London fashion, ecofashion, slowfashion: Rewardrobe

 

On my way back to Italy, I had the pleasure to have a chat with Veronica Crespi, founder of Rewardrobe. Having started a couple of years ago, her fashion consultancy is surfing the trend of conscious fashion to bring fairness and sustainable style to the city’s wardrobes.

Veronica has grown up in Sardinia, but her passion for fashion and trend studies has found the way to London and now she is a remarkable contributor to the European eco-fashion scene as a consultant entrepeneur.

• Enjoy the interview! •

Watch more photos on Facebook

[Rewardrobe]

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Appena prima di tornare in Italia, ho avuto il piacere di fare due chiacchiere con Veronica Crespi, la fondatrice di Rewardrobe. Veronica è nata in Sardegna, ha studiato a Bologna ma la sua passione per la moda e lo studio dei trend l’hanno portata ad approdare a Londra, dove due anni fa ha fondato la sua società di consulenza.

La missione di Rewardrobe è portare il concetto di slowfashion all’interno degli armadi della città, con assistenza personale allo shopping, la riscoperta dell’upcycling e l’aggiornamento costante degli ultimi trend europei di eco-fashion.

Sustainable fashion online shopping tips

Here you are a some tips on where to shop online ethically still quite cheaply. If you haven’t shopped yet on asos you should try their “Green Room” section. It’s fun and quickly delivered to your home. There you can find a selection of ethical/ vintage jewelery (like made), several clothing items and these sustainable cachemire made in Scotland extra long gloves.

After dressing yourself, you should thing of dressing up your favorite equipements: did you know Pijama? Textile sourced in Turkey / Portugal, manufactured in Italy (precisely Milan) , wordlwide shipped – astonishing design.

[Visit my Facebook page to watch more photos of my recent purchases]

Detox fashion industry campaign

Today I’ve taken part in the campaign by Greenpeace to shake up the world number one retailer Zara to adopt some basic environment safe practices in their manufacturing process. Why should our vanity clothes cause harm, diseases and toxic reactions to people working in East Asia factories? What if it was the opposite?

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Oggi ho firmato la campagna di Greenpeace per scuotere il colosso mondiale del fast fashion Zara e convincerlo ad adottare alcune misure base di controllo sui propri  agenti inquinanti. Perchè intere fabbriche di persone in Asia devono ammalarsi o intossicarsi pur di soddisfare la nostra vanità? E se accadesse il contrario?

• Thank you for joining •

[Zara Detox Campaign]

Handwoven · Tessuto a mano

Originally published on Slowear Journal on Oct 8th

Thanks to Francesca Stignani for translation

Leggi in italiano

Weaving like in the old times is an anachronistic and yet intriguing job. In Peillac, a small town in Southern Provence, Atelier aux Fils de l’Arz, owned by the Lesteven family, is one of the last places in France where they still know how to weave on a hand-operated loom, the métier a bras.

The small firm’s activity focuses on the creation of fine handwoven fabrics, made with strictly natural raw materials – eco-friendly yarns such as hemp (from Italy), linen, soy fiber and zero-mile wool from the sheep bred on the grazing land opposite the maison.

Bruno, father and husband, is in charge of the hard work. i.e. the weaving. It takes accuracy, concentration, quickness and muscular strength to control a huge six-pedal treadle loom. Wife Gaëlle is a couturière – a designer and a dressmaker. She likes to make things for her kids, friends and relatives, while Bruno’s fabrics are sold through the Internet and in the organic textiles fairs.

So what makes handwoven fabrics so unique? Mainly their strength – they last much longer than industrial fabrics, not to mention the fact that they can be customized even as far as small amounts are concerned.

Whoever wishes to learn more about this charming and traditional job can opt for a one-week internship at the Atelier – there are different levels of teaching, according to the apprentice’s basic skills. In case you’re just curious, just ask for a guided tour and you’ll be able to see old looms and century-old fabric remnants.

