Love how heels lengthen your legs? Dress up your look? Give you calf muscles you didn’t know you had? Maybe. But wearing heels could be detrimental to your health.

If you think you’ll be the only gal in town sporting flats, think again. Victoria Beckham announced she will be hanging up her heels.

Yep, the former Spice Girl and fashion guru has declared she can no longer “do heels”, and will opt for flat shoes more often. Don’t believe it? Check out the footwear she chose for her NYFW show in February.

Sure, white sneakers are hot for spring. But VB in them at the Fall shows means this is serious.

So, are high heels really all that bad? A recent study shows that, over time, wearing heels can negatively affect muscles in the legs. Because the ankle is bent forward, calf muscles shorten in the back of the leg and lengthen in the front of the leg, which could weaken the muscles.

As we can see, sore feet aren’t the only detriment of wearing heels. Other possible problems? Knee and back pain, and spider veins.

Those die-hard high heel wearers can strengthen foot and leg muscles with exercises recommended in the study above. If you’d like to kick your stilettos to the back of the closet, here are some flat but still stylish options.

Sneakers are cuter than ever right now. ModCloth has a wide, and super cute, selection. And yes, you can wear tennis shoes with skirts.

It’s almost time for sandals. Yay! Take a look at these stunners by Aldo. Perfect with shorts, skirts, dresses, or pants.

A great gladiator screams summer music festivals. Grab this vegan pair at Free People.

Espadrilles are a summer classic. Try them in white or black vegan leather by Soludos.

No need to kill your feet or back for fashion. If Victoria Beckham is ditching her heels, so can we.

*Disclaimer: Help support EcoSalon! Our site is dedicated to helping people live a conscious lifestyle. We’ve provided some affiliate links above in case you wish to purchase any of these products.

Related on EcoSalon

8 Tips to Find the Best Sneakers for Walking

On Trend: 7 Sustainable (Not Sneaky) Sneakers

11 Ways to Rock Cool Sneakers While Still Looking Fashionable

Image of woman with high heels via Shutterstock

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Willy Loman, Meadow Lark Lemon, Ricardo Moltobon, have you heard of them? These so called fashion fans never had either, yet they lied about it in the name of cool. Why? 

How far are you willing to go to look cool? Come on, admit it—we’ve all told a little white lie in the name of self-elevation. You know, when we are wrapped up in conversation with someone we aren’t exactly familiar with, or maybe a little intimidated by, we nod our heads agreeing like lemmings that ‘oh yes, we know that person’—or place, or seen that foreign film.

Okay, so we’ve all been there in one form or another, right? But I know you’ve never taken it this far.

During New York Fashion Week, Jimmy Kimmel’s team brought their “Lie Witness News” to the steps of Lincoln Center to see if fashion week attendees would take the bait.  The film crew blended into the chaos of runway show attendees and asked questions about made-up designers like Joe Azoozoo, George Costanza and Eddy Munster’s line and so-called model trends like the Uni Boot. The individuals thought they were being interviewed by verified press, one of the many that flood the parade circling around fashion week, and plenty of the self-proclaimed fashion fans and even industry professionals nodded and confirmed the non-existent fashion designers and trend.

Watch the video above: It makes me wince and fill with empathy each time another interviewee agrees with a lie.

What’s going on here?

The industry has created a monster feeding off exploited rapid trends–just like the music industry is banking off on Miley Cyrus’s naked body. It’s hurting Miley, it’s hurting the designers, and it’s hurting the community who are in a confused circus of peacocks.

The mainstream fashion industry today isn’t about the craft of making a garment or the brilliant construction of the clothing or the viewing of a true dedicated artist’s work–it’s about blind consumption and dollar signs. The sharpest, most dedicated designers I know don’t do runway shows. They don’t fling clothes at bloggers or hire PR agencies to promote their lines. They put their heads down and follow their gut instinct. They are artists in love with the creation process and with complete conviction make a living off their craft. They don’t follow they lead. And certainly, they don’t entertain customers like the ones in the video.

