Faux leather just got a heavy dose of sex appeal thanks to the talented and fashion forward founder and fashion designer, Matilda Janosi of TildArt. 

This eco-luxury brand delivers on multiple levels providing its clientele with a variety of high-end apparel and accessories with a professionally executed upcycled vibe.

EcoSalon recently covered the atrocious cruelty at the hands of the Bangladeshi leather industry and its impact on the suffrage of cows as well as the health of the community’s residents and surrounding environment. If you haven’t read up on it, then please do so here, as the damage being done completely justifies anyone’s choice to seek out faux leather over materials produced from animal hides.

Fortunately, the latest manufacturing processes and materials have brought us the beautiful artificial leather used by TildArt. The innovative ingredients for creating these faux leather looks involve natural latex rubber, recycled bicycle inner tube, and occasionally wool. Janosi also includes other quirky designs and materials from her past collections, which include one that focuses on recycled movie film strips, and another that incorporates moss alongside the vegan leather.

TildArt’s prices reflect the eco luxury moniker it abides by, yet the idea of owning a unique hand-crafted piece of wearable art is priceless to some. With dresses, capes, jewelry, and accessories like handbags and gloves, there’s something to excite the faux leather lover in us all. Below are a few of our favorites from TildArt, but be sure to check out the website to see more of these eccentric and edgy designs.

Dresses

TildArt’s dress collection, with a few pieces that some might agree would contend strongly in a fetish wear category, is not for the faint of heart. In fact, we think you’d best be adventurous when it comes to donning this sexy skin tight latex and “leather” but we’ll let you be the judge.

The piece pictured above is called the Belted Inner Tube Mesh with Latex Dress and sports a black handcrafted inner tube layer of large fishnet-esque mesh (not pictured) over top of the latex dress, which happens to come in several other colors, including pink, black, red, and gray. The mesh collar is optional and the sheath below can be worn entirely on its own (as pictured) if you so choose.

Jewelry

TildArt’s jewelry is chic and would look great with casual outfits, an evening out, or even for the everyday bump and grind, with many of the brand’s pieces being perfectly appropriate for the workplace.

The necklaces pictured above, from the pendant series, are some one of our most adored jewelry pics from TildArt because they’re made from handcrafted “rolled” inner tubes that are inlaid with Swarovski crystals and completed with black rubber and magnetic twist clasps. Our favorite is the flower shaped Cristallin Epais-Fleur Pendant.

Handbags

While the purse selection is not vast, it is certainly distinctive and full of the popular fringey tassels that have been popping up everywhere this season. Much of what they offer, like the other inventory, would most likely be deemed statement pieces, so be sure to tone everything else down a tad if you opt for one of this brand’s handbags.

The cross body bag pictured above looks like it could have come straight from one of the most popular fashion magazines. Called the Medium Tresse Fringes Bag with Gold Strap, this beauty is handcrafted from bicycle inner tube and is lined with satin.

Accessories

This is where things start to get hairy – literally – so we’ve included the products that are most likely to contain merino wool together here so there’s no confusion for our readers who wish to abstain from animal products in their wardrobes. Some of TildArt’s capes, scarves, and gloves do incorporate wool, but continue to use only vegan leather.

The particular gloves pictured above are actually wool-free (yay!) and every bit as impactful as her other products. These sexy fingerless gloves offer a hand-woven textured design crafted from recycled bicycle inner tube with a faux leather wrist cuff complete with metal grommets and adornments. These are also reminiscent of some fun fetishism and would look great at a party or for a night out when you want to play the part.

Sharing our finds from TildArt has been so much fun and is certainly a nice change of pace from the tamer eco fashion that we normally see. So, readers, we’re excited to hear from you. Did you like what you saw in this post? Are there any pieces you would wear from this brand’s collections? Let us know what you thought on the EcoSalon Facebook page!

Related on EcoSalon 

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3 Must-Have Luxury Vegan Fashion Looks for Fabulous Cruelty-Free Style

Image of Woman in Collar via TildArt

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The carry-all gets an upgrade: vegan backpacks are all the rage and for good reason.

Out of the way simple, basic bags! Backpacks are taking over the world and we’re totally jazzed about it. The past few seasons have been boasting some pretty stylish, inventive, and functional designs, proving to be much more versatile than a purse. Can you say “hands free?!”

And now, you can wear it in style and without any guilt as these vegan backpacks are gorgeous and functional.

1. Vegan Convertible Backpack by Free People

Nothing says biker babe chic quite like this backpack (pictured at top)! Constructed of black vegan leather, free-flowing fringe and studs, this one is an absolute showstopper. With its removable and adjustable straps, it can alter into a backpack or a purse to fit whatever mood you’re in with perfect storage inside for the essentials of a night out: id, money, phone, and lipstick. Throw on your favorite pair of distressed denim jeans and a white tee and hit the town looking super badass.

