Join EcoSalon and Ecover as we head into October with a sweepstakes that celebrates your Green Closet!

Ecover tells us: “As you know, one of the elements of Green Closet is all about stopping the clothing rotation: buy good quality clothes and keep each item longer by taking good care of them.”

At EcoSalon, we are all about slow and conscious consumption when it comes to clothing, so we are more than happy to collaborate with Ecover to promote their Green Closet sweepstakes.

What’s the deal? Well, one very lucky and randomly selected Grand Prize winner will take home a stunning prize package that includes fashions from celebrated Green Closet designers Auralis Herrero-Lugo of Auralis and Tara St. James of Study, NY, an eco-styling session with Green Closet supporter Greta Eagan of FASHIONmeGREEN, a signed copy of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by fashion expert Elizabeth Cline, and of course Ecover laundry products that will help you keep your favorite clothes sustainably fresh and well cared for – a total value of more than $600.00.

Auralis Ava Top (pictured above): This is the top for all seasons. 100% silk crinkle chiffon with an iron oxide splatter. Made in NYC.  – $128 plus an Auralis Hannah Scarf (below): Indigo with Tumeric shibori accents. Perfect as a beach cover-up/sarong, a picnic blanket or a winter scarf.  4 feet x 4 feet. Fabric –  crepé plisé: 37% Silk, 35% Hemp, 28% Organic Cotton. Made in NYC.  – $80

Study, NY Berry Blouse (pictured below) – 100% organic cotton blouse with open back in the winner’s choice of white or pinstripe. Made in NYC – $165

An online eco-styling session with Greta Eagan of FASHIONmeGREEN (pictured below). This 1.5-hour session includes: an overall style assessment, defining of personal and professional goals in dress attire, evaluation of five different outfits from the winner’s closet, and eco-fashion integration into their shopping knowledge and habits based on their personal values.  – $200

One copy of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion by Elizabeth Cline which talks about “fast fashion” and the price we pay for not shopping sustainably. -$29.99

One each of the following full-size Ecover products (below), plus 2 reusable shopping totes approximated value $51

Now that you’re probably screaming at your screen “How do I enter?!!!” here’s how:

We want to see either a photo of a favorite garment that you have owned for 5 to 10 years and/or a brief description of why your beloved garment is so special to you.

To enter, “like” Ecover’s Facebook page and click on the sweepstakes tab under their cover photo. You will be asked to upload your photo and/or brief description, as well as your contact info. The sweeps ends on October 14, and the winner will be selected by random drawing on October 15th.

Good luck!!

If you are interested in learning more about Green Closet, go here.

The post Ecover and EcoSalon Celebrate Green Closet With An Eco Fashion Sweepstakes! appeared first on EcoSalon.

EcoSalon’s top 20 favorite sustainable fashion sites from around the globe.

They help us find out about new designers, industry news, trends, learn what sustainable fashion means, and discover all the swanky events we can attend on a global level – these are our eco fashion writers and designers, our go-to girls reporting all the news fit to print, from the exciting and beautiful to the all-too-often tragic and wasteful designer landscape. These are the pioneers of a new type of fashion that explores, connects and draws us in to what the industry could be if we simply supported it more.

We’d like to throw our own hat into this ring, as well- but then, you’re already here reading us, aren’t you?

Past Fashion Future

Past Fashion Future founder Emma Grady says: “I founded Past Fashion Future one year ago as a platform to explore my personal style aesthetic and to show the beauty of timeless and classic fashion and style. I love hearing people’s personal style stories, specifically about their sentimental connection to the clothing that they wear.”

We love the site layout, sharp, stylish images and especially, Something Old, Something New, a series that reveals how modern day style mavens wear heirlooms, vintage, and ethical fashion.

Vogue’s Green Style blog

Come on, It’s Vogue, it’s Livia Firth, it’s eco fashion and it’s high style – do we need to say any more about it?

