Welcome to the first ever TreeHugger design competition, in collaboration with I.D. Magazine and the Sustainable Style Foundation!
Many contemporary products quickly become obsolescent. We've used the umbrella as a focal point for innovation and problem-solving. Of the 33 million sold annually in the U.S. alone, hundreds of thousands break down, facing abandonment and landfills.
One aspect of the Cradle to Cradle approach sees current products as future food for biological or technical systems. Designers must consider the sustainability and safety of procured materials, and, once no longer useful as the intended item, their next lives as nutrients for those systems.
Great! This process could give us a thoughtful, earth-friendly umbrella. But what do we do with the continuing effects of old school, landfill-bound design? How do we efficiently and profitably create desirable, functional pieces from refuse?
The Umbrella Inside Out competitions asked for either an innovative umbrella with a Cradle to Cradle sensibility, or a women's couture garment fashioned from abandoned or discarded umbrellas. Finalists were chosen from among more than 150 international entrants by our amazing panel of judges, before TreeHugger readers voted on the winners.
The winning couture garment walked the runway at Paris's Ethical Fashion Show on October 13, 2006. Finalists and winners of both competitions were featured in I.D. Magazine's December 2006 New and Notable issue!
Read all about it below! Thanks to all of our sponsors, judges, entrants, and readers!
How could we not feel guilty using a vinyl backdrop for our Umbrella Inside Out display at the Ethical Fashion Show? What kind of a TreeHugger statement were we making, using such an icky material to promote re-use design? Luckily, we're off the hook. Helene from Bilum offered to make signature re-purposed sacks from our vinyl once the event was over. We'll show them to you as soon as we get em!
Rainer Wolter's winning dress, Umbrella Redesign, walked in the couture show on October 13, 2006. The umbrella and fashion finalists are featured in I.D. Magazine's December 2006 New and Notable Issue.
The bustier incorporates umbrella spines.
The necklace is made from umbrella bits!
Close up of necklace and purse.
Runway photos courtesy of Yann Coste.
Just about now, I.D.'s December 2006 New and Notable Issue, featuring our Umbrella Inside Out winners, is hitting newsstands. Grab a copy! We're proud as can be of all of our finalists and happy that Rainer Wolter, our fashion winner, is already making a difference in the conventional fashion world through his refusal to work with fur.
Seeing Rainer's re-fashioned umbrella dress on the runway at Paris's Ethical Fashion Show last month thrilled me (Rainer rhymes with "designer," btw). Nothing about it belied rain-protective origins as it floated down the catwalk. While laying eyes on the final design was satisfying, spending time with the man behind the garment proved genuinely inspiring. Between round tables, dinners and excursions, Rainer's uniquely principled nature, kindness and humor became as apparent as his already obvious talent. At the time, Rainer's boss, Emmett McCarthy of Project Runway fame, had decided to incorporate fur. This meant that, due to his cruelty-free leanings, Rainer would have to quit. Upon his Paris departure, he didn't know what was next for him, but trusted that something would come up. When we caught up last week, I expected to hear job search woes, but his tale took a refreshingly hopeful twist...
Continue reading "The TH Interview: Rainer Wolter, Umbrella Inside Out Winner" »
On the heels of Paris Fashion Week, the third annual Ethical Fashion Show (EFS) will feature over 60 designers from around the globe at primo locale Tapis Rouge starting Friday, October 13! What does "ethical" mean here? Well-treated workers, minimal eco-impact, and involved designers and producers. Next week, we'll fill you in on brands to look out for, and air the voices of up and coming conscience-laden designers on TreeHugger Radio! Also: we'll show you Umbrella Inside Out fashion competition winner Rainer Wolter's completed dress, which will grace the couture show's runway on Friday evening. After that, it's three days of feel-good round tables, exhibitions and showrooms. If you're in the industry, passes are available at the door starting Saturday morning. On Sunday, the general public is welcome. Don't forget to tune in to The Lazy Environmentalist this week for more on the show, with participating designers Annie Langlois and Deborah Lindquist as well as yours truly. More soon! ::Ethical Fashion Show
Our final two Umbrella Inside Out Cradle to Cradle entries made a tough choice, but in the end readers chose Erin MacDonald's innovative Crayella as the winner! Read more about it, and take a glance at last week's winning re-used umbrella couture design! Thanks to our judges, our readers, all of our entrants, The Sustainable Style Foundation, and I.D. Magazine for giving us the chance to imagine smart, beautiful sustainable futures! If you'd like to see the designs in person, RSVP for our December event in NYC, celebrating the release of I.D.'s New and Notable issue, featuring our finalists.
