Dogeared’s eco-friendly projects include charm bracelets made from recyled silver and hemp – like this pretty plumeria charm bracelet – and notebooks made from recycled leather. I ♥ them both!
South Africa is exporting this colorful Fair Trade bracelet made from safety pins adorned with recycled telephone wire, computer cable scraps and plastic tubing. The message the piece radiates is clear – recycled hand-made art can be affordable and pretty! A friend of mine wore this the other day and it is too splendid to not share. The Santa Barbara Museum of Art has other lovely jewels to check-out. Happy shopping! Price: $45
I Love Eco loves smart design especially when it is carried out with as much thought and consideration as Dr. Kate Fletcher “Local Wisdom” project. I must first apologize for not writing an article on Kate ages ago… I’m so sorry Kate! I began several articles and threw them aside with frustration because they never truly explained your accomplishments and beautiful ways of thinking about sustainable fashion. I continue to learn and be inspired by your projects. With that said, I would like to announce the project, “Local Wisdom – A unique fashion project recording and celebrating the clothes-based ingenuity of our communities.” Visit the Local Wisdom project website for further details about the research event and how to participate and what clothing to bring to the events. The research events will take place in Totnes, UK on Saturday June 6th 2009 from 10am-4pm in association with Transition Towns Totnes Sustainable Makers and in Bollington, UK on Sunday July 5th 2009 from 10am-4pm a part of Three Shires Textile Festival. I hope it’s a huge success!
About the Project:
Good ideas happen everywhere and often involve creative acts with the things we have around us, like our clothes. These creative actions and ideas are rarely acknowledged and never make it onto catwalks or business agendas, yet we think they have potential to help solve some of the problems we face as a global community.
The Local Wisdom project recognizes, honours and gives credit to the many creative ideas and actions that involve our garments. These acts typically need little money or materials to make them happen, but instead tap into an abundance of experience, ingenuity and freethinking. This project captures and celebrates this ‘local wisdom’, uncovering its value and giving it a platform to flourish and inspire. Local Wisdom is a research project funded by London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London.
What it involves:
Gathering stories about garments using photographs and spoken testimony from volunteer members of the public in two regional UK towns. The public will be invited to bring along garments that:
• are shared between people
• are enjoying a third, fourth or fifth life
• have never been laundered (and aren’t leather!)
• have the character of a particular place in them
• surprise you each time you wear them
• have been let out, tucked in, re-worked, embellished
• show the careful attention of their creator/owner
• can be added to and taken away from (but are wearable both ways)
• make you feel part of a community (but not a uniform)
Outcomes:
Photographs, information and oral histories about garments
from the grassroots whose design and use saves resources,
helps us form strong connections with each other and builds
an awareness of the world around us.
Fashion ‘events’ that recognize and encourage a community’s
potential to create its own future.
This is awesome and I am so proud to be a native of Ontario! While I wait for New York City to take a stand and produce a similar initiative, the City of Toronto will officially be free of plastic bottles on June 1, 2009. There will also be a charge placed on the use of plastic bags from retailers of 5 cents – all the more reason to buy a reusable organic shopping tote – like our I Love Eco totes!
Elinor Averyt, an environmental activist and humanist believes that we need to bring eco fashion into the mainstream. Five years ago, an outsider to the fashion world, she had an idea; and with the help of many experts in the field, the power of eco labeling has been culmunated into a positive seed for change – allow me to introduce this seed called, L.E.A.F. (Labeling Ecologically Appproved Fabrics).
“The mission of L.E.A.F. (Labeling Ecologically Approved Fabrics), a 501(c)3 not-for-profit organization, is to increase consumer awareness and demand for ecologically sound apparel and fabrics, and to encourage mainstream, industry-wide transitions toward sustainable and socially responsible practices in the apparel/fabrics industries.
A new eco-label for apparel and fabrics shows consumers that a garment meets strict standards for environmentally and socially responsible claims. Growing consumer awareness and increased consumer demand for third-party certified apparel and fabrics will provide greater incentive for these industries to move toward positive change in the way textiles are produced.”
Set to debut in Feburary 2009, L.E.A.F wants to operate as a unified labeling system on clothing (using tags) that will help consumers make informed fashion choices. L.E.A.F. will award certification to companies under the following categories: life cycle of organic fibers, manufacuring and processing techniques used in manufacturing facilities (including dyeing and waste water treatment issues), and employee practices in manufacturing facilities. Also, L.E.A.F. wants to introduce an educational program for consumers, which is a crucial approacch close to I Love Eco’s heart – the more we know, the smarter choices we can make! It is important to note that Europe is way ahead of North America with respect to eco labeling. The EU has a already began a research group that is currently investigating methods for implementing eco labeling on clothing and textiles, among other manufactured goods like electronics. If you’d like to read more about this project click HERE. I Love Eco™ would like to send a huge congratulations to both L.E.A.F. and the EU Eco Labeling programs!
