Tiered T-shirt Dress by Dahl

One of my very favorite designers, Alison Kelly of Project Runway fame, is finally coming over to the green side where eco-designers dwell.

Look for a small capsule collection she and her soul mate, Dane Risch, are putting together for both men and women.

(For the record: cutest couple going!)

The dress, made from 100% Tencel, a soft and buttery fiber made from wood pulp cellulose, is pure comfort and is so sweet.

Alison says: “The colors are putty, cafe au lait and black. I use these color names to conjure up the proper tones, seeing that the computer monitor can sometimes manipulate color. This top is available in all of my size offerings. It hits about mid-thigh so it can also be worn as a dress.”

Oh Alison, you had me at putty.

Leave a comment below to win and for official rules, click here.

Anvil CSR

The t-shirt. How many are crammed in your drawers?

You may not think of this everyday fashion staple as making a big eco dent, but if you trace the tee you’ll quickly see how it can work as an effective instrument for change.

Anvil Knitwear, sponsor of Track My T, is a new interactive web site that chronicles the journey and environmental impact of a t-shirt, from cottonseed to consumer. The site aims to show you the impact, but in a creative way.

The company recently added the educational program to compliment their mission and CSR bottom line, adding to an already impressive effort to make as small a carbon footprint as possible for a large company.

The experiential site, which specifically tracks t-shirts for youths aged 2-12, allows users to explore cotton farms, a gin and spinners, as well as Anvil’s textile mill, cut and sew plants and distribution facility – all by inputting a unique tracking number printed on their very own shirt.

Anthony Corsano, Chief Executive Officer of Anvil says: “Our goal in creating this site was not only to comply with industry requirements, but to turn it into an educational experience and teach about our footprint and ecological impact.”

Anvil, a leader in the sustainable apparel industry is also the sixth-largest organic program in the world.

Rachel Avalon, 2009 Project Green Search winner

Have you followed the progress of Project Green Search? It’s a recent contest that closed recently with winner, Rachel Avalon, being “crowned.”

Aysia Wright of Greenloop and Remy Chevalier of Lu Magazine, who co-hosted the event, say Greenloop’s education, outreach and fund raising arm naturally evolved into Project Green Search, a platform aimed at inspiring people to start thinking about how to align their careers with their environmental ethics.

Wright saw this inspiration as opportunity to reshape a particular  economic landscape, to support progressive, triple bottom line business models, media projects and non-profit organizations seeking to move forward in the realm of sustainable living.

In the case of Avalon, Wright admits she’s beautiful, but much more than just a fresh face.

“People relate to other people, especially people who tell a good story, who are accessible and authentic,” says Wright. “For many companies, non-profits, and media projects, telling their story in a compelling manner is a huge challenge. With the right person, this monumental task is so much easier.  It’s usually pretty clear when a cause is only skin deep to the person relating it, which affects its ability to take root and grow. When the right person tells the story though, a person who lives and breathes the story themselves, you can see it and feel it, and it resonates. ”

Wright says that is her goal with Project Green Search: to educate, inspire, make the connections and serve as the platform where all of this can take place.

Chevalier agrees, but has his own spin.

“Models and actors in ads or commercials need to believe in what they’re selling, so they’re not just doing it for the paycheck, prostituting their image to pay the rent,” Chevalier says. “We want to create an environment where that can happen, grow and expand, so as to transform the entire industry, which has always been led by where the next ‘it’ girl wanted to be.”

Based on Chevalier’s remark about transforming the idea of what a model is or represents for a brand or even for our culture is massive, especially when you’re standing out for the eco-world. There’s a lot more to be hold accountable for.

Avalon has a lot of weight on her shoulders now, and I’m not talking about the Swarovski crystal-embedded crown. What makes her the green girl to stand tall?

I  asked all the Project Green Search judges one question: Was your choice to crown Rachel Avalon as the next green “it” girl based more on her being a fresh face or for her ease in being an advocate for all that is green and good?

Here’s what they had to say.

Darren Moore, Alter Eco Co- host on Discovery’s  Planet Green and Ecovations Founder:

“The reason Rachel Avalon was chosen as the next green girl was because all the judges considered her to be in the top two of their list. For me, Rachel represented the qualities we agreed were most important as judges:

1. History of work in the field
2. Relateable to the masses (look included)
3. Knowledge of green priorities (what’s most important)

This was a challenge to choose because each of the contestants had strong points with unique talents, skills and looks that were difficult to place in comparison with each other. This being the first competition, we had to devise our own criteria and all of us judges had a opinions on who they thought was the best public figure. We were essentially deciding on who we felt would be the choice of the people.”

