The Chicago Athenæum’s Good Design Awards have honoured Germany’s Nomos Glashütte six times for its watches, and now the Green Good Design Awards, which focus on sustainably produced products, have highlighted the company once more for its Tangente Update watch in its product design category.
   Its latest incarnation, the Tangente Neomatik 41 Update, features a ring date at the edge of the dial, with two red markers that frame the current date. It is available with both a white and a midnight blue dial.
   It’s those little things that Nomos Glashütte does that build up the sustainable picture. The cooling oil, metal filings and used brass blanks from the production process are returned to the suppliers to be converted back into raw materials. The water used to rinse newly produced parts is purified and returned to the wider supply. The majority of parts are produced on-site and in-house, shortening supply chains and reducing emissions.
   Find out more at nomos-glashuette.com.

Top photograph: Amanda Vick/Unsplash

Our garments speak volumes of our values and set the stage for the image we want to build of ourselves. We wear red to portray power. Black is our surefire way to exude sophistication. Silk is luxurious while denim is urban and rebellious. The clothes we put on every morning tell a story—but they also build our intricate relationship with the world.
   What might feel good on your skin might not lie so comfortably on your conscience. With sweatshops, underaged workers, toxic dyes, and seasonal collections rushing to the shelves, the restless beat of fast fashion has stirred many to take a different approach. We now have access to a wide selection of brands that are paving the road toward a better, cleaner, safer future.

Ethical stamps and labels
Fortunately for us, fashion aficionados, it’s relatively easy to come across labels that can be trusted today. However, you can also go beyond what you find online and research what your locally present brands are all about. Perhaps they can offer ethical certification to show just how committed they are to the cause, and what they are doing to make a difference.

Local shops for a greater impact

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Large-scale fashion brands often lack the transparency we need to know if they don’t have any sweatshops handling the manufacturing, or similarly unethical processes behind their public image. Small, local businesses are the ones that offer all that information openly—you can easily find their manufacturing facilities or design shops around the corner and talk to their employees.
   In eco-conscious regions like Australia, everything from casualwear to formalwear can be purchased in the same spirit. The selection of ethical women’s workwear in Australia is also on the rise, and many professional women are choosing the kind of attire that lasts for years on end. This philosophy combines the idea of timelessness and the spirit of local brands to support the development of ethical fashion.

Long-lasting, not seasonal
As alluring as it is to switch our wardrobes at the turn of every season, that is precisely what keeps the wheels of fast fashion turning. We can do better. Opting for timeless instead of trendy, and choosing durable pieces made of materials that can last for more than a couple of months should be one of the pillars of ethical shopping.
   Go for garments made of sustainable and durable fabrics like linen, hemp, and bamboo. Look for other alternatives that will keep your items wearable for a good, long while.

Brand transparency and reports

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Brands that turn to vague terminology and zero access to real data are the ones we should steer clear of. Fashion labels that are transparent in the kind of efforts they are making are the ones we can turn to for truly ethical dressing. Be it accessories the likes of Elvis & Kresse, or athleisure, you can easily find brands that share their impact with the public.

The fabrics and dyes in use
Sustainable processing and manufacturing are two major aspects of ethical brands. Microplastics in synthetic fibres tend to cause irreparable damage to the marine world and the entire planet. As for the toxic dyes so frequently used, they also cause immense damage to water even in urban areas where that same water should be safe for drink and the local ecosystems.
   Some brands are looking for ways to recycle and repurpose for the sake of ethics. Like Coco Veve from Britain and Horizon Athletic from Australia, many are making way for smarter choices in fabric selection, for us to make better choices in how we dress.
   Ethical brands don’t hide behind vague terminology such as ‘responsible’ or ‘clean’. They showcase the impact of their work in data, reports, and employee reviews, and they make sure you can access it all in a matter of clicks.
   The idea that ethical clothing is costly should be dismantled right away—it all depends on the price you’re willing to pay for the health of your family, yourself, the people participating in the making of your clothing, and the natural world. Is the extra couple of dollars really going to offset your budget as much as toxic dyes and unfair labour can devastate our economies and the planet for the long haul? The choice is, ultimately, yours to make.—Peter Minkoff

Peter Minkoff is a fashion and lifestyle editor at Trend Privé magazine. Follow Peter on Twitter for more tips.

Stockholm archipelago-based Monokel Eyewear has always made sunglasses that last, but its latest collection ensures that they do—only up to a point.
   Its spring–summer 2021 collection, anchored on the Edvard Munch quotation, ‘From my rotting body, flowers shall grow, and I am in them, and that is eternity,’ is fully bio-based and biodegradable, with the company saying, ‘still made to last, but not forever.’ Lenses are by Carl Zeiss Vision.
   Monokel had used recycled acetate made from cotton and wood fibres, but its latest type will now decompose, and won’t wind up in landfills or as microplastics in our oceans.
   There are three shapes: Polly, a wide, oval frame with thick temples; Memphis, with a rectangular front, sharper edges, a medium width but a slim depth; and Forest, inspired by vintage reading glasses, and featuring hinges, rivets and a keyhole nose bridge. Each frame is hand-crafted, with the process taking over three months.
   Third-party lab tests and factory audits are conducted with each production run, says Monokel. You can find out more at monokel-eyewear.com.

