Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Origin 23 -- Welcome to the [R]evolution



Welcome to the [R]evolution for effective social and environmental change through fashion, spearheaded by boutique fashion agency Origin 23. Guided by an appreciation for the point from which something starts or sets out, or the person or thing from which it is ultimately derived (its origin), this fashion organization has selected a mélange of sustainable and stylish collections that address the growing demand for social and environmental sensibility through their forward style, fair trade standards, and eco-conscious tastes. In representing these emerging labels, Origin 23 works towards incorporating more ethical standards in design and merchandise production by consulting with designers and established organizations that are interested in becoming more environmentally responsible.

Origin 23 played a large role in the inception and development of the NOW Showcase, and also represents a few of the independent collections involved in the NOW forum, including JAI, Alchem1st, Timbuktu, g=9.8, Ecowrist, and more.

Check out Origin 23 at the NOW Fall 2010 Showcase, Feb 20-22, at the ICO Gallery.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Go Green Expo


Inspired by the film "An Inconvenient Truth," Bradford Rand and his team of managers and event producers set out to to make a difference in the world-- this was the birth of Go Green Expo, a showcase of environmentalism at its finest. Featuring large and small companies that have taken steps to reducing their carbon footprint, the Go Green Expo is a green event from the bottom up. Everything involved in the production of these conferences is thought out ecologically, from the biodegradable trashbags, eco-friendly printing, table coverings, recycled signs, compostable banners and more. With an aim to change the public's perception of environmentalism, the Go Green Expo travels across the nation showcasing their eco-friendly alternatives to current everyday products and services.

On March 19-21, The Go Green Expo will be in New York! Visit their site at www.gogreenexpo.com to find out more information about the event and to purchase tickets. The Go Green Expo is also involved in this year's NOW Fall 2010 Showcase. We are glad to have this group as a sponsor for our event, helping to promote fair, forward, and sustainable style.

Follow the Expo on Twitter -- http://twitter.com/gogreenexpo
Follow the Expo on Facebook -- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=8254588769
Follow the Expo on LinkedIn -- http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=113721
Go Green Expo Youtube Channel -- http://www.youtube.com/GoGreenExpo

Sustainable Style Foundation and NOW

Founded in 2003 by Rebecca Luke and Sean Schmidt, the Sustainable Style Foundation is an international, member-supported nonprofit organization that provides information, resources, and innovative programs that promote sustainable living and design. Who says that being environmentally responsible is limiting? SSF, through a myriad of methods, demonstrates how much fun and creative living eco-consciously can be, and proves that sustainable style isn't about trading in 'fabulous' trends for more eco-conscious threads. From fashion, food and film to interior design, travel, music and more, SSF provides a positive message in attracting more consumers to go green.


SSF is a sponsor of the NOW Fall 2010 Showcase, and will be presenting some of their ideas to the Showcase audience. On Sunday, Feb 21 at 10am, Rebecca Luke (co-founder of the SSF, stylist, costume designer) will be hosting an SSF salon "How To Sell Sustainability." She will also be joined by a guest interior designer from the NBBJ. Breakfast will be served. Please Join us!

NOW supports Save The Garment Center

Save The Garment Center Rally - 10/21, NYC from Save The Garment Center on Vimeo.


More than just a center for the mega-industry of fashion based in New York as well as in the greater United States, the Garment District located in Manhattan is also a historical and cultural landmark. Due to recent zoning laws, this area, which currently houses a large number of fashion's creative geniuses, is fading away, slowly being replaced by a largely increasing number of commercial enterprises. In an effort to preserve this district and protect the wholesalers, retail stores, showrooms and couture houses located in this center, a group of designers, fashion manufacturers, and organizations have banded together to affect change in the area. The campaign, called Save The Garment Center, is led by designers Nanette Lepore and Anna Sui. By informing other business owners and fashion lovers about the potential loss of this vibrant and fashion-crucial distrist, the group hopes to preserve the Garment District and it's future tenants.


You can help out too! Join the Save The Garment Center on Facebook to find out more about how you can get involved. http://www.facebook.com/savethegarmentcenter


Visit Save The Garment Center at their official website here: http://www.savethegarmentcenter.org

Friday, February 12, 2010

Playfully Regal by JAI Activewear



Smart Design=Sustainability=Contemporary Elegance

Out of a determination to reduce damage caused to the environment by the mechanisms employed by the fashion industry, emerged a sustainable clothing line custom tailored to meet the needs of the modern day princess-- women on the go who love to look and feel amazing. These women, crowned 'ambassadors of contemporary elegance,' are the main consumer audience for the Playfully Regal line by JAI Activewear, a brand that promotes holistic approaches to fashion and style, featuring eco-friendly and and socially conscious clothing that bridges the gap between comfort, fashion, style, and sustainability.

JAI Activewear is exactly that... activewear. The collection was launched last season and is now evolving into a contemporary woman's wear brand, keeping the activewear line as a continuum.