Deborah Lindquist, Eco-fashion designer combining environmental responsibility with cutting-edge aesthetics:

“I suppose a bit of both. We needed to pick a girl who was commercially viable as a model but who also could speak well and was knowledgeable about the green lifestyle.”

Anna Griffin, Editor-in-Chief of CocoEco Magazine:

“My main criteria in choosing the Project Green ‘It’ Girl was to find a fresh face that was accessible to both big brands and the general public, who could also walk her talk in our green space, was passionate and had super integrity. In order to make green a mainstream conversation, it is imperative we start considering what is commercially viable, and build bridges between our industry, large brands and the general public.  Rachel has the ability to transcend each area, and has all the qualities needed to be that spokesperson.”

Starre Vartan, author of The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green and publisher of Eco Chick:

“I chose Rachel Avalon for three particular reasons: she has an amazing face that telegraphs natural beauty, she is graceful, well-spoken and easy on camera, and most of all, her passion for a greener planet is contagious and genuine. After interviewing Rachel, and speaking with her both formally and informally, her love for the planet was palpable, like something that spread from her and infected everyone around her. That is the quality I was hoping to find and several of our contestants were incredibly dedicated to various environmental causes, but Rachel Avalon’s love for the Earth is like a living thing and as we all know, Mother Nature needs representatives who can communicate both the challenges and the joys of going green.”

Josie Maran, Professional model and founder of Josie Maran Cosmetics:

“Rachel is our ‘It’ girl because she is fresh faced and a great advocate and spokesperson for all that’s good. She’s beautiful inside and out!”

Poppomomo

Hells bells. Stop eating that Halloween candy, girl!

Like an epiphany, it dawned on me today that spring is just five months away, and I chucked my Heath Bar into the compost. True, we’re scarcely into winter, but the spring fashion alert is already on: Cutouts are everywhere and will be forcing us to bare regions more sacred than Area 51 (that’s the nether land just under your armpit, by the way).

Pieces like the one above, by Poppomomo, which I love, invite us to engage personal trainers to target Area 51 proper.

And this little ditty from Reif screams I’m pretty from the front, but what about my back? Is it tight enough? Moles all in a row?

Lara Miller isn’t remiss, either, with her floor-length goddess dress. I want to wear high ponytails just like her model. It says, Hey, I left the gym and just happened to throw this on.

Isn’t there any rest for the wicked who love pies, hearty soups and fresh-baked cookies?

Apparently not. So pay heed, oh darling bundled one, in your over-sized organic cotton number, in your Peruvian Highland wool and stretchy skinny jeans: Five months from now, you will be asked to bare.

Will you be ready for this warmer weather trend?

I’ve recently become obsessed with knitted, knotted and voluptuous necklaces like this organic cotton piece by Necklush. Sustainable designer, Lara Miller, recently turned me on to the line and I love what they’re doing joining scarf and necklace into the happy marriage that is…the snecklace.

Necklush is a really fun wardrobe staple that can be manipulated in so many ways: you can twist it, knot it, pull strands out and wrap it or wear it like a scarf or belt.

Go to the site to see the different lengths, thicknesses and colors you can purchase – when not participating in today’s giveaway for a dusty blue with brown printed one. You will want more.

Celebrating their one year anniversary on Etsy this year, we salute Brooklyn designers Troy and Stephano, the designers of Necklush, for their fabric ingenuity and savvy street vibe they’ve given us for the past 52 weeks. We expect another year of creativity from you two, so don’t disappoint.

In the meantime, may the power of the Necklush move you to leave a comment below to enter to win. For official rules and all that jazz, click here.

At the Shift launch party Friday, November 6th

For all the eco there is, it still isn’t easy being green.

I say that knowing this will change, but I needed only to open my own sustainable boutique to discover, “Houston, we have problems.”

My background is such that I write, market, sell and do coaching with and for designers who seek to prove they are just as good as any other designer doing forward fashion out there. That’s been great for many years.

The tables sure turned when I started my own shop, Shift, and I had to buy from them: I wanted things like reclaimed or organic silks, prints and the ever elusive non-skinny pant.

How about color from water-based dyes?

How about knits that are affordable?

The pieces of my boutique’s puzzle are slowly coming together to form a whole. But, here are a few things I found out along the way that has made living the eco-entrepreneur life very challenging:

A tired Amy DuFault ringing in the eco-goods at the launch party

Patterned fabric

There’s not much patterned fabric out there at an affordable price. If it’s out there, it’s typically very expensive. A few designers I spoke with said they can’t all buy the same print because they want to be creating different pieces from each other (but of course).

Thanks to a lack of demand for the small amount of sustainably printed fabrics out there, suppliers simply choose not to offer many. Think about that the next time you hit the local eco-boutique and you see all solids and heavy accessories buying.