Come back next week to see some incredible designs that didn't make the finals! ::Umbrella Inside Out
With the Umbrella Inside Out Competitions, I.D. Magazine, The Sustainable Style Foundation, and TreeHugger asked for a new umbrella, and re-used umbrella couture. Designers from around the world answered. Last week, readers chose their favorite former umbrella garment. Now it's time to choose the winning umbrella!
Our final two umbrella designs take distinct Cradle to Cradle approaches. Highlights of the Pollinate include fashionable interchangeable canopies, and complete biodegradability. Rather than feeding into a biological system, the Crayella allows for easy street repair and technical upcycling. Which one is the best Cradle to Cradle design? Find out more about the designs, and comment! Choose the winner! Then RSVP to see the finalist designs in person!
Continue reading "Umbrella Inside Out - The Final Moment is Here!" »
Phew! This week felt like a re-use design roller coaster as we counted down our Umbrella Inside Out fashion design finalists. Designers conceived of or created new garments from discarded or used umbrellas, and they made it look easy. With some tough choices, readers picked Rainer Wolter's stunning Umbrella Redesign entry! Congratulations, Rainer! His dress will grace the runway at Paris's Ethical Fashion Show on October 13; he and the other finalists will appear in I.D. Magazine's December New and Notable issue. Thanks to all of the entrants for taking on the re-use challenge, and to our judges for their invaluable insights. And we love the Sustainable Style Foundation for making it all happen!
The Umbrella Inside Out Fashion competition has finally wound its way down to a mere 2 final candidates. Remember - designers were asked to submit plans for a couture garment made almost entirely from used or discarded umbrellas. The winner, as you know will appear at Paris's Ethical Fashion Show October 13!
The final entries are:
The Dusty & Umbrella Redesign.
Voting for today ends at midnight EST.
Continue reading "The Final Final...." »
Yesterday we continued the Umbrella Inside Out competition judging! Votes were cast and favorites were declared and the three remaining finalists are waiting for you to judge today! Remember - designers were asked to submit plans for a couture garment made almost entirely from used or discarded umbrellas.
Read a little about the competitions, and pick your favorite! Finalists will be counted down all week, so come back tomorrow to keep rooting for the design you would like to see on the runway at Paris's Ethical Fashion Show October 13! Voting for today ends at midnight EST.
And the 3 remaining finalists are.... drum roll please....
Continue reading "The Voting Continues! Three finalists left!!!" »
Been following the judging of our Umbrella Inside Out competition? Some of the entries might remind you of the panache of Junky Styling, whom we mentioned nine months ago. They are still getting press coverage for their “style savvy” look achieved from the refashioning of preloved clothes into new designs. A recent piece in the UK’s Daily Mail suggested that this “artful blend of vintage pieces and customising, with a careful eye on the ethics of the fashion world” has been attracting the likes of Sadie Frost, Gwen Stefani, Russell Brand and Stella McCartney. Although at it since 1997, Annika Saunders, and Kerry Seager were not the first to commercialise their idea, (under the Junky Styling moniker). Go further back to say 1991, when Dorothy McKenzie’s seminal tome: Green Design - Design for the Environment, hit book shelves, it carried the case study of Reactivart, a designer’s collective that took apart everything from sample books to wool sweaters and reconfigured them. Alas now defunct, I’m sure the members of that group welcome the ...