“The fact that I couldn’t even see the dog poop shows that she’s a good model. Because until you pointed it out, I was like ‘Oh, she looks great. What’s wrong with this?’ And then you’re like, the dog poop, on the head.”

See Also:

Between The Lines: From NYFW to the Garment Factories of Pakistan

Where Will Fast Fashion Leader H&M Strike Next? Africa Is Likely

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Suzanne Rae’s eponymous Spring/Summer 2014 Collection is a look into the (kinder, gentler) future of the modern woman. What does that mean? To designer Rae’s mind, she seeks comfort in simplicity—but style is never a compromise (why should it be?). Almost as if seen through a crystal ball, Rae’s S/S he collection is graceful forward-looking take on sharp day-to-night streetwear for the woman who has more interesting things to do than get dressed twice. 

Rae’s latest collection is inspired by the novel 2150 AD by Thea Alexander, but even without knowing its origins, you can see that the styles are a look into the future—almost robotic in form, but juxtaposing with a soft feminine feel. Suzanne Rae gives us a snippet of utopian (or is it dystopian?) society through her minimalist, well-tailored and boldy accentuated silhouettes. The new collection seamlessly combines imagination and craft.

This redefinition of femininity is exemplified in the black neoprene dress seen below. It is seasonless in a global world that could see you pairing it with sandals and a colorful, oversized clutch on a sunny NYC summer’s day; 48 hours later, paired with a crisp white turtleneck and black tights with boots, it would fit in comfortably on a wintery Sydney day.

Her perfectly volumized shapes (like the one seen above) are the new forms in fashion, the opposite of the current trend for ultra form-fitting everything. Pieces are smart and perfect in their attention to detail, like the black tee with neoprene trim around the sleeves and collar.

The collection materializes the new definition and role of the modern woman, but also challenges and then recreates the fabrics it is constructed from. Fabrics like neoprene, usually used for wetsuits, are poetically constructed to appear quite mysterious. Crinkled silk organza evokes the beauty of a pearl even with its wrinkled texture. (Plus, it would be a wonderful piece to travel with because you don’t have to worry about ironing it!)

Not only is Suzanne Rae a brilliant young designer, she is dedicated to manufacturing in the city she lives in: All of her clothing is produced in the Garment District in Manhattan and reflects the true cost of clothing production by skilled workers—something the industry—and our communities could use more of!

Get an inside look and feel into Suzanne Rae’s SS14 Collection through this video created by her team.

You can find Suzanne Rae’s styles throughout small boutiques like Kaight, Steven Allan, Joinery and Henrik Vibskov.

 Related on Ecosalon: 

NYFW: Suzanne Rae’s Minimalistic Take on Feminism and Beauty

The Ultimate List of Sustainable Fashion Designers, from A to Z

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SUNO New York offers gorgeous womenswear collections that celebrate the textile traditions of global cultures by supporting artisan communities.

SUNO is a New York-based fashion label that designs and creates beautiful womenswear in collaboration with artisan communities of textile weavers and garment assemblers. Launched in 2009 by Max Osterweis and designer Erin Beatty, the label initially used Osterweis’ stockpile of vintage Kenyan textiles to produce the first collection, which was predominantly manufactured in Kenya. The designs, bold prints and lively colors spoke to the fashion community, and the label has since grown to become a successful designer brand. Nonetheless, the label has kept its integrity by supporting the beautiful creations of artisan communities in several countries, and by creating clothing that is impeccably tailored and responsibly made.

