Ghost.

very easy to do. simple cut, loose fit, nifty outcome. perfect project.

Let me hug you.

"Bhalo is a fair trade design label that aims to create desirable fashion whilst empowering disadvantaged people, especially women, allowing them to work their way out of poverty.

Our cotton is hand loomed and hand embroidered by women in rural Bangladesh, not only giving them much needed employment and training, but providing them with simple things that we take for granted - education/childcare for their children, basic healthcare, and most of all, dignity. We oppose human exploitation and feel everyone should be given the right to fair employment terms, and given a decent price for their work. Wouldn't you expect the same?"

I do like Bhalo.

quite compelling.

'outfit of the week' by fashion conscience -- in newspeak: "like!"

Shewolves.

Look at all these fabulous women.
Then rethink (as if you ever really thought about it, did you?) shaving your pits. I mean: Have you even once seen your underarm hair grown out, as god gave it to you? Or are you one of those who started shaving when the first hair appeared at the teen age?

Every girl (and boy) should be free to wear her/his hair as s/he wants it - boldly bushy, sleekly trimmed, shaved and polished. Everyone should deliberately and unaffectedly decide how s/he likes it best. 

Isn't it weird that this free choice has a touch of rebellion to it when you only think it?

If you need to intellectually meditate on this issue, try the following articles:

The first, about a 10 week body hair rebellion experiment, may make you want to try hairy pits even less. It documents and reflects the hostile feedback you may get as well as the norms you quarrel with. From personal experience I can confirm the survey results. But I can also happily report that at some point it magically stops and just a little later, someone who was very sceptical will come up to you and - in the best case - will tell you that he actually really loves your underarm rebellion (ehm, and he might want to lick it too, haha).

The second article is more general, about Stigma and Women's Bodies, such as body fluids, aging etc.

If you need more visual inspiration try the hairy pits club or the swedish movement Ta Håret Tillbaka!

or check out the famous underarm hair of Frida Kahlo, Elizabeth Jagger and Joan as a Policewoman:

Barter it.

send in your old leather jacket (or whatever) :::
get back a georgeous clutch (or handbag or tote or ...)

well - or transform at home! DIY hooray!

finest upcycling by Remade USA/ Shannon South

Call me french.

If I was forced to decide on only one brand to wear for the rest of my life
I would choose french EKYOG. There's nothing more to say.

Ncn.

via fashion-conscience.com

Ncn. = No comment necessary.

Woah! Is this reale?

Yes it is Reale, a fashionbrand from Milano. 

And I am reale'ly (haha, what a pun!) inspired by how they combine feminine + sporty with a laxly, slightly vintage'y look, because usually the combination of chic and sporty makes me feel uneasy, I imagine it to be clean, cool, virtuous and a bit inhibited. In short: this combination makes me think of expensive & exclusive fitness-centers (like the one my dad goes to, haha).

As far as google-translator helps me with their website, I understand Reale to be a "soft-eco"-brand, which is how I would call it. They are not certfied producing "green", but they are seewing in Italy (no starvation wages - hopefully; and supporting local artisans), choosing high-quality materials (also experimenting with bamboo fiber and seaweed for example), avoiding offcuts... and casually making extremely cool stuff. 

"The brand guidelines are based on three fundamental points: 

a controlled real 'Made in Italy', 

the concept of "Slow Fashion"*, 

the use of materials and ideas that contribute to environmental protection."

this is what google translated me from their website - so no guarantee ;)

* I guess I will make my WIS (What Is Sustainable?) #2 about the concept of "Slow Fashion".

For a preview of the upcoming collection:

Arschkalt.

Eventhough these days are still sunny you can feel winter coming. It is cold, I have a cold and the air is smelling like snow (we're still far from snow I hope, but this smell...)
No wonder I got hooked by these hot coats by EDUN:
(Luckily I found one 2nd-hand, akin to the olive one but for a hundreth (really!) of the price)

ANSOHO

 

The designer and owner of ANSOHO, Anna Sophie Howoldt, lives where I live (Berlin) and comes from where I come from (Lübeck, north of germany, at the baltic coast) and like me studied i.a. arthistory and philosophy. But Firstly she studied fashion design. And eventhough it was never thaught during her studies (as it still is not in most of the fashion design schools) she decided to run her label consciously ecofriendly. She started ANSOHO already in 2006, which makes her a pioneer in the ecofahion section, and says that the sustainable aspect came naturally, not as sales promotion. Her first collection was made from recycled shirts, today she's more a luxus brand. One with a sytle I admire. Check out her collections, especially in the older ones are some inspirations for DIY's.

images from ansoho.com, text referring to carlasblog.de

Fashion in Format.

Format is a fashionlabel from my now-hometown Berlin that impresses me not only with it's clothes but also with the nice shoots and the amazing beauty of the model.
I love her haircut, eventhough it is quite "very Berlin" (listen to the song by Herpes). My hair is a bit shorter - but it's growing ;)

for more information about Format (in German) visit carlasblog.de
for more pics

WiS #1: leather.

WiS stands for THE question that made me insecure since I started this blog:
What is sustainable? What is sustainability?

Some things seem quite obvious, some answers are not as questionable as others, such as: cotton produced without pesticides is good. or: to use the bicycle whenever possible instead of the car is good. (yes, I just state these and at this point leave out the "because ..." and all potential additional circumstances that would be to consider).

