WHERE

CINTA, LIEFDE, DRAGOSTE and MILESTIBA have been so far our most successful designs for SS2009. For some of them we are already running very short of sizes in our online shop. But if you still want to buy them or try them and we don’t have them you may be able to find them at Terra Plana shops in London, at Shoon shops in London, or at  the Natural Store online, where we also just started retailing.

We just added these new WHERE products to our online shop. Please give us feedback. Hope you like them!

WHERE is going to India tonight in preparation for the development of the Spring/Summer 2010 collection. So WHERE thought it would be interesting to re-visit the last trip to India. It focused on the development of our Spring/Summer 2009 collection.

The trip was hectic, packed with visiting the workshops in the cities of Jaipur and Delhi as well as working & developing with artisans in rural areas.

This is because every WHERE shoe consists of hand crafted elements or recycled parts.

We spent more than a month in India working on the project, and I wish we had taken more pictures, but at that time we were not (yet) into blogging as we are now. This time it wont be the same. Promise.

Thank goodness for Pooja, our Indian connection traveling with us from CFM (community friendly movement).  She has such a bubbly and easy-going approach, apart from being an excellent translator.

India is a whole new universe. Some of the things that we found very interesting, apart of shoe making, was visiting block printing and textile workshops (block print stamps and block printer master below).

Right across India you will find small companies, organizations and factories that are intensely involved in product development, whether it is fabrics, shoes, leather work or jewelry. And its not only in the cities but in rural areas as well.

When jobs are provided for those living in rural areas it helps to keep families together. Normally in rural areas there are not many jobs, so usually the men move to the cities to work in big factories and spent months away from the family to be able to send money. Very often this is what happens in developing countries.

We would like to contribute to keep this from happening in India where possible. And in conjunction with our IFAT partner, Community Friendly Movement, we ensure that workers received fair wages and received rational contributions.

We are not able to produce a whole shoe in the rural communities, because to make shoes some special machinery, skills are needed, but we can make some of the components in rural communities, specially for the summer ranges.

We then transfer the components to a small size organized workshop, where the shoe making and leather work is still done by hand, but with the correct tools and skills needed.

WHERE is looking forward to more sights and sounds and stories from India. And of more ridiculously hot temperatures (40 degrees to estimate), mad traveling plans and even more interesting product designs!

Vivienne Westwood Anglomania Green Dress

Style Will Save Us blog

We would not have known this was an eco-friendly online magazine had we not looked at the small print. Whoever said ethical was not high fashion will be proven wrong by this blog! Its website is bright and funky, featuring fashion trends and styles and the effect of ethical awareness. The best part: it has an eco dictionary to clarify all those words associated with today’s green trend.

Tree Hugger

Being the #4 out of the top5 blogs according to Time magazine, this one seemed very “Newsweek-like” but as you get into it, it has a very wide scope of “ethical-ness”. It covers today’s strongly emerging green trend within fashion as well as beauty, including new sustainable fabrics and organic mineral powders and blushers. Surprisingly, it also explains how one can recycle old items, such as old cutlery, into restored pieces of jewellery. Ethical and affordable; this is just what we need in a credit-crunched, deforested world!

Ecco*eco

Vogue-like images: crisp, bright and ultra modern, this green blog’s look is far from green. It is extremely personalized, all in first person, but very professional too. It definitely has a glossy magazine touch, and covers up-and-coming designers as well as street level trends. Abigail Doan has a photographer’s eye, transforming what is natural and ordinary into a high fashion photograph. Simple, interesting and true to its theme. Keep an eye on this one.

Ethical Style blog

Simple and elegant with a dark edge to it, this blog has ‘just the right amount’ of interesting information without overloading the viewer’s eyes: covering fashion gowns to American rap stars and celebrities to recycled Chritstian Louboutins, Ethical Style is an approachable and fashion-oriented read.

Green Lashes and Fashion blog

What a name? Catches your attention instantaneously. And we all know that over-sized fake eyelashes are all the range right now. So what does this blog have to offer? “Finding the best organic and natural beauty, ethical fashion and lifestyle products for you”. Bright, fresh and very European, this blog looks at fashion by category: the best eco-friendly sleeveless tops, the best organic maxi dresses, and Cri de Couer vegan shoes. Unlike other blogs, this is friendly, informative and makes readers aware of green products, as opposed to building hype around trendy topics!

The Gin Lady blog

The first thing that caught our eye here at Where was how this blog took Gucci’s S/S 09 turquoise eye make-up look, and proposed how to recreate it using organic mineral make-up. Wow. This is true merging of ethical with high fashion. Green Independent Natural (GIN) is a slick and fashionable blog, looking at all things ethical and eco-friendly including make-up, lingerie and even sunglasses! This one will always have something that will catch your eye, and easy to navigate too!

EcoStilleto blog

EcoStilleto features fashion, celebrity culture, heath and beauty as well as home and cooking; it is enterprising. However, it is more ‘wordy’ rather than having large photographic content, so if you are looking for inspiration do not look here. But, if you are serious about being eco-friendly towards the environment then this one is your match. Oh and its striking super-stylish black and white burlesque background will not let you leave the page.

In the Loop

This blog is so interactive, featuring funny videos: adverts for eco-friendly underwear and interviews. In the Loop is fashion oriented in a way that is less editorial and more arty; its photography captures being green from a very close-up view, meaning products in the studio or trends on the street. Another bonus: It advertises bargains! Unfortunately they are American brands! We think we need to get them to cross the pond to our shores…

Green with Glamour

So true to its name, this blog has a very polished look: glamourous! This, by far, is a favourite of ours here at Where. It features everything associated with design: interior décor, jewellery trends, and eco-dressing for both men an women. It also features recipes, how to be green at home and covers celebrities. This is an all-rounder, with a touch of class.

HAUTE*NATURE blog

“An eco guide blending high fashion with sustainability”, so right! This blog is more art based in terms of fashion as well as green building and eco furniture. It has short articles, making for a quick read, and unlike other ‘green’ blogs, without only having lists of various links to other blogs this one features a list of books that the author likes too! Books: How eco-friendly is that! Going back to our roots is the way to go!

Sketches moodboard 2-AW0910

This post is a continuation of last week’s post: “WHERE’S AW09/10 Our inspiration”.

We were talking about the use of shoe laces and eyelets in different ways in our coming Autumn Winter collection.

In this collection others things inspired us as well: Like the many elements in clothing, for example how trousers interact with shoes or boots. We experimented with the look created by merging a shoe or a boot with the legs of trousers.

We have used heavy metal studs as one of the main trims for the collection. We also went for very heavy volumes for the wedges on the shoes and boots.

I must say that a few months before we discovered Rumi from the Fashion Toast blog, and we liked her sassy street style.

And we were delighted when we saw Rumi wear some of the shoes our designer Laura Villasenin had designed for other brands before she joined as a designer for WHERE.

So we hope she likes the coming WHERE winter collection. It would be great to see somebody with such a good style giving some love to ethical shoes. Lets hope!

So in this winter collection we have some boots with “leg trousers” going over high volume wedges, a few products with spats and other products that are half shoe and half boot. We love merging things together that “are not supposed to be together”.