Window shopping: a display attracts your attention. You look into a face. You see a cool guy. Maybe he’s a little too serious looking? But his jacket is great. You should try it on. It is this moment that makes you decide whether you step inside or don’t.
photo: fotodimatti.com
High-quality mannequinns are made to last. Atelier Mohr turns “second hand” figures into “new” or “different” looking versions. By using pioneering techniques and excellent materials with an eye for detail they make damages and signs of wear disappear. In the process they are working environmentally friendly and always optimize their workflow. Read more…
“I would like us all to think of design in a broader way”
June 25, 2010
Many people have already told us what they wish and expect from products and design in the future.
For example, this ist what Emma Aulanko from the Finnland Institut in Berlin thinks:
“The most important thing with design is to make the life of people a bit easier. It doesn’t have to be product design it can also mean the design of processes or services or whatever. It doesn’t have to be a concrete thing. I would like us all to think of design in a broader way.”
(Emma Aulanko at the opening of the “bright green design” exhibition at the International Design Center Berlin)
And in the discussion on our website user Anke said: “Ich bleib bescheiden und wünsch mir einfach nur ein biologisch abbaubares Abflussfrei, das genauso gut wirkt, wie die ganzen giftigen Granulate.” So what do YOU think?
“we still don’t like to call ourself a green company”
June 24, 2010
For Norwegian fashion designer Kristofer Kongshaug sustainability means trouble, it means boring basics… and that’s exactly what he is hoping to change with his label.
“I think it is important, and that we all have some kind of responsibility. But it’s not my main focus. When we use sustainable fabrics, it’s usually a choice done with respect to the fabric style and not necessary because it’s a sustainable material.” Read more…
Fashion by *magdalena schaffrin, Photo: Jan Rasmus Voss
For Berlin-based fashion designer Magdalena Schaffrin sustainability means making a difference.
“Working in the way I do, I make a bigger difference than as a consumer. Creating sustainable fashion shows people the normality of sustainability and the feel good factor of ecofashion.”
She claims that modern luxury is about time, quality and conscience. Today, our way of living and consuming is mostly characterised by the loss of time and cheap prizes. Satisfying these claims, the damage done to the environment and people is huge. In the textile industry a lot of toxic chemicals are used in the production of fabrics and clothes, which are dangerous for the workers and sometimes still harmful to the body of the wearer. Read more…
fashion by Friederike von Wedel, Photo: Özgür Albayrak Model: Anne Meister Makeup: Christina Roth Styling: Allessandra Coico
Asked what sustainability means for her as a fashion designer, Friederike von Wedel-Parlow says: “struggle and pleasure. Working with nature’s limits is a great challenge. New impulses and solutions are teased out by sustainability restrictions, by skrutinizing values, rules and goals of the fashion sector.” Read more…
fashion by Esther Perbandt, Photo: Sebastian Stottele, Model: Madlen Wilk / Seeds, Make-up/Styling: Konstanze Krischer
“As a consumer I am not pressurising myself. I know that sometimes I am a devil and that I could do better. Still I try to be aware and choose rather sustainable products. I wish that one day there will be no more price difference between sustainable and non sustainabl products.”
Fashion designer Esther Perbandt from Berlin knows: Sustainability is a big subject and the new trend at the moment. “I don’t like that at all. But the way I approached it may help others as well to do little steps. Sustainability for me doesn’t mean to change your complete lifestyle. It is about starting to think different and be aware and just try to do better. And if it is only that you decide to reduce the time of taking a shower from ten to seven minutes. Imagine how much water you save in one year. I can totally identify with the feeling of awkwardness you may have when you actually want to change something.” Read more…
For Danish designer bARBARA Í gONGINI sustainability is an important aspect in her work.
“This is my mind set within the industry – there are clear limits for what we will do to reach our goals… We will always produce in a fair trade production place, we will use all from 50 – 100 % organic fabrics in each collection, we will use bi-products within fur and leather production, we will use no chrome 6 in the dye process of leather, we will work with new aspects within the concept – such as making multifunctional clothing and de-constructing old or existing objects, cloths or fabrics. It is highly satisfying to find new ways within the industry that is not quite there yet, therefore smaller actions are as willable as bigger actions in this aspect. My aim is 100% sustainability… We want to be ban-breaking within Nordic design, demonstrating a stronger edge design with a strong political profile.” Read more…
Photo: Frauke Fischer, Model: Josefin Herrmann, Seeds, Make-up/Styling: Manuela Kopp
Julia Knüpfer says: “I am aware that everything I do has a certain environmental and social impact on our ecosystem. The negative effects of the conventional production of textiles are obvious and when I started my fashion-label it was clear that I would go a different way.”