SUNO Autumn-Winter 2013

Since its founding, SUNO has evolved to include textile producing artisan communities in India, Peru, Kenya, as well as its home base in the New York Garment District. Kenya, a long time home to Osterweis, is where production began as the founder wanted to help save the Kenyan economy after the post-election violence of Spring 2009. After SUNO’s opening show, retailers such as Opening Ceremony, Enny di Monaco, Ikram and Maria Luisa quickly caught on to the brilliance of this fresh, new label, soon sharing the label with style and ethics savvy women. Other distributors were quick to follow, as SUNO is currently available at more than 60 retailers worldwide, with names such as Harvey Nichols, Celine and The Webster on the roster.

SUNO Autumn-Winter 2013

The use of traditional techniques renders SUNO garments of the highest quality, while and emphasis on fit and detailing makes these ethnically inspired collections accessible to the modern, urban woman. Fabric is definitely one of the main features in all SUNO collections, and although their garments often assume a tribal or folksy feel the designers say: “When we’re looking at textiles, we don’t really think about them as being ethnic or not ethnic. We see them as beautiful and interesting, or not. We’ll never abandon beautiful and interesting patterns.”

SUNO Autumn-Winter 2013

Despite the ubiquitous unwearability of several designer collections, SUNO manages to create cute ensembles and separates that can easily be paired with basics for a unique and comfortable outfit. As seen at the recent NY fashion week shows, SUNO’s ethnic and folkloric style has taken a Slavic twist for the colder months of 2013. Golden paisley prints, floral prints and embroidery, ruffled hemlines, coverall dresses and pinstriped shirtdresses evoked modern Russian dolls at SUNO’s show. Fashion crowd favorites were definitely the Swarovski crystal encrusted piece, which injected a bit of lavish glamour to the dainty collection.

SUNO Autumn-Winter 2013

Collaborations with jewelry designer Pamela Love and footwear designer Nicholas Kirkwood have allowed SUNO to offer accessories that evoke the optimistic, fresh and vibrant looks of their garments. Vibrant, eye-catching and intelligently designed, these ethically produced collections are definitely an investment to flaunt and be proud of. Although Osterweis and Beatty haven’t created the label around the message of sustainability, their mission to “create a visible and sustainable brand that produces high quality clothing…while using and developing local talent” is being brought to life through their luxurious, logical and definitely lovable clothing.

Images: SUNO 

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New York Fashion Week got a glimpse of a growing trend in fashion with Vaute Couture’s vegan show.

Anna Wintour would surely shudder at the lack of fur, but vegan fashionistas rejoiced as the first all-vegan animal rights fashion show hit NYFW last week when Vaute Couture took to the runway. Designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart expanded on her established outerwear and tee shirt line with ready-to-wear tops, dress, pants, skirts and sweaters all made from vegan and eco-friendly fabrics.

It couldn’t have been better timing for the vegan debut at Fashion Week. Just last week, a huge victory came for animals and animal advocates as the EU announced a permanent move away from allowing the sale of any cosmetics that have been tested on animals. And the vegan diet continues to gain popularity with celebs, athletes and politicians advocating a plant-based diet. Just recently, Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, urged his city’s residents to consider adopting a vegetarian diet.

And Hilgart showed off the glamorous side of veganism with sexy garments that were both lively and edgy. Colors were rich  in blacks, blues, greys and tans, reports Ecouterre. Hilgard also highlighted the development of new fabrics, including a luxe organic cotton velvet, recycled Thinsulate, 100 percent recycled satin and organic fleece, according to Ecoouterre. Hilgart said: “I want to show that we don’t have any excuse to wear animals.”

The show was sponsored in part by the Humane Society of the United States, one of the biggest animal advocacy groups in the country. The show also included several dogs (on the runway!) that were available for adoption.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Images: Courtesy of Eco-Chick

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Femininity meets power-play in Costello Tagliapietra’s Fall/Winter ’13 collection at New York Fashion Week.

Stitched from the see-sawing juxtapositions of life, thoughtfully constructed dresses, like the ones that glided down the runway of the Costello Tagliapietra Fall/Winter 2013 show this week, have a story to tell. And if these dresses, jumpsuits and alpaca cloaks could talk, there would be conversations to be had.