· Atelier Aux Fils de l’Arz ·

My WWOOFing week in France – #3 Hemp for fashion

Introducing Dear Fashion Journal

It’s upcoming in Autumn 2012 – it’s the issue number one of a revealing magazine. Inspirational facts and not-recycled outfit proposals. It will feature greatest stories by (un)conscious designers + plus everything could occur to a bunch of former fashionistas. Tempting enough to deserve a mention on your back-from-holidays-looking-for trendy novelties wishlist.

Dear Fashion is a project of newly-graduated Finnish Emmi Ojala – living, thinking and drawing in Amsterdam – in collaboration with The Free Fashion Challenge, a sustainable way to challenge people with not shopping garments for 365 consecutive days.

Good fashion, good for all, good habits, good ideas, they are good – and you?

• Thank you for being here •

[Dear Fashion Journal]

My action at WED 2012

Taking UN’s call for real, this is my action on World Environmental Day 2012.

I host a new blog – Non solo canapa (meaning It’s not just about hemp) – at Greenme.it – Sarò buon* con la terra. It’s over sustainable fashion. I moved all my interest in good fashion to another specific platform, so that I can continue posting here various things I keep doing – places I keep going – people I keep talking to. Unfortunately the blog will be just in Italian, still I’ll do my best to edit English captions on videos at least.

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Il 5 giugno, in occasione della Giornata Mondiale della Terra (WED World Environmental Day) ho raccolto l’appello delle Nazioni Unite del “fai-qualcosa-anche-tu-per-il-mondo”. La mia green action è stata di inaugurare un nuovo blog all’interno piattaforma Greenme.it – Sarò buon* con la terra.

Ho trasferito su Non solo canapa le mie ricerche attinenti la moda sostenibile: consigli di shopping ragionato, incontri con designer emergenti, video-interviste e un approfondimento sulle fibre alternative allo standard del mercato viziato di oggi.

Come mai mi interessa il settore? Leggete qui

• Nice to meet you again. Thanks •

Waiting for Toms

Chances are Italy will be one of the last countries of Toms’ takeover. Toms “Shoes of tomorrow” is the ultimate social brand promoting a so called “one for one” movement – for every pair you purchase, they’ll give a new pair of shoes to kids in need.

This year they started a similar project related to poverty and eye diseases launching a new eyewear set.

This photo is kindly reproduced from Briant Hom website, an eclectic artist very keen on Toms’ mission, so that he designs original unique pieces inspired his colored sprays. Cool.

Read the One for one report here.

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Tutto il mondo impazzisce per le Toms, mentre l’Italia sta a guardare. L’idea di fondo somiglia alla legge del taglione, ma invece di essere “occhio per occhio, dente per dente” è “uno per uno” ovvero uno ti dò, uno mi dai: the one for one movement è nato per regalare un paio di scarpe ai bambini che ne hanno bisogno.

Nei primi tre anni di attività Toms ha donato più di 1.000.000 di scarpe in 23 paesi. Da quest’anno ha sviluppato la linea di occhiali da sole per aiutare le persone affette da problemi visivi gravi. 

L’artista californiano Briant Hom, come tante altre celebrities, ha sposato la causa del movimento esprimendo la propria ispirazione tra bombolette e colori con modelli unici e originali. Fantastici. 

Leggi qui One for One report. 

• Thank you for stopping by •

 [Toms]

A moral sacrifice?

“In generale, i discorsi [alla conferenza sul clima di Copenhagen del 2009] sulla sostenibilità si attanagliavano nell’errata convinzione che sostenibilità significhi chiedersi quanto siamo disposti a sacrificare della nostra qualità di vita attuale“. 　　•　　“The general discussions [at 2009 Copenhagen conference ] on sustainability were sort of drowning into this general misconception that sustainability is a question about how much of our existing quality of life are we prepared to sacrifice in order to afford becoming sustainable.”  