In 2009 she founded her green-fashion-label ica watermelon. It combines the concept of sustainability with high fashion. It stands for emotional long- lasting designs and lots of love to detail. The subject of nature and environment plays a central role and is conceptually translated into garments. Read more…
Fashion by Tarané Hoock, Photo: Frauke Fischer, Model: Josefin Herrmann, Seeds, Make-up/Styling: Manuela Kopp
For Tarané Hoock as a designer sustainability means transforming design into an art form.
An important and recurring theme in Taranés work is her occupation with memory the idea to design time: Tarané seeks to conjoin the transcendental (the fashion) with the permament (the values of life). She wants to make clothes which are like friends. Read more…
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
Sustainability for me is an important aspect in my work. This is my mind set within the industry – there are clear limits for what we will do to reach our goals… We will always produce in a fair trade production place, we will use all from 50 – 100 % organic fabrics in each collection, we will use bi-products within fur and leather production, we will use no chrome 6 in the dye process of leather, we will work with new aspects within the concept – such as making multifunctional clothing and de-constructing old or existing objects, cloths or fabrics. It is highly satisfying to find new ways within the industry that is not quite there yet, therefore smaller actions are as willable as bigger actions in this aspect. My aim is 100% sustainability… We want to be ban-breaking within Nordic design, demonstrating a stronger edge design with a strong political profile. Read more…
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
I am a full time skipjack, “as a side job” I am leading a company of fashion design for womanswear and accessories, which requires a lot of courage and power. With these two main activities I often become a role model for other people. I want to pass this strength on to others. My aim is to circulate courage and power to think and act autonomously, to encourage going different or new ways and to act responsibly towards yourself and your environment. Read more…
Photo: Frauke Fischer, Model: Josefin Herrmann, Seeds, Make-up/Styling: Manuela Kopp
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
I am aware that everything I do has a certain environmental and social impact on our ecosystem. The negative effects of the conventional production of textiles are obvious and when I started my fashion- label it was clear that I would go a different way. Sustainable fashion design implies many things. For me the most important aspect is considering environmentally friendly, fair trade materials and a social production. Read more…
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
For KK, design and fabrics are the most important things to establish an expression, whether the materials are sustainable or not. After reading and learning more about this GREEN part of the industry, we started looking at what materials we already were using and discovered that we had for long time been using both biodegradable fabrics, organic cottons and several new sustainable fibers in our garments. This without really having a green agenda. Read more…
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
Is there any other possibility than engaging aspects of sustainability in the fashion design nowadays? Sustainability has an impact on all levels of a fashion brand:
Long lasting design: The look of my collection is timeless and marked by classical pieces. The careful selection of fabrics, the high quality of production and the attention to the line and shapes, give the collection its specialty. My intention is to create clothing, where the design, the cut and the material merge into perfection. Therefore I have stopped working in the classical rhythm of two collections per year. That means for me, that I am concentrating on one collection, which will grow bigger in a healthy way. It changes seasonal in the chioce of material and colour. Read more…
During Berlin Fashion Week from July 8th to 11th 2010 BerliNordik will be presenting the second “bright green design” exhibition, which will be the largest international exhibition on Eco-Fashion and Product Design in Berlin.