Crafted by British designer Kizzy Jai Knight, JAI is a brand elegantly influenced by movement, versatility, and flexibility. With a degree in Dance from The Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, as well as a background in yoga, Knight uses her designs to captivate the essence of her extensive physical artistry. "As a dancer and choreographer I learned about the fluidity of fabrics and how clothing should compliment and assist the body. Styling created opportunities that contextualized these discoveries and gave me a platform for testing and developing ideas with a mainstream audience," says Knight. With pieces appropriately and playfully named-- Miss Jumpsuit, Sunningdale Classic, Lady Romper, Long Len Jen-- Knight creates a style of clothing that marries luxury, comfort, and elegance with eco-conscious sensibility.

Ranked in the Top 2 on a list of Seven Up-And-Coming Green Designers of 2009 by online green fashion magazine Ecouterre, Kizzy Jai Knight continues to exceed herself by continually upgrading her style, designing uniquely fashioned and environmentally mindful pieces that prove the future of fashion is sustainability. Using biodegradable and recycled fabrics such as tencel, recycled nylon, and recycled cotton, Knight ensures the longevity of her line, as well as the endurance of the green fashion movement. Recycling is a cyclic process-- by generating products of this caliber, it becomes self-sustainable and keeps in tune with preserving our planet's resources.

The NOW is JAI-- Look out for JAI's Fall/Winter '10 collection at the NOW Fall 2010 Showcase, Feb 20-22, at the ICO Gallery. Spring immediate collections will also be available.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

ANGeLRoX: We are all Angels.

Owning an ANGeLRoX garment is about far more than adding a new piece to your closet-- it is about participating in a new way to look at clothing and life. The designer Roxi Sugar can sum up her philosophy of living in two words-- radiate joy-- and that's what these clothes create. The kicky print wings on the back of the polished jersey top are "a reminder" that "we are all angels." But it's not all Sugar in Roxi's world-- there is the most subtle and flirtatious hint of a goth vibe in her angel wing motif and the thick cross logo. It's a play of good and evil, to be sure, all enacted in the most understated and elegant of iconographies. Think high-class Tantric transcendence. These sleek and glossy garments are made from sumptuous and sustainable fabrics like bamboo jersey and the finest organic cotton, all biodegradable. The signature elegant wrap dress remains a classic, and for underneath, the angel undies promise a seamless transition into night.

Roxi has a reputation for being one of the most generous designers in New York, supporting a myriad of social causes with her clothes and staying true to her vision of fashion's future. For Roxi, a professor at NY's Parsons School of Design, fashion has moved beyond trends and she designs with longevity in mind. Every detail is done with care and with an eye towards a holistic product that clothes the body and uplifts the spirit. Her clothes have a celebrity following, with Sharon Stone and Bette Midler on board, and her line is carried in boutiques all over the US. Check out yet another Brooklyn visionary at the Now Fall 2010 Showcase, Feb 20-22, at the ICO Gallery.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Feral Childe: Fashion at Play!


Feral Childe is the eco-loving Indigo baby of two art girls--Moriah Carlson and Alice Wu--who met over a sink of eggshells at an art installation and have been making killer clothes ever since. Their line is especially whimsical and one-of-a-kind to say the least: even the buttons used in their pieces are hand-cast so that no two are exactly alike. Taking fabrics hot in the organic world like soy, hemp, organic cotton, and mill-end scraps, they paint and dye by hand to make unexpected prints. The creative process is a wild thing in the designers' Feral world of play and craft. After all, they launched into fashion fame by making clothes for each other and getting stopped so often on the street that they had to start selling. Now their clothes are sold all across the US, as well as in Japan and Korea. Paired with a playful sensibility is their serious dedication to green fashion, which for them isn't just about changing the state of our environment for the better, but also changing the way the world produces and receives fashion. Their vision is that collaboration among conscious designers will allow for change in the fashion industry, bringing forth more eco-conscious ideas and more eco-friendly designs.

Spring 2010 was reminiscent of making music on the Swiss Alps: the collection was called "The Hills are Alive," referencing The Sound of Music, though the locally produced garments still managed to exude a strong sense of Brooklyn. The hand-drawn textiles hide some tricky images--alpine mushrooms, wild pigs, lightening bolts, and rainbows--reinforcing the Childe-ish chaos motif that runs luxuriously through their collection. With every piece comes a little surprise. Notice their wheat cowl neck pull-over with neck-tabs, and a little blue babydoll dress printed with what looks like underwater photography on textile. Last year, the inspiration was Ansel Adams and the year before, Buckminster Fuller. But this year it's back to the classics, Feral-style. Fall looks like it will be mixing in some tweedy greys and ribbon skirts. For more, make sure to visit Feral Childe at their website here: http://www.feralchilde.com/

Feral Childe will be displaying their Fall collection at the NOW Fall 2010 Showcase, February 20-22 at ICO Gallery. Spring immediate collections will also be available.

