Sustainable style news from EcoSalon’s West Coast Fashion Correspondent.

Rebel Without A Pause Fashion’s indomitable “Godmother of Punk, ” Vivienne Westwood, celebrated the opening of her first flagship store in Los Angeles last week. The 10, 000 square foot space on Melrose Avenue makes available all of the Westwood labels including jewelry and accessories to discerning West Coast clients.  An unlikely eco-hero, Westwood has recently revealed she doesn’t wash her clothes very often and thinks that talcum powder makes the best deodorant, adding “I think it is a good thing to buy less and choose well – it’s good for the environment and to be fair it’s also good for me because my clothes are quite expensive.”  In these times of shifting patterns in fashion consumption and use, her down to earth approach reminds us of George Bernard Shaw’s line “Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.”

Pick Up Stitches – The Thread show is coming to the Metreon in San Francisco this Sunday and promises to pretty-up the green scene this weekend.  Held in tandem with the Green Festival on Saturday, the show features the latest items from emerging eco-friendly designers such as COATT, Grammatique, Form & Fauna, and Free Hand Fashion.  If that’s not enough to get you down to SOMA from 11 a.m.– 6 p.m., attendees can enjoy new features like the DIY Lounge, Pop-Up Nail Salon, Live Blogger Style-Off Series, a THREAD Wellness Lounge and a Man Cave for the guys.

A League Of Our Own – With so much discussion about the relentless pace of the garment industry, it’s time to celebrate one fashion event that’s been going strong for 85 years. The Junior League of San Francisco is hosting their annual fashion show A Fashionable Legacy on Friday, April 8th at the Fairmont Hotel. The Bay Area’s most fashionable faces have their calendars annually marked and their dancing shoes ready for this glamorous evening. The event produced by the lovely Junior League ladies and long-time show partner, Macys and local company, Viasyn (who is offsetting the carbon impact this year), is one of the most successful fundraising events in San Francisco and has raised millions of dollars for various charities.

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Here I am, an elated newlywed floating down the aisle in the Venetian Room at the San Francisco Fairmont Hotel, arm-in-arm with my Ken Doll – um, I mean new husband – on the runner I designed. By the way, my lace dress was a used vintage gown that I beaded. Was I ahead of my time, or what?

I was thrilled to be strutting my Emma Hope pumps on the words of a prayer I had written for our future. I had it translated into Italian by my friend, Gianfranco Savio of Biordi Art Imports in North Beach.

I simply bought about 20 feet of cotton canvas fabric at the Academy of Art Utrecht supply store. This sort of fabric has long been used by artists to paint murals and floor cloth and works well for durable runner material. It sure beat that flimsy, forgettable white polyester hotels and florists usually roll out for weddings and toss out after they fray.

I asked my friend, Suzanne, a ceramics painter, to embellish it with hand painted cherubs, roses and writing in black and gold. We used fabric paint and permanent markers so the art would last. She had to stretch the fabric down the entire length of the hall of my apartment building to paint it. If you don’t paint or have friends who are artists, Artful Celebrations, an Etsy site, will custom paint a runner for you with words and designs, charging $40 per foot with a minimum of three feet.

After the hot honeymoon in Maui (TMI?) I cut out the first section of the runner and took it to the Walter Adams frame store to have stretched as meaningful art (see below). I’m sure you have a framer who can do it for a modest price.

It now hangs over my bed, a sweet reminder of that enchanted April evening when hopes were high – almost as high as my cousin Shirley from Omaha – and romance was in the air.

My own little cherubs adore seeing the runner (including our shoe marks) and I have saved the extra fabric to pass on to them to use for upholstery, draperies or to stretch as art for their own homes, if they like.

The moral of the story: when planning a wedding, nod frequently in agreement with your mom, but follow your own heart – and imagination. I guess that could apply to raising your own little angels, as well.

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