Micro Nutrient Couture: Emily Crane

Don’t you just wish that when you are walking along the street with a sudden craving for food you could just rip off a piece of your fashionable dress and eat it? Emily Crane is a designer who started the Micro-Nutrient Couture project in 2010 which makes exactly that kind of scenario possible. Micro-Nutrient Couture developed through the idea of using zero resources to create fashion futures and excluding current mass production possibilities.

The project examines the everyday customer who is tending towards fast fashion, high street consumption and throw-away prices. Emily Crane cooks, blends, cultures and forms different substances in order to create fashion using boundary-less techniques from the everyday and provoking a new conception of what we see as fashion. Micro-Nutrient fashion awakens the idea of individuality and uniqueness, as no-one but the individual will ever wear the same dress again. The process has formed a deeper consciousness of out future planet and the impact from current fashion cycles. Crane describes her fashion as “no longer a thing of simple beauty, but of nutrition also.”

In 2010 the total value of exports of textiles and garments from China reached $149.8 billion according to the China Textile Network Co. The demand for textiles has had a great increase (in the European Union especially) and is hindering sustainable ideals to break forward. Designers such as Emily Crane use sources that are locally scouted, which reduce the costs and environmental consequences occur when importing inexpensive textiles.

It is incredibly interesting to see such a creative process with uncommon materials and shows how sustainability can be pushed much further than we think. Going from cotton to gelatin is a huge step, but Emily Crane proves that it is not impossible. It is artists and designers like her that trigger inspiration to pursue sustainability in a creative and artistic way which can help us develop a more environmental outlook on fashion couture.

Micro-Nutrient Couture from Emily Crane on Vimeo.

Reefs of Pyramids: Ada Zanditon

When I first saw Ada Zanditon’s SS 2011 collection it was almost as if being thrown back into math class. The constant symmetry and perfect geometrical shapes make her collection so interesting to look at. It is described as a mathematical exploration of spiritual and environmental ideas which allow the Egyptian pyramid structures to create natural patterns, similar to the formation of coral. The vibrant colors mixed with more subtle ones hints towards an image of “reefs of pyramids”.

Ada Zanditon interned with Alexander McQueen before studying at the London College of Fashion. After she graduated she started to work at the Centre for Sustainable Fashion and set up her own company after working with Gareth Pugh.

Zanditon uses a range of organic and natural fabrics as well as innovative waste reducting and energy conscious solutions to create sculptural, elegant and desirable fashion. She sources the fabrics from ethical and reliable manufacturers and encourages personal relationships towards them. The studio she uses has eco friendly light bulbs, eco friendly cleaning products and recycled stationary.

Going back to her current designs, one can be amazed how efficient she creates highly innovative fashion with great ethical standards. The determinism she projects is inspirational and the importance of improving just small things (light bulbs, stationary) is brought forth. Ada Zanditon’s SS 11 collection is one that comes from a fusion of aesthetics of delicate structures and coral reefs, and at the same time illustrates deeper environmental issues which she solves sustainably through this collection.

The Devil is in The Detail: Christopher Raeburn

If you are the kind of person who is looking for fashion that is different, ethically intelligent and uniquely made, then Christopher Raeburn is the designer for you. His designs are innovative, functional and fun and what is most important that there exists a focus on an ethical and sustainable future.

Raeburn graduated from The Royal College of Art in London where he experimented with upcycled garments and started out as a freelance pattern-cutter before setting up his own label. His trademark design is the “Pop Out Parka”, a combination of two jackets that can function together or separately through their innovative technique and still representing the iconic shape of the parka.

His jackets are “re-made in England” from re-appropriated military stock, including parachute fabric, wool capes and camouflage textile. The material is cut into a new, unique pattern and made into a design that is noticed for its individuality and distinct style. One of Raeburn’s goals is to encourage skilled labor and craft in the UK through local production and re-made fabrics

“The devil is in the detail” is one of his mottos, promoting a sustainable future for fashion with great attention to design and innovation. Designers such as Christopher Raeburn are able to create exciting materials, intelligent concepts and ethical manufacturing techniques all in one and encourage a deeper outlook on sustainability. It is inspiring to see that such focus on detail and style can be supported by the environment which can be admired in his spring 2011 collection. For the autumn/winter 2011 collection he sees women aviators, long johns and exciting new fabric developments.