Ecco eco

BurdaStyle

BurdaStyle, is an online social community that uses the web to bring the craft of sewing to a new generation of designers, hobbyists, DIYers and anyone looking to sew. What could be more sustainable than making clothes yourself? Sewers flock here to mingle, share and support over projects, patterns and full galleries of completed designs.

Join their community to keep current with what other budding (and seasoned) designers are doing. We most certainly do.

Six Magazine

SIX says it was founded with one aim, “to celebrate the designers, individuals, independent brands and companies who are creating a more ethical and sustainable future for the fashion industry.”
We love how the site incorporates beauty products as well as high fashion and packages it so beautifully we want to read every article.
We also love that SIX represents the sixth sense we all have when it comes to style and value.

Clever.

4 Equal Sides

Tara St James, founder of Study NY and 4 Equal Sides believes that “open source material plays a strong role in the development of the sustainable design community,” making her the rare designer that has vision enough to see how the sustainable designer’s new model needs to play out. Under her guidance, Study’s interns have developed, produced and continue to sell their own sustainable mini collections. St James is very open about her production and design process and documents her own story as a designer in a visually as well as editorially personal way that makes you come back for more.

Fashion Me Green

FashionMeGreen is a sustainable fashion awareness project and style site. Founder Greta Eagan says it’s “Conscious coolhunting from around the globe,” and we are in total agreement.

All the curated product pulls, designer features, amazing photo editorials and fashion trend pieces give us extreme hope for the future of ethical fashion that it can in fact be stylish enough to become mainstream without anyone even noticing.

Closette

Yuka Yoneda, founder of Closette and Ecouterre’s Senior Editor calls herself a shopaholic.

“Well, I was a shopaholic. I was always a jeans and sweatshirt kinda girl, but when I graduated from college and got a job in the city, I went a leeeetle crazy with the shopping – okay, a lot crazy. Then I learned about where the clothes I was buying came from and how they were affecting and hurting other people, particularly women and children, around the globe. The idea that these crimes against women, pollution and chemicals going into our water and bodies, and just shear waste were all happening because I wanted a new top or jeans really made me feel ashamed. I knew I had to make a difference in my own life, so I started thrift shopping, supporting sustainable designers and making my own clothes and I feel wonderful knowing that the garments I wear don’t contribute to anyone else being hurt (except maybe for the people who have to look at my crazy outfits).”

Check out Closette for some fun DIY ideas, shop vintage and secondhand clothing or try winning one of her fun giveaways.

Goodlifer

Founded by Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Johanna Björk, Goodlifer is all about style and the good life. “With your help, we’re writing a guidebook for a new generation of Goodlifers. We want you to share in and help craft a positive, enthusiastic vision of a future that is both sustainable and achievable. Through first-hand, personal journalism and thoughtful exploration and discussion we’re here to consider daily choices, reconsider assumptions, pose questions, uncover opportunities, make you think and collaborate with us on what it means to be a Goodlifer.”

Sign us on Johanna.

We’ve been following Timo Rissanen since we came across him in this New York Times article and were more than elated to finally meet him recently at the Yield exhibit in Brooklyn. Timo says on his site: “I’m investigating fashion creation without fabric waste creation through design practice.”

We are fascinated by his finds.

EFW

EcoFashionWorld says they aim to inspire with new ideas, ideals and information. “Our goal is to keep you green, gorgeous and growing with a comprehensive guide to finding sustainable designer brands and online eco fashion stores.” For those new to the game and fumbling over the words like Peace Silk or tencel, check out their glossary for the latest terminology definitions.

Ethical Fashion Forum

The Ethical Fashion Forum is a non-profit organization, that makes life just a little more easy “for fashion professionals to integrate sustainability at the heart of what they do.”
Membership to the EFF delivers support for sustainable fashion businesses through three programs with each program including several essential tools which members can take advantage of to succeed in ethical fashion business.

Members can also stay current with events, sourcing and EFF socials.

