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If you find yourself weak of wallet yet still a slave to fashionista longings, take heart and a cue from Garbage Dress blogger/designer/oh-so-clever recycler Zana Bayne who took a boring pair of purple (yep, she painted them!) shoes and with a few hundred rhinestones, a lot of glue and I'm assuming tons o' time and revamped them into these runway ready show-stoppers.
Finally, some common ground between motorheads and fashionistas. Designer Kim White has mined the upholstery from vintage cars—and created very cool looking, fashionable, and functional bags. Inside each purse is a tag stating where it came from. You’ll know if your tote was from a ’78 Mustang or an ’86 Volkswagen. Would you believe that this clutch ($175 above) was made from the interior of a ’75 AMC Pacer! Check out her site for more cool clutches, totes and purses.
Fred Lebain has been there before. Last spring, on his first trip to New York, Lebain photographed various NYC vignettes and then had them printed in large poster format. He then returned to the scene, photos in hand, lines them up with the original image and rephotographs them in a "Where's Waldo"- like amalgamation of the original print, fingers and shoes. Tre cool.
Dutch designer Erik De Nijs created Suited Case - a collection of four functional suitcases that can be linked together in the form of a couch. His goal was to give travelers a taste of home while away:
This concept came from a research on nostalgia during travelling. When a familiar object from home is taken with you on a trip you feel much more at ease. And which object is more familiar then your own comfortable couch?
Why crash on a friend's couch when you can cozy up on your own?
You're at the farmer's market supporting community agriculture, you've picked out a bunch of delicious looking heirloom tomatoes and oh shit! you've forgotten to bring a bag. Options: Stuff them in your purse and have marinara by the time you get home, take a very planet-unfriendly plastic bag or visit Glenn Robinson's Bags for the People booth.
Noticing that the "oh shit" moment was all too common amongst his farmer's market customers, Robinson started making cloth bags from recycled t-shirts to give out to people at his stand. "We were giving out plastic bags left and right and it just seemed like a problem to me and I was part of the problem, I was actually handing them out," says Robinson. The idea took off and he started the organization "Bags For The People," which holds sewing workshops for the public and in schools. "Giving people the bag, it's almost like giving people a gift and they get really excited," says Robinson. "They are like, 'Oh my god, thank you.'"
The sewing machines, the solar panels that run the machines, and the fabric are all donated. The rest comes straight from Robinson's pocket. "We want to get a step van, hook it up with solar panels, have it run off vegetable grease, travel around with this mobile sewing unit and just go to schools across the nation," he says.(source: Planet Green)
I shop at thrift stores every day. Seriously, like every single day. I don't always buy but, living in San Francisco, they're all over the place and represent the modern day treasure hunt - you never know what you'll discover.
Leave it to corporate America to take this most harmless of hobbies and turn it against us. According to the Concord Monitor, credit card companies are noting purchases like thrift stores, shoe repair and tire retreading as proof that you're headed for financial ruin and using this as reason to deny, lower and in some cases even harm your credit.
Big Brother proves once again he's no friend of the planet. (source: Mother Jones)
