Textile expressions are shaping next season’s ethical spirit

It is amazing to think that the Spring/Summer 2012 fashion week presentations have been underway for close to a month now. We kicked off the season with our announcement of the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris during the first few days of September, and now things have come full circle with the close of Paris Fashion Week today. Plenty of designer and runway celebrities have reveled in the media spotlight, but some very deserving names on the ethical fashion and textile innovation scene might have slipped under your radar. Read on for highlights of the bright new design stars we currently have our eye on.

New York

Kaelen S/S 2012 with Coclico shoes

EcoSalon was on the scene during New York Fashion Week (NYFW), and for the first time ever a (Sustainable) Fashion’s Night Out at the Textile Arts Center in Manhattan set the stage for fashion as a vibrant community outreach initiative. As a fiber and textile enthusiast, I was rather smitten with Kaelen’s Spring/Summer 2012 collection presented at Drive-In Studios. What’s not to love about cool macramé fringe and pleat dresses presented in a stand of birch trees? Designer Kaelen Haworth made wood nymph chic (and Steve Nicks redux) seem transcendent. The pairing with ethically made Coclico shoes was pure genius as well.

Titania Inglis S/S  2012 organic dip-dyed peak dress

Brooklyn-based designer Titania Inglis had a whole lot of textile brilliance going on with her latest collection featuring natural dye methods, local production collaborations, and zero-waste experimentation. I love that Titania creates garments that are versatile as a suite of designs that dovetail efficiently together.

The above dip-dyed ‘Peak Dress’, created with natural dye expert Isa Rodrigues at the Textile Arts Center, has timeless appeal. The chic styling with Bliss Lau jewelry accents the fluid geometry of the draping. The peak dress was created out of Japanese organic cotton voile with a stripe texture, dip-dyed with logwood for the gray hue, and a mix of natural dyes for the peach hue.

Titania Inglis S/S  2012 collarless jacket and pleat short

This collarless jacket and pleat short are also great investment pieces as separates to re-invigorate an existing wardrobe. Materials include a dip-dyed organic cotton denim pieced with a dead stock cotton twill for the jacket, and the same dead stock cotton twill for the short.

Ivana Helsinki S/S 2012 celebrates ethnic prints for Indian Summer

Another favorite textile-inspired line up at NYFW was Ivana Helsinki’s Indian Summer collection. Finnish designer, Paolo Suhonen’s artistic melding of ethnic patterns and graphic feather motifs pave the way for a trend-free and border-defying form of global nomadism. I like that Suhonen always looks to her Scandinavian roots for ongoing inspiration and indigenous source material as well.

London

Mary Katrantzou S/S 2012 takes digital printing for a bold ride

Designers at London Fashion Week certainly were not shy about bold innovation in textile printing technologies, and many would agree that Mary Kantrantzou is still a clear frontrunner in the wild abstraction and remixing of patterns that are mind-blowing on the runway as well as hot on the retail scene. Spring/Summer 2012 was no exception for Katrantzou, although some felt that her pop art ‘brushstrokes’ were a bit too broad this time around. Regardless, I like that this designer pushes her medium to create textiles that fuse repeat patterns in nature with a textured maps of metallic car parts.

Ada Zanditon S/S 2012 ethically-produced Poseidon Dress

Ada Zanditon was, as usual, a must-see show on the ethical fashion circuit, and in keeping with the current trend to host film or installation projects in lieu of a full-blown runway show, Zandition’s Poseisus collection did not disappoint. The pièce de résistance was this Poseidon Dress, which pays homage to the principles of biomimicry as well as the plight of endangered seahorse species off the south coast of London.

