La Mercedes Fashion Week Berlinoise s’est terminée le weekend dernier alors que débutait juste celle de Paris.
Sous un temps presque clément – pluie et douceur au lieu de neige et températures négatives habituelles en cette période- la ville des créateurs de mode s’est de nouveau réveillée avec une belle énergie….
Les gros mastodontes tels que les salons Bread & Butter et Premium font plutôt allées combles, comme d’habitude, avec des tendances plutôt neutres pour les grandes marques qui s’y présentent et qui y reçoivent surtout leurs clients revendeurs plutôt que de petits nouveaux…
The end of the year quickly arrives now and we have concocted just for you some crusty ideas to put under your Christmas tree, at a reasonable price obviously during these times of crisis… There are pretty ethical fashion smart fashion accessories but of course eco-friendly and small deco items as well. Beautiful discoveries and very favorite designers from here and besides…
You all know origami : This is the paper folding art. Many people think this technique comes from Japan when in reality origami was born in China in the 6th century.
« Origami » can make you think about paper hens and cranes. But for a few years, this ancestral know-how made its entrance into the fashion world. Clothes, bags, jewellery : Origami is everywhere !
Foldings can be beautiful, ingenious, and even impressive. This is what you are going to discover today.
Last week we went to Ethical Fashion Show in Carrousel du Louvre and we discovered beautiful brands…
First of all, we noticed a revival of new designers with a bigger part for Asia : Tajikistan, Kirghiz Republic (Haft Paikar), Japan (Breezy Blue and Kimono clothes by Kazulo), Ceylon with the young Deneth who works flowery cotton by painting a funny eye on colourful and easy to wear clothes…
Our main discovery is Movana Chen : she transforms the favourite books of people that she meets by chance and she cuts them into strips then she knits the strips ! An amazing job so poetic…
Africa was also well represented : sharp cuts of François I who uses organic cotton produced in Burkina Faso for an urban and smart fashion, Ndomo and its beautiful fabrics with natural colours with stoles, blankets and cushions… and the remarkable brand Kondakis from Kenya with its couture dresses made made with light parachute fabrics.
Successive and…similar Fashion Weeks. That’s a known fact. We are passing from one fashion to another with the seasons, fashion trends that are getting away rapidly as what can be seen in our modern society.
This phenomenon -namely Fast wear or Fast Fashion to describe a cheap fashion with disposable or ephemeral clothing and cluttered wardrobes- is in sharp contrast with a new one…the ‘Slow age’ and its Slow and ethical fashion.
This new-found infatuation for ethical and sustainable trends is more and more entrenched in our daily lives. So that everyone seems to take an ethical approach, in particular ‘traditional’ fashion show where are gathered the most major and famous brands. From the luxury brand to the latest trendy-designer, these fashion shows have turned into private and ultra-selected clubs whose main purpose is obviously to enforce their brand on a market already saturated.
To succeed in traditional or ethical fashion is a real challenge that often ends in failures. But brands know only too well how to use trends to increase their sales.
Obviously the ethical label makes products attractive to sell. Famous brands now benefit from this new trendy concept to adapt their marketing strategy and gradually change their image to the customers who are not well aware of this effort.
Indeed brand image has been broadly damaged for several years: chemical pollutions and releases from denim factories, child labor for footwear manufacture, cut-price and poor quality clothing made in relocated factories…this understanding that fashion was pollutant too and had a serious environmental and human impact has become a new source of concern.
We are far from a complete boycott of these fashion brands which are regularly under the spotlight of Greenpeace or WWF (see the Detox Campaign). But changes have gradually started. We even talk about ‘Green washing’ which consists in giving an eco-friendly image to the audience with the help of expensive advertising campaign and communication policies.
But to be honest, where is the eco-friendly and ethical streak when brands only create a small range of ‘green products’ beside their main collections made from pollutant materials (synthetic fibers, artificial and toxic dyes, usage of pesticides for cotton growing, sanding denim, water for dyes -10 liters of water per 1 kg of textile-…)? If the European countries have made considerable efforts, this is not the case for the textile industries in the developing countries (China, India, Korea, Brazil, Cambodia, Mexico etc.) where the famous brands have mainly relocated their manufacturing process for lower production costs.
Hypocrisy? Publicity stunt or true will to swing to another fashion? There is no time left for doubt…or choice.
Remember, last year the United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. For its part 2011 is devoted to forests -real earthy sanctuaries for a biodiversity which is more and more jeopardized by our behaviors globally speaking.
