Eco Fashion Network Meeting in Berlin

Last weekend during the Berlin Fashion Week we organized a network meeting with Karmakonsum for the German eko fashion scene. 35 designers, shop owners and bloggers got together in Bio Restaurant Diwan and had an inspiring and fruitful evening. It was fun, next time we'll be probably more again... the scene is growing...

On the pictures: Magdalena Schaffrin, 500Godz, Bransparent, Jovoo, Armedangels, Karmakonsum, Slowmo. More pics of the meeting at Karmakonsum's Flickr

The Premium exhibition was rather disappointing. Less green brands than last time, and less international. The Green Area does not have a policy on which brands are "green", so everyone can buy a green spot. And is a bamboo floor really the right thing? If the Premium wants to keep the green thing going, they have to invest in it big time. Otherwise they might miss the boat.

Reviewing Karmakonsum Greencamp

This weekend I visited the Karmakonsum LOHAS Conference and Greencamp. Most of this kinds of events mix in some green washing elements within the program, and I was excited to hear rather critical or in-depth approaches on these items from the stage (see my report on the Karmakonsum blog).

With this balanced program Organizers Christoph Harrach and Noel Klein-Reesink showed that they have a good sensibility for the case. The atmosphere was neat and informal, the audience was a good clash of green business professionals, marketeers and activists.

Compared with the conference, the green camp started totally different. Christoph and Noel pointed on the freedom and open space idea of the camp, and created some creative chaos on stage. 'Anyone still wants to give a workshop?'. Christoph did not only ask the audience what Karma means, he started the day with a meditation with the whole audience. Reactions in the public showed that some people got here for Karma, while others were far more interested in the topic of Konsum.

The Greencamp program was very diverse, from a workshop on LOHAS lifestyle by Ivy main editor Michalis Pantelouris, a workshop on online communities by Daniel Pichert from Fairdo, a workshop on the social fashion label Armedangels by Anton Jurina
till a workshop on meida and sustainability by Christian Neugebauer. A large, respectful program, created by the visitors.

For a Conference 2.0, the workshops I visited were still unnecessary topdown, while the public existed of professionals in the field. This reflects the double position of 2.0 methods, on the one hand it gives power to the people through blogs and communities, on the other hand web 2.0 functions are used strategically to create influence on a community.

The real value of the conference and camp lies in it's power to get people together and create a strong network of people working with the topic of strategic and ethical consume. In other words: good karma. Meeting still people on the station, I felt that the conference had a strong, positive flow. Energy I am still running on, a lot of new ideas for projects and cooperations.

Picture: workshop with Armed Angels

Karmakonsum Conference: It is not Easy being Green

I am right now on the Karmakonsum Conference on LOHAS Marketing in Frankfurt, and in a few hours discussions hit the podium and heat up the athmosphere. An eclectic mix of people on the conference and an enlightening sunshine makes the conference hot: “Alte Ökos” (old ecos), Neogreens, conventional marketing agencies, representatives from sustainable businesses...

Read my reports on the Karmakonsum Blog , the first post here

Eco Luxurious Fashion by Fin

Eco luxurious lifestyle? Check out the sleek and original presentation of the Norwegian luxurious eco fashion brand Fin (yeah, a bit confusing name in this case). Don't forget to press 'next'...

Fin shows eco fashion from it's best LOHAS side. Their clothes are made from organic cotton, wild silk, and organic alpaca. Not something to wear while camping or mountain hiking. But half naked chic can be quite eco after all.

Treches by JBR: New Organic Streetwear Label from Berlin

It's getting a hot spring for eco-fashion in Berlin. We choose a good time to kickstart our own label Pamoyo. Yesterday we where on the show of the new organic streetwear label Treches, a label by designerin "JBR", Jeanette Bruneau Rossow. Cecilia had contact with Jeanette since the Berlin Fair Fashion Affair, and now she launched her first organic collection on the Lido Kreativmesse.

Clothing and models where on the activist side of style, but since Nike is advertising with "Riot" on it's logo, that's business as usual. For all in Berlin. I always wonder how LOHAS* can be cool in a young, urban setting, as a real party lifestyle does not fit with Healthy stuff. The trend here is more LOPAS: Lifestyle of Parties and Sustainability.

