Bodkin fall/winter 2009 collection (photo: Tina Tyrell)

It is really nice that the year 2009 is not only witnessing an increase in the number of eco-conscious people in the textile world, but also in those with a contemporary sense of style – because that actually means the oeuvre cannot just call itself clothing with an eco-flair, but fashion. The best example these days: Bodkin Brooklyn – founded by Eviana Hartman. After its second collection the duo was already awarded the renowned 2009 Ecco Domani fashion prize in the “Sustainable Design” category. The duo has since split up, and as of the current fall/winter collection, Bodkin Brooklyn is the solo work of Eviana Hartman. In addition to her design work, the trained dancer also works as a journalist and has in the past worked for American lifestyle magazine Nylon, and has also written on fashion and design for publications including Purple, I.D. or Wired. She even occasionally appears as a musician and is, in short, a typical New York multitalent. With Bodkin, Hartman has now dedicated herself to her very own vision of fashion designed for a multifaceted city life like her own: tight batik catsuits meet broad jackets and coats with large hoods, simple jersey dresses and oversized shirts can be combined with skinny pants.

Bodkin fall/winter 2009 collection (photo: Tina Tyrell)

The basics are slightly off, in other words slightly different from your usual commercial textiles. They come with slit elbows or knees, giving the wearer more freedom of movement and emphasizing more than just the main focal points on the female body. The clothing also tells of her inspiration from electronic music, of Buckminster Fuller’s architectonic achievements and of old men’s sweat suits.
But naturally what is special about Bodkin is that the whole collection is based on eco-materials and environmentally friendly and fair trade manufacturing methods: the eco-wool jacket has a recycled polyester lining, the shirt with an eco-bamboo cotton blend is made at a Vermont weaving mill and then dyed with Iranian indigo, purple and pigments from New York State sumac leaves.

Bodkin fall/winter 2009 collection (photo: Tina Tyrell)

And because Hartman not only makes fashion, but also writes about fashion and understands the notion of eco not as a fashion trend but as an attitude, you can peruse her blog and not only read about her major interest in Cy Twombly’s art but also meet the people involved in the manufacturing process for her collection, as well as read about fashion and eco issues in general. So much at once: ‘something nice to wear,’ something interesting to read and it’s even p.c. – or better b.c. – biologically correct – that’s Bodkin, our of Brooklyn.

www.bodkinbrooklyn.com

Text: Nina Trippel
All photos by: Tina Tyrell

New H Denim Spring/Summer Collection 2010

Launching a new denim line is no easy task, because there’s a lot of hustling and bustling going on in the shark tank named the jeans market. From discounter to high-end designer, everyone would like a piece of the prey called jeans wearer, because what began two centuries ago as work wear for gold-diggers became the ultimate leg apparel of the last decades, and across all social strata. Till this day. And nothing seems to be changing quickly about that, because for things to stay like that, the world’s denim creators have to keep spitting out new styles – for every taste and body type. If you take a look at shop shelves, you might think everything has already been done – but that’s what the fashion world is like: something is still possible. Always. The best example: Wendy & Jim.
The Austrian duo creates fashion that can be tagged with the words high fashion and avant-garde and have meanwhile been at it for almost a decade. Helga Schania and Hermann Fankhauser are the fashionable export hit from the Alpine nation.
The two met when they were students at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and have been designing fashion since 1999 under the label name Wendy & Jim. The decision to now also apply their ideas on taste to the denim market happened more or less by accident, or rather: the opportunity wondrously arose, as the two explain a bit mystically.

New H Denim Fall/Winter Collection 2009/10

But they left nothing to chance when they created New H Denim, as the line is called. The duo put everything into it, even skipping their regular collection for one season to completely focus on the jeans line. The challenge for Wendy & Jim lay “in the workmanship and innovation. Of course, there are plenty of good jeans brands, but our designs are based on innovations on the inside: the lining is neutral in odor and/or anti-allergic,” says Hermann Fankhauser. But New H Denim not only scores points in questions of its interior. The first version of the jeans line managed to do the seemingly difficult: to surprise – through a duo-color look.

New H Denim Fall/Winter Collection 2009/10

The pants from the first generation look as if they were put together from two pairs of jeans and feature three styles for each sex. Single-color models – some pre-washed – round off the selection.
This past July for Berlin Fashion Week, Wendy & Jim already presented their second collection for the 2010 summer season in the project gallery showroom. Here, it is also less about fine details, and more about being catchy. Apart from various washes, this time Wendy & Jim focused on polka-dot prints, because “when working on the collections we are interested in the rough and graphic. We have never done fine work on a piece, for us it is about rough changes.” And they can also simply look good and be fun to look at and put on – say the designers.

New H Denim Lookbook Spring/Summer 2010

And the models the duo used for its captivating image photos have fun too: with a clownesque masquerade they are photographed in what are clearly sexual poses that show denim and naked skin: That goes well together. We have known that this concept works perfectly ever since Brooke Shields once uttered in a Calvin Klein jeans ad that nothing comes between her and her Calvins. The image Wendy & Jim use to present their New H Denim collection is a lot less innocent, but intentionally provocative – showing that they are exploring contemporary issues: clownesque disguises have recently been spotted on demos as a trend and trick against the ban on covering up nudity. The porn aspect of images is not only an advertising favorite in the fashion world, but new Internet platforms are increasingly turning porn into a mainstream hobby too. But regardless of how profound the motto sounds, it definitely sounds permissive or better: Sex sells. And besides denim still perfectly shows off the body’s curves. Also for Wendy & Jim – but that said the two make as they themselves put it: “Jeans with style, which are not modern or unmodern, but good.” And good always goes. For jeans lovers who like to walk out the door with a special look, New H Denim is the right thing.

New H Denim Spring/Summer Collection 2010

Underwear Collection 2010

If you like to put another layer between your jeans and skin, the duo has conveniently released a matching underwear collection co-designed by DJ and musician Hell. Be it mesh or lace – both for both sexes. Attractive equality so to speak.

www.wujsympathisant.com