Urbanization, pollution, illegal deforestation or great woodlands converted into fields dedicated to intensive farming –oil palm for instance which is particularly lucrative…- are some of the most serious threats to the protection of our global ecosystem.
Let’s see the facts: Forests cover 31% of total land area (4 billion hectares) while at the same time supporting 80% of terrestrial biodiversity (living plants and animals) that live in them -50% of the global biodiversity-, they capture CO2 and directly help 1.8 billion people to survive through the different activities that rely on them (wood for power supply, construction materials, paper industry…).
Our very favourite of July, it’s Zen Ethic on Ethical Trade Shop : a family business, with François in charge…
First of all, we should note that the brand act in total respect with his artisans in India : Zen Ethic did not wait the fashion to become equal and responsible. Since 1997, it makes produce in India a whole set of fashion accessories, of woman and children ready-to-wear clothing, and also decoration items and fabric coupons.
India and its enchantments of colours are here : bags, plain or colourful printed matters tunics and dresses, pillows, and a large line of fabric coupons if you feel like a dressmaker.
Zen Ethic, it’s also its production approach : the respect of working conditions with a right remuneration, the promotion of local know-how as well as the constant concern of the ecological footprint.
Our selection on the Shop is full of freshness and colours : everything to illuminate your wardrobe and your home !
Not easy to place the words Green and Fashion Week in the same sentence. But if you speak about Berlin Fashion Week it becomes easier because Germany has been a leader in Green notion and sustainability in fashion.
The Berlin Fashion Week has just begun (5th to 10th July). Twice a year Berlin gives the opportunity to international fashion to gather buyers and professional visitors, and also journalists, to fairs and exhibitions in the city.
- Let’s start with the fair Bread & Butter for street-wear and urban wear – it exists since 2001.
- For fair fashion, Premium and its exhibitions show sustainable fashion, the very last trends and the actual stakes.
- For the first time during the Berlin Fashion Week : Ethical Fashion Show on GreenShowroom. We take the opportunity to remind that Ethical Fashion Show will be at Carrousel du Louvre during the Fashion Week of Paris.
It is worth saying that ethical fashion and local know-how are the hobby-horses of Ethical Fashion Show, also very concerned by education and influence on public. GreenShowroom is on a more luxury side. Both of them will present their approach and action in a beautiful hotel in Berlin.
Once more, ethical and sustainable fashion has to be first of all a matter of design…
Among our favourite brands, l’Herbe Rouge is on Premium (referenced on Ethical Trade Place !), Sakina M’Sa that we like very much and also Ethos another pretty fashion brand…
Francesco sums up very well his brand : high standard Brazilian handcraft with Italian design…
LACRE_BAGS is a range of ethical fashion accessories made with recycled aluminum pull-tabs. This is really a hard work in order to pick up the tabs, to clean them, to sew them one by one and crocheting them, to sew the lining… A whole process that requires a lot of patience and care.
All their models are exclusive and the accessories are sewn by hand in limited quantities.
As 2011 is the year of recycling, how nice to highlight such a simple material ! So let’s recycling with chic and couture items so urban, unique and ethical !
The winner of the competition organized by Néoplanète and Ethical Fashion Show is Linda Mai Phung : beautiful ready-to-wear which is ethical and French, with hints from Vietnam – the country of origin of the designer.
Néoplanète wanted to highlight a designer of ethical fashion on their first competition. So where was the difference among the 20 designers who participated ? Linda Mai Phung is involved in a social and environmental approach : she works closely with providers of eco materials and organizations who collaborate with modest people in Vietnam.
Her style is inspired by her trips full of poetry to Vietnam. She has the sense of honour to use only noble fabrics from Vietnam such as linen, silk, cotton and hemp… These textiles are weaved and dyed by hand. She also uses recycles fabrics (batiks and brocarts).
With the partnership with the magazine Néoplanète, we are pleased to offer to Linda Mai Phung the opportunity to show her collection on Ethical Trade Place (for professionals) or Ethical Trade Shop (for the public).
If the consumer has well understood the challenges of organic food and cosmetics on wealth and the impact on environment, what about ethical fashion ?
The items to be sold in the shops and stores are mainly manufactured in China, India, Bangladesh, Turkey… Have a look on labels and try to find a ‘made in Italy’ or why not a ‘fabriqué en France’. We all know that costs of production have moved manufacturing : from South of Europe to North of Africa, then to Turkey to Asia. Just a little part of fashion is still produced in Europe and France : high quality with famous know-how, really inaccessible for the average consumer.
