Great stories from EcoSalon you may have missed this week.

In San Francisco’s Fashion Incubator At Macy’s Heralds New Designers, fashion writer Rowena Ritchie notes that over the years there have been numerous efforts to breathe life into San Francisco’s struggling fashion scene, “so it was a thrilling day for industry pundits when the announcement was made from Mayor Edwin M. Lee’s office on Monday that a new fashion incubator would launch next year.” The Fashion Incubator San Francisco at Macy’s Union Square (FISF), now has a group mission to turn creative fashion apparel designers into successful San Francisco entrepreneurs. We can’t wait to watch and see what happens.

With the healthy future of our environment at stake and a younger, more urban generation so far removed from forest paths and babbling brooks, are we in trouble? In Wanted: More Urban Children To Embrace Nature, writer Sarah Lewis-Hammond says, “Widely reported problems with our increasing penchant for urbanization expand well beyond the economic and environmental, and issues ranging from increasing obesity to widespread depression and stress disorders have been pinned on our proliferation of concrete.” Time to bring in the jackhammers.

If you live in the city of Portland, Oregon, you’re fully aware it’s been rated a top green city in the U.S. so it’s not a surprise that in this past week’s Places & Spaces, the Avalon Hotel and Spa, in Portland, Oregon has been featured. Kara DiCamillo points out that “With a cool architectural design, this luxury retreat is the tenth hotel in the world (and the first in Oregon), to be certified as a LEED hotel by the U.S. Green Building Council.” Pack your bags and go west, young women.

Foodie Underground columnist Anna Brones is back with more cupcake analysis. “Trendy cupcake stores are one thing, and even if I can’t get behind the popularity of the baked good, I’ll agree that they’re colorful, cute and, if you have a sweet tooth, taste good. But restraint is not a virtue Americans possess, and so we weren’t satisfied with adorably stenciled hole-in-the-wall cupcake shops. Instead we had to make the cupcake a national trend on a level of the beanie baby. Cupcakes have literally taken over.” See all the bizarre cupcake accessories you can handle in Burned Out On The Cupcake Trend.

In International Train Traveling To Romance You, Shira Levine explains that “Train travel is one of the cleanest, greenest, and often prettiest modes of transport for seeing the world. Less carbon is burned when riding the rails vs. flying or driving alone and thanks to technology, traveling by train has picked up speed over the last hundred or so years.” Did we mention that it was also totally sexy?

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New York City’s Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) recently welcomed their first 12 designers to the CFDA Fashion Incubator located in New York City’s historic Garment District.

CFDA president Diane Von Furstenberg led the designers on a tour of their new home just last week.
The first 12 designers are: Alice Ritter; Bibhu Mohapatra; Rachel Dooley of Gemma Redux; Grant Krajecki of Grey Ant; Waris Ahluwalia from House of Waris; Joel Diaz from Jolibe; Prabal Gurung; Dao-Yi Chow & Maxwell Osborne of Public School; Yuvi Alpert & Danna Kobo from Ruby Kobo; Sang A Im-Prop of Sang A; Justin Giunta from Subversive Jewelry; and Tom Scott.

According to a press release, the incubator was announced in November 2009 by Mayor Bloomberg as “Part of the City’s efforts to foster the development of entrepreneurs across all industry sectors, and to encourage small businesses to locate and grow in New York City.”

New York City currently has five incubators currently open or in development throughout the Five Boroughs, with at least two additional spaces expected to open by the end of 2010. Other cities like Chicago, L.A., Atlanta and Dallas have their own incubators which foster affordable work spaces, networking opportunities, and financial support to designers loaded with talent who might not otherwise be able to thrive.

With this mentoring and cultivation of designers sponsored by the CFDA, will we see New York’s Garment District slowly come back to life from its rapidly decreasing amount of tenants? And from an eco-design standpoint will there be opportunities so that more than just two of the 12 are afforded and educated on sustainable materials for their collections?

We can only hope.

Regardless, NYCEDC President Seth W. Pinsky says “This diverse group of designers is a reflection of the depth of fashion talent New York City is known for. It is because of designers like these, as well as the retailers, wholesalers, and numerous fashion-related businesses that choose to locate here, that New York City is, and will remain, the world’s fashion capital.”

Image: Gemma Redux

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