Ecouterre

The fashion daughter of Inhabitat, Ecouterre is a heavily photo-curated website devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design. “We’re dedicated to showcasing and supporting designers who not only contemplate cut, form, and drape, but also a garment’s social and environmental impact, from the cultivation of its fibers to its use and disposal. Our ethos: To follow the evolution of the apparel industry toward a more environmentally sound future, as well as facilitate a conversation about why sustainable fashion matters.”

Treehugger

What came first, eco blogging or Treehugger? I think many of us were reading Treehugger when eco fashion was just beginning to evolve past the point of crunchy. Still on track to provide us with timely fashion news, we’ve bookmarked the site and will continue to go back.

Eco Chick

Eco-Chick editor Starre Vartan, consultant and author of The Eco-Chick’s Guide to Life, says the main intention of her site is to “inspire readers toward a healthier, more sustainable life (which we think means a happier life too). That includes slowing down, unplugging, getting out, going in, making mistakes and moving on, being choosy, doing research, and growing every day. Rest and relaxation are real and important, and so is time with friends and family. We love local food, farmer’s markets, independent designers, handmade everything, and connecting with where our stuff comes from and who makes it. We especially love inspiring women who keep us on our toes and asking questions.”

Her site covers all aspects of the fashion industry and Starre is a known girl about town on the streets of New York City when it comes to getting the scoop on eco-fashion. If you’re where she is, you’re in the right place.

Magnifeco

Magnifeco is an eco-fashion blog currently based in Tokyo by founder Kate Black and features fair-trade, sustainable, organic, recycled, vintage and vegan brands in a place where ethics meet aesthetics. From earth friendly fabrics, to sustainable manufacturing processes and fairtrade practices, the site features conscious designers and products for the conscious consumer.

Market Publique

Market Publique is an eclectic marketplace dedicated to vintage fashion “committed to bringing the community together so we can all have a place to buy, sell and discuss vintage in a positive and focused environment.”
The Brooklyn based company started when the founders realized there was a lack of options for quality vintage sellers online.

We are obsessed with how great the styling is and are always inspired to grab a piece to add to our own wardrobes or to simply wear clothes differently after we leave the site.

Holly McQuillan

Holy McQuillan, Yield Curator, designer and lecturer in the fashion design program at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington, New Zealand says since completing her Masters of Design, which explored the presentation of cultural memory through garment design, her work has focused on exploring the possibilities that arise when garment design is restrained by one goal – zero-waste.

Peruse her site or get in touch with her with some of your own zero waste design questions. She will get you rethinking fashion for sure.

Organic Girly

Organic Girly founder Jennifer Barckley is not only one of the nicest people we’ve ever met, she’s also a fantastic resource. Utilize her “Ask me anything,” button and she will get back to you quickly. Check her site for periodic updates on vegan and sustainable fashion forays that sometimes even lead her to chicken sitting.

Social Alterations

Mary Hanlon’s Social Alterations was “developed with fashion and textile design educators in mind, it also acts to create a platform for design educators to benchmark themselves against other educators not only within their own field, but across various design disciplines. In order to create real lasting change, designers of all disciplines must work together to foster transformation.”

A wonderful venue for timely fashion news regarding everything from Fast Fashion to CSR.

Image: Shandi-lee

The post From Eco to Vintage to DIY, 20 Fashion Sites We Can’t Live Without appeared first on EcoSalon.

Every eco-fashion website you go to is probably comprised of some red hot talent when it comes to work outside the site. EcoSalon fashion writer Greta Eagan is a great example of one of our writers taking an entrepreneurial walk outside our own pearly green gates. Recently launching FASHIONmeGREEN, a sustainable fashion awareness project two months ago in L.A. (The L.A. Project), she’s now in New York City wrapping up her New York Project (shot at the SoHo House) with Eleanor Banco, PR Director of Style.com and Teen Vogue.

