Redefining Treehugger

Recently I was wondering not only about what we will be wearing in the future with regards to global warming and all that jazz, but I also wondered what these clothes will be MADE off. Surely the fabrics we're using today aren't going to stay the same in the future, since it is said that the fashion industry currently uses more water than any other industry in the world. As said on wral.com website, it also contributes to 25% of all pollution. What then is the solution to this problem?

Tania Fuentez says the answer is:bamboo, hemp, organic cotton or wool, abaca, lyocell, mud silk, sasawashi, Peace silk, and corn fiber. Sounds like a hyped up Chinese garden party with corn, right? Well, according to Eco Fashion.com, these are all the fabrics of the future. The image conjured in my mind by those fabrics are something like a bamboo dress that looks like a tree's trunk with mud on it and corn pieces stuck on the mud for a "nice texture and color effect"....hehe....GROSS. But apparently nooooooot soooooooooo (French accent).

Earth Pledge is a textiles company that merged four years ago with top designers like Givenchy and Versace to design a range of clothing made from those environmentally friendly fabrics. As said by Eco-Fashion, clothes and accessories that meet such criteria are usually made using organic raw materials, such as cotton grown without pesticides, or re-used materials such as recycled plastic from old soda bottles. Eco-fashions don't involve the use of harmful chemicals and bleaches to color fabrics and are made by people earning fair wages in healthy working conditions. The show was a huge success and has bought a lot a attention to the future of fabrics like nylon and other synthetics. People are starting to believe that if you wear a fabric like nylon, you are waking around with a t-shirt that gives off funky smelling green gases when the sun gets on it. This is a bit far fetched, but the truth in it is that we can make a difference by choosing the right fabrics (see future blog)

The problem with these environmentally friendly fabrics are that some of them are expensive to make and that they are mostly in a pastel-ly palette because of natural coloring being used. Is this one of the reasons that pastels are forecasted to be the next big thing in fashion? Pastels have already been seen all over the streets of London and other fashion capitals- are these two facts related to each other? But pastels won't be in fashion forever. What then?

The other question is, how long will this stay a trend? This being environmentally friendly in all aspects of our lives? Is this only a passing trend or will it be a true lifestyle for us all in the future? The human race have always seemed to evolve once they rebel against the norm of the day. How long will it take before we start rebelling against tree-hugging and Adam and Eve attire?

Chiffon coats the future?

No matter which way I look at it, summer has always been my favourite season. Don't get me wrong, I love warm drinks, romantic coats, leather gloves, thick stockings, warm duvets and snowmen. But theres nothing like chiffon dresses, denim shorts, bikinis, the ocean, cuddeling on a rainy summers day..... cocktails at Aardklop....Aaahhh
But what will it be like to have summer all year around? On shoppingblog.com they say that apparently Target and Kohl's have brought in temperature experts to help them forecast their seasonal sales and collections. I would have called them over achievers if they were in my class in school, but still, it seems like retailers are starting to take the idea of climate change very serious. It is said that the climate change has already brought down sales in boots and coats in the last two years and that heavy fabrics aren't selling as well as it used to. Personally I'm not going to cry too many tears about the heavy fabric issue, three kilogram coats have never been my thing...it always seems to bring me down, you know? Hehe.....
In october of 2007 on shoppingblog.com it was said that the new trend in collections these days are "transeasonal collections" for those of you who don't keep up with the daily slang in fashion...and yes, it changes daily...like the opinion of people on George Bush in America. Transeasonal has nothing to do with transvestites except for the fact that men might like it..... Its all about clothing being worn all through the year and fabrics being lighter and more adaptable to the season its worn. Except for the fact that designers will have to be very creative if they still want to show their garments four times a year when the fabrics are the same, its brings a challenge to those who doesn't like the whole layers like an onion thing (or like cake).

I have mixed feelings about this- my mother says that its bad taste to wear boots during summer and I really love my cowboy boots. It also takes me forever to tan and selftan is expensive and I look quite forward every year to the few months during winter when I don't have to worry about the freaky white colour of my legs. So I guess if mother nature wants to take votes, I'm all for the quatro-seasonal thing. Guess I'm taking my plastic bags in tomorrow for recycling. Can seqiuns be recycled??

