When Lent rolls around on Wednesday, a group of self-described fashion addicts across the United Kingdom will be forgoing the standard vices (meat, cigarettes, coffee, chocolate) for a different kind of fast: fast fashion. Coinciding with the end of London Fashion Week, a time of glitzy excess that obscures the realities of sweatshop laborers and the high-street knockoffs they’ll soon be producing, the “Six-Item Challenge” is challenging women (and sartorially inclined men) to wear only six pieces of clothing in the 40 days leading up to Easter.
Simia Mineralis: Ada Zanditon Debuts Short Film at Autumn 2012 London Fashion Week (Video)
by Christine de Leon, 02/21/12
Photos by Christine de Léon for Ecouterre
No ordinary lookbook will do for Ada Zandition. The British designer, who launched her Autumn/Winter 2012 collection at London Fashion Week over the weekend, screened a short “fashion film” directed by Thomas Knights at the Estethica showcase in Somerset House. Simia Mineralis (loosely translated as “ape of the minerals” or the human race) plunges its protagonist into a looking-glass mashup of The Lady of Shalott, The Turn of the Screw, and Ziggy Stardust. A departure from last season’s Poseisus, which borrowed inspiration from the Greek god Poseidon, the film evokes the industrial revolution and the turmoil and conflict it created in its wake. “This season we’re moving from the sea and into the jungle,” Zandition tells Ecouterre.
William Hughes’s LED Snowboarding Suit Lights Up the Nighttime Slopes
Gliding down the slopes of southeastern France at breakneck speed, William Hughes makes for an arresting sight. The effect is more than a little haunting: It’s nighttime, for one, and the Artec snowboarder is clad head to toe in an LED-studded snowsuit. Hughes is the star and subject of a video by fashion photographer and filmmaker Jacob Sutton, who spent three nights in the Rhône-Alpes on a skidoo, at temperatures of -13 degrees Fahrenheit, to obtain the footage. Sutton sought the assistance of electronics expert John Spatcher, to custom-make the “temperamental” garment, an endeavor that took 300 man-hours to complete, according to Nowness, an online magazine by luxury group Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy.
IOU Project’s Kavita Parmar Offers New Business Model for Ethical Fashion
Ecouterre is the official media sponsor of DIY With IOU. Enter now at Source4Style to become the IOU Project’s next ethical designer!
The IOU Project isn’t just another fashion label; it’s also a revolution, an experiment in rethinking how goods are produced and sold in a way that benefits both people and the planet. Summer Rayne Oakes, co-founder of Source4Style, sat down with Kavita Parmar, IOU’s founder and creative director, to learn what goes into the creation of an IOU garment, why complete traceability is the core of her company’s mission, and how social networking is bringing artisan communities closer to the developed world.
Dame Vivienne Westwood: People Look Ugly Wearing “Disposable Crap”
“People have never looked so ugly as they do today. We just consume far too much.. I’m talking about all this disposable crap. What I’m saying is buy less, choose well. Don’t just suck up stuff so everybody looks like clones. Don’t just eat McDonald’s, get something a bit better. Eat a salad. That’s what fashion is. It’s something that is a bit better.”
—Designer …
National Academies of Sciences Urge Review of Nanomaterials Risks, Safety
Good things don’t necessarily come in small packages. Take the growing popularity of nanotechnology, for example. Although nanoscale forms of silver, carbon, zinc, and aluminum can be found in products ranging from clothing to cosmetics, their health and environmental risks remain uncertain, according to an expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences. Nanomaterials, which are less than ten-thousandth the width of a human hair, offer several advantage, including the ability to be both very strong and very light, or, in the case of certain sunblocks, to glide on smoothly without giving the Phantom of the Opera a run for his money. But they can also be ingested, inhaled, or absorbed through the skin, researchers warn, or leach into the environment during manufacturing, use, and disposal.
The GreenShows Brings Luxury Ethical Fashion to Fall 2012 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week
Photos by Amanda Coen for The GreenShows
Despite mystery and rumors surrounding the state of The Green Shows, all doubts came to a halt last Friday after the grand unveiling of a group show highlighting eight sustainable designers at The Box at Lincoln Center. The line-up included United Bamboo, Bamboo by United Bamboo, Study NY by Tara St. James, H. Fredriksson, Luis Valenzuela, The Battalion, Ajna, and Artists and Revolutionaries. The space was filled with eco-fashion followers and celebs alike who were on hand to admire the upcoming Fall 2012 collection previews.