At the glamorous atrium of Deutsche Bank ‘Unter den Linden’, just next to the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week, Nordic fashion designers from Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden as well as five Berlin fashion designers will present their vision of Eco-Fashion in the Premium segment. They all found different ways to work on Eco-Fashion: with natural eco-certified material as well as with new developed fabrics or innovative cuts and minimal seaming to save material…
All the designers and their approaches towards Eco-Fashion will be introduced here soon. First up is MAXJENNY: Read more…
pantone ski origami jacket, photo: Lars G Svensson
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
MAXJENNY has been turning heads as one of the brightest new stars on the Danish fashion scene. This talented designer produces striking garments for the woman of today. Edgy, sophisticated and affordable, her designs are also created with environmental consideration as a core value. MAXJENNY’s latest collection includes multi-functional raincoats made from recycled PET fibres, and cutting edge garments of recycled polyester. Both materials have a wonderful look and are unique to the touch. There are also pieces made with bamboo fibres, another sustainable yet wearable material. All MAXJENNY collections are produced according to fair trade principles. MAXJENNY creations are visually striking and easy to wear. Drapings and geometric silhouettes are a large part of the overall look, resulting in garments that are elegant yet casual. Read more…
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
In this aspect: I´m using sustainable materials as much as I can. I used ecological material for the first time in 2003 when I designed a collection for the Finnish textile and fashion brand Marimekko. The material was 100% bamboo. After that I have used sustainable materials such as milk, eco-cotton, eco-wool etc. Costs of those materials are still high but they are excellent. Nature has given so much and protected the human race for such a long time, it is time that we humans save the nature. Read more…
Fashion by Tarané Hoock, Photo: Frauke Fischer, Model: Josefin Herrmann, Seeds, Make-up/Styling: Manuela Kopp
How and why do I engage in aspects of sustainability in my fashion design?
During my studies I worked consistently with the theme of “memory” – to design time. Sustainability, not only in terms of sustainable production, but also sustainable design. To concentrate the transcendental (the fashion) and the permanent (the values of life) in one concept. To find an identity for the garment, to make clothes which are “like friends”. Sustainability as an artistic concept. Read more…
At the opening of the first BerliNordik “bright green design” exhibition at the International Design Center Berlin our media partner Lilli Green collected some impressions and also interviewed participating designers from Finland, Norway and Berlin about their work.
With her schubLaden furniture Franziska Wodicka does not only give old drawers a new life, the Berlin-based designer also lets her customers participate in the design process and thus creates new “Lieblingsstücke”. Read more…
The design duo schmidttakahashi from Berlin (Eugenie Schmidt and Mariko Takahashi) found a great fascination on used garments, which are affected by individual owner. They are no longer anonymous objects as soon as they end up to the hands of particular person. Even if the clothes are mass produced for an unknown number of consumers. So schmidttakahashi developed an ambitious project: Read more…
At BerliNordik’s “bright green design” exhibition Berlin-based designer Arndt Menke-Zumbrägel proves that natural materials can be used to construct high-performance devices.
Currently, only very few designers still use wood as a construction material. New materials provide new opportunities, but do we really know wood already? Is it not possible that there is even more in it than those wonderful shapes Charles and Ray Eames created out of deformed plywood? Read more…
“We believe that every single one of us can help making a change.”
June 5, 2010
ett la benn is a Berlin-based agency for product and interior design.
They say: “As individuals we have to find ways to adapt to certain needs, instead of simply waiting that someone comes up with the perfect solution.” Read more…
For their Diploma project in textile design at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee, LUM! (Lisa Spengler and Moa Hallgren) are working on their object-project REMÖTIL at the moment. Read more…
Hella Hernberg standing next to her brand new urban farm at 'Kalasatama', which is an old harbor area of Helsinki. Hella has recently worked as a member of a team developing temporary uses and environmental art in this area, which is waiting for more permanent future development.
Hella Hernberg is a Helsinki-based architect and designer whose work ranges from objects to urban projects. Her design ideology follows the guiding principle of turning unused and discarded things valuable and necessary, whether they are household objects or urban spaces. By combining the old and contemporary, the familiar and unexpected, she brings more character and stories to common concepts. Read more…
During the International Design Festival Berlin DMY from June 9th – 13th 2010 not only Tempelhof Airport but the whole city will be buzzing with new design ideas – many of them bright green.
As one of more than 40 Extended Locations schœner.wærs.wenns.schœner.wær – Conceptstore for sustainable Design presents two interesting events at their store: Read more…
Apokalyps (apocalypse) can be understood as, not only doom, but also revelation. ALT is a design and innovation studio from Malmö that works with sustainable design and re-use of materials. They move in the fields of technology, chemistry and of course design. ALT is the result of their knowledge as industrial designers, their creativity and their visions of a healthier way of consumption. ALT also offers consulting, lectures and workshops. Read more…
With her schubLaden furniture Franziska Wodicka does not only give old drawers a new life, the Berlin-based designer also lets her customers participate in the design process and thus creates new “Lieblingsstücke”. 
ett la benn is a Berlin-based agency for product and interior design.
For their Diploma project in textile design at the Kunsthochschule Berlin Weißensee, LUM! (Lisa Spengler and Moa Hallgren) are working on their object-project REMÖTIL at the moment. 
