Brooklyn’s Sustainable Design Boom: 10 Eco-Friendly Designers To Know Right Now
All photos by Austin McAllister
Given that we now have a Whole Foods that sells produce grown on its own roof, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise to anyone that Brooklyn’s increasingly become a hub of ethical, sustainable goods. This has been true of our food culture for ages (lest we forget, the Park Slope Food Co-Op’s been around since the ’70s), and in the past few years, it’s increasingly filtered out into industries like beauty and clothing design that can be trickier (and more expensive) to do right but have just as much of an impact on the environment and economy.
Several shops now exist solely for the purpose of selling local, ethical designs—Modavanti, Young and Able, and Su’Juk, to name just a few—and Young and Able founder Rosa Ng tells us, “I thought it was important to give these designers a platform, and it’s great to work with people who are open to finding a different way of doing things.” The community is an unusually supportive one, but perhaps even more crucially, it’s been quietly turning out some truly incredible design. Out of an ever-growing roster of locals doing work that’s as sustainable as it is good-looking, here are 10 we think you should know about right now.
