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.
Fashion Writer Jenni Avins Traps, Skins, Sews Her Own Fox Fur
by Jasmin Malik Chua, 02/20/12
Jenni Avins made the rounds at New York Fashion Week wearing a red fox-fur vest. But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. The real story is that the fashion writer, who contributes to New York, Marie Claire, and Vanity Fair, trapped, skinned, and sewed the garment herself, a graphic experience she recounts in the latest issue of Vice. Like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg before her—he who ignited an ethics firestorm when he declared he only ate meat he killed himself—Avins plumbs a gray area on the periphery of fur’s controversial return to the runway. Whatever your politics on the issue, she poses a compelling hypothetical: Is fur more humane if it’s “free-range” and wild-caught? What if you do the hunting and killing yourself?
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.
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.
Fur-Trapping Season Ends With Record High of Non-Target Animal Deaths
One man’s pet is another’s collateral damage, according to Born Free U.S.A, which announced on Wednesday a possible record high of non-target animal deaths as fur-trapping season draws to a close. While millions of fur-bearing animals are killed each year in archaic body-crushing traps for recreational and commercial purposes, the wildlife conservation group notes that hundreds of thousands more, including domestic cats, dogs, and some endangered species, also fall victim to the snares. In the past two months alone, Born Free has fielded more than a dozen incidents of non-targeted animals who were trapped, maimed, or killed from crushed limbs and broken bones. Hundreds of cases are likely to go unreported, the organization adds.
Nike Partners With DyeCoo to Broaden Waterless Dyeing Technology
Nike is linking arms with DyeCoo Textile Systems, the Netherlands-based company that built the first commercial waterless textile-dyeing machine, an announcement notes on Tuesday. The agua-free technology imbues a pressurized form of carbon dioxide with liquid-like properties, allowing it to penetrate textile fibers and disperse preloaded dyes without extra chemical agents. Once the dyeing cycle is complete, the CO2 is gasified to recover the excess dye before cycling back into the dyeing vessel for reuse—no muss, no fuss, and with far less energy than conventional methods.
Stella McCartney Explains Why She Doesn’t Use Leather in PETA Video
It’s widely known that Stella McCartney doesn’t use fur in her collections. Less touted, perhaps, is the vegan designer’s rejection of leather. In a new video from People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, timed to coincide with New York Fashion Week, McCartney explains why she shed the use of animal skins. Leather isn’t a by-product of the meat industry, she says, but an important co-product that contributes directly to the ills of factory farming. But although PETA planned to run a truncated version of the PSA on taxi screens across Manhattan, fashion’s tastemakers will not, in fact, be schooled by McCartney between shows.
World’s First Magnetic Soap Could Revolutionize Oil-Spill Cleanups
Scientists from Bristol University in the United Kingdom have discovered a way to clean up oil spills without leaving behind a mass of suds. Derived from iron-rich salts dissolved in water, the “magnetic soap” can be manipulated through simple magnetic forces rather than physical or chemical means. Although the surfactant is still highly experimental, the research raises the possibility of slick-neutralizing detergents that can be removed from sensitive environments once the job is done.
Book a Granny to Remind You to Bundle Up for National Sweater Day
Are you guilty of chucking aside the sweaters your granny gives you every winter? The Canadian arm of World Wildlife Fund wants you to be a dear and dig those dusty jumpers out of your closet for National Sweater Day on February 9. Sponsored by Loblaw, the Great White North’s largest food retailer, the event is part of a nationwide movement to encourage Canadians to turn down the heat and “turn up a sweater,” instead. Lowering your thermostat by just one degree throughout the year will reduce your carbon-dioxide emissions by 100 kilograms—that’s 220 pounds for the non-metrically inclined—or the weight of a baby hippopotamus, according to WWF-Canada. Need a little friendly prodding? Book a call with one of the dozen actual grannies who are standing by to nag remind you.
Brazilian Blowout Agrees to Warn Consumers About Cancer Risks
The maker of Brazilian Blowout, a popular line of “professional-only” hair-straightening products, has agreed to warn consumers that two of its formulations emit formaldehyde gas—a known carcinogen—according to California’s attorney general on Monday. As the first law enforcement action under California’s Safe Cosmetics Act, the settlement agreement, which includes $600,000 in penalties and fines, has been a long time coming. In August, after investigating inquiries from consumers and salon professionals about the safety of the products, the U.S. Food and Health Administration slapped Brazilian Blowout with a notice of safety and labeling violations. Following that, the Occupational Safety and Health Adminstration issued a notice to salon owners and workers about potential formaldehyde exposure from working with the products, which are reportedly popular with celebrities like Jennifer Aniston, Halle Berry, and Nicole Richie.
