B-Origin: Italian Wool for Italian Wholegarments

The wool production in Italy is a serious thou complicated issue. Different projects like the Biella Wool Company, the Arianne Consortium and others are trying to rebuilt a supply chain and market for this important and highly valuable fiber. If then we combine these first serious attempts, the technology and experience of a knitting company like HI-Tex and a considerable dose of sustainability, the result will be for sure interesting.

This is how B-Origin come about, the effort of Hi-Tex in collaboration with ENEA and the University of Teramo, to realize a first collection of knitted garments made by 100% Italian wool. To complete the sustainable content of B-Origin clothes at Hi-Tex they took two specific decisions, first to use their in-house technology and knowledge in wholegarment production and second to use only vegetable dyes.

Thanks to the wholegarment technology the production efficiency is 100%, since a garment comes out of the knitting machine entirely made, it just need a label and a price tag. The dying and finishing is then done by the Tintoria di Quaregna, probably the most advanced vegetable dying facility in Italy.

B-Origin is a young and promising brand, with a clear and sustainable vision, ready to take the entrepreneurial risk of taking new and unexplored directions, sure the market is ready to receive the innovative approach B-Origin brings.

2011
12/21
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Ethicalista lecture @ Politecnico di Milano

We are proud to announce that Ethicalista has been invited by Prof. Manuela Rubertelli to give a lecture on “Sustainability and Fashion” to the students of Fashion Design at the prestigious university “Politecnico di Milano“.

We are sure it will be a pleasant morning, not a traditional lecture but a chance to meet and exchange with whom will be tomorrow’s fashion actors.

The lecture will take place on Monday 12th December, starting 9.30 am, room CT 43 Bovisa Campus – Via Durando 10, Milano.

Hopefully this will be the first of a series of similar events!

2011
12/02
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Quagga: from extinction to re-birth

The Quagga project aimed to create and distribute protective winter clothing highly  attentive to environmental sustainability and  ethical responsibility. The team behind this brand comes from different backgrounds but all were involved with leading international clothing brands. With time realized how the fashion industry was damaging the planet and the people and how this information was likely stating to propagate making an increasingly important part of the public more responsible.

The complexity of the manufacturing process – Quagga Team says in their website – and the use of very different materials (waterproof fabrics for outdoors, inner linings, padding, metal elements, artificial or synthetic fibres for accessories and finishings, supports for labels, and tags), makes it extremely difficult to certify the entire supply chain, as instead occurs in projects for non-complex (but still of great value – Editor’s Note) fair trade clothing, such as T-shirts, shirts, polo shirts, sweatshirts, and various accessories. This is very difficult, but not impossible, and we have succeeded in it. So much so that our efforts were rewarded with the only certification that the ICEA, the prestigious Institute for Ethical and Environmental Certification, has ever awarded to complex clothing items.

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In Quagga’s 2011-12 A/W collection, 6 different models are presented for both Men and Women. The is urban with a great attention to details and shapes. Of course the materials and manufacture are an important aspect of Quagga’s jackets and ,thanks to transparency approach the brand wants to have with its costumers, an amazing “map of suppliers” (only in Italian) shows where each component is produced, finished or tailored.

2011
11/23
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Giulia rien à mettre – eco fashion glamour

Sustainable Fashion is often scarcely considered because too hippy looking or simply not fashionable enough.

Giulia rien à mettre collections are once for all stating how glamour and sustainability can coincide.

Giulia Mazzer, starting from her architectural background, demonstrates how materials attentive to the environment and the people, together with transparency and traceability, can merge in creating a collection that goes beyond fashion. Simple lines and sharp colour block combinations define Giulia rien à mettre sring/summer 2012 mood.

The result is a pleasant flow of colours and shapes for a young yet elegant women, attentive to fashion and sustainability.

The use of non-violent silk for an evening gown goes far beyond the pure style exercise and becomes a beautiful and glamorous dress.

