photo credit DoctorWatson via flickrThere are birds singing. It is four eighteen in the friggen' morning! You can't tell me that these guys can FLY and forage on that many hours of sleep! I am just not getting that. Obviously, these are the ones that don't have kids to tend to... they are the college crowd chickadees.
Said crowd until recently included my brother, who just completed his electrician's thingy. I don't know what that's technically called... license? Papers? Degree? Dunno. But he did it! Yay Bro, way to go! I had planned to take him for a beer, cause that is what you do when you graduate from college, no? We lead different lives my brother and I. His includes beer. Anyhow, I figured that I would scoop him up, attend my friend Kelly's farewell art showing (she leaves this weekend for an eight month Tour de Paint across the coolest parts of Europe... jealous? Who me?) and drink our faces off... me with my crantini and him with his Faceplant. But he ditched me! What??? I KNOW! I know, I thought of that... disowning him I mean. I thought all sorts of mean and nasty things and my feelings were uber hurt, and in the end... I decided NOT to get him his graduation gift. Not enough of a slap in the face you say? Ooooooh, but wait till you see :)
This, my friends, might be the coolest (and by cool I mean super FREAKING AWESOME) thing I have seen in a long while. Anyone who knows this blog at all knows I am a greenie. A budgie some say... an Eco Chick. Emphasis on Chic, right? Anyhow, as such, I advocate all things eco, but in truth, the greenwashing thing gets old really quickly, and although every little bit does count, I tire of hearing the token enviro-speak that is only selling more stuff and not doing much to alter how things are done, just how things are thought about. It's a start, it is! Realistically though, we ALL need to do more, and this includes those of us who make stuff trying to find ways of re-using old, already made stuff. Re-purposing. THIS is the way of the future. The only way, really. Anyhow, this right here is, in my humble but well researched opinion, the perfect example.
Behold, the VIN Jacket.
In true pioneer fashion, Dustin Page, the genius behind the VIN concept took his training in mechanical engineering and transferred his skills to pattern-making and sewing. He started with screenprinting Tshirts, but since everyone and their dog is doing that and he wasn't making any coin off of it, he looked for another way to apply his self taught sewing skills and decided that ripping junk yard cars apart at the seams was a better bet. Something he molded into Platinum Dirt.
The leather from the seats of vintage Cadillacs and other luxury cars has a well worn patina that you simply can't reproduce en masse and what's better, with careful placement of the unique symbols that are embossed into the leather, Platinum Dirt is imparting a sense of prestige in a green garment that goes beyond just re-use and into an entirely new and covetable realm of marrying eco with impeccable taste. He even goes to the extent of using the hood ornament as the zipper pull and the VIN number to accessorize. Once Dustin had established a product line of jackets and handbags, he was contacted by customer turned partner Aaron Parish who has helped to get a replica of the very first jacket he made onto the back of Jamie Foxx. Apparently, the celeb wanted to buy the one that Dustin was wearing, the first one he created, and the duo turned him down and offered to make him his own version. Other stars have snapped them up, Fergie is on a waiting list. So you know, my brother would have been in pretty flashy company. The two are working to promote their product to a high end retail market to change the way we see eco.
I would like to credit Lara from Three Owls for sending this story of gorgeousness to me. This is a woman who knows her stuff! Her clutch is in the mail.