Free People, $108

2. Prim Lady Backpack by French Connection

For the girl who’s more of a minimalist, you’ve just found the perfect mate in a backpack. This vegan backpack is perfect for on-the-go purposes without sacrificing style. With its “top-down” zipper closure and flat based bottom, you can toss your iPad, some fashion mags, and a notebook in the main compartment and drop your phone and keys into the two cotton slip pockets located inside. You can run about town, coffee in hand, and take the world by storm without missing a beat. Choose from colors white, black floral, and hazel.

Check it out here. $88

3. ‘Betsy’ Faux Leather Backpack by Emperia

If you like to travel, be sure to bring this little gem as your companion. The smooth cognac shade of brown vegan leather and zipper tassels add a cool western vibe while the scalloped detailing and metal hardware in the studs and carrying handle make it a bit more savvy. This backpack contains tons of storage with interior and exterior pockets and a zipped enclosure on the front. The easy-access side pockets located on the outside make it perfect for temporarily storing your phone or passport. Why would you ever leave home without this amazingly convenient backpack?!

Available here, $48

4. Super Embellished Convertible Backpack Purse by Rusty Spur Couture

Ever wonder why your crazy grandma kept a box full of random buttons in her drawer? Maybe she wasn’t so crazy after all because this button embellished backpack/purse combo is pretty marvelous. Shying away from the typical, grittier studs we normally see on everything, we get a daintier version of edgy. Made of super soft vegan leather, this cool contraption can change functions in a snap! It can go from a backpack to a purse with just one slide of a strap. It has a secure closure with a drawstring and a flap that folds down and even has a pocket inside perfect to fit a phone in. It can be purchased in a sleek black or creamy white color. Don’t go stealing grandma’s buttons now…

Open Sky, $89.99

5. Rosalind Backpack by Free People

This backpack is all about the free-spirited, gypsy wanderer. Comprised of an indigenous printed fabric with vegan leather accents, the overall essence is a true boho vibe. The gunmetal hardware and toggle clasps make it a great accessory for adventure whether you’re hiking a trail or hanging around a bonfire with your best buds. It’s an amazing carry-on for travel as well because of the side cargo pockets and a hidden zippered pocket on the back. So grab this backpack and go exploring in style!

Free People, $298

6. Nosis Backpack by Aldo

Most of us are always looking for clothing and accessories that can easily transition our ultra busy lives from day to night without a hitch. This sleek and stylish backpack achieves just that, all the time, every day, every night. You can easily go from the office to happy hour without delay. Oh, and the compartments are endless! The drawstring closure opens to reveal interior zip and slip pockets and is equipped with a flat base to neatly hold your belongings. Then on the outside you have two buckled front pockets and the fold-over flap doubles as storage as well! Also extremely versatile, this is another backpack/purse blend complete with a top carrying strap and removable arm straps. It is available in either black or brown. This backpack was made for flaunting and that’s just what it will do!

Get it here. $50

7. ‘Cynnie’ Sling Backpack by Elizabeth and James

Those Olsens always know exactly what they’re doing. The design concept behind this creation is imaginative and super cool. You can wear this backpack three different ways: as a purse, slung over your shoulder, or the obvious, as a backpack. There’s something simple yet so originative about this backpack. The structure and drawstring closure emit chic simplicity, but then you have the folky woven print and the vegan leather tassel that pulls down to reveal a whole front exterior pocket… It’s just too cool in the best sort of way. You also don’t need to worry about quick wear and tear of the backpack because it comes with protective metal feet on the bottom. Olsens, you’ve done it again. And we’re so glad you did.

Check it out. $545

Check out and shop all of these cool vegan leather backpack packs below. Happy shopping!

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The post 7 Gorgeous Vegan Backpacks You Probably Can’t Live Without appeared first on EcoSalon.

Has Stella McCartney earned her place in the sustainable-fashion spotlight?

The mainstream media often labels designer Stella McCartney the “queen” of eco-fashion for her incorporation of sustainable practices and her refusal to use fur and animal skins in her designs. As a spokesperson for PETA, McCartney frequently speaks out against animal cruelty in the fashion industry, and as a participating designer in Livia Firth’s Green Carpet Challenge, she has outfitted a number of red carpet celebrities in environmentally-friendly garb.

But when you take a closer look at McCartney’s practices, you begin to realize that her sustainable and ethical commitments are not nearly as fervent as the media hypes them up to be. In this week’s Behind the Label, we examine whether Stella has really earned her spot in the eco-fashion spotlight.