Ruby is showing its new collection, dubbed Champ, with its first items going on retail sale on May 14 both on- and offline.
   The collection represents both a change in season as well as change in how we do things: ‘Champ is about taking responsibility, knowing your force and driving change for a world we all belong in,’ reads the company’s introduction.
   Warm and colourful knitwear and suitings stand out for winter, with shades of chocolate, meadow, vermilion, pink and pistachio marle. We’re drawn to the turtlenecks, the long sleeves of the Boby sweater, the looseness of the Champ sweater, the Steffi jacket, and the Lucille swing coat, among others. Looseness and volume give this winter a flowing, comfortable vibe. Find out more at rubynz.com, or check out Ruby’s Instagram at @rubytakessnaps.

Chanel Watches

Australian actress Margot Robbie is the new face of Chanel’s J12 watch campaign.
   Robbie, who has been associated with Chanel since March 2018, appeared earlier this week at the Oscars in a custom mermaid dress inspired by look 47 in Chanel’s autumn–winter 2019–20 haute couture collection. The dress took 205 hours of work. She also donned Chanel fine jewellery.
   Since 2018, she has helmed numerous Chanel campaigns and was photographed by Karl Lagerfeld for Coco Neige in July 2018. She also modelled for the Gabrielle Chanel Essence fragrance.
   As the new face of the J12 watch, Robbie joins, inter alia, Naomi Campbell, Claudia Schiffer, Ali McGraw, Vanessa Paradis, Lily-Rose Depp, and Keira Knightley. The new campaign features a total of nine ‘iconic women’, according to Chanel.
   Robbie said in a release, ‘It’s a dream to represent such a timeless and iconic brand. The history of the Chanel woman is so exciting and the brand has remained such a power feminine standard of style. I’m thrilled to be part of the Chanel family and continue their celebration of women and fashion.’
   After a career in television in Australia, including the soap Neighbours, Robbie came to worldwide attention in Martin Scorsese’s 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street, opposite Leonardo di Caprio. She also starred in, and produced, I, Tonya, playing Tonya Harding, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award. She also received a nomination for best supporting actress in another real-life-based drama, Bombshell. Her most recent appearance at the Oscars was for producing the Carey Mulligan starrer Promising Young Woman, which was nominated for five Academy Awards. It took home the best original screenplay gong, for first-time winner Emerald Fennell.

Above: Alber Elbaz as photographed by Lucire Paris editor Lola Saab.

Moroccan-born French designer Alber Elbaz has died at age 59, according to Richemont, which partnered with him on his latest venture, AZ Factory. It is believed Elbaz died from COVID-19, which he had had for three weeks, and had been in an induced coma.
   Elbaz was behind the rejuvenation of Lanvin and helmed the label’s artistic direction from 2001 to 2015.
   Richemont founder and chairman Johann Rupert said in a statement, ‘It was with shock and enormous sadness that I heard of Alber’s sudden passing. Alber had a richly deserved reputation as one of the industry’s brightest and most beloved figures. I was always taken by his intelligence, sensitivity, generosity and unbridled creativity. He was a man of exceptional warmth and talent, and his singular vision, sense of beauty and empathy leave an indelible impression.
   ‘It was a great privilege watching Alber in his last endeavour as he worked to realize his dream of “smart fashion that cares”. His inclusive vision of fashion made women feel beautiful and comfortable by blending traditional craftsmanship with technology—highly innovative projects which sought to redefine the industry.’
   Speaking with him in 2011, Elbaz displayed a sense of humour and a wonderful insight into his work at Lanvin.
   ‘For each woman there are ten different women … even in men there consists ten different men … and that is what this collection is about. It is not only about one person with one type of haircut with one look, but these are different occasions and different personalities. [The different designs represent] individuals and very personal [looks],’ he told Lucire’s Paris editor Lola Cristall.
   On the menswear side, Elbaz explained the approach he took: ‘When we began at first, the image was of a man who was very specifically created being emotional and poetic, and then we advanced [creating] man as more linear, a little more edgy and a little cooler … Then we wanted to go back to our roots: the essentials of where we started. Finally, we realized that it is not one outfit for one man but it is clothing for different men … here we wanted to show the different façades of a man.’
   Elbaz was born in Casablanca, and moved to Israel when he was 10. He studied fashion in Israel after his military service, and went to New York in 1985. There he worked for Geoffrey Beene, before moving to Paris and heading the design at Guy Laroche. Elbaz took over for Yves Saint Laurent at the appointment of Pierre Bergé at the end of the 1990s, until Gucci took over the label. He briefly worked for Krizia before joining Lanvin in 2001.
   Despite bringing the brand back from irrelevance, he fell out with Lanvin’s owner Wang Shaw-Lan and CEO Michele Hubain in 2015 and was ousted from the label, which caused him great distress. After some smaller projects, Elbaz launched AZ Factory with Richemont last January.