What is the place of ethical fashion ? How the consumer can buy ethical fashion clothes ? Today the big brands are selling some garments. They offers timidly some tee-shirts but it is just a matter of conscience than a deep attitude for change – most of the time not well cut… You can find nice items in but quite hidden, and more expensive than standard fashion. They are very trendy with a real design but only available in shops : the consumer may be a little shy to enter in these shops as the consumer is less used to buy in shops but yes in a department store.
There is one place where plastic is not welcome at all : in nature and gardens.
But Isabelle Teste has no equivalent to sublimate plastic and to make is part of our life…
She is a designer fond of recycling, she never gets enough and she collects every kind of plastic. Cleaned, cut, sewed… Isabelle gives them a new life and they become a new item : nice, aesthetical and very practical !
Isabelle Teste is a mix of fantasy with a great practical sense. She started her carrier in advertising, then as a milliner at the Opera of Paris and in Haute Couture. So thanks to her know-how she is really able to transform and to change the vision of this very common material.
Hats, dresses, skirts… Isabelle cuts patiently circles and strips and then she sews.
In the garden you will re-use of the soil plastic but it has become a colourful and very resistant garden apron with a cotton lining. Need to carry your garden tools ? Look at this Garden Carrier Bag ! Isabelle pays a lot of attention and care to the details : double sewing, petersham on the aprons, perfect linings…
The season of weddings is coming ! We would like to talk about our dear Valérie Pache who creates eco-friendly dresses and also evening dresses… For more than a year on Ethical Trade Place® her beautiful dresses have delighted the future brides with her poetic and charming atmosphere.
Eco-designer ? Of course ! She is proud of it : in her workshop she works exclusively with unexpected materials such as paragliding and parachute cloth… and the lining is natural silk. The eco-friendly wedding dresses of Valérie Pache are really different.
She attaches importance to tailor-made and she is very attentive to details : gathers, pleats, sewing of petals, hangs… Her dresses have sweet names like Peony, Flamenco, Undine or Water-fall… what a program.
No veil but a delicate headdress illuminated thanks to Leds : a fairy apparition !
She also works colour and this is a dream, a fairy tales…
A new place for new offices ! Ethical Trade Place® has moved right this week to ‘rue du Chemin Vert’ in Paris, close to Bastille.
Also something new among our designers on the Shop : MARRON ROUGE has presented just for you its brand new ethical fashion accessories ! All kind of bags made of recycled tire tube, nice IPhone and IPad cases, embroidered cotton pouches, jewels, stuffed toys for babies, trendy decorations items… from the cooperation between France and India by craftsmen of fair trade.
Humour and freshness with the organic cotton tee-shirts of MASALA TEE for the whole family, even babies with lovely and colourful onesies and patterns… Indian ones of course ! We have already talked about this Indian brand : women and girls will try hard to chose their tee-shirt – with Swarovski stones embellished !
Ethical Trade Place® is especially dedicated to professionals : the platform creates the business relationship between ethical fashion designers and buyers – while the shop is for the public and friends. The Shop offers beautiful ethical fashion items by highlighting designers who show great fashion, fairer and above all very trendy…
Masala Tees are ethical, humanitarian, cool, urban and super comfy !
Featuring Warhol style prints, these green tees comprise of the faces of Bolly-esque vintage heroines (for women), moustached turbaned villains (for men), and adorned Indian animals (for the little children). With affiliations to various charitable organizations, coverage from Indian Vogue and tea-like elements as part of their unique and quirky packaging, Masala Tee has got ethical cool.
Organic cotton, bright colours for the whole family (included babies…), a Masala tee makes you feel cool and trendy…
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Successive and…similar Fashion Weeks. That’s a known fact. We are passing from one fashion to another with the seasons, fashion trends that are getting away rapidly as what can be seen in our modern society.
onest, where is the eco-friendly and ethical streak when brands only create a small range of ‘green products’ beside their main collections made from pollutant materials (synthetic fibers, artificial and toxic dyes, usage of pesticides for cotton growing, sanding denim, water for dyes -10 liters of water per 1 kg of textile-…)? If the European countries have made considerable efforts, this is not the case for the textile industries in the developing countries (China, India, Korea, Brazil, Cambodia, Mexico etc.) where the famous brands have mainly relocated their manufacturing process for lower production costs.
Remember, last year the United Nations declared 2010 the International Year of Biodiversity. For its part 2011 is devoted to forests -real earthy sanctuaries for a biodiversity which is more and more jeopardized by our behaviors globally speaking.
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