• These men’s bags from Matt & Nat have the perfect combination of rugged utility and handsome luxury. Whether you’re going back to school, starting a new job, or going on a trip – these four are certain to get your sack noticed. Made with recycled soda-bottle PET ultrasuede lining.
• Luxury Brands are being taken to task in a recent article in the Guardian by Ethical Consumer’s Simon Birch. The article references a new report, ‘Style over Substance’ that uses an interactive score table and rating system, which rates brands on a spectrum of 23 criteria making up 5 main areas of focus: Environment, Animals, People, Politics, and Product Sustainability. The luxury brands are failing overwhelmingly:
Many of the world’s biggest and most elite fashion houses pay virtually no regard to corporate ethics and have yet to take even the first steps on reporting on the social and environmental impact of their operations… Even fashion’s favourite ethical champion Stella McCartney came next to the bottom of our ethical rating table. Full marks for McCartney for championing animal rights but the bad news is that Gucci, the company that owns the brand, sanctions the use of fur in many of its other fashion brands. Gucci has neither an environmental nor supply chain policy in place.
• Paul Smith (who scored higher than most on the above report)’s organic denim shirt is tailored and features a small rounded “club” collar.
• Inhabitat reported that New York City will finally be offering bike share stations with over 10,0000 bikes!
The city has finally selected Alta Bike Share of Portland, Oregon to install and manage our long-awaited public bike share program. The bike share will have a whopping 600 stations, spreading from Crown Heights in Brooklyn to Manhattan’s Upper West side, and have 10,000 bikes available for use. We could see the bike share as soon as next summer, but the best part is that membership will be flexible, and an annual subscription will likely cost less than a monthly MetroCard.