From boardroom banter to cocktail chatter, they whisper of femininity, power and mysticism. Over weekend cappuccinos, they share their secrets in finding a graceful balance between femininity and masculinity, between power and sweetness. And, because they are the carefully crafted garments of Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, the design duo behind the line, they murmur one word again and again: sensuality.

When I first met the endearing business- and life- partners following their Spring/Summer 2013 showcase, the same, singular word, came up repeatedly.  At first, it seemed surprising to hear two burly men speak so softly about a woman’s emotions and desires—about sensuality. So this time I asked how it is that they simply ‘get’ women.  “It’s easy, really,” says Tagliapietra.  “Most of our friends are women, and we grew up with sisters.  We just surround ourselves by women. Strong women.”

With its Fall/Winter collection, Costello Tagliapietra calls forth the ‘working woman’s wardrobe’.  “It’s powerful, and it’s feminine,” says Costello. “Our woman is not afraid to embrace her femininity.” It’s this yin and the yang—the pairing of a slinky polyester dress color blocked using AirDye technology, contrasted with an alpaca caplette, sourced from Tagliapietra’s mother, the owner of an alpaca farm in New Jersey—that makes this collection so wearable. “We love that the alpaca comes from a women-run operation; we love that the animals aren’t harmed; and we love the whole farm-to-table mentality,” Tagliapietra proudly adds. Opposites really do attract—from runway-to-real world, in a magnetizing way.

Backstage: Designers Robert Tagliapietra (left) and Jeffrey Costello (right).

More looks we love:

Photos: Jennifer Barckley

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With a colorful, eclectic collection made entirely in Los Angeles, Clover Canyon injects New York Fashion Week with a breath of fresh California air.

New York Fashion Week was very black and white and monochrome this time around. This is practical but, let’s face it, we need some color on our lives. This made Clover Canyon‘s presentation at Lincoln Center’s The Box feel even more like a breath of fresh California air. The label’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection was an explostion of bright colors and crazy prints, featuring geometric shapes and paisley mixed with California pop culture icons like muscle cars, soda bottle tops, steering wheels, surfers, highways, mountains, prairie homes and a certain kind of medicinal plant, with a sprinkling of sequins thrown in for good measure.

Launched only last year, Clover Canyon received instant appreciation from fashion editors and buyers and can now be found at major retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Net-a-Porter and Shopbop. Creative Director Rozae Nichols, who had her own eponymous line for 15 years, has lived her whole life on the west coast. She decided to make local production an important part of the label’s DNA, stating: “Clover Canyon is made in California, and always will be.”

From the label’s atelier, Clover Canyon’s design team works collaboratively on designing the original prints, and hand-engineering them to frame and enhance the body. All garments are designed, patterned, cut and sewn in-house, using an innovative mix of new technology mixed with old world craftsmanship. “I have a wonderful team, a glorious design team,” Nichols tells Harper’s BAZAAR. She goes on to say that the label is able to maintain an accessible price point by “creating an in-house science and precision that we’ve mastered with no waste or excessive burden. The fabrics are humble, they’re not insanely expensive. We make Clover Canyon look expensive because of the artistry.”

Nichols has been focused on prints for a long time, and with Clover Canyon she completely surrenders to them, making it the focus of all the label’s collections so far. “We approached Clover Canyon with a new attitude for print and made a commitment to making it about saturated color,” she says. “Part of the magic is the research we do to make the images very opposite and juxtaposed.”

There’s no doubt that prints are having a fashion moment right now, but Clover Canyon still stands out from the crowd. One is not drawn to these fantastical garments because they happen to be what’s trendy right now, the precise mix of tailoring and placement of the patterns gives this collection a timeless appeal that will surely make it stand the test of time. That, along with the outspoken commitment to local production, is what we really love about them and welcome with open arms.

