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6/27/2007

HAUTE*NATURE & everydaytrash feature Trashion

Wow, we've really been getting some great blog coverage lately!

Yesterday we snagged a mention at HAUTE*NATURE, an awesome blog about green products and creative eco-minded ideas. Congrats to Drew of Fairy Tale Fibers, whose urban fairy hood was featured!


A big thanks also goes to the lovely Leila who writes everydaytrash, a cool blog about all things trashionable, for writing about us on her blog!


Thanks to all the cool bloggers who are making our new shop launch a big success!

Trashion Treasuries

Our trashion members are going bonkers in etsy's treasury section. We've curated some top trashion picks, and here are our current treasuries. Check out the great shops!
The treasuries last for two days, and then we'll all rush to snag another!

Check out:
http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=1050

and

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=1077

.tomate d'epingles. newsletter for summer 2007 - etsy trashion special issue

Please find below .tomate d'epingles. newsletter for summer 2007!
This summer is all about Trashion!

In this issue:
· introducing the etsy trashion team
· trashion in the world of crafts
· the etsy trashion team trunk show
and much more!

Thanks for reading!

Isabelle Martineau
Guylaine Martineau

.tomate d'epingles.
Combining vintage, recycled, retro and new materials into unique
creations!
Recycled jewelry? How eco-chic!

6/26/2007

Etsy Trashion in Hippy Shopper!

Check this out:
http://www.hippyshopper.com/2007/06/etsy_trashion_t.html
The site is HippyShopper, your guide to ethical consumerism.
Our blurb directs readers to our trashion team store and talks more about our team. The picture is Miggipyn's bag! The site is great, chock full of information on like minded retailers and independent sellers. Please check it out!
Our team is super busy. In case you thought we'd rest on our laurels with a new shop, blog, and coming trunk show, you'd be wrong. We're making a video, stamping out some promo buttons and organizing a pre-trunk show sale in our individual etsy shops! Of course, that's on top of making lots of awesome trashion goods!

6/21/2007

Trashion Promos + A Recycled Fashion Show

A big thanks goes out to Liz of eco-blog Great Green Goods for giving our team a write up! She had some wonderful things to say about us. Read more here.

I've been so busy during the last month that I've barely had time to sit down at my sewing machine, so I've spent the past two days trying to remedy that. First, I started working on some Etsy Trashion promo items to put into our gift bags, which will be given out to the first 25 people through the door at our trunk show at Etsy Labs on July 27th.

Denim is my favorite fabric to work with, so it was a given that I'd want to incorporate some denim scraps in my project. And since orange is the Etsy logo color, I thought I'd dig through my fabric stash for something orange. I found this bright orange terrycloth cover-up dress - I think it came from some fabric donations I received after Hurricane Katrina. I'm making little hearts with the orange terrycloth and the denim, and stitching "ETSYtrashion" on each heart. I'm planning to turn them into keychains!

Next, I got started working on my designs for the Worn Again Fashion Show. Basically each designer gets a bag full of random old clothes and other materials and then we have two weeks to create 1-2 new and fabulous outfits from it! It’s like a total Project Runway challenge! I was originally planning to do just one piece, but the bag of stuff I got has way too much in it for just one outfit. See below:


The event will be held at The Green Project on June 30th and proceeds will benefit Recycle for the Arts. They're going to auction off all of the outfits to raise money for R4A too.

6/20/2007

Meet the big guns of the Trashion Street Team

The trashion street team has several dozen members, but who are the organizers of all this? Here is a glimpse! Get to know the folks who are volunteering to lead some Etsy Trashion team projects.

The team itself is the brainchild of Pauliina, of http://pauliina.etsy.com/. She's an activist and artist who's made wonderful items out of reclaimed materials - broken zippers are reborn into beautiful jewelry. Last year, Pauliina knew that lots of other people on Etsy were emersing themselves in the same aesthetic that she was - taking old, found, used, and otherwise discarded items (trash) and making them fashionable again by revamping, recycling, reclaiming, recreating! From this trash + fashion, came trashion, and therefore the trashion street team on Etsy.

