Designing fashion for the future with century-old techniques, Isabell de Hillerin embraces heritage for Spring/Summer 13.

One would think that in fashion, the “new” is welcomed almost as much as a friendlier price point. But not to forget, also in fashion, are passageways that inspire designers and pull them back to heritage, history and hopefully, an embracing of something deeper.

Berlin-based Isabell de Hillerin is one of those designers. In her Spring/Summer 13 collection “Eclectic Line,” she combines traditional Moldavian craftsmanship -think flamboyant handmade embroidery and handwoven fabrics with modern designs- to  embrace techniques from over 100 years ago.

Isabell de Hillerin’s Spring/Summer 13 in the November 2012 issue of German VOGUE

De Hillerin says “In a time where the pulse of the vanguardia captures the world and simultaneously moments increase when individuals cut themselves off, we realize that we are increasingly fading out the marvelous settings that surround us every day. The importance lies in the past and the nostalgia which provokes one to remember.”

For her Spring/Summer 13 collection, de Hillerin traveled to secluded villages in Moldavia, meeting women manufacturing fabrics in the same way they were done a hundred years ago: quietly on looms, in sewing circles and by hand, one stitch at a time. One might wonder what these same women, tucked into remote villages thought when they saw their work in the November issue of German VOGUE featuring the designer’s Spring/Summer 13 collection.

Berlin Fashion Week and the “Eclectic Line” from Isabel de Hillerin, photo by H. Berthold

The designer says: “The information revolution deletes distances. Keywords like accessibility and transparency gained importance. At the same time our fast moving and modern society ruined traditional roots. The designs reflect a rebellious response to our modern system called life.”

De Hillerin’s collaboration is a project supported by the European Union that offers future prospects to the people by providing the women with above-average wages, while promoting a disappearing Moldavian art.

The post Isabell de Hillerin’s Fashion Draws on Moldavian Heritage and Craftmanship appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnConscious life, hear me roar.

I recently got a direct message on Facebook from a high school friend I haven’t talked to in many years.

“Do you still have that picture of you and the ghost in Africa?” He wrote.

I sat there staring at the screen, thinking it funny that after so many years, this friend would still remember and even want to see proof once again that I had in fact, a run-in with the dead.

I hadn’t seen the picture in many years myself so accepted the challenge and dove into the closet that I knew it would be in-the one containing my dogeared travel trunk from when I was 19.

In this trunk is anything a human being would want to intimately know about me from the ages of 12-26: Kodak envelopes filled with negatives and blurry pictures of travel and boyfriends, shells and rocks from a beach in Cinque Terra, Italy, bits of the Berlin Wall, my silver monogrammed cigarette case, a blood red turban from that weekend in the Sahara, my memere’s vintage National Geographic maps and stacks of private journals documenting daily experiences from coffee shops, bows of ships, southwestern desert ruins and deep in the dark woods of the Pacific Northwest.

If you’re anything like me, once you open a portal that big, you have to just dive in. Flipping open my very first journal, messy handwriting chronicles sleepovers, dreams of kissing boys and whole pages where I just wrote “Fuck you mom and dad!!” as if it would help being a tween in 1982 with the world on fire and a Marlboro clenched between my teeth.

Leaps forward to high school and college prove the most lethargic with Kate Chopinesque awakenings that pushed me off the island of Cape Cod for the first time and onto a plane bound for Florence, Italy and school and new friends who knew nothing about me, except that I had a foul mouth, was a “writer” and proved to be an exceptional candidate for painting and sketching countless pictures of.

Flipping the pages, dried flowers from mountainsides, locks of hair and train tickets fell out on my legs. History.

It was during this time living in Europe that the ghost picture came to be. It was spring break, in the outskirts of the Sahara, and we’d just pulled our Jeep up to a cave inhabited by an Arabic woman tattooed with a lizard from her lip onward down her neck. The story itself is strange and long – how we got to be in this woman’s cave home – but we suddenly were and the woman never left my side, looping her arm within mine, staring into my face for the tour and appearing downtrodden as we left.

We figured she was just lonely, I mean, she lived there alone. This was verified by my travel mates who will vouch there was never a little girl there. Much less a girl in a burial gown that showed up months later back home in the famous picture.

But back to that old friend.

When I began searching in the trunk for the picture, I thought of why my friend would want to see it again. Had it altered his life somehow? Did he need to believe there was life after death? It certainly altered mine and the group I ran with at the time. It became an image we all came back to over coffee to ask “Why?” and “How could it be?” as it was perpetually side-lit with sandlewood candles and surrounded with bits of broken shells and sand.