The above product (mypaperbag via Lilli Green) is not, as the name suggests, made from paper, it is made from leather. Associative chain: papebags are more ecofreindly than plastic bags. cottonbags are even more ecofriendly (are they?). What about a leatherbag... can leather be ecofriendly at all?

First I have to say I am not a vegetarian.

Which means that I am ok with eating dead animals, which includes that I am ok with them being killed for ending up as my food. I am concious about it. For me personally this also includes that I eat meat only once every two weeks or so and if, then mostly bio-certified.

Transferring this principle to leather would mean, that I am ok with products made from dead animals skin. Admittedly I love leather. It is a beautiful strong, soft and natural material. And as I consider it very longlasting and a byproduct of "meat-winning" (I use this term as I am explicitly not okay with what is called meat-(mass-)production) it seems to me to have two sustainable aspects:
firstly it stands against throwaway-culture of cheap and sleazy products and
secondly it is part of the efficient and not thriftless and thoughtless use and spoil of the animal.

You might laugh but I mean it - It makes me think about what I learned about native americans when I was a little kid, how they were respectful with and valued nature (and animals) and were thankful for every bit it provided them.

Of course these ideas have some presuppositions: the animal should not be killed for only the leather. the animal should not have suffered from mass-production-conditions, neither during lifetime nor when being transported or killed.

I could only find one label/certificate (by the International Association of Natural Textile Industry (iVN)) that comes close to my ideas, but it rather focuses on an eco-friendly production-process of the leather and health-standarts for workers. It does not say anything about the "production" of the animal or the endproduct made from the leather...

Do you know more?
and what do you think about leather and it's sustainability in general?

yellowgrey.

The dress is perfectly mine! well, unfortunately it's not mine. but the simple cut, the bright and original but somehow still decent pattern and of course it's eco-aspect makes it a dream-inhabitant of my wardrobe, or rather the place my body wants to inhabit ;)

I'm not sure if the bag would go with this dress, I'd rather say no, but anyways - I have enough other stuff to combine it with, haha. just missing the bag still. damn it.

images and items via fashion-conscience.com, bag by Melie Bianco, dress by Fair+True

News from Filly.

Lookbook is out for autumn.
What can I say... again (check the earlier post) I love it.

Not only the designs and colours, also the photographs. First some of the tissues seemed too rough for my taste, I'm a softie, haha, but as it says "textured raw silk tussah" I guess I'd feel as snug as a bug in a rug in it ;)

Rrrrrrain.

Rainy days in Berlin, shitty summershoes I brought and cold wet feet for hours made me think about the Melissa/Vivienne Westwood Booties again. I wanted them since I saw them but still don't have the money to buy.

light.

photos 1+3 by Polina Aronova, 2 by Gia Coppola

For a long time already I wanted to post about araks lingerie. Now I do and I am glad they have sooo beautiful images in their lookbooks (autumn above, spring below).

awakenedaesthetic said - and I take the freedom to just agree - "I don’t think these designs should even be called panties, or bras. Bra: what kind of butchered half-word is that? I think they should be called underpinnings. Something a bit more dignified, classier. A nod to a more elegant world."

photo by Julie Gilhart

Yesterday Skin.

"potential but not-so-perfect vintage findings. from all over the world.
forgotten outfits and accessories, restyled and reconstructed"
--- The Yesterday Skin

We all love vintage, dont we? The Yesterday Skin is definitely highly inspiring. I'm always asthonished how incredible good stuff, that would never look that way just wearing them in daily life, can look in photos... (check out what else you find on the homepage, I chose the moderate stuff, haha)
On the other hand it is always an invitation to be more creative and daring in our wardrobe.

And even if they offer free shipping worldwide - I prefer physical/tactile second-hand-shopping with all its frustration (of course the best pieces aren't my size), its moments of bliss (this incredible unique valuable piece seems to be made for me and is so fucking cheap you wouldn't believe) and even the 'dead granny pong' (sorry for being politically incorrect, I love my grandma too and she doesn't smell at all).

Holla die Waldfee.

  i wallow in these photos. 

if the cloth feel like the images look...

 

wonderful wonderful find: partimi

Cowgirls (& Boys).

These incredibly good looking shoes are kiboots - handmade and with no childlabour, sweatshops or chemicals involved in the production + the brand supports (very) small sustainable projects. I love the combination of leather and the bootlegs made from kilims. And I love handmade stuff. Every pair is unique and I am couching for the one pair that blows my mind and will therefore be mine!

What I also find remarkable is the following statement:

"Kiboots is always fashion first. We believe it's common sense and decency to produce with respect for mother nature and for the good of the people we work with."

As long as "fashion first" doesn't mean to loose sight of the sustainability aspect I find this the ultimate 'leitmotif' for (eco-)fashion! Sustainability goes without saying, is not only a competitive advantage. And it doesn't mean to make us look all the same eco'ish. (even though of course these boots are in line with the perfect natural Hippie-Style, haha, as also is their cool Lookbook - which is not some models in superartifical but oh-so-aesthetic poses, but every Kiboot-Owner that submits his/her photo with his/her unique pair!)

(image taken from kiboots' website)

Men in green.

via Edun

It's far from easypeasy - but there is good men's eco fashion to find! 

Well, actually there's a t-shirt, hoodie and shoe galore for you boys (wich reminds me of glore - another nice shop). Shirts and Jeans are easily available too. Even sexy boxers are to find. But yeah, I admit - the variety is definitely smaller and much more basic than for girls. But isn't this mostly the case?

 

For some of the favourites I found: