New York Fashion Week has come and gone.

There was a push for more diversity on the runway by the Council of Fashion Designers of America but did it deliver?  Designers and celebrities worked to make the fashion’s takeover of the city mean more than pretty clothes. Tastemakers used their talents to bring awareness to causes that affected everyone on or off the runway.

New York Fashion Week has the reputation for being a shallow, exclusive affair. While it still attracts the elite, the definition of the insider crowd has evolved. When a star walks the runway, it does more than sell clothes. When a new supermodel is crowned, she may not look like what you expect. While the industry will always love the beautiful people, they just might be talking about what’s inside, not just the outside.

So how did New York Fashion Week make beauty further than skin deep?

1. Desigual’s star model

One of my favorite fashion shows to shoot each season is the Desigual runway. The Spanish brand’s signature esthetic involves lots of colors and patterns. They embrace the customer who is atypical and unique. The model they hired to represent that ethic was Toronto native Chantelle Brown-Young. She has a skin condition called vitiligo which causes skin pigment to disappear. She was mocked for her appearance as a child but now has the last laugh from the end of the runway.  You might have watched her compete on America’s Next Top Model after being scouted by Tyra Banks personally. For years, it was difficult enough to find models of color cast in major designer fashion shows. While progress is still slow, how great is it to see a model that represents multiple colors?

2. Go Red for Women

The American Heart Association’s Red Dress Collection hosts one of the most popular fashion shows each season. The event for Heart Truth opened with Rosie O’Donnell making us laugh while her personal experience having a heart attack moved us emotionally. She stressed the importance of knowing the symptoms of a heart attack for women, which are noticeably different than men.

The models that walked the runway included celebrities of all ages, cultures, and shapes. Each woman shared how she was personally affected by heart health. Models included everyone from “I Dream of Jeannie” Barbara Eden to Donna Mills. YouTube star Bethany Mota, fitness guru Tracy Anderson, divas Thalia and Ciara graced the catwalk. “Orange is the New Black” stars Dascha Polanco vamped it up and her co-star, transgender actress Laverne Cox, gave the best twirl of the night. The fashion industry’s top designers collaborated to outfit each star in a gorgeous red dress. Fans attended in their own red frocks in support.

3. Thrive Causemetics

I encountered beauty makeup artist and founder Karissa Bodnar backstage at the Charlotte Ronson fashion show. Thrive Causemetics provided the lashes for the models. Karissa conceived the premium cosmetics brand after losing her friend to cancer. She developed her luxury false eyelashes so that for each pair purchased, a pair would be donated to someone being treated for cancer that had lost her lashes through her collaboration with the Look Good Feel Better organization. Each style in her collection was named after someone affected by cancer.

4. Naomi Campbell’s Fashion for Relief

The supermodel gathered her top designer and celebrity friends to host a fashion event to raise funds for the  Ebola Survival Fund. The organization works with community-based groups in Liberia and Sierra Leone to help those affected by Ebola. Singer Mary J. Blige, Paris Hilton, Michelle Rodriguez and a group of other celebrities were cheered on by their most passionate fans. Naomi Campbell established Fashion For Relief back in 2005 to inspire the fashion industry to produce events in cities around the world to support timely causes in need.

5. FTL Moda’s diversity casting

The Italian manufacturing promoter worked with Models of Diversity, a London agency that works with physically challenged models to work the finale of their Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week show. The runway presentation included a range of designers for handbags, evening wear to the avant-garde. Gorgeous models with prosthetics, amputee or wheelchair models drew cheers from the photographer’s pit and audience as they displayed the fashion beautifully. I am happy to say this has not been the only fashion show featuring models overcoming physical challenges. Over the past year, I have seen shows around the world featuring models such as this in what I hope is not just a trend.

Related on EcoSalon

New York Fashion Week Features Models with Down’s Syndrome, Models in Wheelchairs

Is Haute Couture the new diversity in Fashion?

Native American Fashion Week Happened: Here’s Why You Probably Had No Idea

Images: Mariana Leung and David T.W. Leung

The post 5 Best Things to Happen at New York Fashion Week 2015 appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly round up of EcoSalon’s top stories.

It’s been a week of mindfulness and bigheartedness here at EcoSalon, as we looked at:

Jonathan Harris and his happiness project, Balloons For Bhutan.

Passports with Purpose, a travel blogging fundraiser aimed at raising $80k to build two libraries for children in Zambia (Newsflash: they’ve done it!).

30 famous quotes to bring you firmly into the present, where you belong.

Seven of the really, really bad kind of do-gooders….

And in preparation for next week’s Xmas-fest, we gave you 11 DIY alternatives to traditional Christmas trees.

The post The Friday 5: Do-Good, Feel-Good Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

It takes four travel writers to raise a village.

When Seattle-based Michelle Duffy met up with three friends for a coffee and a chat in 2008, she had no idea they were about to change the world. But if it weren’t for that fateful coffee, a village in Cambodia would not have a school and an entire village in India would not exist. That’s just for starters.

The four friends all happened to be travel writers – Michelle writes at Wandermom, Debbie Dubrow is the brains behind family travel blog Delicious Baby, Pam Mandel the eponymous nerd of Nerd’s Eye View and Beth Whitman the founder of Wanderlust and Lipstick.

“It was literally four friends having coffee,” Michelle recalls. “I think it was Debbie who originally said ‘why don’t we see if we can raise money using our blogs?'” That first year, the friends rounded up a few fellow travel writers to host some raffle prizes and raised $7,400 for Heifer International without too much effort. Thus Passports with Purpose was born.

Fast forward to this year and the stakes are somewhat higher. The goal is to raise $80,000 to build two libraries in Zambia with Room to Read. There are dozens of travel sites participating by hosting prizes – everything from a Kindle Fire (several, in fact) to bungee jumping in New Zealand. You have until midnight Seattle time on December 16 to enter the raffle for the prize of your choice by donating $10 at www.passportswithpurpose.org/donate. All proceeds, aside from PayPal fees, go directly to Room to Read.

In 2009 Passports with Purpose raised almost $30,000 to build a school – with a vegetable garden and other enhancements – in rural Cambodia. The school is now complete and Michelle visited earlier this year and wrote this post for Passports with Purpose. The kids previously would have finished school at fifth grade but can now go to eighth grade in their village, qualifying them for high school in Phnom Penh or Siem Reap. “My husband and I were wondering why we needed a driver and why we couldn’t just show up without all the formalities,” Michelle says. “Then we got there and there was an honour guard of all the kids from smallest up to 15 years old and we realized that it was a really big deal. It impacted on a very visceral level because I never thought I could make that kind of difference to anybody’s life.”

In 2010, the tally was $64,128 for LAFTI to build a village in South India for people of the ex-untouchable caste. Beth has written about her visit to the village, which is currently under construction.

The four spend from February to May each year deciding which charity to work with. Since the four of them come from diverse backgrounds and represent a diverse bunch of travel bloggers, they try to select an organization that is not religious. They prefer to work in developing countries where the fundraising dollars can have a greater impact and they like to work for causes that focus on women and children. Room to Read has a focus on educating girls, which research suggests benefits wider society. “As bloggers, we’re people who like to read and people who like to write so Room to Read hits that sweet spot of something we love to do and bringing it to kids who would not have had the chance,” Michelle says. “I was totally shocked by the lack of education infrastructure in Laos when I traveled there and I know Pam has similar stories about Tanzania.”

You can personally make a difference by making a $10 donation in exchange for a raffle ticket for a prize of your choice. You can also spread the word to your networks – last year Facebook was the biggest referrer of traffic. Passports with Purpose is built on the back of $10 donations but since the second year there have been a few larger sponsors as well – in 2011, the sponsors are Round The World With Us, TravellersPoint, Home Away and Good2Go Travel Insurance.

“It’s brought home to me how much you can do as an individual, even if you can’t write a check like Bill Gates” Michelle says. “What I believe from being involved with Passports with Purpose is that… it’s more important to be involved, find a cause you’re passionate about and leverage your network. If you do that it can be life changing.”

Editors note: Writer Caitlin Fitzsimmons is a participating blogger in Passports with Purpose and hosting two prizes – accommodation at the beautiful MacCallum House Inn in Mendocino, California and a cookery workshop at Freestyle Escape on the Sunshine Coast of Queensland, Australia.

Images: Room to Read, Wandermom

The post Passports with Purpose: Fundraising Gets Inspiring appeared first on EcoSalon.

Al Gore taught us just what high profile people can do to further the green movement. If stars and top models can sell wrinkle cream, they also can sell hybrids, lower fuel emissions and green school initiatives.

Global Green USA is harnessing that star power, hosting its sixth annual Pre-Oscars party at the Avalon in Hollywood. Sheryl Crow and Gavin Rossdale (lead singer from Bush) will perform and heavy hitters like Leonardo DiCaprio, Orlando Bloom, Kate Bosworth, Marisa Tomei and Penelope Cruz will walk the green carpet. It’s all designed to raise funds and awareness about improving the efficiency and conditions of schools in ailing New Orleans and elsewhere.

“This is the launch of our national initiative to raise $3 million in the next five years for on the ground projects and educational awareness,” Matt Petersen told me. Petersen, the president and CEO of Global Green USA, says good light and indoor quality in the classrooms results in fewer missed school days and higher test scores. The Andrew Wilson Elementary School in New Orleans is among the green models of the initiative, as pictured in the rendering below.

In 2004, Global Green launched The Green Schools for Southern California Initiative, partnering with the L.A. Unified School District and other government entities to build more than 34 new schools. The New Orleans effort – which also includes affordable housing (Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been big backers) – targets a new, greener Big Easy that returns students and teachers to vastly healthier learning environment. Petersen figures the schools can save an average of $40 thousand per year by converting to better energy systems.

“Green building and sustainability forces us to take a holistic view and see how everything is connected,” he says. “For too long, a stovepipe mentality has driven an over-specialization with everything.”

Certainly, Hollywood’s film icons are part of the holistic picture. Petersen (second from left in group photo, above) says he has been fortunate to work with motivated, educated and informed people – who just happen to also be big names. Petersen even sends his celeb board members to the Academy Awards in hybrids to really drive home the message. “Whether it’s Leo or Brad or Salma Hayek, they help in the continuation of our efforts to combine real substantive work with shining lights on the solutions,” Petersen explains.

The party tickets range from $125 for general admission to $2500 for the exclusive patron level – swhere I imagine most of the stars will be sipping their green drinks and making Oscar predictions.

(Photo credit: Global Green USA, Leonardo DiCaprio, top; 2007 pre-Oscar party group.)

The post Global Green Oscar Pre-Party appeared first on EcoSalon.