Being a fashionable survivor

Somehow in the last couple of days I have struggled with the idea of being a greeny or not being a greeny. In my head, I was pretty sure that I'm a greeny and that there aint no blackness pumpin' this heart of mine! But the realization is slowly sinking in that no matter how many times people say that green is the new black, there's just no way I'm wearing a "green little number". My point is, I don't know if I want to continue living with these ideas swimming in my head like "Save the world, Rita" and "Rescue the little penguins in Greenland, Rita". The whole Super-Green-Women thing is just kinda getting to me. And I don't like wearing underpants over my skinnies-can't we have Superman back?? Rescuing the world just kinda seems like a tit-bit too much to handle for me when I can barely keep my gold fish, Twinkle, alive enough to put on the effort to entertain me with swimming. I want to worry about being ungrateful with what I have and swearing at taxi's. Not saving the planet.

The Diesel ad-campaign on global-warming has drawn a lot of attention from lovers and haters of the campaign. It seems that the world is no longer divided between white chocolate lovers and the normal yummy kind of chocolate (I am a very unbiased blogger), but divided between the Diesel ad-campaign lovers and the non-Diesel ad campaign lovers. If you are unfamiliar with the campaign, (the Diesel ad-campaign), here are some photos:


I can understand seeing New York underwater might not be seen as an exciting 10 year plan for the world to have at the moment, but it seems like its inevitable if we don't do something about it soon. But still, I think it makes a pretty picture and I wouldn't mind being the tanned lady in the "Underworld sequel" or the wanna-be Pringle lads in the Mediterranean Paris. I'm just worried about what I'll wear to these events, my closet doesn't seem to support fashionable sequinsed finned over jackets. And I have no idea where to find any. Maybe Mr Price should really up their game if they want to continue being known as supplying people with high fashion. We want fins on our clothing. Listen to the people!! (Though I might add, with a marketing strategy like theirs, I don't even know why I would even care)

How will climate change influence what we wear? Are we going to wear hats that can be transformed into umbrellas? Shoes that can be transformed into ski's? Dresses with protection against the sun? Who knows? All I'm saying is that I want sequins on mine please. Oo oo oo! And some fur! (fake of course)

Climate Change Couture

Yesterday me and my boyfriend went for out to drink a cocktail or two....and as I sat outside Cheeky MOnkey in the freezing cold(because it is too dodgy to sit inside) I wondered about climate change and how it will influence society and fashion. The first thing that popped into my head was, if the half of the planet was going to freeze over, at least that half's Pina Coladas will always be cold. And that for the other side of the planet (where its going to be scorching hot), girls and boys will always have a lovely tan and girls can wear gladiator sandals with haltered summer dresses anytime they want without looking desperate to show skin or be a strange orangy colour because of selftan.
But what other consequences will climate change have on fashion? Will fashion be important when people are worried about not having any water the next day? Will what we wear underneath a coat matter if we are wearing the coat to prevent our fingers from freezing off? Somehow it seems like fashion will then be put in at the back of the cupboard along with Ipods and sequins (damn).

But before we get to that extreme, I would like to wear the haltered sunny dress and gladiators, and the white fur boots and the cute nineteen forties leather gloves and the black fur coat! (fake of course) Climate change must have some advantage, right?

My shopping bags of today could still see my great great grand children!

Today when I went shopping for some much needed thickening spray for my flat and sad hair, the girl behind the counter asked me if I would like a bag (plastic) for my bottle of spray. I said "no thank you" and declared to her that I am a proud Greeny who tries to NOT buy plastic bags. The girl behind the counter looked kinda scared that I was going to break out in a dance rehearsal with matching moves about how we must save the world, and left as soon as I finished my sentence. This got me thinking: Are we living in a world, or at least in a country, where "being green" is just not "in"? We are all aware of the fact that "being green" is huge in Europe and America, but do South Africans agree with this lifestyle? Every time I buy a plastic bag, or get one for free, I just imagine how long it will take for the soil on our feet to digest those bags. A hundred years? Two hundred years? Where were the world at a hundred and fifty years ago? Cars were a new and exciting toy for men, women had no rights, there was no McDonalds, people still rode horses around town, technology wasn't even a WORD. Thats how long ago a hundred and fifty years ago is!
I think a shopping bag made from natural fibers feels nicer than plastic, its more comfortable to carry around and it can be a name brand. I think greeny friendly bags are in FASHION.

