There is a lot of design innovation being served up during this weekend’s ICFF furniture fair, but as serious sustainable style scouts, we are perhaps most excited about the inaugural TOUCH | NY exhibit curated by Zoë Melo. This LA based sustainable art, design, and fashion collective has created a stunning line of artisan-crafted, fair made products including furniture, home décor items, ceramics, tableware, jewelry, and limited edition accessories. Their interactive sustainable design show opens today in Chelsea, and we love that TOUCH has created a green alternative to ICFF with their showcase of gorgeous, handcrafted designs made from recycled and repurposed materials. With collaborators and art friends working around the globe to expand their eco-friendly network, you can rest assured that the designs featured in TOUCH | NY are going to make the right kind of stylish impact during New York Design Week.
TOUCH Collection’s Banner Bags made from recycled billboard (banner) materials and cotton leftovers (on the inside)
Designer Tatiana Sperhacke is a Brazilian designer whose creative eye is resourceful and poetic as a rising design star and sustainability practitioner. Tatiana participated in last year’s sustainable design exhibition, HauteGREEN, during New York Design Week, and currently directs her own studio in Porto Alegre, Brazil working in graphic design and developing new products using repurposed materials. (That’s her totally cute and clever plastic spoon couture design featured at top!)
Tatiana (TAT)’s gorgeously constructed design for the TOUCH Collection ‘Banner Bag 3’ is an extension of the Banner Bag project by TOUCH and StraaT, which repurposes the remaining billboards of São Paulo’s environs into fashionable designs. The smaller bag can be detached as needed, and the key ring accommodates either a key or your flash drive.
Says TOUCH | NY curator, Zoë Melo, “While it’s great that sustainability is such a buzz word these days, it’s important to get past the concept and look at the mechanisms and infrastructure that can make sustainability an ongoing reality. We’re hoping to deepen people’s understanding of what it means to be sustainable, its extreme versatility, and the way it can impact lives on both an individual and a global scale.”
Zoë Melo is a member of 1% for the Planet, an alliance of small businesses that pay a voluntary earth tax and donate 1% of all profits to non-profit, non-governmental environmental organizations.
TOUCH | NY is on view from May 18 – 20 at 148 11th Avenue in Manhattan. Hours for the public are 12pm – 7pm. There will be an opening for the exhibit on Sunday night (tonight!) from 7pm – 9pm. Even better? The entire TOUCH | NY: Sustainable Design event will be carbon offset via Carbonfund.org.
+ TOUCH | NY
+ Touch Banner Bags
+ Zoe Melo Projects
[...] continuation of our TOUCH | NY coverage of eco friendly furniture, lighting and accessories design from this inspired Brazilian collective, [...]
[...] Sunday night’s TOUCH | NY opening in Chelsea was definitely a colorful green addition to New York Design Week’s offerings. [...]