trendy they have different styles and offer a range of wood such as maple, cherry, walnut and oak.  I also love their wood cases! So nice!

 

Have you ever thought about the amount of hair that we cut per year that goes straight to the bin?  

A British design company has decided to take action.  Can you imagine glasses made from human hair?

Yes, they did it!  Studio Swine has created an eyewear collection made entirely from human hair.

Very stylish and fashionable shapes that I really can picture myself wearing!  They have developed a chemical process using a bioresin that is entirely biodegradable and not harmful for the environment.  Trendy, cool and definitely eco-friendly!  We love that!

 

Available in Australia, Linkskin uses recycled material to make their frames. They also don’t use any soldering, screws or hinges to produce the frames.  The company provides a recyclable system; when you don’t use your glasses anymore, you can give them back to your optician for recycling. Isn’t it great? So let’s introduce the ‘go green’ attitude into our glasses too!

Sustainable practices brand

The White Tent label was concieved in London by Evigna Tabakova, a Russian and Pedro Noronha-Feio, a Portuguese who are advocates of social responsibility and want to make it a sustainable process brand.

I love this idea, because I also think that the fashion industry should invest more money and time in finding ways to use more sustainable materials in their production lines. Fabrics can be made from so many recycled items. There are also organic cotton and bamboo fabrics that are very stylish and super comfortable. I hope that more businesses will follow the good example of some small brands that are making the difference in the fashion industry.