*LOHAS: Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability

Looking for a Ride from Berlin to the Karmakonsum Green Camp

On May 30 there is a LOHAS marketing Conference in Frankfurt (Germany) accompanied by a Green Camp on the day after. I'm at least going o the Green Camp to meet up with other bloggers and entrepreneurs in the field, I like the Open Source concept of the Event and it's something very energetic in this new movement.

If anyone is going by car from Berlin and has a seat free, please let me know!

Green Chic - Saving the Earth in Style

Can we live a gorgeous green lifestyle without giving in on the comfort of our luxury consumption habits? There is a boom of new conscious and green lifestyle magazines and advertisements that promise us that the new green is all about luxurious and quality living. They say LOHAS (Lifestyle of Health and Sustainability) do not give in with consuming less, they choose for a lifestyle of conscious hedonism. But how is that possible?

Trendy green lifestyle
After a wave of articles on the issue of trendy green lifestyle, lately more and more guides on green living are being published. I read two books for chic women, women who care about their style but are also concerned about our planet. Both books are stuffed with tips on how to live green in a stylish, enjoyable way.

Green Chic
Green Chic, Saving the Earth in Style is a book by Christie Matheson, who helps her readers changing their lifestyle towards a more energy saving and conscious one, while staying chic. A lot of attention goes to tips that help reduce CO2 emissions.

Green is the New Black
Green is the New Black, how to change the world with style, by Tamsin Blanchard, is focussed on style issues such as being a green fashionista, designing your own clothes, green weddings and holidays.

Showering less
In first instance I fell for the design of Green is the New Black, but even with style handbooks it's not all about the looks! Actually Green Chic is a better practical guide and goes a bit further in green lifestyle tips. While the first hangs a lot on style details and is written for women who can't resist their consumerist addictions, Green Chic dares to get her chic readers into showering less or changing their fashion habits completely. Green Chic contains a lot of open doors, such as "eat more local, organic whole foods" but also some serious background information on the sustainability of different textiles.

Green fashionista
I liked Green Chic because it went into changing your lifestyle towards more quality. The best part is the advice on changing your wardrobe. She advices you to "edit" your whole wardrobe until you only have clothes that you really, really love wearing. And to get rid of everything else. An interesting starting point of becoming a green fashionista...

Less is more
To come back to the dilemma weather luxurious green consume is possible, I believe the green chic lifestyle should not just be about endless luxury consumption. Green products often carry a special quality that cheap or conventional products don't have. But above all green living is about enjoying quality above quantity. In supermarkets you are tricked into all kinds of psychological discounts, and in the end you always buy more things than you need. Since I exchanged supermarkets for shopping at local organic stores and the organic week market, I buy much less and enjoy much more of the products I consume. It is a luxurious lifestyle just buying organic food, but it does not costs me more than my former consume habits. Really! So the best way to enjoy a green chic lifestyle is to give in on the quantity and go for the quality. Less is more.

There is also two new books on ethical fashion with alike titles: Eco Chic, The savvy shoppers guide to ethical fashion, by Mathilda Lee; and the almost released Eco-Chic, The fashion paradox, by Sandy Black.

Boom of community based ethical consumer sites in Germany

In Germany there is a boom of new, community based ethical consumer websites that are being launched. One of the most successful of these on the moment is Utopia.

Another initiative with some good names behind it is New Ethics, both German and international. But they are still a bit in a starting up stage. Also a good one is Weltretter. Other sites working partly with a community are lohas.de and ivy.de.

It is a shame that some of these 'community based' sites choose a rather commercial strategy, which might weaken the purpose they say to stand for. The question is if conscious consumers want to connect their ideal word with too obvious product placements. But in general it is a good sign that so much of these initiatives are being set up, and that ethical consume is getting on the trendy side here in Germany as well.

Recently I joined the (invitation only) network FairDo, which gave me a good feeling being in a more real online community again. All the communities you join but somehow do not relate to that much, or never visit after registering, mean a lot of wasted time. Hopefully there will be technology in the future where your different communities interact with each other...