The Good

As the daughter of former Beatle Paul McCartney, Stella has always been considered a type of British royalty. She developed an interest in fashion at an early age and honed her skills interning for Christian Lacroix and Sevile Row tailor Edward Sexton before going on to earn a degree in fashion design from Central St Martins in 1995. Just two years later, McCartney was appointed Creative Director of Parisian fashion house Chloe, a move that forced critics, including Karl Lagerfield, to attribute her success to her father’s fame. But McCartney proved herself with critically acclaimed and commercially viable designs, and in 2001 she launched her own eponymous fashion house under what is now the PPR Luxury Group.

From the start of her fashion career, McCartney’s long-standing vegetarianism led her to publicly boycott fur and animal skins in her designs. She regularly states that sustainability and environmental awareness are cornerstones of her brand, like in this interview conducted by Charlotte Casiraghi for Above magazine:

For me, it’s about the basic principles: Sustainability is important, as is recycling. Everyone can do simple things to make a difference, and every little bit really does count. That said, my job is to make desirable, luxurious, beautiful clothing and accessories that women want to buy.

On the materials side, Stella says that she tries to use organic cotton — but “can’t always afford to or get enough of it” – and low-impact dyes. On the production end, the brand works primarily with manufacturers in Italy, particularly on shoes and bags that require factories specializing in non-leather production.

The Bad

But although Stella McCartney does most of her production in Italy, the designer was recently linked with sweatshops due to her high-profile partnership with Adidas to provide U.K. team uniforms for the 2012 London Olympics.

According to a March article in the Observer, workers at Bangladeshi factories for Adidas, Nike, and Puma are “beaten, verbally abused, underpaid, and overworked” under sweatshop-like conditions. And earlier this month, anti-sweatshop group Play Fair released a report called Fair Games?, which calls out Adidas for using sweatshop labor in supplier factories in China, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines.

Adidas tells a different story in its 2011 progress report, also released earlier this month. In it, the company states that all London 2012 Adidas products and services are being sourced and manufactured according to the guidelines set forth by the Olympics organizing committee. Adidas also released a 10-page response to the Play Fair report, disputing most of the claims and reasserting its commitment to supply chain transparency.

Regardless of who is “right” in this debate, Adidas has long been scrutinized by human rights groups for its ethical and environmental practices, and Stella McCartney’s long-standing partnership with the brand, both for the Olympics project and with her Adidas by Stella McCartney collection, calls into question her own commitments to ethics and sustainability.

The Questionable

McCartney is to be applauded for her personal commitment to animal rights issues, but has her sustainability work really earned her the title of eco-fashion industry “queen?” In the media, she often rejects the label, like in this quote from Styleist:

“It’s not very sexy sounding, is it,” she retorted recently at a Neiman Marcus shopping event in San Francisco when it was suggested that she is the face of sustainable luxury. “We’ve never shouted about it, and until recently no one has really mentioned it except for journalists. If anything, people would ridicule us when it came up!” 

Other times, she seems to embrace it, like in this quote from Thread NY:

Eco-friendly fashion is something I’ve always felt strongly about. You have to create demand so the customer base will grow. We’ve been doing organic for years in my own collection, in my lingerie and with the Adidas collaboration. We touch on it across the board. I think it’s a bit more sincere to do that. It’s part and parcel for us as a brand.

But on the Stella McCartney website, the language around sustainable practices is limited and vague. Under a short section titled “Stella McCartney & the Environment,” the company says that it uses a clean energy provider in its stores, offsets its carbon footprint using carbonneutral.com, and books its taxi journeys through an environmentally friendly car service. Compared to the corporate social responsibility sections of other major fashion brands, these seem like token efforts. And while making a bag out of faux leather instead of real leather is certainly kinder to animals, is it necessarily a more sustainable approach? We’re not sure.

Whether or not Stella fully embraces her place in the eco-fashion limelight, her name and celebrity give her the unique position of being able to affect industry-wide change, particularly in her partnerships with Adidas and the 2012 Olympics. Stella frequently says that her business is not perfect: “When we can make things better, we do… (but) if we were too extreme it would get in the way of my job,” she told Above.

To many in the eco-fashion world, statements like that sound like somewhat of a cop-out, especially coming from someone with as many resources as McCartney. What this world needs is an eco-fashion spokesperson who will step up to the plate and commit to sustainable and ethical principles in a more legitimate and all-encompassing way.

SEE ALSO:

Behind the Label: H&M’s Conscious Collection

Behind the Label: Levi Strauss’ E-Valuate Program

Behind the Label: TOMS’ One for One Campaign

Behind the Label: Puma’s Vision and Clever Little Bag

Behind the Label: Anthropologie’s Made In Kind

Read more Behind the Label here.

The post Behind the Label: Is Stella McCartney a Sustainable Brand? appeared first on EcoSalon.