New York City estimates that over 193,000 tons of reusable and recyclable textiles are sent to landfills and incinerators each year. Textiles represent nearly 6% of New York City s annual residential waste. Throwing your unwanted clothing into the garbage damages the environment and could cost the taxpayer millions of dollars each year in unnecessary carting and disposal costs. Bring clean clothing, shoes, coats, bedding, linens, scarves, belts, hats & handbags for reuse or recycling. Non-wearable items (torn, stained, etc) will be sorted for recycling into new materials. For more information visit www.cenyc.org/clothing
Where & When to Recycle Your Textiles:
* Material Mondays
Every Monday, 8am – 6pm at the Union Square Greenmarket (16th Street and Union Square West)
* Second Chance Saturdays
Saturdays 8am – 4pm at the Grand Army Plaza Greenmarket (NW Entrance to Prospect Park)
New 2009 Locations:
* Union Square Greenmarket – Saturdays (begins January 3) 8am-6pm
(West side of the Park)
* Tompkins Square Greenmarket – Sundays (begins January 4) 8am-4pm
(East 7th St. & Ave A)
* 97th Street Greenmarket – Fridays (begins January 9) 8am-2pm
( 97th St. & Columbus Ave)
Greenmarket and the Office of Recycling Outreach and Education are programs of Council on the Environment of New York City.
(clockwise from Top Right)
“Petroleum waxes, oils and chemicals, coal-tar dyes and potentially carcinogenic talc are included in just about everything in your makeup kit. Lash-extending mascaras can even cntain polluting plastics like polyurethane.” (Vasil. Ecoholic:2007) YUCK! We tolerate cancer-causing agents in our environment at our own peril. It is such a wonderful concept, a lipstick container that is made form renewable corn plastic and the packaging is made from seeded paper that can be planted to grow wildflowers… why didn’t I think of that? Cargo Cosmetics have made the prettiest sheer lipsticks without compromising quality or style. The eco-friendly line, called “Plant Love” can be bought at Sephora along with other fun products packaged in biodegradable corn plastic. (My personal favorite collection is the Fire Collection). An interactive website on the site allows you to plant flowers in the city (virtually). I planted two flowers in my favorite lipstick shades which brought the total number of flowers planted to 7068. It’s so great to see eco warriors showing their support for a “lipstick with a conscience”.
My second eco friendly pick is by Korres. My favorite are the eye shadows and lip glosses… the cherry oil used in them smells amazing! Available at Sephora.
Children in Africa play in our discarded t-shirts from long ago carrying logos from North American companies. The examined life of a t-shirt brings a filmmaker to question and explore the consequences of the second hand clothing industry. Executed to perfection and written as a narrative by Shantha Bloeman, this film examines the global free market and Zambia’s debt to the World Bank and how our used clothing devastated a nation.
The film industry is one of the greatest exports in America, inspiring new generations to look and dress the way we do; but this documentary will show that it’s not the only thing we export that has a dramatic cultural, economic and environmental impact. Third world poverty in Zambia is shown in a way that I couldn’t even describe and the film coherently explains how poverty is related to the free market and Zambia’s debt to the World Bank. Essentially our second hand clothing is a global commodity that has undermined indigenous textiles industries in third world countries.
“Every single clothing factory in Zambia went out of business; we do not have a clothing industry left in the country because of the secondhand clothes are coming in.”
-Mark O’Donnell, spokesman
Zambian Manufacturers Association
I definitely recommend reaching out to purchase your copy, email: info@filmakers.com for further information. The official website for T-shirt Travels can be found HERE. You can also tract a t-shirt from New York to Zambia HEREand watch videos with individuals from the film including an interview with Professor Jeffrey Sachs, Director – The Earth Institute at Columbia University.
There is no clip from the movie that I could find, so instead I’ve added a presentation by Pietra Rivoli, Associate Professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business and author of “The Travels of a T-Shirt in the Global Economy”. This book shares the same concepts found in the documentary T-Shirt Travels as it follows the lifespan of a single t-shirt – from harvesting the cotton in Texas through the shirt’s manufacture in China to its eventual sale and a new product in the U.S. and as used clothing in Africa.
So what can we do to help? We can buy clothes that are classic in design and fit so that instead of constantly buying and discarding, we are buying, mending and passing them down the way some jewelry pieces are passed down through generations. Also, ideally we should buy clothing that are organically grown with toxic free dyes that can be safely biodegraded back to the earth (WASTE = FOOD) or purchase clothing that can be recycled to provide inputs for the manufacture of other goods (or the same goods).
I hope that this post raises awareness about the issues involved and that it will encourage designers to really examine their work before it’s made.