African-inspired prints are perfect for summer. Mix them all together or make a statement with one bold piece.

African-inspired prints are a trend that’s been around for a while, but we think it deserves some attention since it’s so perfect for summer. Be daring and mix your prints, there’s no such thing as too much – anything goes with this trend. You can even wear all these picks together if you want to. Support sustainable development in Africa by ensuring that you buy pieces that are made by local artisans who make a fair living wage.

ASOS Africa Bra Top in Rhino Print
A quirkier take on the print trend, this handcrafted stretch bra top features a cute hand-drawn rhino print in poppy greens and oranges. The ASOS Africa collection looks to traditional East African fabrics and prints and reworks them with a modern sporty aesthetic in a punchy acid color palette. It’s produced in collaboration with several small communities in Africa, enabling them to earn a sustainable living through their craftsmanship.
$41, ASOS

Light Gives Heat Bold Moss Pearl Necklace
This necklace is the perfect complement to your African prints. It’s hand-crafted by the Suubi women in Uganda from beads made from recycled paper. By making and selling these beaded necklaces, these women are able to make a living wage, helping them create better lives for their families.
$20, Light Gives Heat

Della Treasure Hunt MacBook Case
Since you’re looking all stylish, your computer should too, right? Dress your MacBook up in this fun, protective case from Della. It’s 100% vegan, made from sustainable materials, lined with local Ghanaian fabric, and thinly padded for protection.
$38, Della

Doreen African Print Peplum Top
The ultimate convergence of two trends – print and peplum – this African print peplum top is one-of-a-kind and handmade in New York. Made from 100% cotton blue printed fabric with gold detailing it works really well with a pair of skinny jeans.
$35, Ann Jodes/Etsy

Wrapped Bangles by Mikuti
Mikuti‘s original banana bark bracelets have been all dressed up with local Tanzania wax fabric. Made using a unique wrapping technique, the vibrant colors of the fabric enhance the natural earth tones of the bark, creating gorgeous printed bangles that are surprisingly versatile. They come in stacks of three and should really be worn together.
$68, Mikuti

AFIA Staple Skirt in Neon
AFIA’s bright, colorful staple skirt is the perfect summer piece. It’s easy to dress up or down, but always makes a statement. It’s made from handpicked cotton wax fabric from the markets of Accra and hand-sewn by cooperatives in Ghana who are paid a fair wage for their craft.
$100, AFIA

The post On Trend: African Prints appeared first on EcoSalon.

Greet spring dressed in tie dye prints that echo the hues of sea and sky.

Along with this spring’s big print trend comes a new wave of classic tie dye patterns, this time with a bend toward nature and all her glory. Tie dye in rich shades of blue echo the sea and the sky, taking you from spring into summer. Easy-to-wear, pair with closet classics like a loose-fitting white shirt.

Shabd Element Leggings
Pair these water print element tights by Shabd with a flowy white shirt for the ultimate summery look. Dress them down with TOMS or add a pair of chunky white wedge heels for a more casual evening elegance. Designer Shabd Simon-Alexander dyes all her fabric by hand in her NYC studio, and the entire line is made in New York’s Garment District.
$88, Juno & Jove 

Mujus Billy Earrings
These earrings by Mujus are the perfect complement to blue tie-dye prints. They’re made from small slices of tagua nut seeds – which are also known as vegetable ivory and are fallen seeds from a palm tree that grows in the Amazon. Local communities harvest the seeds without any damage to the rainforest and dry them for eight months before they’re made into jewelry.
$29, Mujus 

Frei Parachute Dress
The cream and gray stripe material of this dress is specially dip dyed by hand in indigo, making each piece completely unique. It’s made in Chicago using plant dyes and 100% organic cotton, sourced from mills that support farmers in the U.S. and abroad who do not use harsh pesticides on their crops.
On sale for $216, Embodies 

Anchored Blue Bracelet by Light Gives Heat
This bracelet is made using recycled paper SUUBI beads with large light blue seed beads in between. The beads are set on a wire, which allows the bracelet to wrap around the wrist for a perfect fit, or be used as a choker or anklet. Each SUUBI product is 100% unique, hand-crafted by the Suubi women in Uganda and made of recycled paper.
$15, Light Gives Heat 

Workshop Naturally Dyed Silk Scarf
This gorgeous naturally dyed 100% silk scarf will lend a light airiness to any outfit. Pair it with a long flowy dress or denim and a perfect white tee. Workshop is a shop, studio, gallery, classroom and garden housed in a hundred-year-old building in Chicago.
$90, Workshop (available in late spring)

Envirosax Surfrider Tote
Envirosax reusable bags hold 44 lbs of weight, are water resistant and roll down so they can easily be carried everywhere. This limited edition style will not only reduce plastic bag usage but help to save marine animals as well with a 50 cent donation for every set sold made to the Surfrider Foundation’s Rise Above Plastics Campaign, which aims to reduce single-use plastics in the marine environment through education and advocacy.
$27.95 (for set of three), Bright and Bold 

The post On Trend: Dipped in the Colors of Sea & Sky appeared first on EcoSalon.

Dwell Magazine set out to stage a minor revolution in coverage of design ideas that plant seeds for universal results. So far, we have witnessed a successful coup, one defying the dark notion print is dead. The alchemy? Making the shelter book an indispensable object of desire – one that visionaries reshaping our mod-century landscape simply cannot ignore. It’s no small feat that the magazine keeps on trucking in a disastrous era for the housing industry, proof that visual stimulus propels progress despite the odds.