I have a new appreciation for all my eco-boutique buying comrades out there.

Knits

In a perfect world, we could all buy chunky sweaters and luscious scarves at digestible prices. The handful of knit designers out there I love, like Lars Anderson and Souchi, ring in at different price-points that seem fair to me – but what will the shoppers tell me when they’re confronted with the tag? Well, on Cape Cod in the winter, they’re going to tell me plenty.

The knits ring in at a higher price point ($250 and up) because the designer often contracts locals, pays them a fair wage, finds pesticide free yarns and so on. $19.99 does come at a price, just one that consumers don’t see.

Construction

The last thing I want to be guilty of is using standard paints, virgin-paper business cards and bags, incandescent bulbs or anything, frankly, brand new. Being eco through and through means even the building has got to be green.

Thanks to a local carpenter/artist designing a wall unit and dressing rooms from reclaimed wood, and a steady influx of consignment furniture from a local eco-home store, we got there!

Recycled PET plastic hangers? Check.
Dress forms off Ebay? Check.
Recycling bins? Check.
Vintage mirrors and merchandising accessories? Check check!

Goodness, by the time all is said and done, my business partner and I will be running a green business initiative making other businesses on Cape Cod comply with a green certification. (For real. We’ve just been hired.)

And thanks to undergoing my own “greening” I will feel no sympathy.

This is all so worth it. Moreover, despite the challenges, it’s doable. The more we all support the people willing to conserve energy, reuse materials and be part of the solution when it comes to lightening their carbon footprint, the better people we will be.

At the very least, we’ll have some nice sweaters.

Love Heals “Freedom Deliverance”

In a perfect world, every piece of our jewelry collections would help plant trees or save an at-risk child from blindness or slavery.

Sound far-fetched?

Not if it’s Love Heals jewelry.

Based out of Ojai, California, the jewelry itself (necklaces, cuffs, bracelets, earrings) is gorgeously crafted  on an organic farm in a geodesic dome.

Love it.

Incorporating the ” influence of the surrounding bohemian spirit,” says the press release, the pieces are created exclusively from ethically sourced materials and antiques collected from the designer’s travels around the globe.

One might envision these same pieces being protective amulets, others, layered glory.

Regardless, we say, strand us up Love Heals. We’re your new biggest fan. We recently chatted up Co-President and Head Designer, Adriana Lovelace, to learn more.

Amy: I read that you create exclusively from ethically sourced materials and antiques collected from the designer’s travels around the globe. What are some of your favorite collected pieces and why did they strike you as worthy of purchasing?

Adriana: Buddhas and different healing talismans I found in a flea market in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand are some of my favorite pieces.
I definitely love hunting for antique materials the most. It’s so great to find pieces with great craftsmanship and techniques that are now prohibitively expensive and incorporate them in our work. I just came across some great enameled pieces that I will add to our line.

The Mercado Dorrego in San Telmo, Buenos Aires, Argentina, is one of my favorite haunts. I always find great pieces there. It might be some traditional, gaucho, hand-carved piece of horse paraphernalia or some colonial relic – it’s always interesting. I found some devotional pieces in Montevideo, Uruguay; Brazil is great for gemstones and talismans. Of course, Paris and its flea markets, such as Porte aux Vanves and Clignancourt, are up in my scale. London has such great hunting grounds, too – Portobello Road is still great. I used to sell my jewelry there 35 years ago. Wherever I go, whether it’s Europe, South America or Asia I am always hunting, looking for that elusive object that is beautifully-made and has charm.

Do you think creating in a geodesic dome helps with creativity?

Our dome has some great windows that look onto the sky, trees, garden and the profile of the hills in the background. Because it’s round, it reminds us that in the beginning is the end, it all flows seamlessly.

It’s a challenging place to work from organizationally.

We follow the contour of the walls as much as possible for shelving and some work spaces and have a rectangular island inside. When it rains, we cover the computers with tarps. When it’s cold, hot, wet or whatever, the computer system might be down. It’s a constant reminder of the frailty of the human conditions and our lack of ultimate control. I appreciate it from that point of view.

Love Heals seems so organic and raw in its aesthetic (even inherent) beauty. Do you think that’s what draws women to it?

Love Heals seems organic because it is organic. My design processes are spontaneous. I am happiest working when I stay connected to my heart that extends to the rest of my life. Joseph Campbell said “Follow your bliss,” and that is the intention.

I like things that have a human imprint, that are not too perfect, finely-crafted yes, but not too shiny or new or glossy. I consider how a piece feels against the body, where it touches, what weight it has, how it moves when I move. Leonard Cohen says the light comes in through the crack and our work follows that understanding.

I think women love that sense of inherent beauty without fuss. It’s such a relief.

How did you enter into your partnership with Goodlife?

We worked with Goodlife initially but then decided to work directly with their tree planting partner named GreenerEthiopia so that we could be closer to the actual tree-planting work. We are discussing with GreenEthiopia sending a photographer once a year starting in 2010 to document new and existing tree growth and progress as we have made such large contributions.

You also contribute a percentage of money made to child slavery and child blindness organizations. Why do you think it’s so important to give back?

Giving back works from the most selfish point of view: It gives us great pleasure. The heart wants to share. It’s actually a wonderful luxury to have the possibility of giving a portion of our profit. We have been gifted in our lives and it feels so good to share. I think everybody wants that at some level.

I would add that part of our mission is to contribute to the movement of socially-conscious businesses. Specifically, we have been tying each purchase to tangible actions that do good in the world. For example, we now have a series called Vision which protects four disadvantaged children from blindness for the first five years of their life (when they’re most at risk) through our work with VitaminAngels.

We have another collection called Freedom, which saves a child from slavery in Sudan through our work with AbolishSlavery. Just in the last month that we introduced these two new series of work, we have been able to finance protecting over 300 children from blindness, and rescue over 70 children from slavery in Sudan. It has been an honor to be part of these projects and have such a meaningful impact on so many lives.

We are only able to do this work because of the support from our customers.

Love Heals family: Gunnar Lovelace (Co-President, Designer), Elisa Lovelace (Designer), Adriana Lovelace (Co-President, Head Designer).

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.

KEZA, a fashion company dedicated to assisting businesses in East Africa with the intention of improving the lives of women there, consider themselves a “people-inspired fashion company.”.

For this particular collection, KEZA highlighted a Rwanda cooperative that creates paper jewelry.

In conjunction with KEZA, Lai and Perkins spent all of summer 2009 in Rwanda working with the artisans to make the paper jewelry you see here.

And you thought paper jewelry was sooo amateur.

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 that didn’t irritate her skin, creating options for people wanting warmth without the itch.

I caught up with Camposano recently. Here’s what she had to say:

How has your quest for skin-sensitive knitwear helped you evolve as a designer?

It has defined me and still does in many ways. Since there are very limited eco-friendly fibers currently on the market I have to work around what’s available which affects how I design the pieces for a collection. The choice of yarn determines the fit of the design. And I also constantly search for the newest and latest eco yarns out there which has turned into the quest to find the latest in yarn technology available. This R&D is something I never thought would influence how and what I design but has become an integral part.

What do you mean by the “creative exploration” influence of your Aunt Rosel?

My great aunt Rosel was an incredibly progressive woman for her generation, a mother of four with a career as a fashion illustrator and designer in pre-war Berlin. The war forced her to relocate to the North Sea shore with her family. I remember spending endless summer days at her house. On Sundays, stores in Germany are closed – time is spent in family circles. Rosel was an amazing hostess, always impeccable in manners and style with large sunglasses and hats, just like Jackie O. Her style was completely effortless. I would spend hours exploring her closet finding gowns, boas, Chanel suits, the most amazing hats and bags. Her incredible ease of style inspires me to this day in my quest to create effortless, comfortable fashion.

60s and 70s lifestyles and values were pretty far ranging. You say you were inspired by them. How? And how does it translate in your designs?

In the 60s and 70s movements, people expressed values that mattered to them: global peace, the sexual revolution, the first green wave. This hippie movement inspired many worldwide to be part of a cause and purpose. In a way we’re reliving history with multiple wars going on and the big green/eco movement inspiring everyone to change their values and lifestyle. That is what inspires me, to be part of this movement, to be able to make a difference with what I do. My designs are inspired by shapes from that era but with a modern twist of sustainable luxury.

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 fair labor practices, and now environmentally, rolling out EPA wastewater standards for all their international factories, life cycle analysis and energy reduction plans.”

Sounds to me like Levi’s is getting the environmental spirit.

By their partnering with Goodwill to promote “A Care Tag for Our Planet,” Levi’s new initiative aims to put billions of pounds of unwanted clothing to good use instead of into landfills. How? By using a new Levi’s tag and launching a campaign to encourage the owners of Levis to donate their jeans to Goodwill when they are done.

Goodwill can then resell to Levi’s fanatics as well as those who need affordable clothing, and provide job training programs to at-risk populations.

According to the Goodwill site, beginning in January 2010, the Levi’s® brand will be the first major retailer to include messaging on product care tags that encourages people to donate their unwanted clothing.

This is Goodwill’s first partnership designed to increase the lifecycle of clothing and textiles to address the approximately 23.8 billion pounds that end up in U.S. landfills each year.

A simple tag? Is that all it takes? We’ll see and we’ll hope.