Inhabitat

Wearable Shelter: Clothes You Can Turn Into a Makeshift Home

Photo by Chelsea Guglielmino

With the economy in the shambles that it’s in, who knows when you’re gonna be forced to find shelter on the streets? If things do get that bad, you’d feel a lot more prepared sporting the “Wearable Shelter” collection of fashions that actually transform into sleeping bags and tents. Designed by a trio of Philadelphia student designers, these smart clothes/homes were …

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Crazy LED Eyelashes Put Beauty (or Fear) in the Eye of the Beholder

Pretty? Or pretty scary? These insane looking LED lashes by Soomi Park are definitely not for those who consider argyle socks to be a “risky” accessory. If you do get pulled over for by the fashion police for having the gall to rock these, freak them out even more by demonstrating the inclination sensor technology that tracks the movements of your pupils, turning the lights on and off simply tilting your head. …

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8 Great Green Halloween Costumes

Halloween is undoubtedly one of the most fun holidays around, but it can also be stressful to try to come up with a clever costume that doesn’t require too much work. With all the awesome halloween contests and parties, finding that special costume with the perfect balance of intrigue and cleverness can really drive a person to their wit’s end! Don’t fret! Take a deep breath, and step away from the costume aisle at your local big box store, and let us inspire you with 8 awesomely green halloween costumes from Inhabitat Green Halloweens past.

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ECOUTERRE LAUNCH PARTY: October 29th at KAIGHT!

CALLING ALL ECO-FASHION MAVENS IN NYC!

We’re gearing up to ring in the launch of our fabulous eco-fashion site Ecouterre with our first official party and we want YOU to be there! Join us, the Ecouterre editors, as we munch on vegan cookies and snacks, sip organic cocktails, peruse green goods at KAIGHT (15 percent off everything for one night only), and of course, talk about the future of …

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Green Your Halloween With Wildlife Inspired Knits!

Halloween is just around the corner and if you’ve got any little ones in your life, you’re probably racking your brain for cute and clever Halloween costume ideas. If you’re on the verge of giving in to sheer desperation and contemplating holding your nose while buying a plastic Spongebob costume — don’t fear — we have a greener solution for you in the form of Oeuf’s adorable knit animal outfits for kids! These lovely mix-and-match knit pieces, made by Bolivian craftswomen, are not really costumes per se — more just cute dress-up separates — and that is precisely why they are such a great sustainable option for a green halloween. Kids will have fun wearing bear ears or a racoon tail any time of year, and these knit pieces are so adorable that you’ll want to encourage year-round dress up play.

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Fall Eco-Fashion Pop Quiz!

How well do you know YOUR eco-fashion?
Put your sustainability savvy to the test and get the best Ecouterre news of the week in easy-to-swallow, bite-size morsels with our eco-fashion pop quiz.

1. Playing off “farm to table,” what designer is bringing “ranch to runway”?

2. What suede-like, renewable fabric has more bark than bite?

3. What is Zegna’s hot new solar-powered jacket made of?

4. What does Popomomo stand for?

5. “Consciousness is the new hip” is what vegan shoe maker’s motto?

Answers right after the jump!

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Cashmere Tissue Rolls Out Toilet Paper Couture for Breast Cancer Month

Who knew that toilet paper couture could look so darn good?! Some of Canada’s fashion elite rolled out their hottest designs for Cashmere Bathroom Tissue’s Sixth Annual White Cashmere Collection 2009: Fashion with Compassion Runway Show to raise funds and awareness for the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation. Check out all of these imaginative and plush ensembles …

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Zegna Sport’s Ecotech Solar Jacket Made From Recycled Plastic

With fall here and winter on the horizon we’re bundling up for brisk weather, and fortunately Zegna is heating things up with their brand new solar-powered Ecotech Jacket. This sharp technical shell is constructed almost entirely from recycled plastic, and it features a set of photovoltaic panels capable of charging your ipod, cell, or even an integrated heating system. Perfect for sunny days on the slopes yet …

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Oeuf’s Adorable Animal Hats Show us ‘Where the Wild Things Are’

We’ve been in love with eco kids outfitter Oeuf for many years now, and they’ve just unveiled their cutest morsel yet: an adorable collection of baby animal …

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Win the “Ecouterre”: A $170 Limited-Edition Recycled Chain Necklace!

Want to win this dazzling $170 recycled vintage chain necklace? We’re giving it away to one lucky reader on Ecouterre to celebrate the official launch of our dedicated eco-fashion website, Ecouterre! We wanted to do something extra special for our very first giveaway so we got the talented …

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Claudia Schulz’s Handmade Wool-Felt Hats Add Pop to Your Top

Be still our hearts! These captivating wool-felt toppers handcrafted by artisan Claudia Schulz are enough to make us abandon our disdain for the cold weather and welcome it with open arms (or bare heads?). From coy 1920s-esque cloches to modernist caps adorned with poppy starbursts and poufy pom poms, check out our …

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6 Eco-Friendly Men’s Jackets to Get You Ready For Fall

This autumn, why not use the chilly weather as an excuse to up your wardrobe’s sustainability quotient with a durable, quality fall jacket? Now, we know that eco-friendly threads for guys aren’t always the easiest to come by, which is precisely why we commissioned new writer Dan Mendes to gather up his top six picks for sustainably made jackets, …

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7 Cheap and Easy Ways to Spruce Up Your Shoes for Fall!