Felicity Brown S/S 2012 marries Victorian grace with hand-dyed tribal patterns

One of the most romantic expressions at the London shows was Felicity Brown’s S/S12 exquisitely dyed and adventurously draped dresses. The designer describes her intent best: “Taking inspiration from Victorian lady explorers in Africa, such as Mary Kingsley, Felicity imagined how the influence of the tribes’ women would infuse into their dresses and create a hybrid of the two opposing cultures. The stiff rigidity of the neckline and corseted bodice is reworked with fluid, laser cut silk jersey tubes that have been hand dyed with a deconstructed tribal pattern. The contrast and tension between soft femininity and strong cage like structures are another theme that resonates powerfully throughout Felicity’s work.” – S/S12 press release

Michelle Lowe Holder’s zero-waste designs at Estethica

On the accessorizing frontier, Michelle Lowe-Holder created a stunning showcase of her zero-waste cuffs, collars, and neckpieces crafted out of fabric and textile wastage for London Fashion Week’s Estethica. I also love that this designer also styles her look book shoots in a manner that defies gender, age, and racial stereotypes – totally modern, in the best sense of the word.

Milan

I am basically going to skip over the Guccis, Puccis, and The Sartorialist street style shots from Milan Fashion Week. We know that the Italians are unbearably stylish when it comes to making upcycled boyfriend jeans and cobble-crushing stilettos look killer. I am married to someone who was born in Milano, and trust me, he can make a plain white shirt look like a million bucks.

Km/a’s recycled parachute coat melds materials and conceptual storytelling

I do want to call out one of my favorite labels, km/a of Vienna, who exhibited again this season at WHITE Milano. Sass Brown has profiled them in the past on Eco Fashion Talk, and they have also been standout exhibitors at The KEY.TO during Berlin Fashion Week. Km/a’s novel approach to fusing art, fashion, and the recycling of parachute materials as well as military blankets puts whole new spin on surplus chic and textured storytelling.

Paris

With Paris Fashion Week coming to a conclusion today, I am happy to report that there appears to be a new wave of locally made, ethical fashion in France. Hélène Sananikone, owner and proprietor of Green in the City in the Marais, shared news that, now more than ever, ready-to-wear ethical brands are increasingly available and with colorful and vibrant hues for the upcoming season.

Hélène wrote to us, “When I opened my boutique only three years ago, I could hardly fill my store with French ready-to-wear brands. It was also not very easy to find these designers at the shows that I visited in Paris, and it honestly seemed as if all of the eco fashion was happening abroad. Now, more and more French eco designers have their place at the most fashionable fairs. They can develop fabrics with their manufacturers, particularly exclusive prints with Oeko-Tex dyeing. For a long time they had to be careful and propose basic colors. Now for Spring/Summer as well as for Autumn/Winter, they can dare to add colors and unique prints. Eco fashion need not envy fashion anymore. It is fashion.”

Parisian label ‘Ambryn Tribu Urbaine’ creates hand-drawn whimsy for textiles

Ambryn’s A/W 2011 illustrates eco-luxurious hues and trans-seasonal appeal

Green in the City carries French-made Ambryn Tribu Urbaine in their boutique and for Spring/Summer 2012, this indie label is offering a unique interpretation of ‘Behind the Garden’ with hand-illustrated prints and ethically-sourced fabrics. I am still savoring Ambryn’s Fall 2011 pieces – particularly the hand worked green collar on the above piece for autumn.

EELD S/S 2012 ‘Bird of Paradise’ bio-silk top made locally in France

Also not to be missed on the broadening ethical fashion scene in Paris is the new French-made label, EELD. Designer Chloe Bourrioux recently debuted her bio-silk and eco-friendly dyed pieces for S/S 2012. Added details like her support of traditional lace making techniques from the world famous Calais region and silk from Lyon makes EELD a genuinely French expression of textile rich fashion and local goodness.

Lead image: Michelle Lowe Holder, Kaelen photo by Jeannine Tan via Kaelen’s blog, Titania Inglis photos by Evan Browning,  Mary Katrantzou via Style.com, Ada Zanditon photo by Sarah Brimley, Michelle Lowe Holder photo via Oxfam.

The post An International Fashion Week Playback For Spring/Summer 2012 appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fairmined and Fairtrade gold create an ethical statement piece.