2011
10/24
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Campeche: Natural dyes in industry – Back to the roots (from shirahime.com)

Ethicalista has been a guest blogger for Shirahime.

We really enjoyed talking about our discoveries after visiting Campeche’s “backstage”.
Here is the post:

CampecheLooking at Ethical Fashion and Sustainable Practices in the Textile World, dyes are definitely one of the most controversial and problematic fields. Everyone knows about vegetable dyes and their use through history till the late 19th century. They are indeed a possible choice for designers and brands to reduce the ecological footprint of their products.
The clichés make us believe however, that vegetable dyes are associated with the image of small-scale production, or even only home-made products, using with large pots and wooden spoons. Fortunately we had the chance to meet someone who is trying to bring the reality and history of vegetable dyes into industrial production.

Thanks to their family tradition and a strong push towards sustainability, Marco and Andrea Clerici created Campeche, a brand of accessories all realized exclusively with natural textiles and vegetable colours, in the facilities of their own industrial mainstream dye plant…

continue reading on Shirahime

2011
10/15
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Milk Fiber: eco or not? 2.0

In Milk Fiber: eco or not? of the 24 March 2011, Ethicalista has already been addressing the sustainability concerns of Milk Fiber.

During this last summer many blogs, magazines and journalists have been talking extensively about the German fashion designer Anke Domaske who realized the latest collection of her Mademoiselle Chi Chi entirely with an apparently innovative Milk Fiber created by her and her team called QMilch.

This is part of a today Reuters article where she clearly states that Qmilch is completely natural and ecofriendly.

Milk fabric has been around since the 1930s but was always produced in unecological ways that used a lot of chemicals. Unlike earlier prototypes, QMilch is made almost entirely from casein.

“We have developed an all-natural fiber consisting of a very high concentration of casein, with a few other natural ingredients — and in only two years,” the former microbiology student Domaske said.

The casein is extracted from dried milk powder and then heated up in a type of meat-mincing machine with other natural ingredients. The fiber comes out in strands and is then spun into yarn on a spinning machine.

Domaske said it would take about 6 liters of milk to produce an entire dress, which costs about 150 euros($199) to 200 euros.

Luckily, for that kind of money, the clothes don’t come with an expiry date — during the heating process, the molecules bind in such a way that the protein won’t decompose.

Due to its anti-bacterial qualities, the milk fiber can also be used in medicine and makeup. Even some auto companies have looked into using the fiber for car upholstery.

(Reporting By Natalia Drozdiak, editing by Paul Casciato, for REUTERS )

Here after Anke Domaske interview at Deutsche Welle

2011
10/06
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Dalaleo: The stylish connections of recycling

It was destiny that made Luisa Leonardi Scomazzoni start her company Dalaleo. She was on holiday in Salvador de Bahia in Brazil, she bought a bag because she liked it, discovered the story behind it and gave a twist to her life.

Throughout the streets of this beautiful country – Luisa tells – I continuously saw men with big sacks collecting used cans rummaging through the rubbish. I found out they were collecting the cans for aluminium recycling as a form of income for the poorest families. Because of the creation of these products the pullrings are now taken off and sold separately to the workers of the product you are looking at now. They start the procedure by selecting, hammering, washing, polishing and drying the pullrings then their skilful hands start to work with crochet needle and thread. All this happens in the poorest areas of Salvador de Bahia… the fantastic thing from my point of view is that these people have given life to a product which is useless and insignificant to us. They have collected the raw material and this is the result. This is the story…the story I wanted to know, the story behind this bag that I saw one day and bought because I liked the look of it. Tell this story to the person who buys this product…because then.. they may ..like it even more as I did.

On top of this Dalaleo accessories have got pretty designs, brilliant look, high quality finishes and manufacture (as seen in Milan at White and in Paris at Premiere Class). A wise use of threads and lace work and peculiar shapes and forms give to these line all the value it deserves, reaching one of the highest point in connecting fashion and sustainability.

