The Uniform Project launches a monthly pilot series with sustainable movers and shakers.

It’s amazing what a little black dress can do.

Ever since Sheena Mathieken’s virgin exploration into the wardrobe unknown, which entailed wearing a single dress for 365 days, women have taken on similar challenges, some to see if they could do it, others to raise money for charities. Eliza Starbuck’s Bright Young Things are chronicled on her site; The Uniform Project also attracts ultra-spartan dressers. The term “sustainable fashion” is certainly apt when your wardrobe revolves around one little black dress.

Enter Summer Rayne Oakes. All this month, the green model-turned-consultant’s project, Payless ShoeSource (with whom she has had collections), will support Oakes as she takes on the Uniform Project’s first “Pilot Series” challenge. Each month, a new fashionista will wear just one LBD on repeat to promote sustainable fashion and world causes.

Oakes’ is hoping that her charity of choice, Charity: Water, can make at least $10,000 to build two wells for communities that don’t have access to clean drinking water. Payless is pitching in as well, matching online fundraising dollar-for-dollar (up to $10,000).

Oakes says of her Mad Men-inspired LBD created by Carasan:

“I wanted to create a dress with fifties flair – partially because as you’ve found out, I LOVE that era but also because I think that 50s dresses were so flattering for a woman’s body. I have curves and think the dress we created “loves” the feminine form in all the right places – no matter what your shape or size. I enlisted my good friends – Terri and Sandy Rosenthal (a mother-daughter couture-trained design duo) of Carasan Designs to take my original sketches and make a highly versatile and functional piece that can be worn at least a dozen ways (and also equipped with comfy pockets – a must in a dress in my opinion!) I decided to source a 70% silk-30% hemp blend and a handwoven thai silk and hemp-organic cotton blend to give a little peak-a-boo of pink on the underskirt.”

While Oakes’ month has just begun, stay tuned for more inspiring women raising money for causes and pushing the envelope when it comes to maxing out a dress.

My favorite dress to date from the Uniform Project is from their very own social media and blogging guru Jessica Engle, who had her friend and designer at Edelweiss create an office appropriate LBD that you can unzip into two different pieces and wear in myriad ways.

The post Summer Rayne Oakes and the Uniform Project Pair Up for Charity appeared first on EcoSalon.

Tech fashion is a hot topic lately because we have so much of it, and storing our gadget goodies in a weakly padded and smelly, toxic case just doesn’t fit in with an eco lifestyle.

Thankfully, the founders of GreenSmart found a way to solve all our problems with their full line of bags, accessories and laptop and netbook cases (also made from a water based material called Neogreene (cute right?) Neogreene remarkably compares to the feel of neoprene but with 25 percent less petroleum used, 25 percent less energy and the elimination of common toxic solvent adhesives found in neoprene. The company says that on the corner of each of their new Bottles 2 Bags backpacks and messenger bags, there’s a badge stitched in, indicating the number of (16 ounce) recycled plastic bottles that went into making it.

Not only are the cases strong and durable, but they come waterproof and thermally resistant to the little heater your laptop or Netbook can become.

Founders Tom Larsen and Debbie Williams are passionate about their products as much as their employees, and have implemented ethical social practices for GreenSmart including their product materials as well as manufacturing practices.

“As the specifiers of everything that goes into every product we made, we chose to hold ourselves accountable for the actions of our suppliers working on our behalf and for the consumers who did not know any better when they purchased our products. That was 2006. From that period forward we began the transformational process of replacing product materials with eco-conscious materials, teaching our retail customers about the materials, phasing out existing products and materials. What we did was nothing short of a do-over. Within 30 months, we had converted our supply chain to greener processes, greener materials and greener thinking.”

We at EcoSalon are especially impressed by the fabrics used for the GreenSmart “Bottles 2 Bags” which are derived from 100 percent post-consumer recycled plastic bottles, and the fact that they “bumped up the aesthetics,” to match their environmental commitment, which includes donating 10 percent of their profits to the World Wildlife Fund and other groups – not to mention naming all their gear after endangered animals.

This case above is the Akepa, named after the rare Maui Akepa, a small yellow bird that was once abundant in many Hawaiian islands.

Do you like it? Do you want to be like the Akepa bird hiding in the branches illustrated on this case?

Then you should leave a comment below and try your luck at winning. And if you do win, you get to choose between a laptop or Netbook case in any color. Sound fair?

Then get to it!

(Legalese: contest rules and FTC compliance.)

The post GreenSmart’s Laptop/Netbook Case Giveaway appeared first on EcoSalon.