TOMS Shoes Introduces Print-Clad Ballet Flats for Spring (Video)
Just when you thought TOMS couldn’t get any more awesome, the philanthropic shoe-and-eyeglass company is launching a line of cute-as-heck ballet flats, just in time for spring. Guaranteed to put a bounce in your step once the frost thaws, the comfy looking slip-ons come in an array of solids and on-trend prints (funky leopard or lively indigenous weave, anyone?) in leather, suede, linen, burlap, chambray, or woven canvas. And if there wasn’t already plenty to love, for every pair you buy, TOMS will donate a pair of shoes to a child in need. We’re getting happy feet just thinking about it.
NRDC Files Lawsuit Against EPA To Block Nanosilver Pesticide in Clothing
From odor-absorbing underpants to bacteria-resistant appliances, silver nanoparticles are on the cutting edge of antimicrobial technology. But although the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has “conditionally registered” the disinfectant as a preservative for textiles such as clothing, baby blankets, and pillow cases, the Natural Resources Defense Council wants to ban the product entirely. The “conditional” clause means that the EPA requires further toxicity data but is allowing the pesticide on the market anyway, explains Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist at the NRDC, on her blog. HeiQ, the Swiss manufacturer behind several nanosilver products, has four years to prove that the substance will not cause “unreasonable adverse effects on human health or the environment,” she adds. “Four years!”
Gretchen Jones’s DIY Necklace, Source4Style’s Academy, Organic Cotton Acreage Continues to Grow
Over at Honestly WTF, designer Gretchen Jones shows us how to make a bold statement necklace with brass rings and neon nylon cord. (Honestly WTF)
Source4Style is launching “The Academy,” a series of 30-minute web-based seminars on sustainable design, starting with “The Apparel Industry’s Greenest Little Secrets” on February 9. (Source4Style)
A 19th century New Jersey schoolgirl’s embroidery sampler …
Carrie Parry Wins Green Fashion Competition at Amsterdam Fashion Week!
Atta, girl! Brooklyn’s own Carrie Parry beat 40 international contenders to receive The Green Fashion Competition’s Category 2 award, plus €15,000 in prize money, at Amsterdam Fashion Week. “It feels amazing to be honored by such a prestigious group whose goals in advancing sustainable fashion are so matched with my own,” Parry says. “Seeing my …
Irony Alert: “Made in U.S.A” Goods Gaining Traction in China
In an unlikely reversal of a decades-long trend, American-made goods are growing in popularity in China, according to a report by Jing Daily, a blog about the Chinese luxury market. Although they don’t have the same draw as European products, heritage workwear labels like Red Wing, Woolrich, Billy Reid, and Gitman Brothers are making inroads among China’s swelling urban middle class and their considerable disposable incomes. In December, Allen Edmonds, one of two high-end shoemakers to maintain operations Stateside, announced plans to expand into China under a new licensing deal that could double the size of its Port Washington, WI, headquarters over the next 10 years. “China is growing so fast, and it’s such a sophisticated market already,” Paul Grangaard, president and CEO of Allen Edmonds, told Milwaukee Business Times in January. “’Made in America’ has a really strong reputation there.”
Will Online-Only Fashion Shows Replace Runways at Fashion Week?
KCD wants to revolutionize the runway, and you can watch it all unfold on your laptop or iPad. The public-relations powerhouse, which manages high-end labels such as Gucci, Versace, Alexander McQueen, Alexander Wang, Chanel, and Diane von Furstenberg, announced Monday that it will produce a number of fashion shows in a purely digital format. Coming on the heels of a recent show date “crisis”—a result of Milan pushing back the dates for its September shows—KCD is pitching the invitation-only Internet platform as an alternative to the increasingly crowded schedules that pull editors and store buyers in multiple, often opposing, directions. (Cue the usual gripes about aching feet.) Set to launch during New York Fashion Week, Digital Fashion Shows will debut with Prabal Gurung’s inaugural ICB collection on February 15, although his signature label will appear more conventionally on the catwalk.
UN Global Compact Launches First Industry-Specific Initiative for Fashion
As the impact of climate change becomes more difficult to ignore, advocates for a more sustainable fashion industry are finally getting the legitimacy they seek. The United Nations announced Tuesday that it was joining forces with Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE), a joint initiative by the Nordic fashion industry to address socio-environmental issues, to develop the first sector-specific initiative under the Global Compact, which helps businesses align their operations with fundamental principles of human rights, labor, and the environment.
Disturbing Video Reveals Child Laborers Picking Cotton in Uzbekistan
In a video shot secretly by human-rights activists and obtained by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Uzek service, young children are seen toiling in Uzbekistan’s cotton fields. The Uzbek government forcibly sends upwards of 2 million children—some as young as 7—to work in the fields for 10 hours a day, for two to three months each year, according to the Responsible Sourcing Network, which rallied more than 60 of the world’s leading apparel brands and retailers in October to boycott cotton knowingly harvested using child laborers in the Central Asian nation.