I’m so sorry to say I did not find it, but have hopes it will one day tumble out from a book or be in my hand one sunny morning reaching for a pair of socks from the back of a drawer.

One thing I do need to point out is that this friend, who I wrote of at the beginning of the column still has not heard back from me about this picture. I came to the selfish conclusion that this was my history and I could write it however I wanted and he could write his own until just very recently, reading Joan Didion’s “On Keeping a Notebook.”

Didion writes: “I think we are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise, they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”

I wonder if this is how it was for my friend. Lying in bed with his wife, reflecting back on that lost time post-high school where he learned something he could never plainly label. Being a man of substance – a firefighter and a Sunday church goer, he opens his eyes in the twilight with a sigh and remembers that one piece of the puzzle that never made sense. That made him question and question and question “what if?”

Perhaps it is only our histories that in the end keep as a sounding board – our biographies that tell a billion histories from different perspectives. One, no more correct or truthful than the other. Each and every one part of life’s amazing puzzle.

Between the Lines is a weekly column by EcoSalon’s Editor-in-Chief on navigating the sometimes-sharp, sometimes-blurred lines of conscious life and culture between city and country, between inner worlds and outer.

Image: Moyan Brenn

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Where we all become obsessed with taking classes and making things in New York City.

CourseHorse launched in mid-April 2011 to make it easier for New Yorkers to find classes, starting with roughly 150 schools and 4,000 opportunities to enrich one’s life. Over a year later, and thanks to a huge movement to make, create and learn without the strict guidelines of a college setting, CourseHorse has quadrupled the amount of classes they offer.

Want to make a vegan feast and don’t know how? Get your body back in shape post-baby? Knit up a new sweater or learn how to use social media for your growing business? They’ve got you covered.

Launched last year by NYU graduates Katie Kapler and Nihal Parthasarathi, both 26, the site was designed to simplify the process of finding classes for the 25-35 year old set in New York City -oh, and to have a lot of fun taking them.

We caught up with co-founder Katie Kapler to see what she had to say about the present and future of CourseHorse.

Tell me how CourseHorse came to be.

Nihal and I are old college friends from NYU. After school, I went and worked for a company that had just raised a small seed round to build an online marketplace for small business owners to access capital. Nihal was consulting for a major test prep provider and during a focus group a mother asked him whether there was a resource she could use to compare test prep classes across all the different providers.
Nihal knew that no central educational resource existed, so he called me to talk through the possibility. That conversation tipped off months of research and tons of coffee meetings, in which we found that schools struggled to fill seats in their classes and that aspiring learners in the community were having a difficult time finding classes that met their specific needs. That’s when we decided to quit our jobs and build CourseHorse.

Do you see people wanting to engage and learn more? Why do you think that is?

We’re pretty obsessed with following up with our users to understand why they’re taking certain classes, and though the specific reasons vary, there’s definitely an overarching desire for exploration and independence that’s applicable across each segment. I can’t really speak to what creates this drive, or why it’s stronger now than ever before, but it’s been encouraging and empowering to hear from so many different people who are inspired to engage in lifelong learning, whether for recreation or personal advancement.

What sections have you seen the most interest in?

As we approach gift-giving season, sales will spike for our recreational class categories like cooking, wine and art. We had one class last year that was a high-falls stunt class, designed by an actor training facility but for the general public. It did real well for folks with dare-devils on their gift-giving lists. This year we have a few tricks up our sleeve for the holidays – a few custom CourseHorse classes are in development that’ll knock your socks/hooves off.

Your dream vision for CourseHorse?

We get these incredibly powerful, inspiring e-mails from users who have taken classes to further or transition their career, explore new subjects and hobbies or meet people in the community. To the extent that we can make that type of exploration easier, and more accessible – that’s what keeps us up at night with excitement. We want to be in more households, more classes, more cities… but that’s news to come!

Watch the CourseHorse video below to get some class ideas.

Image: Lola’s Big Adventure

The post From Vegan Cooking to SEO – CourseHorse Has Your Class appeared first on EcoSalon.

Join EcoSalon and Ecover as we head into October with a sweepstakes that celebrates your Green Closet!

Ecover tells us: “As you know, one of the elements of Green Closet is all about stopping the clothing rotation: buy good quality clothes and keep each item longer by taking good care of them.”

