When the sustainable design movement first started, rolled paper jewelry and gum wrapper bags were plentiful. You have to start somewhere, right? Turn the clock forward to this collection of paper jewelry, created as a collaboration between KEZA and Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) students Jenny Lai and Lindsay Perkins.

The RISD designers participated in the collection to help empower women who were formerly sex workers by helping them set up their company and develop skills in making paper jewelry….

Tags: eco , Jenny Lai , Keza , Lindsay Perkins , RISD , Rwanda

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Realizing that most people have a go-to spot for reading, adding Be Sweet’s boucle mohair throw is a cozy addition to any book nook where extra warmth is needed.

Blending fuzzy and nubby with smooth and sleek, we love that it’s fittingly called the Heaven & Hell throw and that it doubles as a shawl if you need to run to the bus stop or head out for groceries.

The company that makes the yarns and the throw is also pretty …

Tags: Be Sweet , mohair throw , Nadine Curtis , organic cotton yarn , Xhosa Tribe

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Designer Juliane Camposano in a Rosel shrug

Sustainably-designed knitwear isn’t something new, but really fashion-forward knits are.

Rosel designer Juliane Camposano is one of those trendsetting knitwear lines to watch.

Camposano grew up in Northern Germany, on the North Sea, where knits were commonplace garb. She says an additional influence to create came from her Aunt Rosel, a fashion designer and illustrator for a Berlin fashion house in the 30s.

What really interested me about Camposano (besides the fact that she makes a boogie suit) was that she wanted to design a line …

Tags: berlin , eco-friendly fibers , eco-movement , Juliane Camposano , knitwear , Rosel , sustainably designed

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Levi Strauss is just one of many denim lines clothing the majority of the planet so it was great to hear that they’ve wrapped their brains around their  denim’s lifecycle.

Lucky 3P writer Jen Boynton says of her recent dinner with Levi’s and a gaggle of writers: “The Levi Strauss folks came across as down to earth and honest. We talked about the sweatshop labor that plagued their press coverage in years past and how it started the company on the road to sustainability: first socially, with safe working conditions and …

Tags: denim , environmental , EPA , Goodwill , landfills , Levi Strauss , sustainability , triple pundit

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I see you. It’s not the present future, or even the past future, it’s the ancient future and it’s really cool.

In this time period, you are wearing gilded dresses sewn from free ranging silk worms, dyed in beet juice and sprinkled in gold.

Around your neck,  this beautiful talisman rests, your passport to the present where people become entranced when they look at you, a mere mortal but somehow more than that.

I’m not at all sure Sword and Fern designer Emily Baker had this in mind when she designed the piece, but …

Tags: Ancient Future , Emily Baker , silk worms , Sword and Fern , vintage brass

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Magda Rod recently took her LA boutique Visionary on the road.

We are a society used to getting immediate gratification so why wouldn’t we want clothing as quickly as we can get a Big Mac?

The shift in consumer desire to want more now has led us, over the years, to the current state: body care and electronics being sold in vending machines, a craving to know more about where your friends are 24/7 through social media and those energy drinks to help you move faster to get everything, you know…now.

Eco-designers and boutiques …

Tags: eco design , Etsy , nowism , pop-up shops , trendwatching.com , vending machines

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Bianca and Michael Alexander, founders of Vert Couture, had their work cut out for them this past Sunday hosting Chicago’s first ever green fashion show. But with an already established track record in the sustainable field, the couple pulled it off with flying shades of green.

The husband and wife team, who recently migrated from California, have made the windy city more interesting with Conscious Living TV and Soul of Green. So producing Chicago’s debut sustainable design show was just another step in their progression towards sustainable.

Michael …

Tags: eco fashion , Fashion Focus Chicago , Frei Designs , Lara Miller , Macy's , Mountains of the Moon , sustainability , Vaute Couture , Vert Couture

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I hope Mom doesn’t mind, (she’s my #1 fan) but I have to let you in on a conversation we had recently about sizing for curvier women. My mother, fully comfortable with her figure and maybe uneven sizing (bigger on the bottom than top), can’t find anything great to wear anymore so she’s taken to making her own clothes.

Luckily, I benefit as well.

She wishes more eco-designers made clothing in her size, but I told her they’re still designing for the teeny tiny woman. Most of the designs really wouldn’t look …

Tags: Boston Globe , Custom clothing , Levi Strauss , Paragon Lake , prairie underground

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At EcoSalon, we love versatile clothing as much as our giveaways (and eco-designers!). The Diane dress, by designer cmarchuska, is one of those multi-tasking talents.

Is it a tunic? Is it a dress? One thing we do know is that it’s beautiful.

Draped softly at the neck and shaped just enough to skim your sides, the Diane looks lovely worn alone or with accoutrements.

Hailing from a Wall Street background, designer Christine Marchuska knows what looks good on a woman during and after office hours. Most of her designs move you smoothly from …

Tags: cmarchuska , Diane Dress , eco-designers , ecosalon giveaways , Wall Street

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