Eco Chic

Rethink.

Miss Kotova — Sun, 09 May 2010 10:04:45 +0000

This isn’t fashion but it is eco-friendly and kinda cool and I love the design. I do think that researching this project has made me ‘rethink’ this whole eco chic trend.

on one had I agree that the only way to truly be eco-friendly is to stop consumption. I also agree that shopping vintage and buying more green clothing is a small step towards a better future however as it stands now only a hand full of people and designers are being truly eco-chic.

Nude is the new black.

Miss Kotova — Sat, 01 May 2010 21:45:41 +0000

Pictures sourced from: Me by a friend. inknotmink. tumblr

These might be the most eco-friendly ways to go by to reduce your carbon footprint, at least when it comes to clothes:

Buy items made locally with cotton or wool that was produced locally.
Not buy anything at all.
If you buy clothes try to shop for vintage.
Re-make your clothes. Cut, change ect. Your old clothes into something new.

I have to say that going naked is still the most eco-friendly alternative and the sexiest. After all this naked business goes back to Adam and Eve played nude in the Gardner of Edan. We were happy to be naked before but now days we have become such a needy socialite.

This is a painting done by Titan, titled ‘Adam and Eve’

Was the shirt on your back made using forced child labour?

Miss Kotova — Sat, 01 May 2010 15:03:39 +0000

Ever wonder where the row materials used to produce the shirt you’re wearing or the Egyptian sheets you’re rolling around in came from. Most of us don’t. Companies make it easy for us to ignore the problem reassuring the consumer that manufacturers adhere to strict codes of conduct however with the growing interest in the green movement more and more consumers are starting to look into production.

One of the scandals surrounding Cotton production is the employment of children for minimum or no pay.

“Research in Egypt in 2001 revealed that children working harvesting cotton in one region earned US $1.08 per day, while adults earned around 50% more. Children working in cotton pest control – a task rarely done by adults – earned even less, between US $0.68 and US $0.95 per day.” BBC news reports.

It’s been said that children are employed to do a variety of jobs on the cotton fields from cottonseed production, cotton harvesting and pesticide spraying. Such child labor has a high danger risk;

exposure to pesticides is especially poisonous to children,
children can miss up to two and a half months of school,
the long and demanding work hours is exhausting and unhealthy especially under the hot sun(some work 13hours),
machines are being used by unskilled children.

A reporter at The Observer looked into Child Labour in Egypt. Quote from the article “Working flat out – the child labour behind your Egyptian cotton sheets” .

Seven-year-old Abdul Rachman, looks exhausted. Drenched in sweat and dirt, with holes in his shoes and trousers, his face is a picture of misery and suffering. ‘It is my job to take the worms off the cotton leaves,’ he tells me, his voice a whimper of embarrassment and nerves. ‘But it is hard. The worms that eat the cotton are difficult to spot and the earth is dry and dusty. I feel sick in the heat but I must work. My family needs bread.’

This boy is an example of the million of other children who work for nothing to harvest the cotton that then makes for luxury items in our homes. It just brakes my heart. I hope that more clothing companies put the origin of production on the labels of their clothes, after all our eyes need to be open to child labour and the consumer needs the choice to say no to clothes that we know come from countries that practice such labour.

A 6-year-old worker in Egypt. Photograph: Robin Hammond

When you can’t afford a hybrid car you can still show that you care.

Miss Kotova — Sat, 01 May 2010 13:03:48 +0000

Sure not all of us can afford to be Eco-Chic, especially if you are a student. After all this trend is quiet difficult to up keep, everything organic is much more expensive from food and clothing to cars. I love this image, it’s hippie and pretty. The bumper sticker that reads “The earth dose not belong to us, we belong to the earth,” gives us the idea that the owner of this car is an earth child, maybe a vegan who buys eco-friendly products not because it’s in fashion but because its his sub culture. I imagine that he dosent drive this car much because that would be harmful to the mother earth, so he or she must also own a beautiful bicycle that unlike cars dose not pollute the air.

Strange innovation; Dogwool.

Miss Kotova — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 18:16:59 +0000

I read this interesting post, Here, about people, their dogs, and their dog fur sweaters, all part of photographer Erwan Fichou’s Dogwool Series (a work in progress).

Now you can get one step close to looking like your dog or rather dressing to match your dog or actually wearing the same thing. How bizarre. “The process is actually quite simple, The hair, especially hair known as the stuffing, once recovered after brushing, is carefully preserved until the amount necessary to achieve the knit structure. The hair is spun into balls of 50 g by a specialist before returning via mail, to its owner.” The hair is then used to construct the garment.

I can’t imagine Vegans or PTA being very happy about this new material to making clothes. Thou I guess no animals are harmed during this process, the process is after all very natural. A grate way of showcasing alternative use of materials to create more eco-friendly clothing, plus all these clothes are made from their own pets. Innovative thinking! This alternative material also has its advantage; firstly its extremely worm, Eskimos are know to wear this wool in their harsh winter conditions also popular in Russia. Dog wool is very soft, I do love a soft touch on my skin.