Another early member is sharing the admin duties. Catherine, of http://sweetyprize.etsy.com/, created a yahoogroup to unite members and facilitate discussion of new projects. Since she began crafting, Catherine took care to use the most of what she had, often thinking of creative ways with old or broken things. She makes jewelry out of them, or crochets with them. After leading some smaller group projects, Catherine was ecstatic to see the street team flourish by suggesting new projects and helping organize the trunk show the team is having, July 27 in EtsyLabs in Brooklyn. She also helps oversee the team shop and contributes to the team blog.

But with the trunk show and promotion in general, team member Mallory of http://dismantled.etsy.com/ has been invaluable! Mallory is making the long haul from New Orleans to attend the trunk show, and is overseeing the swag bags early attendees will score. She is kicking butt promoting the show and the team, netting the trashion team untold exposure on well-viewed sites! Besides all the beautiful brooches and other articles she makes from reclaimed fabrics, Mallory is digitally talented, having designed some great banners and animation for the team, too.

Another key member is Drew of http://fairytalefibers.etsy.com/. Drew, besides her own shop of well crafted clothing made entirely of selvedge, manages the street team shop at http://etsytrashion.etsy.com/. In a matter of days, Drew has not only set up the team shop, but motivated members to increase their exposure by posting their items to the shop. The shop is more alive and kicking than some sellers' individual shops!

Guylaine, of http://tomatedepingles.etsy.com/, is the creator of this very blog you are reading! Without her, we'd have no real avenue to show the world what makes Trashion so great! This blog will feature our members, our projects, our events and trashion in general. Blogs are an essential tool, and we have G to thank! Besides this, her shop newsletter focused on trashion in its latest issue. G makes beautiful jewelry out of scrap fabrics, vintage buttons and other itty bitty things. It's all eco-chic ;-)

Pat, who has the shops http://yieldtowhim.etsy.com/ and http://trashionmode.etsy.com/, is helping to spread the message of trashion in an important way - showing people how easy trashion can be. A unique part of the Trashion trunk show at EtsyLabs July 27 will be a donated workstation to learn how to make paper beads, a craft that recycles junk paper into jewelry components. Plus, she is creating supply bags, but unlike the supplies bought at the craft store, these bags are filled with trashion! It should inspire lots of new people to create, or re-create with Trashion!

We're adding new members all the time! These are just some of the folks who have stepped up in a major way. We wanted to let you know more about the folks behind these initiatives, but we have lots of great team members who are both unique crafters and artists but also wonderful teammates. Look for more features on street team members here soon!

Etsy Trashion Street Team Shop

The Etsy Trashion Street Team now has its own Shop!

Etsy Trashion Team is a group of over 70 artists from around the world who specialize in turning trash into treasure.

We are about visualizing beauty in unconventional objects and materials. We fabricate art, jewelry, fashion and objects for the home from used, thrown-out & found elements.

For us, trashion is a philosophy and an ethic. It encompasses environmentalism and innovation, and respects the human creative and healing potential.

A list of our current Street Team members can can be found in our Favorite Sellers (an easy way to check out all our members' incredibly amazing shops).

This shop is co- managed by http://fairytalefibers.etsy.com and http://sweetyprize.etsy.com

50% of the proceeds from sales of items in this shop will help the Etsy Trashion Team host their very own Trunk Show at the Etsy Labs in NY on July 27th! We would love to see you there!

Thanks for supporting upcycling, and buying green!

Make this a Green Day!

Edouard Martinet - scrap metal creatures

Edouard Martinet creates amazingly life-like creatures out of scrap metal.

Here are some of his creations





Here are some "work in progress" pictures as well.

6/19/2007

Fashion and Recycling

Fashionistas Protect Bank Balance and Planet

Dawn had barely broken and 200 fashionistas were beginning to gather for the opening of London's newest shopping experience.

From 4 a.m. they queued, eager to be among the first to rummage through the rails of designer and quality high street clothing in the latest store to grace trendy Knightsbridge.

For this was the opening day of a pop-up shop -- open for a matter of weeks -- and the scene of Britain's first high fashion swapping event.

"Welcome to the world of Visa Swap -- an entirely new concept that enables you to spring-clean your wardrobe and 'buy' new clothes without spending a penny," proclaims its Web site,
http://www.visaswap.com/.

"Plus, all this can be done safe in the knowledge that your eco-halo will be gleaming like Liz Hurley's wedding ring."

