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London Fashion Week

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.

IOU Project’s Kavita Parmar Offers New Business Model for Ethical Fashion

by Summer Rayne Oakes, Source4Style, 02/20/12

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.

24 Hot Green Designers at Fall/Winter 2012 New York Fashion Week

The GreenShows Brings Luxury Ethical Fashion to Fall 2012 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week

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

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.

Mara Hoffman’s Shaman Cowboys Ride at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Mara Hoffman’s Shaman Cowboys Ride at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

John Bartlett Hits the Docks at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

John Bartlett Hits the Docks at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Leanne Marshall Dreams of Glaciers at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Leanne Marshall Dreams of Glaciers at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

VPL Plays With Biomorphic Knits at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

VPL Plays With Biomorphic Knits at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Viola Davis, Michael Fassbender Accept Livia Firth’s Green Carpet Challenge at BAFTA Film Awards

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.

EDUN Packs for an African Safari at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

EDUN Packs for an African Safari at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

M. Patmos Gets in the Pink for Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

M. Patmos Gets in the Pink for Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Libertine Taps Into Punk Subculture for Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

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.

Costello Tagliapietra Brings Romance to Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Costello Tagliapietra Brings Romance to Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Lauren Moffatt Goes Back to School for Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Titania Inglis Channels ’90s Grunge at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Titania Inglis Channels ’90s Grunge at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Assembly New York Borrows From the Boys for New York Fashion Week Fall 2012

Gretchen Jones Tours the Shadowlands at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Gretchen Jones Tours the Shadowlands at Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Raleigh Denim Brings American Pride to Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Raleigh Denim Brings American Pride to Fall 2012 New York Fashion Week

Award-Winning Designer Titania Inglis Makes the Case for Thoughtful Fashion

Award-Winning Designer Titania Inglis Makes the Case for Thoughtful Fashion

14 Sexy Sustainable Men’s Undies to Light Your Fire on Valentine’s Day

14 Sexy Sustainable Men’s Undies to Light Your Fire on Valentine’s Day

RAMBLE ON
Founded by the same folks who launched Tom’s of Maine 40 years ago, Ramblers Way uses 100 percent American wool for its sustainably produced wares, including these ultra-lightweight boxer-style briefs, which are cut, sewn, dyed, and washed entirely in the U.S.A.

Montreal Artists Transform Post-Consumer Trash into High-End Fashion

Montreal Artists Transform Post-Consumer Trash into High-End Fashion

14 Eco-Friendly Lingerie Gifts for a Red-Hot Valentine’s Day

14 Eco-Friendly Lingerie Gifts for a Red-Hot Valentine’s Day

UNDERCOVER AGENTS
You know what they say: it’s what’s on the inside that counts. Just ask Daisy & Elizabeth, a line of sublimely indiscreet underpinnings made in Brooklyn from low-impact fabrics such as organic cotton, recycled polyester, recycled nylon, Tencel (a cellulosic fiber derived from wood pulp) and …

Can Buying Less Make Us Happier? Take Part in the “JoinLess” Revolution

Can Buying Less Make Us Happier? Take Part in the “JoinLess” Revolution

Ever feel like the stuff you own ends up owning you, instead? Ben Davis, the founder of JoinLess, can empathize. As the brains behind the “world’s first open source brand,” Davis wants to create a new symbol-led movement, like the (RED) campaign, “but better,” he tells Ecouterre. Unlike other brands, which get litigious over the unauthorized use of their logos, JoinLess wants you to slap its trademark “(<)” on anything—and everything—to remind you that less is more. We sat down with the man himself to learn more about his anti-brand, what it stands for, and why it’s poised to become the peace sign for a new generation.

Awamaki Lab Debuts Fair-Trade Peruvian Knitwear With a Modern Twist

Awamaki Lab Debuts Fair-Trade Peruvian Knitwear With a Modern Twist

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