Social distancing has kept things, well… distant, even for some lovers. NYCity Lens explores what it feels like to social distance separately from your partner. Lovers, some displaced across the five boroughs while others across continents, share the difficulties that come with romantic isolation—and offer up the creative approaches partners use, from the Netflix party application to dog TikToks, to stay connected and keep love alive amid the pandemic. Queens-based clinical psychologist, Dr. Armando Fuentes, contextualizes the mental space in which separated partners may find themselves.
New York City is a global fashion hotspot. But style comes with a cost. Each year, the Big Apple is responsible for 200,000 tons of clothing and textile waste. New York City fashion makers and consumers, however, are stepping up to combat the industry’s wastefulness. They’re fighting back with ReFashion, a sector of fashion that repurposes old clothing and textiles to create new garments.
Typically, we buy clothing, use it for a period of time and then throw it away. Refashion, recycling and upcycling are all words used to describe a new approach to this linear process of buying and throwing away clothes. By reusing clothing and textiles, designers on the large and smallscale, can repair damages or repurpose and sell something as completely new. In fact, the resale market is growing 21 times faster than any retail market over the past three years, according to GlobalData.
New York City Lens gives a glimpse into the city’s growing demand for fashion without an environmental footprint at NYC’s second annual Refashion Week, sponsored by the New York Department of Sanitation. The weeklong event, held in February, featured panels, pop up shops, and fashion competitions that highlighted ways shoppers can buy and live more sustainably. We sat down with a refashion designer and shop owner, Halima Garrett. By recycling and reworking discarded garments, fashion makers like Halima to Eileen Fisher are paving the way to a more sustainable style.
Alex Dabagh is the son of Lebanese immigrants and leather artisans. It was only natural that he took up the family craft at their Park Avenue leather factory, now one of the last operating leather factories in New York City. Dabagh took over after his father’s retirement, working alongside his employees to produce high-end leather goods for designers. As a craftsman of leather, Dabagh never really thought much about sustainability. But that changed when he realized he could make a textile from trash. Influenced by the ever-growing litter on New York City streets, Dabagh applied his leather bag production techniques to make totes from plastic bag waste. Last year, using approximately 95 plastic bags, Dabagh made his first tote—what he called an aNYbag. Today the aNYbag has become a popular product among New Yorkshoppers who have sustainability in mind. Dabagh now works with New York City community groups to collect plastic bags and repurpose waste.