For the past fortnight, fashion lovers have come to the Brompton Road store to exchange unwanted vintage frocks and Louboutin shoes for a Visa Swap chip card charged with points.
The more exclusive and unique the garment, the more points they receive -- from 40 for a hat to 500 for a coat.

As word spreads, eco-conscious celebrities dig into the back of their wardrobes too: donations from a gaggle of style icons -- pop star Kylie Minogue, supermodel Naomi Campbell, presenter June Sarpong and actress Mischa Barton (the face of the campaign) included -- flood through the door.

Designers themselves help to furnish the shelves, packed with dry cleaned and pressed second-hand pieces, with fashionista must-haves.

Nestling among the public's discarded garments, numbering thousands, are items from top Irish milliner Philip Treacy, London-based designer Alice Temperley, Issa (founded by Brazilian designer Daniella Helayel), Bella Freud (a former assistant to Vivienne Westwood), current British Fashion Designer of the Year Giles Deacon and shoe label Gina.

The debt free swap weekend attracts people from "every demographic", says Fiona Duncan, vice-president for innovation at Visa Europe, which has joined forces with TRAID (
Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) for the project.

An 85-year-old woman is one of the first through the door, while word of a spat between two younger customers over an iconic vintage Chanel handbag is the talk of the swap shop.

"We wanted to do something in the fashion arena that was accessible to everybody and that everybody won from," says Duncan.

"Because we're in the industry of purchases, we're really conscious that there's a lot of wastage these days.

"But people are becoming more aware (of the environment), so why not swap something you no longer wear and give someone else pleasure out of it?"

Stylists give advice on how to customise recycled clothing, while a team of MAC make-up artists help customers complete their new look.

Farah Mathres, originally from France, attends both days of the event, exchanging the 1,500 points she received for a number of silk shirts and jumpers, as well as a winter coat, on summer items for her impending travels in Asia.

"I've found things here I'd never have thought of (wearing)," she says.

"But I'm just so excited; I've got to pick them up.

"I've lived in New York and Paris and I've never seen anything like this.

"It's a lot of fun: if you've got the passion for clothes, you just couldn't miss it."

She is one of 500 fashionistas to snap up "new" items of clothing and footwear -- packaged in Hessian bags in keeping with the green philosophy -- during the two-day swap.

As the crowds dispersed and another busy shopping weekend in Knightsbridge drew to a close, few items remained.

These are bound for TRAID, which reuses, recycles and sells second-hand clothes and shoes, diverting textile waste from landfill and raising money to fund projects in some of the world's poorest communities.

"It's totally exceeded our expectations in terms of the number of people," says Sarah Bunter, manager of the pop-up shop.

"The high street has become so enormous; I think people have come here to get something unique.

"It's also heightened awareness of how the things you don't want any more can go to good use.
"A lot of people have been asking when the next one is going to be."

With Visa keen to "go global" with the initiative, shoppers might not have to wait too long for their next fix of fashion that does not cost the earth.

Story by Jennifer Hill
REUTERS NEWS SERVICE

Five Facts About Fashion and Recycling

Payment card provider Visa teamed up with TRAID (Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development) to stage its first fashion "swap shop".

Here are five facts about Britons' consumption of clothing and the work of TRAID:

- British consumers buy 2.15 million tonnes of new clothing, shoes and accessories every year.
- They throw away more than 900,000 million items per year.
- TRAID operates a network of 850 textile recycling banks across the country.
- In 2006, the charity -- which has shops in London and Brighton -- re-used 3,500 tonnes of unwanted clothing and shoes.
- It donated funds to projects in the Philippines, Madagascar and Uganda and facilitated educational workshops with 6,000 primary and secondary school pupils in London.

6/16/2007

Welcome!


Welcome! to the etsy trashion blog!

The Etsy Trashion Team is about visualizing beauty in unconventional objects and materials. We fabricate art, jewelry, fashion and objects for the home from used, thrown-out & found elements.

Trashion is a philosophy and an ethic. It encompasses environmentalism and innovation, and respects the human creative and healing potential. Making traditional objects out of recycled or upcycled materials can be trashion. Making avant-garde fashion out of cast-offs or junk can be trashion.

Please visit our blog often for news on the team and the team members.

Also see our Etsy Trashion Street Team Shop!