Lifestyle

Sustainable Lifestyle Art | Music | Fashion | Culture
Take a look at the designers, the artists and the musicians that are shaping our planet through their creations. Find out more about vintage collections, organic gardens and those who have made it a life mission to reduce their ecological footprint through their business to home life practices.

Find out what inspires Dust Factory collections…

Check the Dust Factory Vintage Look Book for an eclectic collection of images and designs that inspire our collections each season.

We believe that fashion and style are timeless, this is why we draw inspiration from the past. The Dust Factory Vintage Look Book captures the essence of a time that lives on through or vintage collections. Take a look at what inspires our buyers, designers and clothing graders.

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Market Publique Lookbook – Vintage Fashion w/ a Modern Spin

Image Courtesy of http://welcome.marketpublique.com/lookbooks/

Market Publique Lookbook Gives Vintage Fashion a Modern Spin (Photos)

We like to feature some of our favorite websites, photographers, bloggers and others that are as crazy about vintage as we are. When it comes to Vintage Fashion, style and photography we think that Market Publique is doing a great job leading the pack. Thier online website features a great photography collection of carefully put together vintage outfits in their online lookbook. Take a look at these, they are not just hard to fing rare vintage items, but your every day cool vintage fashion.

Founded by Pamela Castillo, Market Publique brings together a community of buyers and sellers to champion vintage fashion. When it comes to shopping online, photographs mean everything and they do it better than well; their look books breath life–and style–into older clothing, giving them a modern spin

Read more over at Market Publique’s blog. http://blog.marketpublique.com/
Check out their great look books at http://welcome.marketpublique.com/lookbooks/

 

Earth Day Coming Soon – Now Make Something Happen

Well tomorrow on April 22 we celebrate another Earth Day. For those of you that do not know, Earth Day is a day that was set aside to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth’s natural environment. Earth day was founded by a United States Senator as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. The first Earth day was celebrated in the United States in 1970 but by 1990 Earth Day was being celebrated in over 141 Nations World Wide. Numerous communities today celebrate what they call ‘Earth Week,’ an entire week of activities focused on environmental issues.

At Dust Factory every day is earth day for us. We are thankful for our opportunity to be hands on in the recycling and re-purposing process of textiles and other common goods. It is estimated that over one million tons of textiles are thrown away every year in the United States alone. Because of this each month we attempt to save over 75k lbs of clothing from entering our landfills. This is only a small amount in comparison, but we understand that everything starts small. We are only able to do this through the help and support of those that we work with.

We have spent the past 15 years developing a green business as well as educating and supporting others who are interested in doing the same. It does not matter if you are professional mother or a student, each person can make a difference in their community or neighborhood.

The Following are five simple ways that you can make a difference this Earth Day with your clothing alone.

1. Hand-me-downs This may be easier for the younger readers, but you can give your unused clothes to your younger brother or sister. Moms call this Hand-Me-Downs. It is a very simple concept but very effective if used properly. If you don’t have a younger brother or sister, give your old clothes to a smaller  neighbor or cousin. See…very simple.

2. Resale Shop If you are the thrifty shopper or if you think that your are a trendy diva that doesn’t really know that many people possibly due to living in a new location or having a sour attitude, then why not take your old clothing  to the resale shop. Beware, there is a good chance that there might be a  chubster(1) behind the counter at the resale shop waiting to dish you out a piece of humble pie. This could bring some back down to the reality possibly realizing that their washed up style might not be so unique after all.  However, it is worth the chance to make some money on your old finds, and it shouldn’t stop you from moving on.
3. Donate Your Clothes After picking up whats left of your ego, and your entire collection of last seasons rags from the by  counter at the resale shop, the chubster behind the counter will tell you that if you want you can donate your clothing to their clothing bin, and they will see that it gets to a charity. Of coarse you will want nothing to do with them,but they do bring up a good point, you could donate your clothing… maybe just not to them. If you don’t care either way leave your clothing at the resale donation bin, or if you want, there are plenty of other local charities that you can drop your old clothes at. Many of them will even pick them up from your front porch if you take the 1 minute out of your day to call them. They will see that your clothing is getting re-used. Just google local charities in your area.
4. Local Clothing Swap If your hurting for cash , and you still cant get over the fact that the re-sale shop didn’t want a single item out of your collection, you could try a clothing swap. Most cities have volunteers that organize clothing swaps. You can find them by Google..ing “Local Clothing Swap” or checking your local Craigs List listings. A clothing swap is a gathering where a bunch of like-minded people bring their old clothing and trade out their old garments for others. If no one in your area is hosting a clothing swap then why not put together one for yourself. It can be done with neighbors and friends, or a through a church or local charity.
5. Repurpose Your Clothing Ok I may have lied, I said that I had five simple ways to recycle fashion and this last one may or may not be that simple. This will depend on how creative you are, and how good you are with a sewing machine. If you don’t know how to sew, it is worth learning , if you do know how to sew then this will be simple. Any dress can be turned into a top or skirt. Any t-shirt can be turned into a bathing suit or t-shirt for a kid. Any pants can be turned into shorts.  It is a simple concept, but so often over looked. Sometimes you don’t even have to know how to sew, you just need to be able to use a pair of scissors.

Now make it happen. Next time you go through your closet and clear out two pieces or five bag fulls of clothing think about these five options that you now have before  putting them into the trash.

Vintage Clothing + Rock & Roll = SXSW

Every year in the middle of March Austin, Texas turns into the music Mecca of the world when they host their annual South by Southwest® (SXSW) conference. According to their website (http://sxsw.com/) the South by Southwest® (SXSW®) Conferences & Festivals offer the unique convergence of original music, independent films, and emerging technologies. Fostering creative and professional growth alike, SXSW is the premier destination for discovery. This year marks the 25th anniversary for the SXSW Music and Media conference. It always starts out with the SXSW® Film Conference and Festival , although the past three years they have ran a Multi-Media conference with the film conference then the music starts. The conference switches gears into a full blown music conference. This is not to be mistaken as a music  festival like ACL or Coachella, it is nothing like that. This is a full blown conference with musicians from all around the world playing all genera of music at different venues throughout the city. Some you have heard of, some are hoping to get noticed, it is amazing.

Check out the below video of Hometown Artist Suzanna Choffel as she gets ready to play the big stage:

What is so unique about this conference is not only the artists and musicians that they attract all around the world, but the parties and concerts that are going on just about anywhere. Most of these Non-SXSW parties have nothing to do with the event itself, but since the bands and the promoters are all in one place, there is no telling what can go on. We have friends that have caught Willie Nelson putting on a show at a Gas Station one year, where another group of friends caught Morrisey playing at a bowling alley. One of our favorite non-SXSW parties has to be at Cream Vintage, right off of the drag. For the past 7 years Cream Vintage has hosted parties featuring bands like Sweden’s Division of Laura Lee, to New York’s We are Scientists, each band is unique and so is each day of the party.

Cream Vintage is located right off of the Drag on Dean Keaton Avenue across from the University of Texas. The party is in the parking lot behind the store. So basically you walk through a killer vintage clothing store packed with a huge selection of vintage dresses, vintage jeans, vintage t-shirts and more, into their back yard parking lot area. That is where they have a stage set up with live music, more Texas Select Beer than you can imagine, and just an all around killer vibe. Cream Vintage always hosts one day of the party with local bands from Austin and surrounding areas in Texas, then leases out the spot to different promoters from around the world on the other days. Needless to say the event is always pretty spectacular and they variety of talent that one can catch is truly amazing.

If you are in Austin right now, head on over the Cream Vintage and be ready to have your mind blown.