Do your old shoes need a serious facelift? With fall starting, you may be tempted to toss your tired treads and splurge on some brand new ones – but wait! Before you go out and spend any money, check out our 7 simple and cost-effective ways to give your outdated pair a makeover that …

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Lux LED Solar Power Necklace Highlights Future Tech

This elegant LED-solar panel necklace by Swedish student designer Mae Yokoyama doesn’t really provide any function except adornment (and perhaps a dim nightlight at night), but we love this creative transformation of a purely utilitarian tech object (the humble solar panel) into a piece of stunning wearable art that will raise awareness about …

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The GreenShows Give Eco Fashion a Destination at New York Fashion Week

Showing at New York Fashion Week is every aspiring fashion designer’s dream, and having your line on display during this prestigious event is a sign that you’ve really made it. Well, in a way, eco-fashion as a whole is very much like a promising, young designer – a select few know about it, …

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Bio-Accessories Let You Wear Nature (on Your Face)

When you’re living the life of a city slicker, it’s not always easy to embrace nature with quite the fervor you want. As an attempt to get people thinking about the ways in which we can interact more intimately with nature, designers Ben Landau and Brittany Veitch dreamed up “Bio-Accessories”, a collection of couture adornments that is part wearable art, part thought-provoking statement. From a head-mounted bird perch …

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Why is Eco-Fashion So Expensive?

Eviana Hartman, the designer behind Brooklyn-based eco-fashion label Bodkin

Did you ever set out with the goal of making your wardrobe more eco-friendly only to be severely discouraged when you scoped out the triple-figure pricetags? As a poor writer, I too, have found myself feeling that way, but then I realized that there is a really good reason that eco-fashion is more expensive. As a special treat, Bodkin designer …

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ANNOUNCING ECOUTERRE – our new eco fashion website!

DRUMROLL PLEASE!
We have an announcement to make that we hope will come as welcome news to all you readers who love our fashion coverage (and also all you readers who hate our fashion coverage ;) ! We’ve been toiling for months now on a new website exclusively dedicated to eco-friendly fashion, and we are thrilled to unveil the newest member of the Inhabitat family today: ECOUTERRE.COM

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Killspencer Bags Salvaged From Battle-Tested Materials

A lot of you have asked us to cover simple, practical, sustainable pieces in addition to our couture eco-fashion coverage and we think that makes a lot of sense. But there’s no reason that utilitarian has to mean dowdy. Case in point, these slick and super durable Killspencer bags made from recycled military truck tarps and coated cotton canvas. Our very own Mike …

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Mr. Larkin: A Gorgeous and Truly Innovative Eco-Fashion Collection

We’ve known about eco-fashion line Mr. Larkin for some time, but did not expect to be as blown away by the skill, innovation and sheer beauty of Casey Larkin’s Spring 2010 collection as we were at last week’s Green Shows. With a refined color palette of dusty pinks, silvery greys and breezy …

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NEW YORK FASHION WEEK: Top 5 Green Runway Shows

New York Fashion Week is finally drawing to a close, and we’re psyched to report that the presence of environmentally savvy fashion was fiercer than ever before! The launch of The GreenShows last week – an event showcasing seven different eco fashion designers under one roof is proof that eco design is finally starting to make an impact on mainstream culture. If you missed the green runway shows, don’t fret – we’ve got the scoop on all of them, and pics of our favorite eco fashion designers right after the jump.

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John Patrick Organic Spring/Summer Eco Fashion 2010

We’ve been fans of trailblazing eco fashion designer John Patrick Organic for years, and were thrilled to get a sneak peek at his latest collection at New York Fashion Week last Thursday. Summed up in two words, JPO SS 2010 is classic Americana. These are clothes that would have looked oh so right on Faye Dunaway in Bonnie and Clyde – flowy and flattering organic cotton and silk dresses cinched with structured recycled polyester trenchcoats and organic cotton twill seersucker blazers. Read on to see pics of our favorite pieces and a special celebrity guest!

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TRAIDremade Makes Recycled Clothing Fashionable

With the current economic climate, “frugalista fashion” on the lips of everyone from VOGUE to Target, and people are using more of what they already have, and realizing that we don’t need to spend a lot to get a lot. TRAIDremade Boutique, a new collaboration between online ecoboutique Fashion-conscience.com and the charity TRAID, is manifesting both of these philosophies with their exclusive collection of bespoke clothing and accessories inspired by the latest couture looks right off the runway! Crafted from upcycled donated clothing, scrap fabric and vintage hardware, these high-fashion pieces will be extremely covetable and so will the price – starting from £20!

