Madrid toxic-free fashions

A recent post from Greenpeace News announced a new Spanish fashion campaign & show between 16 designers dedicated to toxin-free textiles. Ecosensitive high fashion is finally joining forces because of an upcoming EU law decision on chemical uses.

The full article can be found on Greenpeace.

Pomed

Check out the (surprisingly poorly designed) website for Pomed, a recent green couture event (and I'm talking couture here) in New York City. Pomed, via online and physical auctions, raised money for various great organizations like Habitat for Humanity. Featured were a wide range of fashions and beauty products from ethical and/or eco-friendly businesses. A lot of under-breath murmuring about the reality of various business' practices have been floating around on the internet, but I can't help but to be excited that organizations like these are now desirable, and not dismissed as leftist hippie nonsense.

Anyway, a list of the participants can be seen on Pomed's website. Definitely check them out.

Eve Gravel

Eve Gravel is a fantastic young fashion designer based in Montreal who puts out consistently gorgeous pieces every season. Her style is innovative, funky, but totally wearable. The prices are a little much for me as a college student, but they are certainly not astronomical. Rumor has it that she uses organic fabrics, too.
Pictured is one of my favorite looks from her Fall-Winter 06-07 line, "Borderline" top and "Two-up" pants. This seasons line features rich chocolate browns and neutrals.

Eve explains her primary philosophy...

For me, fashion is a way of expressing a full range of emotions.

umbrellas

Fabulous! I've stumbled (thanks to inhabitat) some fabulous dresses from fellow sustainable fashion blogger Jill Danyelle made of blown out and discarded umbrellas.

Apparently she has tried to make unique reused & refreshed products into dresses all year! How cool.

Hemp kilts!

Not exactly "haute couture," really.

As member of the craft community, Etsy, WhatsUnderYourKilt makes all sorts of men's kilts. Particularly interesting, though, is the inclusion of this hemp kilt...a sign that organic fibers are permeating lots of sides of fashion as we know it.

WhatsUnderYourKilt's hemp textiles were a joint effort with fellow Etsy'er NearSeaNaturals.

The infamous candybar bags

Ecoist has ridiculously cute and high quality handbags worthy of everyday occasions. My favorite, the silver clutches, are even classy enough for a formal occasion.

The idea behind these bags is...well, I'll let Ecoist explain:

We believe that style comes first. When designing our accessories, it is our basic assumption that no consumer will purchase our products because we are nice, eco-friendly treehuggers.

Exactly.

Spotlight: Novica

My first post here as ecoFashion hunter has lead me to NOVICA, a company in association with National Geographic, to bring fair trade practices to craftspeople all around the world. NOVICA has an alarming amount of variety, and beautiful apparel and jewelry. Check out their handmade jewelry for some gorgeous pieces from Bali, Thailand, Brazil, and more.

NOVICA: We want to give artists and artisans around the world a global platform to express their true artistic talents and to spur their creativity. And, we want to provide you with access to unique, hard-to-find items at great values that only the Internet infrastructure can allow.

an introduction

Greetings! Before I start posting, I will introduce myself. I'm a 20 year old design student in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. At my university, a lot of focus has been brought to designing sustainable spaces and systems, but no focus has gone into how we can bring the philosophies behind green design and fair trade to haute couture, or even everyday clothing.

I've been scouring the net for great stores, organizations, and articles about organic design in fashion for a couple months now, thanks to huge blogs like treehugger.

However, I've found that many blogs are a deluge of such diverse--and interesting!--information that it is difficult to find the middle ground between expensive interior decor or scientific-minded discussions of alternative fuels.

So here goes. I hope I can share some fashion that helps push the green design movement to more consumers and keep us looking fabulous.

- Caitlin