Be a Fashion Locavore

We’ve been scratching our heads wondering why the “slow fashion” movement is, well, slower to catch on than its widely embraced cousin, “slow food.”

A new shopping website aims to usher in a change of pace by offering the chance to buy your clothes just like you do your dinner – hand picked for quality, locally grown and providing that feel good buzz you get for supporting local business.

Recently launched in the Bay Area, Eko Table is giving style-loving shoppers an online resource for finding locally designed fashion and accessories. Sure to become a trend in communities throughout the U.S. concerned with boosting their local economy, Eko Table also provides customers an opportunity to meet up-and-coming designers and help designers to show their work to a wider audience.

Eko Table founder, Erin Gallup answers a couple of questions and shows us how simple it is to keep both our waistlines and our closets lean in 2011. Because lets face it, all that fast fashion is just as ultimately unsatisfying as easy but greasy takeout, isn’t it?

What inspired you to create EkoTable?

A few years ago I began to realize the devastating carbon impact and economic instability created by global manufacturing processes and shipping practices. For example, each of the 90,000+ container ships carrying products from other countries pollutes the air at an amount equivalent to 50 million vehicles. I wanted to opt out. Soon after wards, I became determined to be a locavore of all products but had trouble finding them in one place: I could find food at farmers’ markets, local fashion at trunk shows, art at art shows, but not one place where I could find local products together. As a result, we created EkoTable to make locavorism convenient and accessible.

Can you give us a run-through of the process of say, finding a local fashion designer producing sustainable belts

To find Vagadu, a Bay Area eco-fashion designer of sustainable clothing and accessories, a shopper would go to the Explore section and browse to find her profile and store. They could also go to the Shop section and find her products through browsing “apparel items,” or by entering “belt” in the search box.

Apart from finding unique boutique fashions from promising designers, what other local products can shoppers find on Eko Table?

EkoTable is the perfect resource for San Francisco Bay Area locavores to find one of a kind home wares, personal care items, art and gifts. They can be assured that products purchased not only reduce carbon footprint but also keep their local economy going. And they get to meet incredibly talented people in the process!

Rowena Ritchie

Rowena is EcoSalon’s West Coast Fashion Editor and currently resides in San Francisco, CA.