At EcoSalon, we are all about slow and conscious consumption when it comes to clothing, so we are more than happy to collaborate with Ecover to promote their Green Closet sweepstakes.

What’s the deal? Well, one very lucky and randomly selected Grand Prize winner will take home a stunning prize package that includes fashions from celebrated Green Closet designers Auralis Herrero-Lugo of Auralis and Tara St. James of Study, NY, an eco-styling session with Green Closet supporter Greta Eagan of FASHIONmeGREEN, a signed copy of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by fashion expert Elizabeth Cline, and of course Ecover laundry products that will help you keep your favorite clothes sustainably fresh and well cared for – a total value of more than $600.00.

Auralis Ava Top (pictured above): This is the top for all seasons. 100% silk crinkle chiffon with an iron oxide splatter. Made in NYC.  – $128 plus an Auralis Hannah Scarf (below): Indigo with Tumeric shibori accents. Perfect as a beach cover-up/sarong, a picnic blanket or a winter scarf.  4 feet x 4 feet. Fabric –  crepé plisé: 37% Silk, 35% Hemp, 28% Organic Cotton. Made in NYC.  – $80

Study, NY Berry Blouse (pictured below) – 100% organic cotton blouse with open back in the winner’s choice of white or pinstripe. Made in NYC – $165

An online eco-styling session with Greta Eagan of FASHIONmeGREEN (pictured below). This 1.5-hour session includes: an overall style assessment, defining of personal and professional goals in dress attire, evaluation of five different outfits from the winner’s closet, and eco-fashion integration into their shopping knowledge and habits based on their personal values.  – $200

One copy of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline which talks about “fast fashion” and the price we pay for not shopping sustainably. -$29.99

One each of the following full-size Ecover products (below), plus 2 reusable shopping totes approximated value $51

Now that you’re probably screaming at your screen “How do I enter?!!!” here’s how:

We want to see either a photo of a favorite garment that you have owned for 5 to 10 years and/or a brief description of why your beloved garment is so special to you.

To enter, “like” Ecover’s Facebook page and click on the sweepstakes tab under their cover photo. You will be asked to upload your photo and/or brief description, as well as your contact info. The sweeps ends on October 14, and the winner will be selected by random drawing on October 15th.

Good luck!!

If you are interested in learning more about Green Closet, go here.

The post Ecover and EcoSalon Celebrate Green Closet With An Eco Fashion Sweepstakes! appeared first on EcoSalon.

In which we are asked to consider the assinine.

A fashion statement? Should I put my bottle of whiskey in it too Jil?

If I wanted to put my lunch or habit in a bag, I’d just go and buy a real paper bag, like from a liquor store that my liquor came in and be all that much cooler. $290 for a “fashion statement?” For who? Wanna-be street people?

We rip our hair out and wonder how the bag – which recently hit stores – sold out quickly. Couldn’t we at least have a recycled paper version? A version in black leather, priced at $630, was also snapped up fast. This is what sells? (A moan arises from independent designers everywhere.)

“You have to get a collector’s piece,” Mildred Fabian, regional director of Jil Sander, told the New York Daily News. “I think it’s more of a fashion statement.”

We just say a hearty WTF.

The post WTF.com Jil Sander? appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnConscious life, hear me roar.

I have just returned back home from running around Manhattan and New York Fashion Week. As you might imagine, an intense week full of long legged runway models, moody designer presentations, and the deep bass beats of stylish music gives New York City the air of theater, sex, and retail desire. It’s also a week-long voyeuristic sneak peak at what we all hope to be wearing next spring and summer when emerging from our winter cocoons.

Fashion is sexy. It serves as both a transformative power pill and a retreat for the world-weary. It’s a place we can go to to become stronger by the very clothes we wear and in lieu of the fact that our inner strength isn’t enough. Power is sexy. If you think I am wrong, point me to the runway show you’ve been to recently that shows women hunched over in house dresses looking down at the ground from nerves.

Fashion is all about power and I couldn’t help thinking about it this past week. There were even times when photographing shows I put the camera down a little in order to see the model walking at me with my own eyes instead of through a lens. Some of them reeked of this confidence so much that I laughed out loud. It’s their job to trick us into believing that a certain look is all we need to get by in this world. It is their job to act as a visual representation of a designer’s ideal, a paper doll with folded tabs that takes off and puts on outfits that when our own, will help in terms of better jobs, business deals, romance and getting the job done.