My Jimmy Choo's as Camouflage

So there are a few imagines that come to mind when I imagine the end of the world as we know it. Images of me being the last person on earth like in the movie "I am Legend", or the whole world being covered in ice like in (the movie) "The day after tomorrow", and these images got me thinking. If I was the dude in "I am Legend", running away from freaky assed monsters and suspicious computerized-looking lions, what would I be wearing? And you know what jumped out at me from my closet? (No, not freaky looking monsters or suspicious computerized-looking lions) My ANIMAL PRINT leggings! What better opportunity for animal print apparel than the end of the world? Not that I'm saying that that's why animal print is so in this season....but hey! there could be link between the two. Maybe Roberto Cavalli was dreading the day the world would be made crisp by the sun (like in the movie Knowing) and be left the only person alive on mother earth (or on whatever freaky planet the aliens would place him if they should think he looks childlike enough and can breed the next human race in a place that looks suspiciously like The Garden of Eden). Maybe he was like "If I'm going to have to run away from really big lions (but is still able to run away from them, because we are The Humans and we can run away from the King of the Jungle with our SUPER evolved legs or fool them with our SUPER sidestepping skills, and all people in America think an African lion will reach you just above your knee in hight) I might need a fashionable piece of clothing that can be worn while hiding from the wild animals trying to eat me". That is if there are any life left on Earth and some alien hasn't come to destroy all life on earth because we are killing it and that would be the humane thing to do (hahaha) (like in the movie "The day the earth stood still"..... Is it just me, or are there plenty of movies made on this topic??

My point? I'm getting myself some nice clothes in animal print in case I have to grab it on my way out on the last day of Earth.

Black Coffee for President!

When I was dressing in my top and leggings this morning, a thoughts struck me. Firstly, I ended up putting on the same top that I promised myself last week I wouldn’t wear again, because one can only accessorize one top in so many different ways before someone notices that I’m wearing it like, every second day. But the thing is, I just REALLY love that top! But I do have some pride, and when I noticed the girl next to me in class was trying to get a sniff of the top so that she can report to rest of the class that yes, it is the same top as two days ago, I realized a change must be made. Now see, true love lasts a lifetime, and I LOVE this top. So I decided I’ll have to find a different way to wear this top, without anyone noticing that it was still the same freakin’ top, just in disguise under the rows of pearly accessories. So anyway, I was feeling very creative this particular morning (I call it my creative juices, but my boyfriend calls it my loony- lapses), and I decided to...wait for it!!...put my top on, UPSIDE DOWN. It looked really quite cute, actually. The final product was a cowl-necked top with a nice tight waist. It might be viewed as slightly SHORT and too small by some, but I use the word SEXY.

Anyway, the thought that struck me was that, if half of the world is going to be underwater soon, should we not be planning our wardrobes and making sure we are ready to escape our houses when the time comes? Already I have this image of myself dressed in a lovely princess coat with fur along the rims of the hoody, running dramatically through the night as the coat floats behind me in a white haze.... But the reality is that things might not be as romantic. We might get to keep the fur in the image, but the rest will have to go (see future post). The thing is, we might have to look into clothing that can be worn over and over, without ever actually LOOKING like we’re wearing the same thing twice. I mean, how many things can one grab when running for one’s life ( I like using “one”, it sounds professional)

The point is, designers like “Black Coffee” who design dresses that can be worn over and over again in different ways, by changing its actual look, might be the future. I just really hope someone thinks to design one of those with sequins, before the whole "Water World Thing" happens. I LOOOOOVEEEE sequins.