Designer Highlight: ArinMaya-Made

ArinMaya and I first met in 2011 at a women's empowerment showcase in Bushwick, Brooklyn, organized by songstress and friend, Kat Webb.We exchanged our art- one of my resin acrylic quinoa GEMs for a pair of Arin's bottle cap earrings.

These bottle cap earrings were the key to my heart.

(These are available for purchase in her online shop. Support indie design!)

Created with bottle caps sourced over many years working in lush Brooklyn bars and restaurant venues, these long, tiered and comfortably light earrings have been a signature of ArinMaya-Made, a Brooklyn based accessories company serving fashion aficionados and creatives alike with thoughtfully reconstructed and handmade goodness.

(Photo Credit: ArinMaya-Made's Facebook Page

We sat down many, many moons ago in one of such bar/restaurant venues to discuss life, her work, inspiration, and philosophy on just about everything. What I found most remarkable about Arin's story is that her choice to use bottle caps didn't come with a pre-determined "green business" agenda. She selected these bottle caps for their beautifully rugged, chromatic diversity: the bold colors of their logos and their scintillating metallic sheen.

Similar to acclaimed visual artist, El Anatsui, Arin's decision to use the bottle cap as the foundational medium for her work was an aesthetic choice that nonetheless still holds the power to inspire environmental art and design.

(El Anatsui's Metal Sheets, Photo by ReciclaGEM)

Among Arin's many talents, she is an acclaimed vocalist and poet, knitter, and performer, having recently returned from Paris Fashion Week as one of the models for Rick Owen's renowned Spring 2014 presentation (!!!).

Even if inspired initially by an aesthetic choice, ArinMaya-Made is truly an independent brand that effortlessly embodies the philosophy of "reciclagem," the aesthetics of social recycling, bricolage, and being inspired as much by our physical world as by our social one.

Bottle caps and recycled wearable artistry,
T*

P.s. I wear my ArinMaya-Made all the time, Pictured below rocking it in one year at our workshop in L.A. Also brought her work to a talk I did also many moons ago on ethical and sustainable fashion, hosted by the Sistah Friends Project.

We're Featured in Peppermint Magazine!!!

Boa Noite My Readers!!!

My apologies for being so MIA lately. Grad school has consumed my time like a giant veggie burger! But in the meantime, if you are connected with me via Facebook or Instagram, you'll know this already. But if you aren't, then let me announce...

WE'VE BEEN FEATURED IN PEPPERMINT MAGAZINE!!!

Check out this editorial I styled ReciclaGEM alongside ethical fashion brands Soham Dave, Retalhos Cariocas, Donna Dove, Yumnah Najah Designs, and Bad Temperance! Photographed by the wonderful Austin Phelps and modeled by the fabulous Tash!

Aside from my more commercial editorial work, I as an independent stylist dedicate myself to showcasing independent and conscious brands- and thankfully, had the HONOR of being featured in a beautiful, stylish, and ethical fashion publication!!!

You can purchase Issue 20 of Peppermint Magazine online or in news stands in Australia and New Zealand!!!

If you're a photographer, model or another fellow designer interested in collaborating on future shots- or if you're a publication interested in featuring my work, send me a message! :)

Peace and love! It's a Bright New Day!!!

-T*

Artist Highlight: Miki Katagiri | Hatmaking as Sculpture

Today, I had the amazing pleasure to meet former junk-artist, current hat-sculpting activist artist, Miki Katagiri, in her Williamsburg studio. Miki and I met at the Eyebeam Gallery last week at the Carrie Mae Rose Computational Fashion opening. Miki was wearing this hat, and my friend, Helese, stopped her and complimented her on her amazing style, after which I joined the conversation. She went on to explain the significance of the hat; the internal battle of youth struggling between two thought paradigms: love or prestige, the "heart" or the "castle." With the style, uniqueness, craftsmanship, and activist message, I had to know more. After an email exchange, she invited me for tea and great conversation in her studio.

 (The story behind this piece? You need to break through 

the repetitive "record" of life to move forward).

Miki relocated to New York City from her hometown of Tokyo 24 years ago, and has been a practicing artist ever since. She began creating what she describes as "junk art," art reclaimed from the environment, sculptures of refuse, monuments crafted with the unique remains of all the environments that she collected from. Miki says that her mother, a visionary woman and artist who created everything from handbags made from discarded umbrellas to elegant pouches made from reclaimed obi belts, inspired much of her interest in reclaimed materials.

(A beautiful pouch made from a reclaimed obi belt, made by 

her mother who has inspired much of her interested in reclaimed art)

Miki participated in many art shows, including one group show called " Urban Jungle," where the entire collection was purchased by legendary 1980s/1990s boutique, Unique (You might remember this boutique from Isabel Toledo's memoir, Roots of Style). From her junk art days, when asked what type of art she created, Miki would respond, "It depends on the street."

Over the past ten years however, she has created hats as sculpture. While by day she may be a hat designer at Ralph Lauren and Patricia Underwood, or a hat instructor at Parsons at the New School for Design, by night she is creating powerful, prolific sculptures that speak narratives of environmentalism, social justice, and the complexities of the human spirit. What else should you have on the sacred crown of your head, other than a work of art that can speak your values for you?

With some freshly brewed black bean tea in hand, I had the opportunity to iPhonegraph some of Miki's dialogic works for art:

 

 (See the art hidden within?)

 (Not all of her pieces are explicitly political. For instance, this hat, adorned with suspended falling leaves, is simply and elegantly inspired by the season, Fall)

(Wear this hat, and you can take out small felt hearts from the top and give out love to everyone you pass along your merry way. Think loving thoughts and spread the love around, literally!)

(311: a reminder of the aftermath that continues to be experienced as a result of March 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan. To this day in October 2013, Japan and now Hawaii and California are faced with radioactive leaks that put many in danger. Our planet needs us. And this piece reminds us that caring for each other in the aftermath is as critical as during the event itself.)

(

(Even the vegan in me appreciated these. The first is made from reclaimed fox fur. However, instead of merely using the animal and not acknowledging the life lost, Miki created a hat inspired by the fox dreaming of being a bird in its second life. The second piece, created from reclaimed beaver fur, is inspired by a beaver dreaming of being a tree in its second life. What if ever fashion product created from animals did this? So brilliant).

(Deforestation and the lone animal searching for shelter. Enough said).

There are so many more brilliant pieces, such as the ones inspired by the process of oxygenation, created with live plants that convert carbon dioxide into oxygen right on your head. I invite you and encourage you to look through her website and blog. The works truly do speak for themselves.

**A SPECIAL INVITATION**

If you are in New York on Monday November 4th, Wednesday November 6th, and Monday November 11th, you will have the amazing opportunity to attend a workshop with Miki firsthand at noneother than the Ggrippo Art + Design Gallery in Williamsburg.

Let's create some powerful, world-changing, hat sculptures together,

T*

Back from Sao Paulo to Harlem to...BROOKLYN!

Oi minha gente! Desculpa por faltar de escrever! Excuse the delay! It’s been a whirlwind of a year already, and if you’re connected through our Facebook, you know why!

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So to update you, last month, I had the incredible honor of being accepted as one of the new designers of the Brooklyn Fashion League, a shared designer studio based in South Brooklyn dedicated to supporting local manufacturing and community.

One aspect of sustainability that I have not had an opportunity to speak about was the importance of supporting local production and local economies, or what Kate Fletcher, in her seminal ethical fashion text, Sustainable Fashion & Textiles: Design Journeys, refers to as localism.

Some of you may be familiar with the locavore culture, the movement of locally grown food that has come in the form of street farmer’s market’s such as the Union Square Farmer’s market and “Made Locally” sections in our Whole Foods and other wellness-conscious supermarkets. For some of you reading outside of this New York context, locavore culture may be the farmer’s markets that you’ve had in your community for ages. For some of us here in the bedrock of New York’s more urbanized areas, we have had to make a conscious effort to set of entities from which we can buy our vegetables from say, Jane, the local farmer from Upstate New York instead of the super posh, internationally certified food company from several miles…and continents away.

 

Well, food that is grown and consumed is not unlike the fibers, fabrics, and clothing grown, created and consumed. How often do we seek to replicate these locavore practices within our…fashion….consumption?

Well, that’s where localism, the Made in New York movement, and the Brooklyn Fashion League come in.

(Photos Source: Brooklynfashionleague.com)

(Photo source: manufactureny.org)

(Photo Source: jackyblue.com | More info: savethegarmentcenter.org)

Localism, as described in Kate Fletcher’s book and in the practices of those designers who have taken this aspect of sustainability under their wing, is the conscious decision that designers make to bring as many aspects as possible of their production processes of their clothing manufacturing to their local environment. This may include designers manufacturing themselves or utilizing seamstresses/sewing  contractors within the local garment district, purchasing cast-off fabrics from locally based fabric stores and suppliers, or utilizing specialized fabric treatment techniques that were developed and culturally sustained within the community (like that pleating company that’s been pleating for AGES).

(Photo source: savethegarmentcenter.org)

The sustainability benefits of this are many-fold. They include ensuring that that fashion item you just purchased was not created unethically through sweatshop labor practices, that that amazing t-shirt was not using enough petroleum gas in its transport from cotton field to fiber fabric to textile mill to clothing factory to start a small war, as and through your locally created garment, you are helping us as humanity get back in touch with our natural way of living that supports local economies and the sustenance of the local environment.

“…it’s really important for me as a designer to have my clothing made in a socially responsible way. And having it made here, we can assure that that is the case. [If] it is made in Brooklyn or in Manhattan…you can go and visit the factory and you can see the conditions that the workers are in. And you can see who’s making your clothes. It ‘s a direct relationship between the person that makes the garment and the person that wears it at the end,” reflects Nathalie Kraynina, fellow designer of the Brooklyn Fashion League.

“By supporting local retailers and local designers, you are also supporting the local manufacturers and the local fabric suppliers, the local tool fabricators, machine makers and it’s a giant process. But if every step along the way is made locally and made within the United States with proper working conditions, we’re making a much larger step than just that one garment that you’ve purchased,” asserts Kaci Head, founder of the Brooklyn Fashion League.

(Brooklyn Fashion League designers themselves,

hard at work during New York Fashion Week. 

Photo source: BFL's Facebook)

But more than supporting the local economy, this brings us back to nature. Kate Fletcher, in also quoting biomimicry maverick Janine Benyus, posits, “If we look to parallels in the natural world we see that most biological systems operate locally, or as Benyus puts it, ‘nature doesn’t commute to work’. Nature- with the exception of migrant species- ‘shops’ locally, using local expertise to produce the resources it needs and process its waste.” (Fletcher, 140).

But in addition to sustaining local economies and local environments, the Brooklyn Fashion League is also deeply invested in sustaining that local community sense. That soul-nourishing type of fashion that “sustain[s] communities- providing people with meaningful work and a sense of connection with the place and the people with whom they live” (Fletcher, 140).

Beyond that feeling of community you intuitively understand, that community sense also has a place in academia.  “Community as a moral phenomenon seems to involve a sense of identity and unity with one’s group and a feeling of involvement and wholeness, on the part of the individual. In short, community has been used to refer to a condition in which human beings find themselves enmeshed in a tight-knit web of meaningful relationships with their human beings. In contrast to this ‘sense of community’ are the conditions that supposedly prevail in modern society,” writes Dr. Dennis E. Poplin in his 1979 text Communities: A Survey of Theories and Methods in Research  (Poplin, 5)

Thus it has been an honor to call the Brooklyn Fashion League ReciclaGEM’s new home. We are amongst a League of designers dedicated to the sustainability practice of economic and environmental localism while also working towards creating that community space that is supportive, fulfilling, and culturally nourishing. Nonetheless, while fashion in itself can be quite an insular system, we are members of a fashion organization that seeks to extend that membership to the community…and to you.

 As David W. McMillan and David M. Chavis reflect on this essay, “Sense of Community: A Definition and Theory,” “Membership is a feeling that one has invested part of oneself to become a member and therefore has a right to belong.”

What has the Brooklyn Fashion League meant to me? A league of talented fashion designers who have given me a place to belong, given the community a fashion partner dedicating to sustaining and extending this feeling of belonging, and has become an activist vehicle for supporting sustainable, locally created fashion. Locally based but internationally inspired, that’s what dreams are made of.

We are in the midst of a fundraising campaign, because, as ironic as our current world order is the most unsustainable fashion institutions are, ironically enough the most economically supported while those institutions which seek to promote sustainability need the support of the community in our current world order to sustain itself. If you are able, we would love to have you join our localist fashion movement creatively as well as economically.

BFL indigogo from Lindsay Newcomb on Vimeo.

