Barneys NY, samples of Loomstate and Plastic is Forever

Blog also at  Barbi does Miami

I went harvesting.

Harvesting beach plastic.

Not a bad job. In fact if you had to write yourself the perfect, anything goes, job description wouldn’t it go something like this?

“I’d like to work on a beach. A perfect soft, pink sand beach somewhere in the Caribbean, but Hawaii or Tahiti would be fine too. This would be a quiet beach, one untouched by development. The water would be perfect shades of turquoise, going from pale to dark, and long waves roll in from the reefs a few miles off the coast. They crash at my feet, their sounds become like my heart beat, regular and reassuring. A light wind blows off the water, carrying a salty smell that sticks in my nostrils, still there later when I lie in bed listening to the frogs singing in the hurricane shutters. I will sleep well, because I’ve been outside all day with the sun on my back, bent over, scanning for material in the sand at the water’s edge, the ridge further up the beach caused by waves from hurricane Igor a few weeks ago, then I look along the dune, and between the dune’s grasses. My professional dress code is a bikini and a hat, even on casual Fridays. Sunscreen is my only mandatory regulation. Occasionally, when I get too warm or just when I feel like it, I wade into a particularily pretty pool and float, the waves rocking me like I was back in my mother’s womb. Curious fish surround me, a barracuda comes at me fast, but then veers away, just letting me know that he’s keeping his eyes on me. I look at the island from the water, the curve of the cove, the palm trees and casuarina’s, the cliffs, the occasional vacation home painted pink or yellow or green. Maybe my office is in one of those cottages….”

Blog continues at Barbi does Miami

collected beach plastic...

blue scarf in bag with hangtag

Five colors, five scarves, packed in their tule satchels, including hang tag and rolled up content and washing instructions….

I love them so much we can hardly part ways….

Click on image to enlarge, if you want to read that hangtag…

turquoise, see the little instructions scroll?

yellow, washed up, scrunched up, weathered and battered but very pretty

orange, plastic posing as coral, maybe my favorite color....

barbi pink, Plastic is Forever, a girl's best friend

If you want it, you can get it, this weekend at Base @ The Delano Hotel, Miami Beach, only five available…

part of the proceeds will go to Oceana,  the foremost environmental group involved in cleaning up the Gulf oil spill.

In Six colors. A real Tee-party!

I sent one back. After I messed with it. After I cut it up, washed it in the ocean. Sewed tones of blue beach plastic around the neck.

Then I sent it back to Julie Gilhart, the fashion director who organized the design competition, as a thank you….

a beach plastic tee in a bag

tied with recycled nylon boat rope

a washed up tee

Don’t forget Oceana takes donations for the oil spill in the Gulf…

Lucia and her mother have now beaded six scarves for Plastic is Forever, soon I will have to deliver them to the Delano Base shop.
It will be hard, I’m so attached, picking each morsel of plastic, shaping and drilling it, the excitement of getting them back from Lucia, taking their pictures on the beach, they’re a part of me, and I don’t really want to send them into the world….

All scarves are $250.00 and available at BASE @ the Delano, Miami Beach.

Part of the proceeds of Plastic is Forever go to Oceana and you too can donate, click on logo for link…

Oceana is the largest international Ocean Protection & Restoration Environmental advocacy group dedicated to protecting and restoring the world’s oceans. They have a program in place that helps deal with the effects of the oil spill and they lobby against off – shore drilling…

Oh, I love working on this new collection!

The first scarf beaded by Lucia and her mother Sandra. Looking great, I’m happy….

and a new, large and chunky, neckpiece…

and then the logo made from bits of plastic that resemble letters, for my new e-commerce site, plasticisforevershop.com , hopefully launched soon although its a bugger figuring it all out, like I did half the site and then I realized the template I was using did not allow for ordering different sizes… F@$&*K

Starting all over…now…

Today I launched my “cottage industry” of local sewers. I dropped off my first box with Lucia, a scarf, several hundred bits of beach plastic (pre-drilled), recycled nylon rope for thread, and a map of how to sew the pieces….
Lucia came with her mother and met me at the fountain five blocks north of here. Both of them used to work in a beading factory in North Miami…
There were about forty replies to my ad on Craig’s list – Beaders Wanted. Its a start, employ locally and aid the Florida economy in a miniscule way. I’ve started two companies in the past, one in London one in New York but I always had my eye on the outcome, this time I’m loving every baby step of the process.

I must be growing up.

the sewing package…

white on white – a map…

the crazy plastic driller….

drilled and loved, the next batch – an orange scarf….

my work bench in the garage of our “candy-land bachelor pad”…

Plastic is Forever E-commerce site will open soon, check back for announcement or subscribe to this blog….

NOW…

The announcement yesterday that made me happy!

Barneys New York: Happy Earth Day! Congrats to Barbara de Vries for winning the Earth Day “Sustainable fashion designed to be environmentally friendly” competition! We absolutely ♥ her efforts to clean up the beaches & how she uses plastic waste in her beautiful “Plastic is Forever” designs! Thanks to all who entered + we hope you will continue to live an earth-friendly life!

Plastic is Forever says — Thank you Barneys and Julie Gilhart…

raw and crinkled silk georgette slip scattered with beach plastic from the Plastic is Forever collection by Barbara de Vries

spindles from a crate found stuck in the sand…

nylon cloth wedged permanently under the rocks…

from the Plastic is Forever Collection by Barbara de Vries…

bone like aged plastic with salt and sand patina attached with black nylon boat rope

organic and man-made  in harmony