Each week here at EcoSalon, I beg my favorite bloggers and designers to hand select a beloved green product, whether it’s a finish, furnishing, or accessory. The end result? An endless anthology of aesthetically perfect products for your perusal.

This week we are graced with the presence of Francine Gardner, from Art De Vivre and Interieurs. Art De Vivre is “a blog dedicated to the full enjoyment of life and all it has to offer.” Interieurs is a design studio and lifestyle store that …

Fashion Weeks around the world have taken the headlines by storm with coverage from NY, Paris, Milan and London. And thankfully, each of these international shows have featured sustainable fashion on their runways.

Here in Canada, we tend to hold our Fashion Weeks a bit later in the season, mainly so that our top fashion media outlets don’t have to be in two places at once. This week we are hosting both Montreal Fashion Week and Eco Fashion Week (EFW) Vancouver.

For the first time, Montreal Fashion Week has teamed up …

Last week we began a discussion on the biggest issues in the food system.

We noted that the issues are all connected and go back to one big problem: The stranglehold that agribusiness has on our public discourse and our political system. Somehow our legislators and much of society have been convinced that cheap food is just cheap food and that there are no externalized costs. It’s just not true. When the real cost of production is completely divorced from the product, we pay. Whether it’s our health that …

In a tight economy, small businesses need to think outside the box just to exist, never mind to thrive.

So one might consider it pretty bold of Kate McGregor, owner and founder of (sustainable haven and four-year-old) Kaight in Manhattan to open a second location in Brooklyn. Others would say it’s a positive step in the right direction for sustainably minded boutiques worldwide, including the emerging designers that fill those spaces.

I caught up with her this week and asked a few questions about her shop’s evolving success. Here’s what she …

In the earth-friendly circles in which I travel, I meet a lot of extremely dedicated eco-activists. They are all outrageously well meaning, if a bit overly caffeinated. The fact is I tend to keep my distance from the true zealots – those endlessly earnest composting vegans, the ones who wear hemp, sew their own cloth diapers, and vibrate with positive energy. Instead, I seem to gravitate towards women who are more like me: well-intentioned but slightly slothful and just the tiniest bit cranky. Basically, I am committed to the Earth …

Sink into glamor with a drip of royalty as the Chromatic Theology series continues with violet.

Each post in this series explores an individual hue, but the characteristics of the topic color can be translated into tints and shades. Keep in mind that the effects and emotions we discuss are most prominent and intense in pure, saturated color. To some extent, the distinctive attributes of violet will be present in color variations – lavender, plum, eggplant, periwinkle, magenta, etc.

VIOLET is …

And so it goes for women determined to prove that in the historic struggle for equality and a lighter laundry load, the second sex has come out on top, resulting in unprecedented role reversals – giving women an edge in educating, managing and thriving. Are females simply better designed to rule a postindustrial society?

That’s the question posed in a recent article in The Atlantic called “The End of Men”, which maps out the makings of a powerful society of fierce, hard hat toting Amazons taking over as …

A perennial fashion archetype, equestrian-chic has long been popular among those with the dream or the means for horse ownership. With a new appreciation for all that’s classic in clothing, it’s only a matter of course that riding styles are a AW 2010 trend that is already off and running.

Revived this time around by John Galliano’s romantic vision for Christian Dior’s Fall 2010 runway, the standard components were masterfully made modern in a memorable spread in Vogue’s February 2010 ”Back in the Saddle” shoot by Raymond Meier and featuring Constance Jablonski.

And while the equestrian …