Samantha Pleet Revives Romanticism at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week
Photos by Dan Lecca
It’s a little distressing to see Samantha Pleet without a hat. Emerging at the end of her Fall/Winter 2012 debut at New York Fashion Week—Pleet is part of a group showcase by Gen Art—the Brooklyn designer is missing her trademark topper. Her models, on the other hand, are all sporting wide, crown-less brims of burnished gold, looking like a cross between the haloed Madonnas of Renaissance art and a jejune Leslie Caron from the first act of Gigi. Her fall lineup, Pleet tells us later, is a “revival of Romanticism,” the artistic, literary, and intellectual movement that began as a backlash against the industrial revolution. It’s her way of fending off the harsh realities other people view as inevitable, she says; a candle held out in the darkness.
Nike Creates Prosthetic Running Sole for Amputee Triathlete (Video)
As the first female leg amputee to complete the Ironman Triathlon World Championship in Hawaii, Sarah Reinertsen is no stranger to surmounting obstacles. Nike is giving her a boost, however, with a lightweight, durable composite sole that slides easily over her carbon-fiber running blade. Because options for prosthetic soles are limited, particularly for ersatz limbs that aren’t shaped like a human foot, Reinertsen had to cobble her own using the outsole of a traditional running shoe. The sportswear giant worked with both Reinersten and Össur, which manufactures the Flex-Run blade, to engineer the “Sole,” a shoe that offers a tighter grip, increased stability, and a more predictable advantage on the track.
Follow Ecouterre’s New York Eco-Fashion Week Coverage on Pinterest!
We love Pinterest. In fact, you could say we’re a tad obsessed. We’ve created a special board for you to track—and share our—complete New York Fashion Week coverage, from EDUN’s brand of “safari punk” to Gretchen Jones’s Southwest-inspired magic realism to M. Patmos’s electric-pink knits. Don’t be late to the party—join us …
Chinese Man Proposes to Girlfriend with Dress Made From 9,999 Roses
Photos by Caters News
A dozen long-stem roses wasn’t enough for one man on Valentine’s Day. Xiao Fan opted for a wallet-stretching 9,999, which he fashioned into a lavish gown before proposing to his girlfriend, Yin Mi, at the Guangzhou amusement park where they met three years ago. (Yin had just been crowned Miss Bikini 2009 when they first locked gazes.) Dressmakers toiled unceasingly to create the remarkable garment, which includes delicate rose-petal shoulder straps and a sweeping five-foot train made from individually stitched blooms.
Knit a Pair of Edible Undies From Licorice Laces (DIY Tutorial)
Photo by sparetime
Need to rustle up a last-minute Valentine’s Day gift, you slacker? Knit up a salacious pair of edible panties from licorice laces with this quickie (pun intended) tutorial from the crafty folks at Knitty. (Candy Tree makes organic, gluten-free sweets, by the by.) If you can’t CO—that’s …
Behind the Scenes at The GreenShows at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week
Photos by Amanda Coen for The GreenShows
What goes on behind the scenes of a fashion show? The GreenShows stylist Julie Ragolia takes us through countless fittings, rehearsals, and last-minute changes as her team pulls together for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at Lincoln Center. The key? Plenty of safety pins, copious volumes of coffee, and an adorable French bulldog named Ziggy.
Viola Davis, Michael Fassbender Accept Livia Firth’s Green Carpet Challenge at BAFTA Film Awards
Best Actress nominee Viola Davis
Livia Firth wasn’t the only one shining on the green carpet at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards on Sunday. On what Firth describes as a “historic night” for her Green Carpet Challenge, the Eco Age creative director (and wife of award-winning actor Colin) recruited two BAFTA nominees: The Help’s Viola Davis, wearing a salmon-pink Valentino gown made of recycled plastic bottles, and Shame leading man Michael Fassbender, who cut a dashing form in an ethical-wool tuxedo by Georgio Armani.
Libertine Taps Into Punk Subculture for Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week
Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre
Shove a ruby-slippered Dorothy Gale into a time machine, direct her to Studio 54 at the height of its hedonism with a pit stop in 1960s Carnaby Street and, with a little bit of luck, you might end up with Libertine’s Fall/Winter 2012 show at New York Fashion Week. The lineup of vintage threads, retooled by L.A. designer Johnson Hartig into punk-edge designs for men and women, beams with a mischievous exuberance, a giddy procession of mother-of-pearl-studded biker jackets, Muppet-pelt boas, and metallic paillettes that throb like miniature disco balls under the house lights.
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