Chanel Builds Life-Size Plane for Spring 2012 Paris Couture Week Show
Photo by Olivier Saillant for Chanel
As if fashion wasn’t already synonymous with environmental excess. Karl Lagerfeld commisioned a life-size aircraft to house Chanel’s Spring/Summer 2012 couture show inside the Grand Palais in Paris on Tuesday. Subtlety has never been the designer’s strongest suit—this is the man who flew a 265-ton glacier to the City of Lights on a whim, after all—but the display of such extravagance in a depressed economy feels gauche even by the most liberal standards. Set designers didn’t just spend five days constructing the plane (or at least, the innards of one) from anodized aluminum. They also outfitted it with an extra-wide 164-foot aisle, 180-degree swivel seats for 250 high-profile guests, double-C monogrammed carpet, a holographic cockpit, and a slatted roof that revealed a vista of clouds. Mon dieu!
New Hampshire Considers Perfume Ban for State Employees
New Hampshire, whose state motto is “live free or die,” has a new champion in state representative Michele Peckham, who thinks that her constituents should live free of the consequences of other people’s poor decisions. The politican is the primary sponsor of House Bill 1444, a piece of legislation that would ban state employees from wearing perfume or scented products on the job, particularly if they deal with the public. “It may seem silly, but it’s a health issue,” Peckham tells the New Hampshire Union Leader. “Many people have violent reactions to strong scents.”
“Real Housewife” Compares Fox-Fur Bikini Treatment to Cure for Cancer
If former Real Housewives of New York City star Cindy Barhop didn’t think she was in enough hot water, the spa owner now compares her fox-fur bikini treatment to a cure for cancer, according to The Cut. The semi-permanent procedure, which involves affixing neon-colored fur or feathers to one’s ladyparts, are only designed to last three days—more if you avoid washing your nethers (sexy!). “It’s like buying an extra set of lingerie or a fun shirt a different pair of glasses,” Barshop, who runs Completely Bare on Madison Ave., says. “This is that fun thing that gives you a little pick-me-up.”
Recycle Your Marks & Spencer Clothing at Oxfam, Get £5 Off Purchase
American retailers take note: Marks & Spencer may have joined the ranks of Patagonia and Uniqlo with its own clothing take-back program, but it isn’t doing it alone. The British department store has teamed up with Oxfam U.K. to help underprivileged communities worldwide. Simply bring any store-branded garment, shoe, or bag into an Oxfam shop for “recycling” and you’ll receive £5 off when you spend £35 or more on clothing, home, or beauty products at M&S. To help you visualize the impact of your contribution, M&S created a nifty little app that posts a piece of trivia for every article of clothing you drop onto a mannequin. Donate a blouse, for instance, and Oxfam gets £5 to buy a container for four families in Nigeria to collect water and keep it free of diseases. Drop off a purse and Oxfam has an extra £16 to protect a hectare of Colombian rainforest. (And yes, that’s Twiggy smiling at you from the top of the page.)
Wool’s Carbon Footprint Up to 80% Smaller Than Previously Thought
The carbon footprint of wool has been grossly overstated, according to a consortium of Australian woolgrowers, scientists, and carbon specialists known as the Wool Carbon Alliance. The group, which claims that recent advances in methodology have resulted in estimates up to 60 to 80 percent lower than previously indicated, wants to challenge existing notions about wool carbon using “current and relevant” science. “We are finding that the wool fiber production systems, based on renewable grass and natural vegetation, complement current demands to reduce carbon emissions,” announced Martin Oppenheimer, chairman of the alliance, on Tuesday. “Wool is part of the natural cycle of water and carbon that can impact climate in a positive way.”
World’s Largest Garment Made From Golden Spider Silk Goes on Display
Before anyone asks, no, it’s not bulletproof. But that doesn’t mean that the glistening yellow cape—the world’s largest garment made entirely from spider silk—isn’t a massive feat of engineering to be marveled (it is and you should). Now on public display for the first time at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, the textile gets its unearthly gleam from the undyed filaments of the golden orb spider, a species of arachnid commonly found in Madagascar. Girl power can be taken literally in this instance: Only the females produce the coveted silk.
Ethical-Fashion Stylist Lupe Castro Explores the World on Her Motorbike
Lupe Castro, one of London’s preeminent ethical-fashion stylists, has stumbled upon the quintessential dream “job.” After growing tired of limiting her travels to compartmentalized holidays, the chic jet-setter decided to extend her globe-trotting indefinitely. Accompanied by her soulmate, the mysterious “Mr. P,” a motorbike, and an infectious joie de vivre, Castro documents the road less traveled and the kindred spirits she encounters through her blog, Ms. Castro on a Motorbike.
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