Hasta La Ideas

Jeans made from recycled brown beer bottles in NYC

As the name implies, I AM NOT A VIRGIN uses recycled—non virgin—materials to produce their jeans and T-shirts. Now nearly four years into the business, founder Peter Heron is reaching out to his audience with a Kickstarter to keep the NYC-based label alive.

As with many entrepreneurial ventures, IANAV has diverged from its original path over time. Heron began by making prototype jeans from fabric scraps collected at various Chinese manufacturing mills with the goal to reduce factory waste, but it didn’t seem to be working. Spurred on by a friendly tip in early 2011 Heron started experimenting with a new American-made fabric of 75% cotton and 25% recycled synthetics, including brown beer bottles collected from recycling factories. Although the recycled percentage doesn’t seem like much, Heron explains it’s actually more stable this way. “You need a certain amount of virgin cotton for durability,” he says. “It’s the same as if you were making denim from scraps, the right balance of polyester and cotton will give you a long-lasting jean.”

The process of breaking down the beer bottles to a thread-like material is just about as complicated as one would imagine. Once collected in a recycling facility, the bottles are sorted and ground, labels, caps and all into small chips. The chips are then placed in a water bath where the paper and scraps float to the top and the usable chips sink. From here the usable chips are ground down even further into a fine particle, which is actually the same compound found in polyester. The particle is then melted and squeezed through a high-pressure nozzle, creating a continuous strand of loose material ready to be twisted into yarn, and subsequently blended with virgin cotton and woven into denim.

To show the unique properties of this particle, IANAV has created a limited run of 400 brown beer bottle jeans, stitched inside out to reveal the unique weave. Heron says these fit more like a comfortable straight leg trouser than a jean, as they’ve been washed without dye. The standard IANAV men’s jeans, on the other hand, are dyed a dark indigo and left raw, while the washed women’s jean is woven with 1% elasticity for stretch.

Armed with the knowledge he’s gained, Heron has brought on a partner—Walt Connelly, former executive creative director at JWT and Ogilvy—to keep the creative train moving. Once funded the two have big plans for the company. “We will eventually have different lines of jeans made from green soda bottles, blue water bottles, and my original idea of using fabric scraps collected at the manufacturing mills,” says Heron. “We’re also making T-shirts that are made with recycled food tray (tri-blend black color), clear water bottles (white color), discarded x-ray film (light gray color) and in the future empty yogurt cartons. The T-shirts are super soft and feel great.”

To help support Heron and I AM NOT A VIRGIN make a pledge at their Kickstarter page. For $55 you’ll get a limited edition T-shirt made from recycled food trays or water bottles, for $100 or more you’ll be rewarded with a pair of indigo jeans and so on depending on amount of pledge. For those feeling particularly philanthropic, a pledge of $5000 earns you a pair of limited edition brown beer bottle jeans along with whole slew of goodies like t shirts, VIP acess to future parties and a heads up on to-be-released jeans. While you’re there you’ll notice Heron’s other crusade—keeping the rights to his tongue-in-cheek brand name, which is being disputed by Virgin (they suggest slightly less captivating names like I AM NOT CHASTE or I AM NOT PURE). There’s a petition in IANAV’s favor if you’re so inclined.

For a more detailed look at I AM NOT A VIRGIN jeans see the slideshow.

NYC makers asked to submit product for next year’s collection

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MoMA consistently aspires to connect the art and design within its walls to the greater community that supports it. Both the Young Architects Program held at MoMA PS1 and the recent introduction of the Art Lab iPad app aim to showcase the burgeoning talent of some under-the-radar individuals from across the nation. An artist or designer featured in the museum, or through any number of its affiliate organizations, automatically wins an unparalleled opportunity to reach perhaps the most diverse audience in the modern art world. With the equally beloved MoMA Design Store, MoMA translates the work it curates to accessible products, bringing the experience well beyond the organization’s reach and into the home.

Now the MoMA Design Store brings the spirit of their community initiative home to NYC with an open call to designers hailing from the five boroughs to submit work for a 2013 product collection. Anything from household items to kids’ toys to the freshest in accessory and furniture design is welcome for submission, so long as items are near or close to the production stage, manufactured within the continental US and can be shipped to MoMA in salable condition.

If you’re an NYC-based designer, or have friends who are, visit the store’s Facebook Page for more information.

