Green Cotton

Why not make something useful from fashion and textile waste?

“Limited Resources -  Limited Consumption”

We better start planning (and re-using) now, if we hope to have resources (and clothing) for generations to come. That is part of the mantra of Looptworks, a new eco-fashion brand on the scene, who launched September 9, 2009  in Portland, Oregon. Looptworks’ mission and rasion d’etre is to create lifestyle active wear made from fabric remnants (a.k.a fashion industry waste).

As the saying goes: Since there is only a finite amount of matter on the planet, we must be careful about how we use and allocate resources. As such, the question then becomes why did it take us so long to start re-using these valuable remnants?

Well, the answer is that others have been doing variations on this for a while. In fact, we know of several designers in the Boston area that make their deisgner collections out of re-purposed clothing. In addition, there is the design team Feral Childe. Feral Childe has been using fabric remnants and “mill-ends” for years now, integrating them into their unique collections. However the difference is that most designers who use this approach do not base their whole collection on remnants. They often use them when they find cool fabrics they like. In the case of Looptworks however, they seem to be the first to do this on a larger scale, with the whole focus of their label being on “remnant-to-garment”.

So Looptworks has created a unique approach to “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” in the fashion world, by re–using industry waste, and creating limited edition garments – all made from fabric scraps.

Indeed, these guys are inventive, bringing recycling to a new level and scale. Why not tap into the yards and yards of fabrics that get left behind at factories? Personally, we believe this is invaluable because remnants are rarely re-used, and often end up on landfills, so why not bring them into useful existence?

Led by Hamlin, Gary Peck and Jim Stutts,  all are apparel industry veterans with extensive experience from Nike, adidas and Royal Robbins. The team apparently came together in their distaste for traditional manufacturing models with the vision to create a more sustainable system: e.g. creating products from abandoned materials.

Every week, one garment factory can dispose upwards of about 60,000 pounds of textile waste, which goes directly into landfills. Looptworks taps into this excess of material thrown away by figuring out how it can be re-purposed into modern, useful and fashionable clothing.
Due to the nature of the source material, each production line is very small and each garment a limited edition. In fact, each item is hand numbered.

Working with waste instead of virgin materials also affects the entire design process. Development time for their garments is around 9 weeks, compared to the typical 54 weeks for the average apparel company. Given that, it’s easy to see how Looptworks could position itself not only as a sustainable brand, but also as a trendsetter.

Even though the production cycle is extremely fast, and materials acquired second-hand, Looptworks builds clothing and accessories to last a long time. Each material is tested for shrinkage and durability before being incorporated into designs. Products are double-needle stitched on all seams and triple-needle stitched on critical seams.

The company’s debut collection includes a variety of hoodies, tees, shorts, fleeces and jackets (for more see Looptworks).

The newly launched website welcomes visitors to see the world through a new lens, using two circles to showcase fresh videos on its homepage, to both educate and inspire. Clicking on the men’s and women’s product categories provides the shopper an overview of each collection. There are eight men’s products and nine for women, with additional styles being added on a regular basis.

Shoppers can rollover the static product images to magnify and discover the unexpected, signature Looptworks details, like craftily-designed pockets, and whimsical, unmatched buttons and snaps. Even the logo is attached to a loop that has the number of the garment etched in by hand.

Hats off to Looptworks joining the eco-fashion growing flock — looking beyond the “now” to future generations with the understanding that we cannot pursue our current production models for much longer if we hope to foster a sustainable future. One downside: if you like something on their site, you gotta buy it fast, since it wont last long. Fabric remnants cannot be re-produced.Check out looptworks.com and let us know what you think… do you like this model? Tell us your thoughts.

Photo source: Looptworks

By: Julie Finkel and Shana Yansen

We all know one of the easiest and simplest ways to go “green” is to bring reusable bags to the grocery store. Did you do this the last time you went to the store? Maybe not. If you are like me, you might have forgotten to slip one in your bag for the last minute errand you did not anticipate. With the best of intentions, it is a lot harder to execute this simple act on a consistent basis.

Yet, despite the challenges, many are happily succeeding at this all-important change in behavior (just check out your local Trader Joes, Food Coop, Farmers Market, or Whole Foods for some indication). If the market provides any clues as well, with more than several dozen reusable bag companies on the market, demand is strong and growing. This is great! Indeed, let’s celebrate these efforts, while also recognizing we can still do more.

At the same time, it’s interesting to look at companies and organizations that are taking this simple green grocery bag step a little further. Recognizing the growing trend, why not push the envelope and see how much impact one can achieve from a single re-usable bag? That is exactly what Laura Bush asked when she started Feedprojects.org 3 years ago in 2006 with her debut bag FEED 1.

Three years have passed since FEED1 and to their credit, the bags are now stocked at nearly every Whole Foods in the country along with several other major chains. In addition to raising $4million dollars through FEED bags (donated to the World  Food Progam (WFP), the bags seem to have  increased interest in global hunger alleviation, while also fomenting the demand for reusable bags.

So what are these bags all about?