While I am lucky to be covering sustainable fashion 99% of the time, where designer’s “About Us” pages tout social responsibility, closed loop technologies and organically grown fabrics, most of the fashion industry is just not there. Nor does it really care to be.

Case in point, waking to a story this morning on the Pakistan garment factory fire that has left (as of the writing of this column) 289 dead. In this, the biggest industrial accident in the country’s history, we are left to scratch our heads and wonder how this could be or maybe we don’t want to look at it too closely at the risk that it will tell us something about ourselves.

The “Inspection of industrial units by the provincial labor department was mandatory under the rules until 1997 when it was banned after demands by influential industrialists in the Sindh and Punjab provinces,” Shujah-ud-Din, a senior research associate at the Pakistan Institute of Labour, Education and Research, told Bloomberg by phone from Karachi. Factory accidents also claimed 419 lives in 2008.

The Karachi garment factory itself had locked fire exits, barred windows and there wasn’t a sprinkler in site. A single staircase connecting four floors became kindling for a boiler in the factory that burst into flames, engulfing all floors that were connected to it. Workers chopped away at the bars with tools to jump from 4th story windows – pregnant women, old men, nephews, aunts. People trying to make a living so that society could wear something new.

I recently interviewed Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Cline told me, “To our credit, it took consumers several decades to be convinced that they no longer wanted to own beautifully made clothing and to make them forget that $20 does not in any way buy a well-crafted garment.”

In a fast fashion crazed society, where we want more, faster, cheaper, we will always have stories like this in the headlines. Hard-working people who will accept being modern day slaves to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

You will read all the headlines on this factory fire story and it will stay with you for a bit, until you need a new shirt, a pair of boots or a party dress. You might even consider the tragedy when you walk through the front doors of your favorite fast fashion chain. But you probably won’t be able to stop yourself once you hear the deep bass beat from the well-positioned speakers, the beads and bold colors merchandised like candy, the other women around you, arms laden with pretty dresses at $19.99, and how could you?

You were conditioned to shop this way. But let me tell you something, I think you can start walking past these stores, in fact, I think you can stay out of the mall entirely. I think you can plan ahead and look for the right designers who don’t have factories like this – who pay their workers fairly, who let them work from home who don’t treat them like animals.

People often tell me I can shop responsibly because I know so many designers, I just “know how to do it.”

But knowing how to “do it,” and realizing one has a responsibility to “do it,” are two completely different things. One requires making a call to the eco-boutique or hitting the local consignment shop and the other? Well, that requires lowering the camera and looking at life with a real-life lens.

It requires considering not just yourself, but the lives of many others.

Between the Lines is a weekly column by EcoSalon’s Editor-in-Chief on navigating the sometimes-sharp, sometimes-blurred lines of conscious life and culture between city and country, between inner worlds and outer.

The post Between the Lines: From NYFW to the Garment Factories of Pakistan appeared first on EcoSalon.

Gretchen Jones channels Haight Ashbury and pom pom flower power for a stunning Spring/Summer 13 collection.

It’s no secret we’re Gretchen Jones fans here at EcoSalon so catching up with her post GenArt Fresh Faces show this past Sunday was like sitting down with an old friend. Known on Project Runway Season 8 as one of the few designers to tout her love of sustainable fashion and design, Jones’ approach has since changed some.

We got her to sit still for a minute to answer some questions about her Spring/Summer 13 collection called “Any Day Now.”

Here’s what she had to say.

Your collections always have a meaningful name. What’s this one all about?

My collections are inspired by a piece of literature and the album I listen to most/what’s connected to the literature. Joan Didion’s essay “Where the Kissing Never Stops,” about Joan Baez’s early years organically found me and was meant to be. I started listening to Joan Baez’s album Any Day Now [which is the collection’s name] which was recorded around the time of Didion’s essay…its seemed like the Universe found my inspiration for me this year.

Though you’re not promoting it this time around, rumor has it this collection is your most sustainable to date.

Around 70% of the collection is made from ethical materials. I’ve incorporated organic cottons, worked with an amazing company called Indigo Handloom who works with off the grid weavers in India for my batik and The shiny boucle and and a few other hand woven silks, My custom prints are still digitally printed to reduce water waste and I continue to support domestic/local production.

What have you learned as a designer about promoting sustainability?
I’m a fashion designer, not an ethically focused designer and I think there is a difference. My ethical choices are honestly for me and my chosen path in supporting my personal need to be thoughtful about how I source and where I create my work. But I don’t think my customer is only a sustainable shopper…and to be quite frank, I believe the real way to continue to move ethical choices into the way we all live is to create strong enough work that stands on its own and can compete in a very competitive industry because it’s just good.