The sex appeal of ecofabulous lifestyle: green girls, stoere vrouwen, ethical girls and veggies in pumps

Hip, green lifestyle is growing more and more beyond the borders of classical, conscious consumer groups. In several countries there is a rise of groups and initiatives of mainly female consumers that want to shop ethical but sexy.

More and more online media and sustainable lifestyle magazines come to light, but also initiatives driven by consumers, such as the Dutch female collective Stoere Vrouwen, a network of succesful and stylish women promoting ethical consumption with playful actions. There is aslo several cool vegetarian initiatives, in The Netherlands in example Veggie in Pumps. Particularly interesting is that these initiatives do not target towards conscious consumers, or LOHAS, but to lifestyle addicts, fashionistas, people who care more about style than about the world.

The blog of German eco-fashion label Armedangels just attended me on the green lifestyle blog Green Girls Global, luckily also with a male version: Green Guys Global. In Germany the womens magazine publisher Burda started Ivy World, which also targets much more towards lifestyle consumers than towards conscious consumers.

In England there are in example the Ethics Girls, publishing a printed magazine as well. Also recently there are several recently published handbooks for the stylish ethical women, such as Green is the New Black, Green Chique and Eco Chique. I just started reading them and will write a review on these books soon. Also the site of La Mode Ethique gives quite a good, stylish ethical fashion shoppers help, with over hundred ethical fashion brands and designers.

Be ecofabulous and enjoy!

LOHAS Conference and Green Camp in Germany

The German eco-lifestyle experts from Karmakonsum organize a LOHAS marketing conference on May 30 and 31. LOHAS stands for Lifestyle Of Health And Sustainability and is said to be a large, new upcoming and long lasting lifestyle movement connected to a more sustainable consumption.

Next to the conference there is the Green Camp, organized as an open space for networking and exchanging ideas on several sustainability related topics. I am excited to come there because it could very likely have the right mix of creative activists, bloggers and green entrepreneurs, and have a good inspiring spirit. Joining the green camp is free of charge.

LOHAS marketing conference
On the conference there are several German specialists speaking, including representatives from the Club of Budapest, green fashion agency Good True Beautiful, cosmetics brand Dr. Hauschka, newspaper TAZ, organic supermarket Basic, and the green bank GLS.

LOHAS- green lifestyle or marketing concept?
Sometimes I can have my skeptical moments about the whole LOHAS thing, because it often presents sustainable products and lifestyle as luxury. Good strategy from a marketing perspective, but the LOHAS marketeers should be aware that being exclusive is a risk to exclude as well. Off course in the end sustainable lifestyle should be normal and not something for the ones who can afford it. Meanwhile it is better to be positive and promote green lifestyle in whatever way. In the end it is about the way you live your life so let's see if we can make a real green lifestyle movement out of the LOHAS marketing ideas!

Biofach bloggers: interview with Grass Routes by Karmakonsum

Christoph and Noel from Karmakonsum interviewed several sustainability bloggers during the bloggers meeting on the BioFach organics fair. All in German, but giving a good insiders view in the bloggers scene.

Also check out the other BioFach Bloggers:

• Alle Infos zum Bloggertreffen
• Andrea Nienhaus - alles was gerecht ist
• Andy Brandl - Blog-Abfertigung
• Christoph Harrach - Karmakonsum
• Det Müller - Lohasblog
• Frans Prins - grass-routes.org
• Fritz Lietsch - Nachhaltig Wirtschaften
• Gerhard Schoolmann - gastronomie blog
• Gerhard Zirkel - Waldbog
• herwig Danzer - Nachhaltigkeitsblog
• Hohannes Korten - Jazzlog
• Horst Klier - Leben ohne Diät
• Isabel Strohschein - Laufsteg Breite Gasse
• Kirstin Walther - Saftblog
• Klaus-Peter Baumgardt - Fressnet
• Manuel Rosenboom - Vitalgenuss
• Matthias Metze - viva-vino biowein
• Michael Wenzl - Farmblogger
• Milo Tesselar - biorama Magazin
• Noel Klein-Reesink - Karmakonsum
• Peter Parwan - Lohas.de
• Ralf Hense - Kleinsthof
• Reto Stauss - Nachhaltigbeobachtet
• Roland Dunzendorfer - Landscaping Blog
• Sandra Trummer - Erleben, Leben und Sein
• Sjörn Plitzko - Konsumguerilla
• Sophie Scholz - fairdo
• Thomas Geiger - Photopoolblog
• Thomas Hölzl - Stoibär