Just when you thought that London-based fashion designer Ada Zanditon had done it all, the award-winning, ethical fashion pioneer just announced a recent collaboration with bespoke jeweler Ingle & Rhode to design the first ever necklace made entirely from Fairmined and Fairtrade 18 carat gold. We have been devoted followers of Ada’s avant-garde runway designs and the effort that she pours into each season’s collection in terms of environmental research topics and responsible materials. Ada has now taken on another challenge with this stunning design collaboration that redefines luxury and the possibilities for fairgold designs.

According to Fairgold.org‘s homepage, “Globally, over 100 million people depend on Artisanal and Small-Scale Mining (ASM) for survival. The 15 million ASM miners work in harsh and dangerous conditions to produce just 10 to 15 percent of global gold supplies, but they make up 90 percent of the global work force in gold extraction. These miners and their families are caught in a vicious circle of exploitation, illegality, and many lack the skills and resources to move forward.”

As Ada Zanditon told Vogue.com UK in a recent interview, “Fairtrade is an incredibly important issue to me as it is part of my brand philosophy and approach. I believe in creating beautiful, desirable pieces that respect the balance between people, planet and business. Fairtrade is a really key way of being able to know that producers are being paid fairly for their work.”

Ada Zanditon’s Cryoflux AW 2011 look book images

Like many of Ada Zanditon’s designs, her latest glistening gold creation is origami-like in form and thoughtfully distilled with artistic experimentation. It is not uncommon for the designer, who is also a talented  illustrator, to experiment with form building in her London studio before launching into draping and pattern cutting. This computer-aided gold nugget design references shapes like icebergs, sci-fi adventure, and deep earth exploration of an otherworldly but responsible variety. “The boldness of its aesthetic represents a brighter future for Fairtrade producers,” says Ada.

It is true progress to see gold that is guilt-free but visually alluring in the same manner that other jewelry metals are. The even better news it that this one-off piece is currently available to win on VOGUE.com for a value worth over £3,000. You can enter the contest here by answering a posted ethical fashion question.

Pyramora SS11 necklace designed as a collaboration between Ada Zanditon and Luca Romanyi

Ada Zanditon has previously collaborated with jewelry designer and artist Luca Romanyi to create statement pieces that incorporate recycled plastic and printed porcelain tiles. This is the first time that the designer has ever worked with gold, and fairmined and fairtrade gold at that. Given Ada’s love for honey bees, icebergs, coral reefs, and all things complex and fragile, it only seems fitting that she may just put the golden touch on future bespoke designs of an organic and fairmade nature.

Images: Vogue.com UK, Amelia’s Magazine, Ada Zanditon

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Attending the Ada Zanditon show was similar to partaking in an archeologist’s hunt for Egyptian treasures. Even the invitation for the event came in an origami asymmetrical pyramid – alluding to the theme and inspiration behind the designer’s spring/summer 2011 collection.

An award-winning and highly acclaimed ethical designer, Ada Zanditon is no stranger to London Fashion Week’s Estethica. This year, she reserved a spot in the Estethica exhibit, as well as putting on an informal runway presentation.

Her signature style – aligned with architecture and intellectual design – was present throughout. Fusing geometrical shapes from the pyramids and  more delicate prints from coral reefs, The Pyramora Collection holds a powerful balance between structure and flow.

And don’t miss some of London Fashion Week S/S 11 runway footage highlights, which you can check out in this video.

Images: Greta Eagan

The post London Fashion Week S/S 11: Projecting Pyramids at Ada Zanditon appeared first on EcoSalon.

It is usually challenging to fully respond to spring/summer collections as we are just entering into the winter season, but at this year’s London Fashion Week S/S 11 sustainable fashion hit a new high note that transcended temperatures. For the first time ever, LFW gave eco-fashion its own show – The Sustainable Show. Designers as well known as Stella McCartney all the way to industry leaders like People Tree showcased their fashion in a collaborative presentation. Prophetik’s designer Jeff Garner held his own star-studded show, providing one of the best runway shows of the week. Finally, Parisian designer Ada Zanditon wrapped the week up with a show at the On/Off exhibit, and a new title as INNOVATION’s Fairtrade cotton category winner.

Catch highlights from all of these eco-fashion benchmarks in our EcoSalon Exclusives video below.

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