Archive for the ‘FASHION’ Category

If you love but can’t usually afford Catherine Malandrino, Anna Sui, Prada, or Stella McCartney, you might want to check out DesignerLaundry.com, where my friend Patrick sells designer clothes, most never, barely or runway-worn, donated from the celebs, socialites, gossip girls, or the designers themselves in his little black book, for charitable causes (besides your lackluster wardrobe). Designer Laundry sells donated duds at a discount to you and I, AND donates 20% of the proceeds to the donors preferred cause, from The American Cancer Society to Planned Parenthood.

American Apparel‘s organic fine jersey short sleeve tees now come in 8 yummy colors. I’m not sure about the eco-friendliness of their dyes but at $15 a tee,these make a great sweatshop-free gym & weekend shirt. My wardrobe staple, their long 2×1 Rib U-Neck Tanks and most of their other items are still not available in organic cotton but I hope that changes by the time I go to re-stock later this year!

Eco-chic Footwear? We’ve got a long way to go.
Again in 2007 I found only two green footwear lines to be not entirely offensively repulsive! First, everything Stella McCartney put her name on in 2007 was brilliant from her CARE organic skin care launch to her adidas and couture clothing lines. Her vegan evening and dress shoes were especially beautiful this year. Sadly, although they claim to be eco-friendly, some of her shoes were apparently made with PVC (the single most environmentally damaging of all plastics). Is Stella an eco-frenemy or eco-friendly?!
Another English line, Beyond Skin‘s vegan and eco-friendly footwear deserves an honorable mention especially for their hot Kate slouch boot. The Beyond Skin line has been a favorite of green celeb Natalie Portman for years. I wonder what they think of Miss Portman’s new line of shoes she designed for Té Casan?? Her bio on the Té Casan website states “(Portman) noticed the absence of fashionable animal-friendly footwear and collaborated with Té Casan for her debut collection.” See you in 2008 Nat!

29 year old Lower East Side based jewelry designer Sarah Perlis incorporates 22k recycled gold and responsibly mined alluvial diamonds from Pride Diamonds, a socially and environmentally responsible diamond mining company which reinvests profits in source communities. Beautiful bangles, necklaces and earrings from the “Grounded Jewel” and “In the Rough” collections run $100 to $1,800. sarahperlis.com

JEAN OF THE YEAR: Serfontaine
I am serious about jeans. I own more pairs than I care to mention, wear them about 360 days a year, and spend countless hours and dollars in search of the most figure flattering and fashion forward pairs. Thanks in part to Barney’s Green initiative, organic denim labels are flying into the mainstream while mainstream denim labels like Levi’s and Earnest Sewn have incorporated several organic cotton pieces into their regular lineup. While Loomstate,Edun or Del Forte are possibly the greenest jeans on the market, I was glad to see American made Serafontaine jeans, known for their sexy butt boosting fit, finally did the right thing in 2007 and went green with their production using organic cotton and organic fruit enzymes to treat the denim.