Continue reading "Reincarnated Rags. By Junky Styling, TRIAD, et al." »
Yesterday we started the first half of the Umbrella Inside Out competition judging! For this part, designers were asked to submit plans for a couture garment made almost entirely from used or discarded umbrellas. Votes were cast and favorites were declared and the four remaining finalists are ready to go head-to-head a second time for round 2 of the judging by you!
Read a little about the competitions, and pick your favorite! Finalists will be counted down all week, so come back tomorrow to keep rooting for the design you would like to see on the runway at Paris's Ethical Fashion Show October 13! Voting for today ends at midnight PST.
And the 4 remaining finalists are.... drum roll please....
Continue reading "Fashion Finalist Voting Round 2!!!" »
Welcome to the first half of the Umbrella Inside Out competition judging! For this part, designers were asked to submit plans for a couture garment made almost entirely from used or discarded umbrellas. Last week, our panel of fashion judges sifted through over fifty entries from around the globe to pick out the top five submissions. They were asked to rate the innovation, wearability, construction (or potential construction) and aesthetic appeal of each. Also, judges weighed in on the resource intensiveness of collection. Now it's your turn. Read a little about the competitions, and pick your favorite! Finalists will be counted down all week, so come back tomorrow to keep rooting for the design you would like to see on the runway at Paris's Ethical Fashion Show October 13! Judging for today ends at midnight PST.
And the 5 finalists are.... drum roll please....
Continue reading "The Fashion Finalists Are Here!" »
We are thrilled with all of the inventive entries that have flooded in over the past few weeks. Right now, our amazing panel of judges is evaluating around 150 entries. Starting September 11, our readers will count down the Fashion finalists. On September 18, they'll choose the best umbrella design. You won't want to miss your chance to weigh in, and decide which make it onto the runway in Paris and the pages of I.D.!
Today is the last day to submit your umbrella couture and re-imagined umbrella entries! We are thrilled with the caliber and volume of submissions. You can do it, procrastinators! It's not too late. Submit! Just make sure your file names don't contain spaces or forbidden characters!
(A reminder that entries for our Umbrella Inside-Out Design Comp close on 1 Sept 06.) We like Andy Wanna’s thinking. As with most successful product design, he came at the issue from a personal perspective. Umbrellas invariably blow-out, and bend their metal stays. It annoyed him. So he set out to overcome these fundamental design flaws. And at least conceptually, he seems to have got a result. The Lotus 23 brolly (called after its inspirational namesake, and his age at time of design) is similar to Crocs (see recent discussion), in that it is not inherently green — it uses ABS plastic, Tyvek and Teflon — but by other criteria, Andy’s umbrella most certainly is. Firstly it works - no materials and embodied energy wasted to make a useless, barely functioning product. And it is functional, the retractable, double vented canopy is asymmetrical, so it covers more of the user, than traditional centre pole brollies. Plus it can be used fully or partially opened. If something just works, you are more likely to value it and treat it well, thus extending its useful life. (Apple Macintosh owners retain their computers much longer than PC owners.) The Lotus 23 is durable, yet attractive. Or as Andy says, ...
Continue reading "The Lotus 23 Umbrella — A Better Brolly" »
Learn all about the kick-ass judges who will choose the finalists in our Cradle to Cradle Umbrella and Umbrella Couture competitions!
Synchrinicity is fun. The Umbrella Inside Out competitions mean constant recycling of the idea of fashion re-use in my noggin. Accordingly, last week I asked Lindsey Boland, proprietress of Wicker Park's Habit for leads on Chicago-area re-fabulists. She led me to "clothes whisperer" Dolan Geiman. Lo and behold, he showed up on my Google Alert soon after, since his reinventions appeared on the local ABC affiliate news. The local news? Does this mean fashion forward re-use has officially become mainstream and we can stop prattling on about it? Remains to be seen. Just like Dolan's work: keep reading.