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Our Top 7 Favorite Green Shoes for Fall

Start fall off on the right foot by stepping into some sustainably stylish shoes! With so many colorful options in the hottest autumnal hues, it can be tough to choose. That’s why we’ve compiled our list of the seven most craveworthy eco-fabulous fall shoes for your viewing pleasure. Check them out!

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DENIM THERAPY Repairs Your Holey Old Jeans!

We all know what it is like to have a favorite pair of treasured jeans that are so comfortable and fit so perfectly that we want to wear them every day. The downside to this pure and beautiful jean-love is that too much wear leads to jeans wearing out – with telltale holes in the crotch and knees – and then before you know it, you have to either start patching, or search around far and wide to find another pair of jeans as great as your favorite. But now, thanks to Denim Therapy, there is a better solution! Denim Therapy offers an amazing (and very affordable) service to seamlessly repair all the threadbare patches, broken zippers, and holes in your favorite pair of jeans, and return them to a like-new state — without patches, seams or any indication that your jeans have been through the ringer and back!

Like most people, I had a favorite pair of jeans in my closet that was getting holey and threadbare, so I decided to check out Denim Therapy’s service for myself to see if they lived up to the hype…

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Sonic Fabric Made of Recycled Cassette Tape Lets You Listen to Your Clothes

Now that our melody-holders of choice are CDs and MP3s, cassette tapes are clunky relics that serve little purpose other than treating us to an occasional hint of nostalgia. Luckily, internationally-exhibiting conceptual artist Alyce Santoro has come up with a way to transform the jumbly mess of tape that resides in old cassette tapes into beautiful and durable fabric! Called Sonic Fabric, Ms. Santoro’s invention has been spun into shimmery dresses, sparkly umbrellas and sleek ties. And Sonic Fabric isn’t just lovely to look at – it makes music too! Check out a video of the cloth actually being “played” after the jump.

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LAST CHANCE to Win A Solar Bag in our Back-to-School Contest!

THE DEADLINE FOR OUR AWESOME BACK TO SCHOOL GIVEAWAY IS TONIGHT AT MIDNIGHT!

If you’ve been reading Inhabitat the past couple weeks, hopefully by now you’ve read about our fabulous back-to-school giveaway contest. In case you missed it, we’re giving away an AWESOME NoonSolar school bag stuffed with eco-friendly back to school supplies (worth over $500) and a slew of other great prizes to our readers in the spirit of back-to-school goodness. The contest deadline is tonight at midnight and we’ll be announcing the winner in tomorrow’s weekly newsletter, so if you haven’t entered yet this is your last chance!

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INTERVIEW: Be the Change with Nau’s Fall 2009 Collection

There is nothing like the clarity of ‘being in the Nau’ to guide you through the rugged terrain of today’s challenges. This evergreen activewear label is more than just a fashion phoenix reinventing itself during tough economic times, but also an innovator of sustainable fashion pieces that perform well technically and look street smart, too. If you are considering adding only one item to your fall wardrobe, consider the versatility and scope of Nau’s latest offerings as a way to add new dimension to your layering system as well as your attitudes about style as a catalyst for change.

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Bamboozled by Bamboo Rayon? We Aren’t So Sure

A few weeks ago, the Federal Trade Commission charged four clothing companies with falsely advertising their clothing made of bamboo as clothing made of bamboo. Say what? That’s right. The FTC released a statement explaining that it does not feel that textiles made of bamboo can rightfully continue to be called so after processing because at that point, they cease to be bamboo. How can this be? Read on to see why.

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NASA Base is Most Sustainable Federal Building Project in America

NASA has planted its flag on planet Earth (for a change) with the groundbreaking of their “Sustainability Base” this week. The new endeavor is located on their Ames campus in Moffett Field, CA just outside of Silicon Valley and has specs that are pushing green building to new limits. In order to deliver in true sustainable style, NASA recruited Inhabitat favorite, William McDonough + Partners, to take on the 50,000-square foot collaborative support facility.

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BACK TO SCHOOL CONTEST: Win An Awesome Solar Book Bag!

Get ready for school with our back-to-school green giveaway contest!
Fall is just around the corner, and students everywhere are getting ready to go back to school. To get into the autumnal school spirit and help our readers green their back-to-school regime, we’re running a contest on this site to give away an AWESOME solar powered bag by NoonSolar, stuffed with eco-friendly back-to-school goodies like recycled paper notebooks, erasers and pencils. Our back-to-school goody bag is worth over $500, and it’s a really sweet prize that can be all yours, if you enter our contest. Here’s how:

1. Sign up for the Inhabitat newsletter >

2. Sign up to follow us on Twitter and Facebook

3. Await instructions, which will be emailed out to all of our subscribers on Wednesday August 26th.

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