Rachel Shechtman’s latest retail narrative edited by Cool Hunting

For her third “issue”,
Rachel Shechtman has turned her magazine-style boutique—aptly called Story—into an homage to New York. The shop changes concept every four to eight weeks, and the latest inventory is a selection of Big Apple goods co-edited by Cool Hunting. The finely selected stock is set to the backdrop of Jill Malek custom “coffee stain” wallpaper, cityscape murals by Chris Dent, presented by the AOL Artists initiative, and student-shot photos from the NYC non-profit Salt.

With “Love” and “Color” as the first two issues, Shechtman continues to explore themes that are universal in concept but niche in execution. With each issue the Chelsea space becomes a new place of wonder, and each table or shelf serves as a narrative that unfolds before your eyes. Story “New York” is packed with goods by some of our favorite makers, such as Jill Platner jewelry, food selections from New York Mouth, a rotating assortment of custom Milk Made ice cream flavors sold by the pint or cup for the first time and exclusively at Story (since until now it has been an online subscription-only offer), crates from Quirky making their debut, 3×1 jeans and denim solution, an assortment of Baggu sacks, Scott Thrift’s annual clock The Present (available for pre-order at Story), Julie Rofman bracelets and more.

We recently caught up with Shechtman at Story to learn more about her endeavor. Read more about our collaboration and her unique take on retail as well as more images in the slideshow below.

How did you link up with Josh Rubin and Cool Hunting?

Through mutual friends. We heard about each other for a while and I think we tend to like similar things. We live a block away from each other in Chelsea, and we have complementary sensibilities—and I think different skill sets that also complement each other. So, as I was launching this new concept of retail as media and Cool Hunting is kind of the guru of all things culturally inspiring online, it seemed like the perfect partner for our first-ever co-curated edition.

How does each issue differ from the next, and what are you thinking about when choosing a theme?

It’s a combination of factors. First and foremost I ask, “is the product relevant to the story?” And then after the answer is “yes”, I think, “what are interesting brands and products that work?” One of the most important things that’s important to me for our experience as a brand is that whether you’re nine years old or you’re 70 years old, or whether you want to spend $5 or $500, there’s something that appeals to all of those people and their sensibilities, but within the context of one story, and that it makes sense so that it’s not just about one demographic or one audience. Of course some people like “Love” better than “Color” and some people like “New York” story better than “Love”, but you know, as long as they are able to relate to each experience, that’s the most important thing to me.

How long is each issue up?

Four to eight weeks—it depends on the issue. The September issue will be four weeks. It also depends on theme. We’re also doing a lot of different events for the “New York” story. We’re going to do skill-share classes with New York Mouth, which includes a pickling class and how to make hard candy. We’re doing other interesting events, like a dinner party hosted by Malin +Goetz here. And then we’re going to hopefully have some musical performances.

I also want it to be interactive and have community, not just be about people who necessarily buy. For example, we have this amazing kid’s brand, Ode, and she just emailed us, and she liked our idea and said she wants to sell in our store. If a magazine has editors and then contributing editors, our contributing editors are either our fans that make things and want to sell them in the store, or customers who come in and want to have events here. We’re trying to make it as interactive as possible. The other special thing we’re going to do is a lemonade and tattoo stand on the weekend, and for the first time ever we’re selling pints of ice cream from a company that is otherwise a subscription only service.

What happens when you sell out of an item?

Sometimes we re-order it and sometimes we let it sell out. One thing that’s important to me is adjacencies. It’s no different than when you’re shooting a picture in a magazine spread, if you take an item out of its context in real life and in a physical space, how can you tell its story? By putting old brands next to new brands, and sexy brands next to classics, and just kind of mix it up.

Laura Wass strikes out on her own with jewelry combining the industrial with the handmade

Balancing a spare, industrial aesthetic with the richness of fine jewelry, designer Laura Wass has opened up an interesting niche for herself in the market. With Fall 2012 she has launched WXYZ, a focused line of “DNA” and jacks bead necklaces, rubber and steel pulley bracelets, rubber bubble bangles and geometric metal-and-resin rings. With each detail, from the softness of the neoprene bracelet links, to the satisfying weight of a beaded helix and the almost hidden precious pearls floating in resin, Wass balances the focused precision of large-scale metalwork with handmade thought and, equally as importantly, injects a playful attitude in every serious piece.