Continue reading "Dolan Geiman: Chicago's Rescued Threads" »
As we wait to see what sorts of re-used umbrella couture our Umbrella Inside Out entrants come up with, we like filling readers in on favorite old-to-new designers. Lucky Bostonians get to see the goods in person in a big way this weekend when Brooklyn-based This Old Thing? masterminds Roy Caires and Tommy Cole take their wares north. Sunday's not-to-miss overflow sale will feature over 500 pieces at prices belying their intricately reconstructed origins. If you've always wanted to see yourself or your boyfriend in one-of-a-kind duds, but balked at the prices, this is your day. “Every designer seems to be imitating vintage in their collections and charging an arm and a leg for it. This is how you get the look for real cheap, and it’s the real deal,” Caires tells the Boston Herald.
Continue reading "This Old Thing? Reused Men's and Womenswear Hits Boston This Weekend" »
While we're waiting to see the umbrella finalists, we can take a look at already certified designs. Haworth's Zody Chair was among the first six products to receive Cradle to Cradle certification last fall. What makes it Cradle to Cradle? Find out at the MBDC web site! ::
The latest issue of Umbrella Inside Out partner Sustainable Style Foundation's SASS Magazine honors 2005 eco-design innovators and achievers with the OSSA awards, which "Showcase the amount and breadth of sustainability efforts underway in style industries, and provide incredible role models for us all to look up to." Among this year's recipients: Edun; Prince Charles and Lady Camilla; and Whole Foods Market. Check out the rest! :: SASS Magazine
You've heard some variation of it: the best way to make a difference is to do what you're best at, and use it to change the corner of the world you know. Fantasy? Illusion? Not if we're talking about Tierra Del Forte. After six years of work in conventional denim, she knows women's bodies, and she knows construction. "I'm a designer," she says. "That's where my skill set lies. It's amazing to use it in a way that's good." When the good that she's talking about is a commitment to domestic, earth friendly production, it means a bunch of smokin', guilt-free booties on the loose. While supplies last!
Until I picked up my first pair at gominyc in May, I had never uttered phrases like "I love my jeans," "My jeans make me happy," and "My jeans are magical." gomi's Anne Hettinger refers to Tierra as a jeans "engineer" and it fits. (She also advises to go a size smaller than you think you should -- I did and am, well, happily in love with my magical jeans.) Whether it's models at the Catwalk on the Wild Side, or EcoPetal, or friends wandering muggy summer streets, everyone looks amazing in Tierra's creations.
Ask her to dish on how she does it, and the petite creatrix winks, "trade secret." However, she will offer, "Women are curvy. The cut visually mimics what a woman's body looks like, makes it more flattering."
But what exactly are her eco credentials, you ask?
Continue reading "Del Forte Denim: Organic, Repurposed, and "Magical"" »
Thanks, Bust, for making Fall Fashion about raw-materials-sparing self-expression, rather than slavish submission. The August/September issue could easily be called the “Re-use Edition.” Check out the interview with Our Lady of Vintage Conversion and Controversy, Imitation of Christ’s Tara Subkoff. Hear from Zana Akane Isutakawa who constructs her Akane Clothing from 75% re-used fabrics. For those of you who are into sewing and snail mail, find out about the Garment Remake Exchange. Learn how to alter your own clothes! And, for the adventurous, Freegan-leaning set, get tips on adorning yourself with thrown out treasures. It’s all about TreeHugging on the DL. :: Bust
While we're excited to see what sorts of Cradle to Cradle models our Umbrella Inside Out entrants come up with, it's fun to point out some other relatively eco-friendly umbrella innovations. Chances are, if you've seen a vintage brolly in a film, magazine layout, or Broadway show, it came from Jodell Egbert's Seattle shop, Bella Umbrella. Her impressive selection of vintage finds can be purchased or rented, for fun or for weddings. In fact, it was her decision to hand out umbrellas at her own wedding, rather than rent a tent, that swept her into the "umbrella world."
Continue reading "Bella Umbrella: Vintage and Refurbished Brollies" »
With the Umbrella Inside Out competitions going strong, it's fun to imagine all of the designers out there with their sketch pads, brainstorming umbrella collection methodologies. One creative who's been through it all before is Jill Danyelle of fiftyrx3. Learn more about the NYC sustainable style aficionado in this TreeHugger TV segment, and keep reading to find out about her experiment in umbrella transformation.