Nature, Community and let’s build this alternative economic and community together,

T*

Retalhos Cariocas: Part I- Marlandia

Before I departed for São Paulo, I had the pleasure of meeting Marla Guttman, avid fashionista and creator of Marlandia, an online shop that serves as the U.S. Distributor of a stylishly vibrant, socially just, environmentally sustainable and transnationally inspiring fashion brand, Retalhos Cariocas. Through Marla’s dedication to bringing a U.S. brand awareness to this already very popular Brazilian brand, I got to fall in love with not only the funky footwear and kinetic fashion, but the unquestionable integrity behind the story as well.

Retalhos Cariocas is going to be a story in several parts because one would not do it justice. The conversation will begin with Marla and end with what I have learned of Silvinha Oliveira, the chic and inspiring light force behind this maverick of a label. So here, parte um, começa…

Who is Marla Guttman?

(Marla, rocking Retalhos Cariocas' Cano Longo sandals. 

Photo Cred: Guest of a Guest)

Since her undergraduate career, Marla Guttman has been not only an avid fashion consumer but an avid student of social and economic justice as well, vacillating between non profit and for profit organizations, traveling around the country and Hispanohablante hemisphere. Nonetheless, while enjoying work and life between her undergraduate and law school tenures, she met some Brazilian musicians in one of New York’s many music spots and decided…chose...told the universe rather: “I want to learn Portuguese.” And the following summer, she landed a legal gig in Rio, where at a mutual friend’s party, she met the magnetic women of Retalhos Cariocas…and the rest is history.

After meeting them, checking out their style, and learning the essence of their mission, Marla made it her mission to help them...help the world. 

Marla therefore used her background in business and law, amassed from her professional experiences and law school, to create the online shop, Marlandia, which is bringing the high contrast, super cute, and energetic footwear of Retalhos Cariocas to the United States.

(Checking out some new styles now here in NYC, while having tea with Marla)

Who is Retalhos Cariocas?

Retalhos Cariocas is a fashion brand that creates one of a kind and limited edition womenswear and footwear created from recycled fabric, reclaimed materials and surplus fabric, manufactured through a business structure that hires women seamstresses and designers from the favela of Barreiro do Vasco in Rio de Janeiro. They exemplify to a T what ReciclaGEM-The Movement is about!

Working alongside the neighboorhood block association (aka. the Associação de Moradores local), Silvinha Oliveira, a stylish woman with a fashion degree, a desire to bring economic empowerment to her community alongside visually stimulating, honest fashion, created an organization in 2008 to bring fashion, vibrancy and JOBS to the favelas, starting with hers. Brazilian favelas have for centuries serve as basins of economic and social disenfranchisement. Silvinha and the team that she now has carrying her mission, including Marla in the U.S., have responded by energizing the cause of social justice on the runway.

What are the challenges bringing Retalhos Cariocas to New York?

Retalhos Cariocas has a great following in Rio. Nonetheless, the challenges facing bringing the brand to New York include taking a local mission and putting it on a global platform in another locale…Kind of a limerick.

Nonetheless, if we are going to promote consumption, let it be for community empowering, aesthetically interesting, well made and socially inspired products. Let it be a vehicle of advocacy and not merely fast fashion.  

Retalhos Cariocas I see as another revolutionary brand to add to the mix of inspiring, global fashion that is explored, consumed, and loved within the 50 states. Perhaps instead of focusing so much on local fashion conversations, the “Made in America” movement can be more hemispherically reflective.  For that in geography and truth is what “America” truly is.

Where can you learn more?

 

Check out this new video recently released of their work and meet Silvinha, Luciana M., Luciana A., and the other women behind the brand. Let your eyes feast on the colors and textures and become inspired by how these women not only have supported women in Barreira do Vasco with fashion jobs and emerging models of color throughout the city, but they even traveled across the globe to the African continent to lead a sustainable and fashionable economic empowerment.

So Yes, from Osklen to Retalhos Cariocas, Brazil is the place to be.

Moda Sustentável, Justiça Social and Fashion Activism,

T*

2013: Finalmente No Brasil!

Oi, minha gente,

I am blessed and happy to report that my first blog post in 2013 (which also falls on the New Moon in Capricorn, ironically enough...if you follow astrology), is being written in São Paulo, Brasil!