More, more, we want MORE!

Miss Kotova — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 17:26:47 +0000

Key word: Consumption.

The mindset of the socialite today, always wanting more has to adjust. It’s not enough to just buy more Eco friendly clothing. It’s the increasing effect of our high consumption that is hazardous and threatening to the environment. Can we really avert global warming by buying so-called earth-friendly products, from clothing and car to homes and vacations?

We, the consumers are still buying as much as ever, perhaps feeling better about purchasing clothing with the 100% organic tag. However not many people are aware of the scandal training clothing retailers recently, it’s called Green Washing and is defined by Wikipedia as; the practice of companies disingenuously spinning their products and policies as environmentally friendly. Since “going green” has undoubtedly become the latest fashion statement to sweep the industry, fashion companies are jumping on the green bandwagon. Today’s consumer still demands stylish, trend-conscious fashion, but now days consumers have become equally concerned with the environment and sustainability. The problem however is that Organic made clothes are not as fashion forward, they are usually simple and natural, plain cotton t-shirts or jerseys and the more fashion forward organic items usually come at a rather high price tag $$$. Thus enter green-washing, we all know that buzz words like organic, all-natural, and green are attractive adjectives for companies to use, particularly in this day and age, but since the laws aren’t as strict in the organic beauty industry as they are in the food industry, manufacturers often get away with putting an Eco-friendly wash on product labels which might not actually deserve it. Often, these descriptions can be misleading, with organic materials being combined with more synthetics than advertised, or products containing little amounts of actual green materials. The popular Swedish clothing retailer H&M has *been criticized for this in the past. Also luxury brands around the world are being *seduced by the trendiest of buzzwords: sustainability. Louis Vuitton for example claims to be moving into the more eco-chic design, In 2008 Louis Vuitton released an ad campaign, featuring rocker Keith Richards and other celebrities, proudly declaring its support for Al Gore’s Climate Project and *at first these efforts seem quiet noble but Vuitton sells $5 billion worth of luxury handbags, scarves, sunglasses, and suitcases annually, reaping close to $2 billion in profit—yet its support of the Climate Project amounts to persuading its celebrity endorsers to donate their fees. The Goyard bag was more ostentatious than eco-conscious, retailing for $1,065 (plus $310 for a gold-painted recycling logo). I also have to point out the irony behind brands that claim to practice ethics in fashion; how can something shipped across the world via a huge airplane be eco-friendly?

*H&M’s Organic Cotton Isn’t 100% Organic–It’s Not Sustainable, Either

*Cloaked in Green

Also Read this blog post: Green Cotton, “H&M promises not to waste clothes.”

Shop Vintage, don’t be scared.

Miss Kotova — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 18:45:44 +0000

How Clean Are Your New Clothes? Find Out

‘GMA’ Found Harmful Bacteria on Brand New Clothes

When you buy new clothes, you expect them to be new, not already worn by someone else. But that’s not always the case.

Consider what happens after you return a pair of pants or a blouse. Often it goes right back on the rack, to be resold instead of staying in the back room, retail experts told “Good Morning America.“

“The customer probably gets the wool pulled over their eyes. … A lot of people just come home and if it has a tag attached, they think it’s brand new and they wear it,” Tori Patrick, a former retail saleswoman, said. “You really never know where it’s been.”

To see how clean some “new” clothes were, “GMA” bought everything from blouses to pants to underwear from three popular chain clothing stores ranging from high- to low-end and handed them over to Dr. Philip Tierno, director of microbiology and immunology at New York University, to test the 14 items for germs.

Wash or Dry New Clothes

The organisms can survive weeks or even months on clothes, Tierno said. Contracting a yeast infection this way is highly unlikely, though possible, experts say. And with the evidence of feces, viruses could also be passed along. “A very bad type of diarrhea — you can also transmit things like the norovirus, stomach virus. You can transmit things like MRSA [a staph bacteria],” Tierno said “Most people are unaware and think that they can’t really catch anything from these clothes because they are dry, they are on the rack and they are new. They are not realizing that numerous individuals try them on and contact certain parts of their body that may transmit potential pathogens.”

In order to protect yourself from harmful bacteria, Tierno recommended washing your new clothes or running them through one cycle in a hot dryer before wearing them. He also suggested wearing clothes underneath while trying on new clothes and washing your hands after shopping.

Article: ABC News. Click.Click

Olga gets sick.

Miss Kotova — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 16:56:23 +0000

Ah nothing like experiencing extreme pain when trying to finish assignments. Lets just say I eventually gave up and went to sleep on Monday and feel like I’ve just woken up. Ready to live again, I think it’s because I finally went to the doctor and got medication. Candy dose make you feel better.

Going “GAGA” over green.

Miss Kotova — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 23:00:23 +0000

Strange yet innovative way to do the ‘recycled’ look. Ah my heart dose beat Ga-Ga Ga-Ga over her creative and confidant fashion statements; tucked into her famous platinum-blonde locks: empty soda cans. pictures from ;Dailymail.Click.

Miss Kotova — Sun, 25 Apr 2010 22:18:17 +0000