“Sunglasses always hide a multitude of sins.” Victoria Beckham
Cloud seven
Cushion or bag? If necessary, the companion becomes a headrest. Although: The crumpled “India” tote from Nanushka is far too beautiful for us to use it anywhere else. While larger brands sell their cloudy bags for so much money that we could buy a whole box spring bed with a silk set, the Hungarian label Nanushka charges just 322. A dream that you can make come true.
31 rue cambon
Karl is dead – and whether he was a windbag or a genius is something we won’t be discussing here. The fact is: the house of Chanel is surrounded by a glamor that hardly any other label can match. What is going on behind closed doors on Rue Cambon in Paris, where fabrics become clothes and fashion becomes art? Laetitia Cénac has visited them all: the tailors, shoe and hat makers, the suppliers to Chanel, without whose craftsmanship the catwalk would remain empty . “Chanel: The Making of a Collection” doesn’t just stick to the maestro’s heels, but pushes those people into the spotlight, who continue to spin the Chanel web even after Lagerfeld . Laetitia Cénac, “Chanel: The Making of a Collection”, Abrams & Chronicle Books, ca. 45, from August 2019.
One step ahead
The world has problems. Climate change, social injustice, scarcity of resources – the list is long. You have to start somewhere, and Veja does it at the bottom. The French sneakers label produces transparently, fairly and in a resource-friendly manner: the organic cotton used comes from Brazilian farmers who do not haggle over prices, the natural rubber comes from Amazonian tribes and production takes place in a Brazilian factory whose workers are paid appropriately for their work in line with European standards. This is joined by a new material, the so-called B-Mesh, which is made from plastic bottles. Collected from the streets of Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paolo, there are three bottles in each shoe at the end. If leather is used, it is vegetable-dyed. Behind Veja are guys in their thirties who started their label ten years ago in their mid-twenties. Transparency and authenticity go hand in hand, which is why they use green electricity throughout the company and refrain from working with banks whose branches are located in tax havens. Making the world a better place – Veja is taking the first steps, we are following suit. www.veja-store.com
Center point
The bum bag is now called the Belly Bag. Of course, the usual Anglicism does not hide the fact that this accessory accentuates precisely the area that we would prefer to conceal. Instead of carrying them on our hips, we prefer to wear them around our waists rather than stuffing everything we need to survive into them as we did in the old days. The fact that cell phones have become smartphones in the meantime and that we prefer to pay with plastic cards rather than thick coins anyway, is therefore a good thing for bag packing.
8’000 liters
Turn off the tap when brushing your teeth or shower for five minutes instead of ten: Yes, this reduces water consumption. But if you then buy a new pair of jeans every month, you will spoil your balance sheet. It takes 8,000 liters of water from the cultivation of the cotton to the finishing process until the blue fabric caresses our curves . That’s a good 50 full baths. Just think about it.
What goes around comes around
We’ll leave the silly talk of psychedelic substances and long-haired hippies and get to the real point: namely that everything comes back. This applies to fanny packs just as much as to batik, a technique we used to alter old T-shirts as teenagers. Incidentally, the latter is still the same, but today it’s called upcycling! You can do it yourself in the bathtub or in a plastic trough, the old-school way with fabric paint and rubber bands. After all, you don’t always have to buy everything new.
