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.

Five picks for staying shaded this summer

The hot summer sun calls for a hat that blocks out rays without overheating your head. Find solace in the unstructured fit of the five-panel cap—by design this style favors lightweight fabrics and a slimmer silhouette, making it an ideal option for warmer climes. From party prints to subdued denim, the following are five casual caps to replace your sticker-clad fitted this summer.

HUF

Nothing signals good times ahead quite like a Hawaiian print. In that spirit, HUF, San Francisco’s finest purveyor of skate and street stylings, released the perfect hat for the season, the tropical Parrot Volley. The lightweight woven fabric and metal grommet air holes allow the head to breathe, while the nylon strap keeps it firmly in place. With a worldwide following akin to that of Supreme, HUF sold out of the Parrot Volley online immediately after last week’s launch but word has it DQM has an exclusive stash dropping this Wednesday, 27 June at their NYC location.

FairEnds

FairEnds’ Hickory Camp Cap lends the five-panel look an understated, Americana vibe with its vintage train conductor aesthetic—one that handsomely accents a simple Levi’s and white tee ensemble. The unstructured cotton body forms to your head from the first wear for a supremely comfortable fit. The Montana-based FairEnds hat sells from Unis for $39.

DQM

As a notable pioneer of NYC street style, DQM has been a leader in the hat game for years. Since the Vans DQM General opened last September, the skate-centric boutique has ramped up their in-house line to include a tightly edited assortment of fashion wares—case in point, the North South Camp Cap. This Supplex nylon hat is super lightweight and comes in multiple colorways so you won’t have any problems matching your new favorite summer kit. Find the North South Camp Cap at DQM in NYC and online for $42.

Coal

A blue oxford cloth shirt is a basic staple every man should have hanging in his closet. If you’re not the button-down type of guy—or you simply want to carry over the look into your accessories—check Coal’s oxford cloth Richmond hat instead. Sharing the same soft cotton fabric, this refined cap features a lightweight mesh lining and taped seams to ensure it lasts a lifetime. The Richmond—also available in green oxford—is available for $30 directly from Coal.

ONLY

Harlem’s ONLY has been vital in the ongoing evolution of sophisticated menswear and street style. To appeal to both scenes, the American-made Tombs five-panel features subtle Native American-inspired detailing on the label and is available in a muted-red cotton twill and a more subdued blue denim. Find it online for $32 or schedule an appointment at ONLY’s Corner Store.

Surface Damage by meatpaste at threadless…(Read…)

Italian-made unisex brogues with a modern twist

L’F is a line of unisex shoes from Licia Florio and Francio Ferrari, a fashion designer (Florio) and artist/photographer (Ferrari) who also live together. Wanting to create something together the couple came up with L’F, which is comprised of one style for men and women. The shoe comes in combinations of up to three colors, with various details available like studs and hooks. The fresh take on a classic, says Ferrari, was something that could “fully represent our identity.” We caught up with him to preview the Spring 2013 collection and talk more about the brand. Check out the interview below and the first line of L’F unisex shoes online where they sell from €215.

How was your collection born?

We started by hacking some bowling shoes, but eventually they all looked bad. So we decided to focus on something more elegant like a classic brogue—we removed tongue, laces and we started to wear them. We saw that we liked it and our friends started asking were they could buy them. So we entered the world of Italian footwear production, previously unknown to us but very fascinating. We got to work with talented craftsmen—genuine people with dirty hands, but who are able to create the masterpieces that everyone knows.

You are not a heritage brand—how did you want to approach an iconic object like the brogue?

We chose irony. Ours is a very serious shoe in terms of quality and production, 100% handmade in Italy by shoe manufacturers that make shoes for large international brands. They’re very comfortable shoes you can wear all day. However, the colors and materials and their combinations allow us to be fun and give our customers the opportunity to have fun every day. Then we took out the laces and in some models we filled the holes with removable studs, which can be swapped in and out.

We think that people should be brave with accessories, not only with our shoes. We noticed that L’F wearers pay much attention to socks (without the tongue they’re more visible) and tend to shorten their pants hem, to show their styling. We’re happy when our customers have the chance to have fun!

Who wears L’F?

We discovered we have a very wide target, without age limits. It often happens that mothers buy our shoes, and then their daughters steal them. Licia’s grandmother is a big fan of ours, but she just wants the studded ones.

What’s new for the next season?

Spring 2013 is our second official collection—we continue to work on the same model and reinvent it more and more, working on materials and soles. We have four soles: one white and one black “tank” sole, one sports Vibram sole and a sole with a band of microfiber between two layers of leather. In some models we included a hook taken from mountain boots, where you can put rubber bands instead of strings. Then there are different variations of pastel colors and metallic leather monochromes, purposely for fashionistas. We are aiming at extreme yet elegant shoes to give the wearer more fun and joy.

Per celebrare il solstizio estivo, il modello dei Moscot The MILTZEN è ora disponibile in colore nero.