Material ConneXion:
"Live the Dream: The Future of Sustainable Living
April 27, 2006 - August 1, 2006

In celebration of Earth Day, Ingeo™fiber presents Live the Dream: The Future of Sustainable Living in the Material ConneXion gallery. The exhibition presents a wide variety of current consumer products that highlight responsibly innovative approaches to design, material development and sourcing, as well as fabrication. Included in the installation are products using Ingeo's fibers, as well as other environmentally sound materials and processes. Manufacturers include Giorgio Armani, Artechnica, Target, and Timbuk2."

Greetings Friends and Fellow New Yorkers:

It looks like it may rain Thurs/Fri. I would like to make a dress out of recycled umbrella fabric. If anyone is out on the streets and sees one of those typically blown out umbrellas, or if you already have one on it's last leg and want to contribute that would be great. The fabric is usually sewn onto the metal apparatus by threads that can be easily snipped and then the fabric can be cut off around the top...

Please forward this to anyone you think might be able to contribute.

Thanks!!
Jill

I'm charmed to learn that there are other people out there saving umbrellas! I would never have guessed. The contest is really cool as well. My dress (I made it) uses new lining fabric, so would not be appropriate--besides, the requirement that the garment "be appealing in spite of its origins rather than because of them" seems to rule out a dress designed to feature the fabulous structural properties of the umbrella. I never made the raincoat--after my friend had collected a nice big pile of umbrellas they were stolen from her porch! There's a mystery!

The germ of the idea really came from a friend, who does work you and your readers might be interested in, so here's a little blurb that includes her website--hope it's not too long.

Andandamayi Arnold first pointed out to me the need to find a use for discarded umbrellas. She was thinking of repairing them, but it occurred to me that they represented a big heap of wonderfully free fabric, so I announced I would make a dress. I knew I wanted a full skirt, so I'd need quite a few umbrella pelts. We started collecting. Because we just picked them up on our daily walks to and from work, it took quite a while to get enough. Friends helped out--often someone would come back from a trip with a bag of muddy umbrella pelts for me. When I had a big pile, I started sewing--the dress took about a week. The bodice was made using a Vogue corset pattern. The skirt is tiers of gathered umbrellas sewn together at the side seams and sewn onto a lining--no pattern needed. I kept the last couple of umbrella skeletons I picked up and my father welded me up a great crown made of umbrella spines and decorated with umbrella ruffles.

We always knew there would be more than one way of making our t-shirt 'perfect', so now we've mapped out four different types of potentially perfect t-shirt, all with various pros and cons. Take a look at each one, cast your vote and join in the discussion by clicking here.

We only source the highest quality, natural and organic products, from all over the world, as well as from British designers. We only deal with companies and organisations that trade on a fair trade basis, have high ethical and moral values, or try to minimise their environmental impact.

We also strive to attain these values at The Natural Store. Each time you order through The Natural Store, 2.5 pence of every pound is automatically donated, on your behalf, to one of five charities that we support. Giving back to those that need it the most. Our bank account is with a bank that solely invests in ethical companies. We purchase windpower electricity. We recycle everything that we can and use as much recyclable and recycled packaging as possible.

Initiates research into impact of clothing and textile industry on the environment, which reveals an untenable situation. Conventional cotton agriculture is responsible for 10,000 deaths per annum from accidental pesticide poisoning (now 20,000) 1,000,000 p.a. long-term acute pesticide poisonings, desertification, and long-term contamination of the aquifer, millions of people working in conditions worse than slavery. Decides to try to change the industry from within.

The fashion industry as a whole is too lazy, too ignorant and too disinterested in fair trade and the environmental issues surrounding its sourcing of raw materials and manufacturing. It makes too much money from the low cost of outsourced cheap labour to be interested in making a change. Only pressure from the consumer in the form of boycott of unacceptable materials and manufacturing processes can make it change.

explores the benefits of using recycled synthetics. The second hand polyester blouses are recut and styled, then overprinted using different design themes, intending to increase consumer attachment through a series of unique narratives. They are made to be washed less often and never ironed, and finally at the end of their second life they are 100% recyclable.

I have been working in eco textiles and fashion since the early 1990s. You can see some of my most recent work on fast and slow clothes at Lifetimes... During this time, I've done a varied range of consultancy commissions... I have also done a lot of researching and teaching in British universities. I finished a PhD in 1999 at Chelsea College of Art and Design, investigating ecodesign strategies in the UK Textile Industry. Then I worked as a post doc researcher on demi - an online design for sustainability resource and spent four years as a lecturer in EcoDesign at Goldsmiths College, University of London. I have also published widely, with around 20 publications on ecodesign in fashion & textiles in the last five years.

The origins of haute couture date back to Charles Frédéric Worth [above gown] who, in 1858, founded the first true house of haute couture at 7, rue de la Paix, in Paris, creating original models for individual clients. The term haute couture is a designation protected by law and "only those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves thereof," to quote the Syndical Chamber for Haute Couture.

Although Worth was not the first or only designer to organize his business in this way, his aggressive self-promotion earned him the titles "father of haute couture" and "the first couturier." By the 1870s, Worth's name frequently appeared in ordinary fashion magazines, spreading his fame to women beyond courtly circles.

The pressure to manipulate our bodies in the pursuit of beauty comes from the emphasis of appearance as the hallmark of Western beauty. Cosmetic surgery is perhaps the most drastic way that women try to improve their faces and bodies, to create or retain what is deemed attractive.

Although many women claim that cosmetic surgery is something that they are `doing for themselves', the beauty that they aspire to is of male creation. It is the male gaze, looking and appreciating within a sexual context that has been the most influential arbiter of what we deem to be beauty.