Monday, February 8, 2010

naturevsfuture: organic-futurism

Launched in the spring of 2002, naturevsfuture was born out of a desire to generate unique designs that would blend imagination with architecture, nature with technology, and fashion with eco-consciousness. Founded by Parsons alum and Brooklyn native Nina Valenti, naturevsfuture is a striking fusion of classic and cutting-edge, with a futuristic aesthetic that employs the use of innovative sculptural design and sustainable fabrics. Using the body as a palette, and adding the elements of balance, line quality, rhythm and movement to the mix, Valenti constructs clothing that is functional, comfortable, bold, and fitting to the shape of the female physique. Trading her former métier of designing streetwear for her new organic-futuristic line, Valenti now focuses on creating pieces that not only defy contemporary trends, but also confronts the plight of our environment. In an effort to address these environmental concerns and promote the need to preserve and respect the earth, Valenti increasingly incorporates organic, sustainable, renewable, and biodegradable materials in the collection each season. These fabrics include organic cotton, organic wool, hemp, soy, bamboo, seacell, lyocell, and Ingeo (created from corn), as well as recycled and technological fabrics such as Polartec (made from soda pop bottles or industry waste). This eco-conscious approach to fashion is the basis for her line as well as the inspiration for the brand's name-- "The more we advance the more we need to consider nature before we deplete it. In this tension to find balance is the living energy of the collection and hence the name," says Valenti.

In the span of a few years, naturevsfuture has garnered an impressive amount of positive attention from the press including reviews in WWD, Italian Vogue, ELLE Girl, Nylon, Fader, The New York Times, Time Magazine, as well as featurettes in online magazines such as Treehugger, The Huffington Post, Trendcentral, Daily Candy, and The VillageVoice.com. In addition, naturevsfuture has also made onscreen appearances on the Today Show, General Hospital, Gilmore Girls, and What Not to Wear. With so much already accomplished, what's next for this futuristic brand? Menswear.

Check out naturevsfuture at their website here: http://www.naturevsfuture.com/ to be updated on news events about the brand, press releases, as well as access their online store.

Naturevsfuture will be presenting their fall collection at the NOW Fall 2010 Showcase. Spring immediate collection will also be available.

Sunday, February 7, 2010

SDN: Vintage Fabrics for Modern Designs

From the beginning, it was all about the worn, beautiful quality of vintage fabrics. Working at a vintage clothing store in San Francisco in the early 90s, Marcus Hicks developed a penchant for the attractiveness and versatility of these antiquated materials that would later become the foundation for his own clothing line, SDN. Dissatisfied with the standard of mainstream retail at the time, Hicks began to put his designs into production, recycling old fabrics to make one-of-a-kind screen-printed t-shirts.

Stemming from the singular idea of creating beautiful and stunning upcycled clothing, SDN has become a popular eco-fashion label, with menswear and womenswear included in the collection. In keeping his fabric supply rich and unique, Hicks obtains entirely organic, sustainable, and recycled textiles, and works his designs around the fabrics. With brilliant red vests, skinny pinstriped shirts, capes, and collar-dresses, SDN’s 1920s-hipster inspired clothing bleeds an aesthetic of clean lines and bright red lipstick, fedora-clad men in dark alleyways, a touch of grunge, glam, and the effervescence of youth. This noir-chic brand not only addresses style in an innovative way, but also takes care to address world situations by using textiles that are good for the earth, people, and even politics. SDN supports “progressive political causes” and does not utilize sweatshop labor in the creation of their clothing. SDN merchandise can be found in NYC at Tessan, Kaight, and Sodafine, and will also be featured at the NOW Fall 2010 Showcase, February 20-22 at the ICO Gallery.

Check out more of SDN's looks here: http://www.sarahdixonsnova.com/

Thursday, February 4, 2010

NOW Fall 2010 Showcase gains more sponsors!

NOW Fall 2010 Showcase is pleased to add Green Paper Products, EnviroVita, and Ace Marketing & Promotions Inc. to our list of sponsors. With their additional support, we can further impact the fashion world, demonstrating the values of eco-friendly green trends-- Fair. Sustainable. Forward. NOW Showcase. It's about time.

With an online catalog fully stocked with high quality compostable and biodegradable tableware, Green Paper Products makes it easier and more affordable to save the planet... without even leaving the kitchen! Their line of cups, cutlery, containers, plates, bowls, trays and trashbags are all made from eco-friendly renewable resources. By providing these compostable and biodegradable products, Green Paper Products aims to reduce dependence on foreign oil, divert waste from America's growing landfills, and promote sustainability while moving towards become a zero waste society.Join the Ecolution! As an enviro-marketing company that advertises promotional marketing solutions for the eco-conscious, EnviroVita provides high quality services for their clientele, while also helping to improve the planet. Featuring a collection of products custom branded to fit their client's needs, EnviroVita offers green alternatives to promotional products. Whether it's a calendar, notepad, tote bag, pen, towel, or Frisbee, these items are all environmentally friendly and generally made out of recycled and biodegradable materials.


Ace Marketing & Promotions Inc. is a promotional marketing company offering a wide array of business solutions. Established in 1998, the company has quickly expanded to now include over 2000 customer accounts. In addition to branded merchandise, Ace also offers services in importing, printing/forms management, e-commerce/website design, and more-- setting Ace apart from other companies in the promotional product industry. Ace carries an impressive amount of merchandise, including many environmentally friendly products.