There's a lot of stuff you can think of buying ethical, but what about jewelry? While most jewelry buyers might not think about the origins of their beauty gadgets, silver, gold and diamonds are often sourced in slave-like circumstances and couse a lot of civil wars and conflicts. Well, no one wants a wedding ring with such a story , right?

Conflict free diamonds are guaranteed to originate from ethical and environmentally responsible sources. They are free from violence and human rights abuses, and are produced with minimal environmental impact. Though conflict free diamonds origin from "save" countries like Canada, it's quite a step forward when people buy their jewelry conscious.

Though the circumstances around gold and diamonds are famous, I am quite sure other costly materials and gemstones are sourced under not all too comfortable circumstances. Hopefully fair trade can make a progress in this sector, too... So why not ask around before you buy your next jewel...?

The jewelry brand Brilliant Earth offers next to Canadian sourced Diamonds jewellery from recycled gold and "socially conscious saffires". Brilliant chic stuff, but how socially conscious can a saffire itself be? Will it run away from the rich and jump to the poor?

 Via: Feel Good Style

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 

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.

Recycling bags have become a show off for urban creatives and intellectuals nowadays. Most of them look quite the same, altough the quality and prices differ a lot (the really good ones are mostly above 100 Euro). But why stick with the square bag if recycling offers so much original possibilities?

If you look for something more exclusive, maybe the ball bag from Abteil is something for you. Suitable for the next gallery opening or... a local football match.

 via: Konsumguerilla