Bjarke Ingles è un architetto visionario danese i cui progetti racchiudono senso pratico, visioni ottimistiche e design straordinario. Come dimostra il progetto della baia unica dell’Europa del Nord, o dell’8 house di Copenhagen, Bjarke non si ferma davanti agli ostacoli imposti dalla società e alle prestrutture culturali. Nel video racconta il design dal suo punto di vista: un buon designer non pensa all’oggetto fine a se stesso, quanto piuttosto alla sua integrazione all’interno dell’ecosistema (anche economico) che lo ospiterà, facilitando benessere, edonismo e divertimento per tutti. 　　•　　Bjarke Ingles is a Danish visionary architect working on projects meeting practical attitude, optimistic views and extraordinary design. He doesn’t stop in front of any boundaries, might they be social or cultural. His TED talk – The 8-house, The North European loop bay –   is inspiring as it shows innovative design applied to technological improvement can bring us further and better, making also things easier to wellbeing and social happiness to come in.

**Dalle news** 9 Gen 2012 – 8 HOUSE PREMIATA DALL’ISTITUTO DI ARCHITETTURA AMERICANO La costruzione 8 house dello studio BIG ha ricevuto il prezioso premio dell’Istituto Americano di Architettura [n.d.r. nel 2009 toccò a Renzo Piano] in quanto progetto complesso rappresentativo di una nuova tipologia di design che riproduce ad opera d’arte la connettività sociale orizzontale e l’interazione che normalmente avviene nelle strade di quartiere. Il premio è stato conferito quale riconoscimento di un’ampia selezione di progetti architettonici dello studio BIG, tesi ad elevare la qualità della pratica architettonica – stabilisce quindi un livello standard di eccellenza e comunica al pubblico la trasversalità e l’importanza dell’architettura. 　　•　　**From the news** JAN 9TH, 2012 – 8 HOUSE HONORED BY THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF ARCHITECTS BIG’s 8 House receives the 2012 AIA Institute Honor Award for Architecture recognized as a complex and exemplary project of a new typology which masterfully recreates the horizontal social connectivity and interaction of the streets of a village neighborhood. The award acknowledges achievements for a broad range of architectural activity to elevate the general quality of architecture practice, – establishes a standard of excellence and informs the public of the breadth and value of architecture practice.

[BIG • Bjarke Ingles Group official site]

Non ho niente da mettermi

 

 

Milano in questi giorni è Fashion Week e White Show! Non sono un’aspirante modella, nè ricopro il ruolo di buyer per un negozio d’alta moda, ma mi interessa il fashion quando è sostenibile, rispettoso dell’ambiente e dei lavoratori. Mi piace l’innovazione, che spesse volte vuol dire semplicemente immaginare nuove soluzioni rimescolando le carte che già sono sul tavolo, guardandole da una prospettiva differente. E ancora ricercare, sperimentare, azzardare. Ho incontrato Giulia rien à mettre, nata come architetto, adora disegnare abiti e realizzarli in Italia solo con filati naturali. Questa è la sua intervista, nei prossimi giorni incontreremo altre due persone di questo mondo. State sintonizzati!　　•　　We are having Fashion Week in Milan and the White Show fair goes with it. I am not a model, neither a haute couture shop’s buyer, nonetheless I am passionate about ethical fashion and sustainable manufacturing. I am a fan of innovation, which sometimes means imaging new sets mixing up the cards already on the table, or looking at situations from a different point of view. Moreover, it’s about doing research, testing, hazarding. Giulia rien à mettre is an architect who discovered to be in love with fashion, so founded her personal brand one year ago. She uses most Italian textiles (organic), designs and manufactures entirely in Italy . I decided to meet her, please watch the interview. I have to introduce you two other people from White Milan – stay tuned the next days!　　•　　ミラノではファッションウィックが行っています。その間に、White Showというファッションお店やっている人々の為フェアも行っています。自分がエコファッションに興味持っていて、Giulia rien à mettre と言うブランドのデザイナーをインタビューしてきました。彼女は元々建築家だったので、有機の布などを使って、すっとした奇麗なうアンピースを丁寧に作ります。動画はイタリア語なんですけど、耳目は英語です。よろしかったら、どうぞうご覧になってください。

Date un’occhiata al sito, è fantastico!

Worth a visit • her website below

どうぞ、サイトをご覧になってください。

[giuliarienàmettre]