We caught up with Wass at her studio and workspace at the 3rd Ward, where she makes it all happen, from hand-sketching and CAD—and some desktop acrobatics to keep the creative juices flowing—to steel lathing and metal finishing. With her first collection freshly launched, she filled us in on process and inspiration, while offering us a sneak peek at the Spring 2013 collection.

You worked with established brands—Philip Crangi, Giles & Brother, Metal Dynamics—before striking out on your own. What did it take for you to make the jump?

It was like jumping off a diving board. In some ways when I started I was anxious to start my own projects and then at the same time I felt as though I would never be quite ready. I always felt there was something more I could learn, or some way I could grow before starting my own thing, but then at some point those two paths crossed—the desire to create and the feeling that I had a really strong foundation in the industry and in manufacturing and design practice and those things came together and it was just time. And I also had the support—my boss at the last company I worked for is a great mentor, and has taught me so much about new manufacturing methods and engineering and so he was really fundamental in my growth as a designer and in helping me articulate what I wanted to do.

How did your work evolve to the industrial, and how much comes from personal taste?

It started with a fascination with the history of design and the Bauhaus movement, and it evolved as I entered the industry, and started becoming more experienced and interested in the process of how things are made. Which was always my focus—my initial entrance came from making things by hand, but then, when I started to explore the machine I saw how much more it was capable of doing, and then that drew me back again to the traditions of Bauhaus. By incorporating both the handmade and the industrially made, we get such a wide range of design capabilities, so for me it became this hunger for knowledge so that I could expand and inform my design practice.

How similar is the finished product to what you originally envision?

It definitely evolves, there are a lot of surprises. I’ll usually start with one goal or one idea and then come out with something entirely different through the process of sketching, of physically making with your hands. I think for me when I’m making something with my hands my brain is activated and starts really running through new ideas, so things tend to evolve a lot from the initial concept however there are some instances where something will just snap into my head and there it is and that’s the way it started.

When it comes to the mix of industrial and handmade, what’s you and what are you outsourcing?

For me because the industrial and handmade production are both so important I’m really exploring as many different production methods as possible. So in order to do that I have to find as many different resources where they specialize in these different techniques. So, from die striking, brass stamping and zinc die casting to screw machining, C&Cing and lasering to water jet cutting (which is much stronger than laser cutting, surprisingly) and, let’s see what else—powder coating, plating, die cutting, ball chains, automated chain-making and lathing, which is similar to a screw machine.

The jacks beads look familiar—where did they come from?

The jacks beads are inspired by a childhood bead I played with growing up. I took the concept of that bead and engineered it in CAD—it went through about 10 different revisions, actually—I tweaked the shape and the form so that they sit together. They’re different, though. The original beads have round fronts, and I wanted to create a pyramid structure, something architectural. It’s both organic—a fundamental structure of life, almost like a chemical composition—but it’s also manmade, architectural and geometric. I wanted them to fit together with space for you to see the articulation of the shape, but also create a new form with these individual pieces.

That’s actually really important for the line—the use of individual components that together create an entirely new form. The DNA necklace is another example of that: individually they’re these beads and rods, but together they creates this whole new structure, much like the way life is made.

So how do you go about reengineering something?

The jacks beads are created in a blue model as a rapid prototype, and then they’re basically engraved into a steel die. So you take a piece of steel, and there are several different processes that you go through to create a negative form with this extremely hardened steel, and then the molten metal is injected into the steel die. It’s a way of casting that’s not commonly used for jewelry because it’s a very high production run—to get the machine up and running you need to have about 2,000 pieces. So, the molten metal is injected into the die, and because it’s a steel form it’s filling, it’s extremely precise, and can be replicated over and over and over, whereas as with lost-wax casting there are a lot of irregularities. So it’s perfect for this industrial, super-defined form.

Does your creative process start with the fashion and style element, or does it start with the scientific, industrial aspect?

It definitely starts with the technical, industrial and biology/chemistry part of it. For instance, right now for next season I’m really inspired by these overlapping architectural movements—so, Moorish and Arabic geometry and architecture, and how that intersects with the other histories of religious architecture, whether it be Jewish or Christian. I was just in Israel so I saw this amazing confluence of Jewish and Arabic and Christian design, and the histories of those places, what that means to so many people and how it looks—kind of like this tapestry of cultural influence. I’m looking at design motifs and architecture, and, of course, I’m looking at nature as always. Also, I’ve been thinking about mazes, and humans creating abstractions in the landscape through the use of geometry, so looking at where city and nature meet in design. Fashion, in many ways, is just the world that I live in so it kind of seeps in through the cracks of what I’m thinking. It’s not necessarily the focus, but it’s always there.

