Dallas based designer Koch fuses materials to make sustainable chic.

Linen and rhinestone come together to make the prettiest jacket for spring and summer from Dallas based Koch. Designer Nicole Musselman’s beach girl meets city vibe shakes hands “Looking effortlessly chic while living a busy, sometimes chaotic, occasionally glamorous life,” a goal we all want to strive for.

Editor’s note: We are proud to bring you original columns and feature editorials at EcoSalon on a daily basis. But sometimes, nothing’s more pleasurable than admiring a beautiful, innovative or special sustainable product or idea. Throughout each week, look for “lustables” in the mix here at EcoSalon. And if you have a product you think readers should see, drop us a line at tips@ecosalon.com.

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From deep in the heart of Texas, Koch designer Nicole Musselman is starting to build a fashion brand that we can’t help but get heart palpitations from.

Floaty caftans made from silk and hand-printed with Egyptian Beetle graphics, buttery linen shifts with fishermen striping and beading, and organic cottons with delicate gold origami birds – breathtaking. The best part? Each item is getting prepped for spring deliveries at a boutique near you.

Musselman says working out of Dallas is inspiring, with so many creative fashion industry women working both alongside and for her.

“I feel like the city of Dallas for years only worked with large companies pushing out high volume designers so it’s been great to be here and able to work with such great people and be in the workrooms with them as much as possible,” says Musselman whose line is all sewn and hand printed in Dallas.

In her workroom, a team of six women sew her collection which features statement pieces like layering jackets paired with loose sexy tops and boy shorts, dresses that can be worn off the shoulder or belted with shell belts and hand-stitched bags that tie around the waist to show a little leg.

“I love the idea of pairing the very dressed up crystal trim with the more casual fabrics like burlap linen and fisherman stripe linen, a juxtaposition of seriousness and playfulness, a way to look dressed up without trying too hard. Essentially, this is what the brand is all about, a lifestyle that encompasses an eclectic outlook, travel and the everyday,” says Musselman.

When asked about whether moving forward she’ll be incorporating more sustainable fabrics into her line, Musselman, who recently joined the True Collaborative Showroom based in Portland, Oregon said thanks to the help of the showroom which houses lines like Prairie Underground, Clary Sage Organics as well as PI, she thinks she’s in good hands.

“Right now we’re at about 50 percent for sustainable fabrics but for fall we’re looking at more like 75 percent. I think people are just becoming more interested in how and where their clothing is made and taking interest in it which makes using more sustainable fabrics for designers like me, easier to incorporate.”

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From the Street…

The question will no longer be, “Who shot J.R.” but “Where’d J.R. get those photovoltaic panels for his roof?” Which is almost as catchy.

Larry Hagman is reprising his role as J.R. Ewing from the soap opera Dallas on behalf of the solar industry. The dastardly Texas oilman who famously spent a summer nursing a bullet wound (while audiences spent it thinking about his fate with bated breath) has become disillusioned with Texas tea. Here he is in an advertising campaign to promote solar energy and SolarWorld, a German photovoltaic module maker.

“In the past it was always about the oil,” Hagman says in a TV commercial that debuted yesterday at the Intersolar conference in San Francisco.

“The oil was flowing and so was the money. Too dirty, I quit it years ago,” he says in a voice so gravelly you could walk across it. A portrait of a beaming, much younger J.R. from his wilder days in the 80s fades out of focus, with the subtlety of the Picture of Dorian Gray. Images of an offshore oil rig and blackened waters flash against the backdrop of his sullied memories.

“Shine, baby shine,” he guffaws. The line is a direct jab at Sarah Palin’s “Drill, baby, drill” campaign slogan.

Before the rolling of eyes ensues, it’s worth noting that Hagman lives on an estate in the Southern California town of Ojai which he outfitted with an elaborate 94-kilowatt solar system, thought to be the largest residential solar panel installation in the world, several years ago. He also serves on the board of the Solar Electric Light Fund (SELF), a non-profit that builds solar systems in poverty-stricken areas of the world and was awarded additional funding by the ExxonMobil and Ashoka’s Changemakers Women | Tools | Technology Challenge campaign on June 29.

SolarWorld donated solar panels for the group’s work in Haiti after the earthquake there in January. Yesterday the company said it would give an additional 100 kilowatts worth of panels to provide electricity for at least five health clinics.

The commercial will air nationally in August and can be found on SolarWorld’s site here.

SolarWorld, which is based in Germany but operates factories in California and Oregon, is just the latest of a number of solar companies to introduce a high-profile advertising campaign.

So what’s your opinion? Do you respond well to the idea of a fictional oil baron going rogue in favor of the green movement? Does it draw the right kind of attention to the cause? Is it a clever move or completely out of touch? Let us know in the comments.

Editor’s Note: This is the latest installment in Christopher Correa’s weekly column, Hill/Street Greens, examining the environmental deeds (and misdeeds) of Washington, D.C. and Wall Street.

Image: AP

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