Premium Fall/Winter 2008/09: a bit of green and a lot of grey

With the Premium slogan "Save the future!", a green area, "green living" statements on the PR material and it's central symposium with the title "eco is not a trend" the Premium Exhibitions during the Berlin Fashion Week dared to profile themselves as green. But did the event make this green promise true?

The exhibition took place in huge old postal depot halls near Potsdammer Platz, and once you enter you feel in a labyrinth of fashion worlds. Somewhere at the very end, behind all black and grey, one could find the green area. With neon green flours and pillars, it was visible were to go for the green fashion consumer. But for the mainstream fashion buyers it might just have been one bridge too far.

Eco-Fashion professionals versus LOHAS Light
I missed out on the symposium "eco is not a trend", but from others I heard it was a hot, passionate discussion between LOHAS-light and Eco fashion-professionals. Speakers included the designer Katherine Hamnett, Renate Künast from Alliance 90/The Greens and Michalis Pantelouris, editor-in-chief of IVY WORLD. The event was moderated by Melissa Drier, correspondent for Women’s Wear Daily in Germany. While green is growing as a lifestyle movement, it also has the tendency to be more about lifestyle communication than about the actual subject to protect the environment and create human working conditions. Something we all have to find a balance in! Too much of environmentalism doesn't make it anywhere, too much happy glossy lifestyle doesn't work either.

Eco2.0
Actually I was a bit suprised that so much central quotes from the Fair Fashion Affair, the ethical fashion event Grass Routes organized last Autumn, were reflected in the Premium PR. Christoph Harrach's statement on the new movement of "Eco2.0", a central focus on LOHAS, check it out on the Premium website! And the speech of Alexandra Perschau from the Pesticide Action Network was built upon the idea that eco should be more than a trend, and that that's the real responsibility for the fashion world. Without claiming any direct connections, I just realized we somehow hit the right thing there.

Meanwhile it stays a question for the fashion professionals and fashion events how to continue with the topic and make the promise true. In Germany there is still a long way to go! During the Premium Exhibition, the green fashion area stayed a small green spot between all grey, like a flower of hope between smoking factories. The real challenge is still to turn the grey into the green. In the end, green is not about style or trend, but just about a responsible production process. A positive note and prediction to end with: green is growing... no doubt.

Picture: ethical fashion by Camilla Norrback, a Swedish label present in the Premium Exhibition's green area.

Green caravan dreams, or how Berlin lost its mobile homes

Berlin lost a bit of it’s rebellious soul again. Since the 1st of January, most remarkable vehicles are considered illegal because of their high emissions. Until recently, the streets of Berlin were filled with old caravans, self-made buses, hippie vans, mobile homes, and gipsy style movable houses. But new, green policies declared war to the unfiltered diesel-motors. And the streets of Berlin are… cleaner.

What is presented as greening in one way, might be greenwashing in another. Strict emulsion and pollution policies in cities are a good initiative, in my opinion. But the rules only target to older models, while the new cars are not stimulated to become more greener than they are. On the contrary, the ‘green’ sticker on your car gives you the illusion, that your car is green.

As the owners of an old Volkswagen 'Bully', we are lucky to have a gasoline van with catalysator. Our bus got a ‘green’ sticker, the greenest level one can get (there is green, yellow, orange, red, and no sticker for the too dirty outcasts). But what is green about a van driving on gasoline and drinking one-on-ten?