Unlike traditional “fair trade” bags, which benefit artisans in developing countries at point of purchase in those countries, Feed bags benefit people in developing countries at the US checkout line (eg once they are purchased here). As an example, the FEED 1 Bag sells for approximately $30 dollars and with that, supposedly provides 100 meals to hungry children in Rwanda. By the end of 2007, FEED raised donations for the World Food Program (WFP) to feed over 37,500 hungry children in school for one year. In 2008, FEED Projects various partnerships will lead to over $4 million for WFP school feeding.

The problems being address will clearly take some time to solve, but one step at a time, each bag counts.  According to Feedprojects.org, “hunger and malnutrition kill more people than AIDS, malaria, and TB combined. Almost 400 million children around the world go to bed hungry every night. In fact, every five seconds a child dies because he or she is hungry.”

While it is true that no single solution will solve global malnutrition, what’s not to like about a simple campaign supporting a simple product that raises awareness about global malnutrition while helping to solving it…AND reducing plastic grocery bag use (remember it takes up to 1,000 years for one bag to decompose in a landfill).

In addition to the hunger impact, all FEED products are made as eco-friendly and fairly as possible. The bags are produced with high-quality, 100% organic cotton and natural burlap. FEED works with only audited and certified fair labor facilities.

Images courtesy of http://www.feedprojects.org/content.asp?tid=16.

Bergdorf Goodman and Rugby by Ralph Lauren have joined in the fun, too. Each of these retailers collaborated to create a version of the FEED Bag.

Bergdorf’s FEED 2 Bag (featured above) supports the Kenyan community as it was handcrafted by a group of deaf Kenyans.  Furthermore, each bag purchased feeds 2 hungry Kenyan school children for an entire year.

The Rugby FEED Bag gives money to The Feed Foundation to support student activists who go abroad to join the force in combating hunger around the world.

Bobbi Brown and Lauren Bush recently collaborated to create a FEED makeup bag that will benefit disadvantaged women who have joined the UN’s food for work program.

So check it out, and see what you can do next time you bring your re-usable to the store. Why not make it an act of social impact as well. Can’t hurt, right?

To see  and read more on FEED’s ever-expanding array of bag selections, visit the Feed Foundation.

Photos courtesy of Feed Projects

By Morgan Laske and Shana Yansen

Autonomie Project is a relatively new Fair trade, eco-friendly, and vegan fashion company based out of Boston, Massachussetts (USA).

The company began in 2007 when group of friends came together in their frustration with the fashion and footwear industries due to their lack of transparency, use of sweatshops and harmful chemicals.

Autonomie’s mission is to supply high-quality, stylish garments to ethically conscious consumers. Autonomie caters to the shopper who wants to align their personal style with their values. Autonomie makes this possible by providing a range of fashion options that all have a positive social impact on the environment, while raising awareness about today’s most pressing global issues. To Autonomie Project, the most effective solution to reducing sweatshops and child labor abuses is to create their own production ecology with reliable, transparent and supportive working conditions and operations. And that is what they did. Autonomie didnt just want to “do no harm”, they wanted to take things a step further by benefiting the communities who make their clothes, and helping to break the cycle of poverty. Toward this end, Autonomie Project:

- AP provides their workers with a fair wage so they can beat out sweatshops and enjoy a healthy, sustainable lifestyle.

-  AP works exclusively with small, independent cooperatives and Fair Trade-certified facilities located in developing areas of the world where they can allot a portion of our funds to be used for initiatives that will uplift their entire community, such as building a health clinic or bringing a steady water supply to a small village.

Autonomie Project currently produces shoes, flip flops, hand bags, t-shirts, winter hats and accessories. In terms of materials, they use organic cotton, all natural FSC (Forest Certified Council) rubber, and other eco-friendly & locally-sourced materials.

The AP apparel does not end there however, their T-shirts are also 100% organic cotton, very comfortable, and stylish.  The cotton is ring-spun and combed for extra softness and colored with eco-friendly dyes.

The tee featured above is the “Fight Global Poverty / Warming” design in light blue ink on charcoal so that you can declare to the world where your eco priorities are at. Made right here in the USA.

Autonomie Project’s bag collection is hand made by a women’s knitting cooperative in rural Peru. The newest styles are made with 100% Fair Trade-certified organic cotton yarns that are naturally dyed.

The incredibly soft yarns used for the bags hail from a Fair Trade facility in Lima and are processed using completely natural and traditional methods. No dyes, chemicals or other synthetic processes have been used to grow, soften, or color the fibers. By buying a bag, you help the 25 mothers of Northern Creations grow a sustainable business and improve the standard of living for their families and community.

Autonomie Project works with small, independent cooperatives and Fair Trade certified facilities located in developing areas of the world including Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Peru, and the USA. The products are relevant and fashionable, vegan , eco, and always sweatshop-free.

Since we wrote about the Fair Trade the Whitehouse initiative last week, Autonomie Project is also a supporter of that campaign (no surprise!). Check out that initiative and become a part of it, if you have not already.

There are several cool things going on at the Autonomie Project site worth checking out:

- Buy Fair Trade: First, if you are in the mood to shop or have a gift in mind for someone, check out their stylish, high-quality Fair Trade items.
- Blog: Autonomie runs a blog and encourages other to blog about them too. Get involved.
- Affiliates Program: If you are a company or non-profit you can also sign up as an AP Affiliate and get customized banner links that will earn you a commission on any sales brought in from your online outreach efforts.

Check them out!

By: Julie Finkel and Shana Yansen