Images by Greg Stefano

Williamsburg’s newest hotel stays true to its Brooklyn roots

Housed in a renovated factory building on the Williamsburg waterfront, the Wythe Hotel marks the long-due maturation of the booming Brooklyn neighborhood. The place embraces local flavor by blending grungy industrial looks with luxe hospitality, and there’s plenty of buzz around the involvement of restaurateur Andrew Tarlow of Marlow & Sons and Diner fame. “It’s a grown-up version of what’s happening in Brooklyn,” says Tarlow of the Wythe. At present, it stands as a beacon for the direction of Williamsburg, a place to stay and feel at home in one of the hippest corners of NYC.

The 100-year-old building represents what’s left of an old cooperage that was renovated to suit the wants and needs of hotel guests. “We fell in love with the building on day one and just wanted to show it off as much as possible,” explains Peter Lawrence, who along with Tarlow and Jed Walentas make up the trio of partners behind the Wythe Hotel. “We stripped everything down to the bare bones—the cast iron columns and the timbers and the exterior wall,” says Lawrence.

Details like rusted ceiling tracks add to the flavor of the historic building, as does a floor-to-ceiling illustration depicting the history of Brooklyn in the lobby. While the skeleton of the original building remained relatively untouched, a three-story add-on by architect Morris Adjmi maximizes skyline-facing views and allows for an L-shaped rooftop terrace and cocktail bar.

If you’re looking for Williamsburg in the Wythe hotel, you’ll find it in the details. Marlow & Sons provides the mini-bar accoutrements, including a selection of small-batch ice cream. Marlow Goods supplies the bathroom towels and the soap is from Goldie’s out of Rockaway, NY. Rather than incorporating a complicated tech systems, each room is equipped with a simple red audio jack connected to the room speakers. Each of the four styles of wallpaper for the hotel were custom-made by Flavor Paper, and are available from their online shop.

While the concrete floors may look industrial, heating elements ensure that your toes are cozy when walking around barefoot. Two-way mirrors in the bathrooms allow guests to enjoy the Manhattan skyline while freshening up. Commenting on the “white linen” approach of most hotels, Tarlow explains. “I don’t think hospitality is about a fine cloth. It’s more about you and I sitting down, me saying hello and, holding the door for you and all these little interactions.”

“Part of the excitement of being in this neighborhood is that it’s a creative center—not just in New York these days but internationally,” says Lawrence. “The level of talent that’s available nearby was too exciting.” Much of the furniture was made from wood salvaged during the renovation, with beds and desks repurposed by local craftsman Dave Hollier. Steve Powers, commonly known as “ESPO”, decorated the adjacent building with vintage Brooklyn logos to give non-view rooms a piece of art to look out on.

One of the quirks of the hotel is their pair of adjoining “band rooms”. Created on the recommendation of the the folks behind the Brooklyn Bowl music venue who needed a place to put up traveling music groups for the night, the bunk bed filled rooms hold six and four guests, respectively.

When it came to food, Tarlow wanted to keep up the “New American” style of his other restaurants, adding a commitment to whole beast butchering and open flame cooking. “We purchase all of our animals in whole form. A cow came in here on Monday and we’ve been going through it for the entire week—so how we move through it will inform the menu.” An on-site butcher and localvore sourcing may not be the most convenient methods for a hotel, but Tarlow wanted “Reynard’s” to stand out as a destination restaurant for locals as well as guests. For drinks, the rooftop cocktail bar provides brilliant city views under the building’s marquis lights.

A few weeks following its opening, the hotel has already garnered a strong local following. Part of their success comes from the fact that the attraction remains Williamsburg rather than just the Wythe: spa treatments and swimming pools are sacrificed in favor of a sense of place. The hotel promises to become part of the urban fabric, joining the Brooklyn Bowl and the Brooklyn Brewery as an area landmark. Rooms at the Wythe Hotel start at $179.

Wythe Hotel
80 Wythe Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11249