Next stop? London – to find her next victim or “style influencer” to help morph a darker shade of green.

All clothing and accessories will come from local eco-designers based in each city and will be stylishly showcased in an editorial spread on the site as well as behind the scenes video webisodes. The site will also run the FMG Daily featuring current trends and style tips with eco-alternatives (indicated by a green leaf).

Eagen says “The idea is to impart a style source that is relatable, inspirational, current and eco.”

I recently caught up with Eagen to talk about her new project.

(Side note, if you’ve got an entrepreneurial fashion mission you’re on, pitch it to us!)

Inspiration behind FMG?

I really wanted to build a global platform for eco-fashion with resources, and create a way to bridge the gap between mainstream and eco-fashion. My motto is to provide a (digital) space with style standards as high as the eco ones.

With all the information out there about forward sustainable fashion, do women really still think it’s not stylishly comparable? Could this possibly be true?!

I really think it comes down to awareness. People want to be responsible in their purchasing. We have seen that with the organic food movement and insurgence in hybrid vehicles. When it comes to clothing and fashion, it is just going to take time to educate the consumer and show them what options they have. I would also add, that a lot of the designers who are designing “˜green’ are independent and therefore not as well known as the bigger brands, so again it’s a matter of exposing them to the consumer.

You’ve FMG’d fashion blogger Lucrecia Chan and Style.com’s Eleanor Banco, were they surprised there was so much sophisticated greenery out there?

Absolutely! They both had some idea of what was out there and knew a couple of designers who are green, but the makeover really exposed them to very fashion-forward eco-options they didn’t know existed. I know that they were coveting some of the pieces from the makeover!

Did they pick their own looks from a bunch of clothes you acquired from designers or did you style them all the way?

The core concept of FMG is to select style influencers whose style stands on its own and has garnered them respect and admiration in the fashion industry. Through the makeover, we adamantly hold onto that original style sense to recreate their style aesthetic using mostly eco-inspired pieces. So the process is always very interactive and collaborative. When I do a first pass through the designers I want to pull for the shoot, I will always revert back to my style influencer’s image and ask, “Would she wear this?” Then, we work with the influencer to select exact pieces from eco-lines. Finally, the day of the shoot we will have a handful of outfits outlined, but always allow for the flexibility to change things as we go so that it communicates their true style sense.

Always five looks and how are the five looks picked?

It really is a brainstorming process. We will chat about their style signatures and the story they want to tell through their outfits. Also, because the spread is published online with a Shop The Shoot section, the looks are very seasonal and represent what the influencer is wearing at the moment. We always want the looks to be relatable, corresponding to the time of the year and also sourcing real women who work in industries that command a strong sense of style.

What’s your best advice for newbies?

It’s important to remember that no single brand out there is 100 percent sustainable at this point in time, so to hold yourself to those standards is unrealistic. Instead, start with what makes sense to you and explore. Thrift or vintage shopping is a great entry point. By reusing a piece that was previously produced, you extend its life cycle and just that is very sustainable.

Going green with your wardrobe is a lifestyle decision and I liken it to formulating an individual’s diet. Are you animal- friendly? Is ethical fashion of utmost importance to you? Or are you more concerned with carbon-footprints and dying processes? You decide what is important and make your purchasing decisions from there. It really is a personal journey for everyone which, I think, is the way fashion should be.

The NY Project- Teen Vogue’s Eleanor Banco from FASHIONmeGREEN on Vimeo.

Photographer – Jamie Beck (FromMeToYou)

Photographer’s Assistant – Colleen Duggan

Natural Make-up Artist – Jessa Blades

Video Assistant – Andy Mirabito

Designers used for the N.Y.Project:

Suno
Stella McCartney
Doucette Duvall
Cri de Coeur
Osborn Designs
Study
H Fredriksson
Lizzie Fortunato Jewels
Lauren Pierce
Bodkin

The post Style Influencers Get FMG’d appeared first on EcoSalon.