Ethical Fashion

Yesterday I attended the Estethica press day, and I was pleasantly surprised. Although I was familiar with some of the designers exhibiting (Nin, from Goodone is a friend of mine, and a very talented one indeed!), I also met amazing people that I'm sure will change the face of ethical fashion sooner than we think.

Surely one of these people will be Elisalex Grunfeld de Castro, the lovely girl behind Nina Dolcetti shoes. I spotted the croc platforms she was wearing the minute I arrived, and couldn't take my eyes off them! They are all made to order in a small atelier in East London with re-used off-cut materials, and the ones I loved cost £150 (which are not bad at all for a designer item made especially for you).




Then I met Ada Zanditon, who I'm sure I've seen other bloggers talk about before - her graduate collection (first picture) was certainly impossible not to talk about! She set up her business after working with Gareth Pugh, and she has a great future ahead of her, I'm sure. Her dresses made of dyed linen in geometric patterns would be perfect for an avant-garde layered look .






And of course, my friend Nin, whose label Goodone is a pioneer and has paved the way for all the ethical fashion that's taking centre-stage in the industry now. I love her patchwork bodycon dresses, and particularly adore the leggings and this bodysuit.

Time - He's waiting in the wings

Surfing the web (do people still say that?) ramdonly, I came across a London-based brand called Customers Own Property, the brain-child of yet another Saint Martin's graduate, German designer Sabine Brauninger. Looking through her website, looks like she is no longer producing collections (her last was AW06/07) - a shame, because her playful approach to proportions and "relaxed" tailoring were quite rather appealing. Yet, one of her latest outcomes was a video collaboration for an exhibition by Nick Knight's SHOWstudio media project called Future Tense - "a global platform for an exciting new generation of fashion design to use the medium of moving image to express their creativity." (It came out last year, so obviously most fashion blogs must have covered it - but because this blog is no longer worried by immediacy and more into inspiraton, we post it anyway.)

Anyways, the brief said that fashion designers should give a "helping hand" into shaping the future - and I loved how Sabine covered it in a simple yet visionary way. It shows the same model in a blonde and brunette version dressing, undressing and exchanging a series of versatile, simple but slightly unconvetional garments.

This video led me to the check who else's done the same, and apparently most of the designers featured in the 100 New Fashion Designers book by Hywel Davies produced a video of their own vision. A few of them, probably too busy with fashion week schedules, didn't bother much and simply sexed-up footage of fittings and backstages - but some produced really beautiful, inspiring little films, like this one below by the Rodarte sisters, and a beautiful kaleidoscopic rendition by dutch designer Jantaminiau, in which models demonstrate the usefulness of skirts that turn into beautiful capes (to the sound of Bowie's "Time"). Who says fashion can't be art?

The Russians are coming (YES PLEASE)

Having a little neck-piece obsession these days - which is funny because I have never been into stuff I can wrap around my neck other than a scarf. Truth is, I'm too much of dwarfian proportions to get away with massive adornments without looking like a petite Christmas tree.

But THEN, browsing around, I found the wonderful Russian designer Alena Akhmadullina, who, in her SS09 collection took neck pieces to a WHOLE new level. You know how editors love to tell us we should toughen up a pretty dress ("throw some biker boots there, love")? Well, Akhmadullina just showed an entirely different way to do just that. Shaped like clavicles, she paired her knitted body-armours around flimsy, floaty dresses, making it VERY rock'n'roll.

I was hooked. That is, until I saw her AW09/10 collection. Bloody hell, hair extensions never looked SO COOL. These outfits look like they could be in a Blade Runner/Neuromancer-style sort of film: sort of punk made pretty in a new way, an uniform for urban girls who need practical but contemporary, visionary, avant-garde garments. I don't know much about this lady yet other than she is from San Petersburg and shows in Paris (and that Style.com hasn't picked-up on her yet! hellow?), but, hell yeah, I'm an instant fan.

Jungle Go Shopping

Oh, I love when a fellow brazilian makes it big this side of the hemisphere!

I was thrilled to see that amazingly talented illustrator Vanessa da Silva got herself a deal with Topshop, and has now a capsule collection of t-shirts and dresses printed with her colourful and quirky drawings! It's all full of the tropical energy and fresh organic lines so characteristic of Brazil, with a relaxed street-style edge. Love the "jungle go shopping" theme, it's perfect for the summer.

My favourite is this jewell necklace print tee, very much what I like to wear to work - comfy with an edge.




I met Vanessa during the LFW rush and she is very much like her drawings - beautiful, all healthy colours and bright smiles. She totally deserves this success - so show the girl some love!