I am finally in Brazil, as ReciclaGEM! One day away from the Hemispheric Institute's fabulous bicontinental, art activist conference, the Encuentro, and the last day of São Paulo Fashion Week, I sit here pesquisando exemplos da moda dedicado à justiça social,  reading Vogue Brasil's first "Black Issue" (more comments on that later), and praticando meu português, which is infelizmente não fluente (If you want to learn português, google translate these phrases or read the whole blog in português with my new handy-dandy blogger app! YAY!)

No pictures or photo shoots yet, still relaxing, finding vegan food, and exploring the city. However, I did, through my fabulous hostess who is also a fashion stylist...more on her later :), discover a new Brazilian fashion brand that is dedicated to ethical fashion and sustainable human development.

Founded by doctor, snowboarder and fashion maverick, Oskar Metsavaht, Osklen is a Brazilian fashion brand that creates funky, high energy, active-chic clothing and footwear with intelligent fabrics such as recycled PET, vegetable-dyed surplus silk, and reclaimed fish skin (check out this camo-psychedelic boots). Dr. designer Metsavaht is also the founder of an inspiring organization called Instituto-E, which is dedicated to human and environmental development and is yet another outlet for Metsavaht's intelligent design to make a measureable social impact (very Stella McCartney, another inspiration and muse for me).

(Fall-Winter 2012. Photo Credit: Osklen.com. 

Love these Botas Psicodelico Camuflada Fem aka. the shoes!!)

(Photo Credit: Institutoe.org.br)

So check out these links, get to know such this amazing, visionary brand, and stay tuned for more posts on other fashion revolutionaries making changes through the Hemisphere and the world. 

Tenha um bom dia, and, in the name of my good activist friend, Wismine, curta a vida!

Paz, saude, e moda-justiça,

T*

Fashion Night Out NYC hosted by EcoSalon at TAC!

Firstly, my apologies for taking a whole 48 hours to post these photos. Oh the life of a graduate student...will detail how my "Community Development through the Stewardship of Ethical Fashion Design" program at NYU is going.

But now that's out the way, check out the photographic remnants of a kinetic evening, filled with the mighty soldiers of the ethical fashion movement here in NYC- designers, professors, Sustainable Design Entrepreneurs from F.I.T., vegan bloggers, Textile Art Center aficianados, and overall awesome people who are down for environmentally and people conscious fashion. I want to get to a place one day where it is understood without question that being a good designer = being a designer aware and conscious of production means, material source, and social impact. But, in truth, as you'll read from Elizabeth Cline's Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, we are not there yet.

And so, meet the soldiers. Attention!

The Textile Art Center (Manhattan Location) is brimming with activity. The official end of the party, sponsored by conscious style and fashion web resource, Eco Salon, and its partnering party host, the Textile Art Center, had officially ended, but the conversations were still swelling in the air! Too much to talk about in the realm of putting high quality, innovative and ethical fashion on the forefront.

A sneak peak of emerging design label, State, by Adrienne Antonson, (left) and Soham Dave's artfully hand embellished indigo tunics (right).

Meet a lazer cut piece of wearable art from EkoLab, a duo of designers who are really in love with the process of making beautiful, artful things. They experiment with textures and techniques, themes and fibers, dyes and colors. To dye for!

Some more accessories from Eko Lab. Check them out!

Fair Trade chocolates, along with Fair Trade Cabernet Sauvignon wine from the Naked Grape made this quite the delectable evening!

Sneak peak at some fabulous women, including Sharlane of the International Public Service Association (they hosted a fabulous Fair Trade event at NYU) and Becky, co-director with Nimet of Soham Dave, of the New York Fair Trade Coalition!

Fabulous handmade artisan knits, created by Mapuche weavers from Southern, Chile, in partnership with Voz!

anjelika dreams organic (a.d.o), ayurvedic Indian herbed dyed fashions designed by Angelika Krishna.

This was NOT planned. And to think, this red matched my lipstick! It was a firery evening, that's for sure.

Soham Dave in conversation!

Love

her

Work!

@ State by Adrienne Antonson Love her work!!

Fabulous bag from Paris!

Holding my copy of Elizabeth Kline's Overdressed! If you want to understand how fashion REALLY works, read this book. Really.

Thank you, Eco Salon. Thank you Textile Art Center. Thank you Elizabeth Kline. Thank you New York Fair Trade Coalition. Thank you to all of the Designers and Labels that showcased during this revolution Fashion Night Out 2012. 

This ethical fashion revolution will not be televised. It will be FNO'd!!!

Peace, Love, and Knowledge,

T*