Continue reading "Umbrella Experiment Du Jour: fiftyrx3" »
As part of our Umbrella Inside Out competitions, we are asking for an umbrella conceived with a Cradle to Cradle (C2C) sensibility. Some of you might be wondering what the heck that means. Luckily, TreeHugger has written a lot about C2C. You can find an introduction to the revolutionary text here. This is the gist:
McDonough (architect) and Braungart (chemist) propose an industrial revolution, but this time, a green one. Taking cues from biomimicry, they propose that WASTE = FOOD, and suggest that things should be made from one of two types of materials: biological nutrients, which decompose naturally, and technical nutrients, which are designed for upcycling (little to no quality lost during recycling).
Last year, McDonough Braungart Product Certification (MBDC) was introduced. This management system recognizes products that conform to MBDC's C2C principles. The system offers a flexible "menu" of certification levels that should meet the needs of all manner of product designers. You can read lots about it in this post. Here, you can find out about the first projects to qualify for MBDC Certification.
More from the archives: Lloyd highlights some choice McDonough quotes, McDonough is named Esquire's "Big Thinker of the Year", and, finally, learn why the man likes a green sandwich. Want to buy the book? We have it.
Tiffany Threadgould is no stranger to the TreeHugger pages. We let you know all about her re-use ingenuity in the form of room dividers and egg crate tables. You saw her entry in our Eco-packaging design contest, we hope. Now that the Umbrella Inside Out competitions are under way, we feel compelled to recognize Tiffany’s contributions to the area of umbrella refashioning.
If you didn’t catch sight of her here, maybe you glimpsed Tiffany’s Umbrella Skirt in one of the first issues of ReadyMade a few years back (issue 6)? Perhaps she taught you how to make a tote out of them on HGTV? No? It’s never too late, people. Learn how here and here.
Continue reading "How to Make an Umbrella Skirt: DIY Fun with Tiffany Tomato" »
Did you know? The word umbrella derives from the Latin word "umbra," meaning shade or shadow. "The collapsible and internally supported umbrella is commonly credited as being invented during Cao Wei in ancient China, roughly 1,700 years ago." "Captain James Cook, in one of his voyages, saw some of the natives of the South Pacific Islands, with umbrellas made of palm-leaves." These and other tidbits can be found on the extensive Wikipedia umbrella page.
City dwellers around the world have documented effects of the umbrella's shortcomings. The photos evoke much, including the frustration of soaked pedestrians, and the eventual loneliness of taken for granted obsolescence. Iconico's collection of New York-area umbrella cast-aways tops the list of online photo galleries. The flickr Sad Umbrella group is another great source. Hilary Jack's Make do and Mend project documents the repair and use of abandoned umbrellas mostly around Manchester. Sean Hillen's Dublin-based Untitled Broken Umbrella Project is worth a gander. Hamish Robertson's Broken Umbrella Archive has documented New York foundlings since 2002. Check out this humorous customer service chronicle. What umbrellas-of-the-street diaries have we missed?
Back in 2001, when the idea of re-purposed fashion was suggested to them, Montreal designer Annie Langlois and her On and On Ecolo Chic partner Rébecca Khoury could not have predicted that they would become sustainable fashion leaders. Because of their pioneering efforts, re-used ready-to-wear could become viable on a large scale. I recently spoke with Annie about the challenges and rewards of repeat chic.
Continue reading "Re-use Pioneer: Annie Langlois of On and On Ecolo Chic" »
It seems that the days of picking a trusty, not-so-attractive umbrella and weathering as many storms with it as possible may be on the wane. Retailers have begun to position trendy, smartly patterned rain shields along with patterned hats, jackets, and boots. This umbrella-as-accessory approach meant strong 2005 sales. According to Accessories Magazine, consumers now show a preference for light, compact, foldable umbrellas, rather than the iconic Mary Poppins variety. What will these tendencies mean on the sustainability front? Will shoppers want their favorite, cute umbrellas to last forever, or will trendiness mean even more potential for disposability?
