Barbara Í Gongini Fall/Winter 2011

Otherworldly fashion from Copenhagen's emerging avant-goth designer

Defining her work as “dark avant-garde,” Danish fashion designer Barbara Í Gongini divides her work into two collections, the highly experimental Main Line and the slightly less radical Black Line. Both—continuously produced in collaboration with photographers, filmmakers and musicians—freely blur the boundaries between fashion and art. The look conjures dark elves and pale fairies but mixes in an urban and unorthodox (almost creepy) mood, which …

Nom&Ada

Casual leather sandals that aren't your grandma's comfort shoes

Bi-continental shoe company Nom&Ada is named after its two founders: The “nomadic” Rie Sawai in Tokyo and the “adaptable” Kimy Andrade in Portland, OR. The two met while studying design at Parsons in NYC and remained close friends after graduating in 2004. Five years later they met halfway between their two homes in Hawaii, and when inspiration struck over iced Kona coffee they decided to …

Oat Shoes

Biodegradable sneakers with looks good enough to literally wear into the ground

While sustainable shoes up until now tended to either look suited for Middle Earth or were limited to recyclable and repurposed options, Oat Shoes signals a welcome leap forward in the market with their cleanly-styled, fully biodegradable sneakers. Founder Christiaan Maats took on the seemingly-impossible challenge of designing and fabricating decomposable footwear as a continuation of his graduation project in product design. After over two …