2011
09/30
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A Bosalino is Essent’ial

It is always a good thing when big brands do steps towards sustainability. This is why we praise the collaboration between Borsalino and Essent’ial a brand famous for the innovative use of paper, cellulose fibre, cardboard and other materials to create home, office and fashion accessories.

The “Origami” collection, the innovative hats in cellulose fibre, are available in black and white, machine-washable at 30°. They can be created and modelled as you prefer following few easy steps.

2011
09/24
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From recycled materials to Smateria

Sometimes beautiful projects and products are the result of an intuition, a coincidence and a chance. This is probably the case of Smateria. When Elisa and Jennifer, both from Italy, met in Cambodia they had no business plan nor product development schedule, just good will and a vision: helping local women earning their living through their work.

Smateria was in Paris at Ethical Fashion Show to present their new collection of fashion accessories made with fishing nets, mosquitoes nets, recycled motorbike seats and crocheted plastic bags. A wide range of bags for men and women, beautiful and strong travel accessories including the best seller weekender bag.

Everything started in 2005 from few unique pieces created by Elisa with recycled materials and Jennifer asking if she thought about selling all those beautiful things. From the obvious answer “no” to the creation of Smateria, the step was quick. It was not easy to crate from scratch a recycled material supply chain. Work organization and exports knowledge needed to be built in order to cope with large orders that immediately arrived.

Now more then 50 people are regularly involved in production and exports, products are sold worldwide and – yesterday news – they just opened a daycare center for employee’s kids in their premises.This shows how good products and good will can really make the difference and give a chance for a better life to artisans and their families.

2011
09/23
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Sustainable Udine

Going around Italy it is always a nice surprise to discover places, cities, shops and ateliers where sustainability and slow fashion are strongly considered or even a driving force in product production and buying choices.

The eastern region of Italy, Friuli, is well known for its wines, hard working people and a nice combination of seaside, hills and mountains in less then 200 Km. Udine, in the center of it, is a small city of less then 100.000 inhabitants with a lively university and a good soccer team.

During a nice walk in historical city center, here is what we found:

RECICLarté is a small but interesting shop where every piece is realized from recycled materials exclusively from Italian brands and designers. Among others Mnmur, garbageLAB, Chimajarno, Hibu di Alessandro Acerra, giovanni scafuro. Mostly a selection of accessories for this nice and innovative shop.

In her weaving atelier Arteviva, Liviana Di Giusto and her collaborators, produce hand made fashion and home accessories of exquisite taste and wise manufacture. They have their own creations but work also on custom made products to meet each and everyone’s taste all with beautiful italian yarns.

Cumini is a well known high hand lifestyle multi-brand series of stores in Udine and its surroundings. In Cumini Emporio, their shop dedicated to design among beautiful pieces from Artemide to Normann Copenhagen, from Brionvega to Marimekko there are some amazing baskets and fruit bowls from the dutch Fair Trade Original designed by Piet Hein Heek, oversize recycled tyre baskets by Tadé Pays de Levant, fascinating toys in reclaimed wood by Mook.

a me mi, a very new shop for mums and kids, is indeed a nice surprise for this city. Very interesting ideas in both accessories and clothing all from young artists and artisans many with an important sustainable component. Alienina contemporary fashion accessories from recycled common materials, Les Libellules presents a nice and elegant kids clothes collection in high quality and organic textiles, “Les Monstris” by Ninon and Italian born Berlin based softies maker, vicolopagliacorta with their fashion and home accessories made with “Lego”, Apple computer parts and other unusual materials.

Last but not least is Kobo Shop, famous in town for its fabulous imported books, music, gadgets and accessories. It’s all thanks to Steve, owner, DJ, people enthusiast and friend, if Kobo was and remains a pole of attraction for all design, fashion, textile, music and art addicted in the region. The selection of book on Sustainable Fashion and Textile is so interesting that before the summer 15 copies of Sass Brown’s Eco-Fashion – english version – were sold. Such an important sign considering the absence of fashion or design schools in town except for the Sello art school!

 

Here is how to find them:

2011
09/16
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