It would be more honest to make emission restrictions for new cars ass well. While the old cars are bullied away and will find a new life in Eastern Europe or Africa, a pressure on new cars could mean something on a global level. If they would have the courage, the Berlin municipality could start to forbid or eco-tax extreme jeeps and other new, polluting car models.

We are meanwhile dreaming of new alternatives for our ‘green’ but polluting travel friend. Recently we found out about the Verdier Solar Power, a Westfalia based, high tech caravan on hybrid and hydraulic power. A wet dream for green travelers, Wesfalia hobbyists, LOHAS, and design fetishists. The red dot award winning design is still only a design, but let’s hope it will be released rather soon!

(images (c) copyright Verdier)

Hiphonest: ethical fashion in Amsterdam

A cross in a circle, passing by on a bag, a jacked or a pair of jeans. Ethical fashion brand Kuyichi made it quite far in The Netherlands! In Berlin we had to suffer to find more than one kind of Kuyichi male jeans, here Kuyichi is rather mainstream. Even in the village where my parents live there is a shop with a better collection than any shop in Berlin can offer, meanwhile also selling Misericordia and Inti without even marketing their shop as ethical.

Is ethical fashion more hot in the Netherlands than in Germany? Hard to say. Germany has been a pioneer with organic cotton clothing, and still has a strong position in the "eco 0.1". But what about "eco 0.2", the new, young and trendy eco-fashion movement?

Something especially developed is the amount of projects, campaigns and organizations that commit themselves to hyping ethical clothing. In Germany I have the feeling this is not happening too much. That's a big difference. In example dutch organization Solidaridad, inventor of the Max Havelaar - Fair Trade label, the Utz-certification for coffee (a sort of Fair Trade Light for the mainstream coffee market), brains behind several ethical clothing brands including Kuyichi, and the Made-By initiative.

Also other initiatives have been a lot in the picture, in example the actions of the young, creative collective YOI, with a guerilla store and fashion shows, who introduced and hyped the term Hiphonest for the new eco-fashion generation. Now 'Hiphonest' might be the most used term in the Netherlands for trendy ethical clothing.

The reason for my Amsterdam visit this time was a meeting with Goede Waar & Co, a dutch consumer organization specialized in ethical consumption and sustainable production. One of their focuses is clothing. One of their activities is a "clothing checker", a tool to give information to consumers about social and environmental aspects of their clothing. They ask ethical and mainstream brands to fill in their questionnaire, visit the companies when possible, and give scores for the categories: social, environment, economy (people, planet, profit).
Goede Waar & Co do also a lot in campaigning, in example organizing swapper parties, and swapping your clothes on parties is getting hot if you did not know it yet.

After my visit to Goede Waar & Co I walked back through the Jordaan to the station. On my way through the Haarlemmerstraat I passed two stores for "Natural clothes", and off course the ethical fashion store Nukuhiva, with a rather strong choice of ethical classics. Not a daring choice, most of the collection was black (if green is the new black, it still looks quite black!).
About half of the Nukuhiva clothing collection is Kuyichi, a heaven for 'style conscious' Kuyichi lovers! Furthermore brands like Edun, Misericordia, Loomstate, and Intoxica. They had also a small but cool choice of shoes from Veja (organic, vegan shoes) and Worn Again. And the fantastic jewelery from designer Natalie Dissel, who I lately met during the Africa Inspires workshop in Kenya.

This part of town is loved for its small houses and picturesque atmosphere, and what once was a poor area is now a yuppies paradise. Still I am amazed that with the extreme house prices this area is still lively and dynamic, with a good blend of students, expats, LOHAS, artists, weirdos, dealers and grandmothers. For the ethical consumer there is a lot of offer, with a bio-supermarket, and the booming 'honest' coffee and bagels concept. The largest ecological market I have seen so far. And not to forget, bikers are the number one in traffic! At least they believe so.

*** article by Frans C. Prins


More interesting dutch initiatives on ethical clothing:
- Sustainable Fashion Community: Het is groen en het...
- Cotton Clash, hiphonest parties, ethical fashion shows: Move Your World
- Fair Wear Foundation
- Finding ethical products in The Netherlands on: Alles Duurzaam
- Clean clothes