All photos by Johanna Björk

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The Fair Fashion runway show, held during New York Fashion Week, shows us that fashion can look good and do good.

When attending fashion week, it’s easy to become overwhelmed (and slightly disturbed) about the sheer amount of clothing that designers put out every season, much of it produced less than ethically. A nice counterpoint to this was the NYC Fair Runway Show, held on Thursday at co-working space Wix Lounge in NYC.

The runway show was organized by the NYC Fair Trade Coalition, an all-volunteer grassroots organization dedicated to educating consumers about the value and importance of fair trade and promoting fair trade businesses in NYC.

Kibonen|NY (also top)

Featured designers included Kibonen|NY by Cameroonian designer Kibonen Nfi, inspired by traditional Cameroonian garments, REBORN by Soham Dave, which fuses the old and new with contemporary leisure clothing, filling a niche for authentic pieced and hand crafted from natural materials, and mccoll&clan, a New Jersey-based SEE (sustainable, eco, ethical) label committed to a design and business ethos that supports more sensible ways of innovating fashion.

REBORN by Soham Dave

The models wore vegan shoes by Monisha Raja of Love is Mighty, a brand dedicated to preserving indigenous arts, tribal culture and craftsmanship in India. Makeup artist Lacey Elliot used products from Josie Maran’s vegan, eco-friendly line.

mccoll&clan

After the show, guests were treated to samples from fair trade makers of tea, root tea, chocolate and quinoa vodka. There was also a marketplace, featuring pieces from the runway show.

Fair trade may not yet be a buzz word in the fashion world at large, but maybe this fashion week runway show could be the start of a greater discussion of the topic? We certainly hope so.

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Using patented no-waste technology, knitwear brand Kotoba makes pieces that are as conscious as they are covetable.

At New York Fashion Week, knitwear seemed to make an appearance in some form on just about every runway. On Thursday, collective knitwear brand Kotoba celebrated the launch of their Spring/Summer 2013 collection with a fun, low-key presentation at The Maritime Hotel in the Meatpacking District.

Kotoba is the Japanese word for language and the collection, designed by Melinda Danko and Lindsay Mann, featured timeless pieces in simple, versatile silhouettes enhanced by unexpected structural details and textures. Basics in black, taupe and ivory were complemented by pieces in bright and playful colors, particularly orange and mint green, two of the most on trend hues this fall and going into spring.

“We were inspired by multiple things, but it all came down to leisure activity,” says Melinda Danko. “We thought about the one thing that people forget to do, which is how to enjoy themselves – how to have fun doing sport activities, going to the beach, taking care of environment – things that are important in life.” This playful spirit was evident in the presentation, as the models were given props like footballs, skateboards and baseball bats.

“Lindsay and I developed the collection very organically,” says Danko. “We just burst out ideas and silhouettes and with the yarns we have it just came together. We started with one design and it all just fell into place after that”

All the pieces in the collection are produced using WHOLEGARMENT technology, a patented production technique derived from Shima Seiki, a Japanese knitwear machine manufacturer that has been around for fifty years, but has more recently, in the past five years, developed knitting machines for making clothing. It’s an innovative way of producing knitwear that is lightweight and stretchy and made virtually without any waste.

“We wanted to bring back crafts and trade and the sustainability aspect to the U.S. domestic market,” says Danko. “Everything we make is seamless, there’s no waste in the production, and the entire collection (except the yarns, which are from Italy) is made in America”

Kotoba’s spring collection is everything I love about sustainable fashion – it’s locally and ethically produced (in NYC’s Garment District), using innovative technology, but it’s also fun, sexy, wearable and timeless.

Danko says: “We make qaulity garments that, yes, you are going to spend more money on. But the lifetime and durability makes them pieces that you can have in your wardrobe and love for years.”

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ColumnConscious life, hear me roar.