Your favorite piece?
The Short Suit and the Pant Suit for sure.

What’s the deal/inspiration for the cool headpieces?
AMAZING Ban.Do Black Label collaboration! I have been a fan of theirs for years and wanted to create some custom pompom headpieces with them for spring. It just seemed like the perfect collection to pair Ban.do with. They created these custom pieces by incorporating most of my fabrics from the collection. I really adore these pieces and totally feel like they quite literally “topped” off my looks!

I also used Shoes of Prey and created my first custom GJNYC shoes for the season and painted custom belts and jewelry.

The post NYFW: Gretchen Jones Channels the Literature of Joan Didion appeared first on EcoSalon.

EDUN takes on the idea of the complete woman.

EDUN’s Spring/Summer 13 collection is all about promoting what might seem, at first glance, like utilitarian female garb. At second glance – and knowing full well you won’t rock the outfits quite like the groupie girls strutting the catwalk – you see a pretty clean palette for a woman to promote her very badass self.

We’ll call it Manhattan Rocker Chic but designer Ali Hewson calls it a collection “contrasting worlds of the EDUN girl,” and you do aspire to be her if you’re one looking for solid street cred.

The EDUN collection never strays too far from the modern woman on safari in the city vibe, and this particular collection stayed true to the core concept of the label. Silky utility shirts, cargo dresses, vests with zip pockets, an excess of buckles, snaps and zippers, and enough army green to outfit a full regiment.

Feminine touches of cutout jersey bralettes, floral silk pailette utility pants, bustiers and sequins lay testament to Hewson’s desire to make this collection about the soft as much as the rough edged.

EDUN continues to make progress with bringing more economic development back to Africa since their controversial departure to LVMH about a year and a half ago. In fact, the cover of the EDUN collection program reads that styles to be made in Africa or made from fabric sourced from Africa have “been highlighted in bold.”

While that might be only 1/4 of the collection, that they are acknowledging their brand’s roots might be half the battle of owning some professional missteps.

In addition to the organic cottons, silk habotai and nutmeg dyed pieces, the news of being more accountable for the label’s original ideal of being an “important tool for societal transformation, something that is urgently needed in the world of conscious fashion,” comes as refreshing news.

We couldn’t help but want to be that it girl strutting down the catwalk, if only for the 7 minutes or so we were allowed to enter the fantasy.

Check out EcoSalon’s coverage of the show:

Image: Amy DuFault

The post NYFW: EDUN Fuses the Introvert with the Extrovert appeared first on EcoSalon.

See you tonight!

Join EcoSalon and the Textile Arts Center in Manhattan, tonight from 6:30-9:30, to kick off New York Fashion Week. Talk and shop with over a dozen designers over a Conway Family Winery chardonnay, The Naked Grape Harvest Red and Cabernet Sauvignon, FAIR vodka cocktail or Zhena’s Gypsy Tea and learn about what sustainable fashion means in the midst of a fast fashion crazed society.

Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed, The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion will also be on hand to sign copies of her new book. All purchases the night of the event come with an eco-beauty gift from La Bella Figura, Kahina Giving Beauty, Olie Biologique and Stark Skincare (while supplies last!).

Francisca Pineda will also be on hand to promote her ethical fashion abroad program working with indigenous artisans from the Talamanca region near Puerto Viejo.

Shopping, organic cocktails, a little fashion education and a healthy dose of some of your favorite EcoSalon writers? You’d be crazy not to come and join us!

Current designers available to shop tonight include:

EkoLab
Afia
Carrie Parry
Ambika
Erin Considine
Laura Seigel
Adrienne Antonson
Ilana Kohn
A.D.O
VOZ
Kyler Jewelry
Jess Rizzuti Handbags
Pick-Up Stitch
Soham Dave
NYC Fair Trade Coalition

We look forward to seeing you!

The post Join EcoSalon Tonight in NYC For a Fashion Week Kick-Off Party! appeared first on EcoSalon.

#NYFW.

With New York Fashion Week kicking off next week, we thought we’d offer a little insight as to the history of how it all got started (not to mention what it’s evolved into).

For the full sized infographic, click here.

Image: Eventup

The post Infographic: In the Spirit of (Pre)New York Fashion Week appeared first on EcoSalon.