Just discovered the label Sub Urban Riot from California, using 100 percent organic cotton and low impact dying for their shirts. Their sustainability is not just a trend thing, they say: "We don’t do it because green is in. We do it so your kids aren’t born with three arms and a tail."

  Some great stuff, their asymetric V-neck shirts got a good boost of 80s retro and are just as cool as Pamoyo’s asymetric v-neck tees…

Organic labels can be totally cool and sexy, sometimes they’re a
bit slow on trends. Some designers want to have their shirts produced
just on the moment they order them, and get them by airplain the next
day. Great for them, but maybe not for those sewing at nighttime under
great pressure. Or for the environment, off course.

Can fashion become sustainable without changing
it’s deadly rush of short-term hypes and trends? Or are small labels and local
production units able to catch up the fashion speed with a sustainable
approach? At least sustainable labels like Sub Urban Riot show the way

Via: Chic by Nature 

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When I think about solar energy, I still see this static blue panels on roofs. Outdated! 

Architect Sheila Kennedy has developed solar textiles
– membrane-like surfaces that can be draped like curtains or used to
cover walls or roofs — using 3D modeling software. They work just like
conventional solar cells are made of similar semiconductor materials.

Kennedy recently exhibited her project, called "Soft House", at the Vitra Design Museum in Germany in which she
transformed typical curtains into energy-harvesting surfaces able to
track the sun.

Wrap up

All that solar energy would provide a welcome source of power for a
home’s solid state lighting and typical assortment of gadgets/devices
– tools, phones, laptops, etc. In addition to absorbing sunlight
throughout the day, the curtains can form an insulating air layer for
the building envelope; a central curtain can be lowered to create an
extra room or folded upward to become a suspended chandelier.

Very great for your luxurious sustainable lifestyle home, one could critize, but Sheila
Kennedy is also working on a project to develop this kind techniques
for areas in development countries where people do not have electricity.

Solar textile fashion

It seems there’s quite some interest for solar powered fashion
products like bags but also jeans or bikinis, and these solar textiles
might give it a little boost. I don’t know about the solar jeans or bikini jet,
but I’m quite hot for a solar backpack to get my laptop going while travelling…

 Via Treehugger

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The cultural activist media network Adbusters launches a design contest to design a flag for global citizenship without clichés:

 "The time has come for a radical shift in priorities. We are now faced
with some of the most daunting global challenges in human history.
These are real targets, worthy of our problem-solving skills, ripe for
our intervention. Yet those who have the vision to rise above national and political boundaries still have no symbol to rally under. We invite you to create a flag – free from language and well-worn clichés – that embodies the idea of global citizenship.
A symbol that triggers pride and cohesion, whether worn on a backpack,
displayed on a door, or flown on a flagpole. A symbol for anyone to
declare membership in a growing and vital human cooperative. We invite
you to prove that design has a real role to play in the fate of
our world."

Your creative input will be judged by a panel of prominent design
professionals, then featured in Adbusters and supporting design
publications. The winning flag will go into production, ready for
flying by the patriotic citizens of Earth. Deadline for entries is December 1, 2008.

By the way, thank you Adbusters for featuring Pamoyo on the Blackspot blog

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We are happy to announce that the first pattern from the Styled With Heart collection – Shirt Deluxe – is now online and available for download!

Check it out in the Atelier 

The other styles will be following the coming days. 

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Just as I was philosophizing about great things to upcycle and multifunctional clothing, I bumped across this amazing, stunning, great fabric. Or, calling it a fabric just seems a bit too dull. This Sonic Fabric , invented by artist Alyce Santoro , consists half of woven audio cassette tapes, half cotton. The post-consumer polyester tape is one of the strongest of it’s kind and creates an extremely durable fabric, but the best part is probably it’s ability to PLAY MUSIC! By moving the tape heads from a walkman across the fabric, you can listen to the recorded sounds. And so Santoro created a Sonic Rythm Dress for musician John Fishman with special tapehead gloves which he played live in concert some years ago.

Alyce Santoro says about her source of inspiration "When I was a kid I used to imagine that I could hear Cat Stevens or Beethoven’s 6th or whatever had been recorded onto the tape wafting out into the air if the wind hit the tell-tail just the right way. Years later, I learned about Tibetan Buddhist prayer flags. Colorful squares of fabric silkscreened with mantras are hung outdoors in auspicious locations where their blessings can be activated and sent off into the world on the wind. It seemed a natural progression to me to combine these two concepts to create a fabric with sounds I considered sacred woven into it."

The sonic fabric is produced industrially in the US and available per yard from Designtex.

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