I have just returned back home from running around Manhattan and New York Fashion Week. As you might imagine, an intense week full of long legged runway models, moody designer presentations, and the deep bass beats of stylish music gives New York City the air of theater, sex, and retail desire. It’s also a week-long voyeuristic sneak peak at what we all hope to be wearing next spring and summer when emerging from our winter cocoons.

Fashion is sexy. It serves as both a transformative power pill and a retreat for the world-weary. It’s a place we can go to to become stronger by the very clothes we wear and in lieu of the fact that our inner strength isn’t enough. Power is sexy. If you think I am wrong, point me to the runway show you’ve been to recently that shows women hunched over in house dresses looking down at the ground from nerves.

Fashion is all about power and I couldn’t help thinking about it this past week. There were even times when photographing shows I put the camera down a little in order to see the model walking at me with my own eyes instead of through a lens. Some of them reeked of this confidence so much that I laughed out loud. It’s their job to trick us into believing that a certain look is all we need to get by in this world. It is their job to act as a visual representation of a designer’s ideal, a paper doll with folded tabs that takes off and puts on outfits that when our own, will help in terms of better jobs, business deals, romance and getting the job done.

While I am lucky to be covering sustainable fashion 99% of the time, where designer’s “About Us” pages tout social responsibility, closed loop technologies and organically grown fabrics, most of the fashion industry is just not there. Nor does it really care to be.

Case in point, waking to a story this morning on the Pakistan garment factory fire that has left (as of the writing of this column) 289 dead. In this, the biggest industrial accident in the country’s history, we are left to scratch our heads and wonder how this could be or maybe we don’t want to look at it too closely at the risk that it will tell us something about ourselves.

The “Inspection of industrial units by the provincial labor department was mandatory under the rules until 1997 when it was banned after demands by influential industrialists in the Sindh and Punjab provinces,” Shujah-ud-Din, a senior research associate at the Pakistan Institute of Labour, Education and Research, told Bloomberg by phone from Karachi. Factory accidents also claimed 419 lives in 2008.

The Karachi garment factory itself had locked fire exits, barred windows and there wasn’t a sprinkler in site. A single staircase connecting four floors became kindling for a boiler in the factory that burst into flames, engulfing all floors that were connected to it. Workers chopped away at the bars with tools to jump from 4th story windows – pregnant women, old men, nephews, aunts. People trying to make a living so that society could wear something new.

I recently interviewed Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion. Cline told me, “To our credit, it took consumers several decades to be convinced that they no longer wanted to own beautifully made clothing and to make them forget that $20 does not in any way buy a well-crafted garment.”

In a fast fashion crazed society, where we want more, faster, cheaper, we will always have stories like this in the headlines. Hard-working people who will accept being modern day slaves to put food on the table and a roof over their heads.

You will read all the headlines on this factory fire story and it will stay with you for a bit, until you need a new shirt, a pair of boots or a party dress. You might even consider the tragedy when you walk through the front doors of your favorite fast fashion chain. But you probably won’t be able to stop yourself once you hear the deep bass beat from the well-positioned speakers, the beads and bold colors merchandised like candy, the other women around you, arms laden with pretty dresses at $19.99, and how could you?

You were conditioned to shop this way. But let me tell you something, I think you can start walking past these stores, in fact, I think you can stay out of the mall entirely. I think you can plan ahead and look for the right designers who don’t have factories like this – who pay their workers fairly, who let them work from home who don’t treat them like animals.

People often tell me I can shop responsibly because I know so many designers, I just “know how to do it.”

But knowing how to “do it,” and realizing one has a responsibility to “do it,” are two completely different things. One requires making a call to the eco-boutique or hitting the local consignment shop and the other? Well, that requires lowering the camera and looking at life with a real-life lens.

It requires considering not just yourself, but the lives of many others.

Between the Lines is a weekly column by EcoSalon’s Editor-in-Chief on navigating the sometimes-sharp, sometimes-blurred lines of conscious life and culture between city and country, between inner worlds and outer.

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