“Because we offer so much in terms of design, photography and stories being told, it lends itself to print,” observes savvy Senior Editor, Aaron Britt, who adds that the magazine’s tactile allure might not apply to other books, such as his favorite, The Economist. As he sees it, a magazine that seeks to inform without necessarily exciting the senses crosses over more easily to the screen with nothing lost.

“With Dwell or National Geographic, you want to leaf through it forward and backward and that makes it an object.” adds Britt. “It doesn’t mean it is the only thing we can be or are trying to be, but it something we are really good at being.”

Really good for ten years now, the shelter magazine just celebrated a decade in print (it has an online component), a tribute to the fact design professionals value old school reference guides that complement onscreen viewing. A vast majority of its readers are forward-thinking designers, architects, landscape visionaries, and design-oriented consumers. In other words, pragmatic artists seeking to dovetail pages that inspire. In the sense you don’t have to print out an item to tack it on your bulletin board – it actually conserves energy.

At the same time, Dwell considers sustainability in its publishing practices, bypassing a conventional paste and waste process by using certified recycled paper. Its pages feel good on the fingers, less processed than its flashy, glossy cousins. The good pulp might not put the kind of dent in paper use purists rant about, but at least it’s a conscious act which shuns the frivolous alternative (see Neiman Marcus seasonal catalogs). Most likely, Dwell couldn’t live with itself without this commitment.

“Moving to recycled paper is the key to our redesign but taking advantage of the fact that sustainability has always been something Dwell has focused on, we are moving that dialogue forward which is essential to our growth as a publication,” publisher and president Michela O’Connor Abrams told Green Biz.com in 2007 about the resign introduced in February of 2008. It also resized the format from 9″ to 8.375 and along with the paper, began sparing an estimated 930 trees per issue.

You might ask if down deep, Dwell functions as yet another shopping mechanism since it does rely on ads, like most other successful media (even PBS), and does list the resources for the minimalist masterpieces showcased in articles – the tidy prefabs, the highly coveted bedroom additions. The answer is that it cannot deny it is selling something, but along the way, it goes beyond pushing product to achieve behavior modification. Dwell prefers to focus on exceptional design, which just so happens to fall into the green category in most cases.

“In a perfect world, everything would already operate in an efficient minded way,” Britt argues. “If we are successful, we won’t have to have the conversation anymore. It’s like we publish houses that have indoor plumbing. All houses do. We want sustainability to be woven into the built world as broadly as an indoor toilet and electricity.”

Meanwhile, for those needing to go directly to LEED, bamboo and solar concepts, the magazine provides an Off the Grid section completely devoted to sustainability. Much of this content also is cultivated on the web where editors product daily features. “We understand the magazine to be the bedrock of the brand, but Dwell.com and Dwell on Design are important forums to talk about things in the magazine and not in the magazine due to space restraint,” Britt explains.

One is left questioning if this enviable success story would be played out anywhere but San Francisco, a leader in progressive conservation ideas and initiatives, not to mention plenty of money to fabricate what is conceptualized, namely some of the most striking examples of nature-nurtured dwellings in the country. While Iowa-based and NYC minded Metropolitan Home offered up much of the same in its day, it really didn’t do what Dwell does to make us relate. It didn’t capitalize as much on the human emotion driving the design engines.

“Being in San Francisco give us a different purview than other design press,” figures Britt. “We are happy and proud Californians and hope some of that California-ness comes through.”

Most likely it will, as long as those patronizing the book can keep erecting what they conceive. As Dwell reminds us, the bottom line is you can build the best house in the world but we still need a better energy policy in Washington. That, and perhaps a little help from our friends, like new governor, Jerry Brown. It isn’t just a field of dreams. If you build affordable, beneficial low-use – they will come. Read all about it.

Images: Dwell

The post Eyes on Media: Dwell, The Little Shelter Magazine That Could appeared first on EcoSalon.

Gourmet Magazine, an American classic, found a slump in ad sales spelled the recipe for disaster.

That’s why Conde Nast Publications is closing the oldest food magazine in the US along with Modern Bride, Elegant Bride, and the parent magazine Cookie, which I have to admit I’ve only glanced at in the doctor’s office waiting room.

While the bride magazines are used as sources to stimulate ideas for women planning their big events, Gourmet has long been the bible of American epicureans, fond of cutting out recipes for those summer salads and Thanksgiving pies. The highly respected journal, described as the “magazine of good living,” was launched in 1941 by Earle R. MacAusland, and included articles on wine and travel.

Recently, the magazine increased its coverage of healthy and organic fare, even dedicating a cocktail to actor-environmentalist Brad Pitt. It said it wasn’t just his pretty face, but the time he has devoted to the planet that inspired the refreshing cooler made with organic lime, organic cucumber, organic mint, and even Crop Organic cucumber vodka.

2 wedges of organic lime
2 thin slices fresh organic cucumber
Sprig of organic mint
2 oz (1/4 cup) Crop Organic cucumber vodka
3 to 4 oz seltzer

According to the Associated Press, Gourmet had a circulation of 980,000 last year, but despite its devoted audience of chefs and food lovers, its ad pages fell like a badly-timed souffle, down 50 percent in the second quarter from the year before, according to the Publishers Information Bureau. That’s considered one of the biggest declines ever for a popular title.

Magazines have been trying to brave the recession by experimenting with their pages, even introducing video adverts inside to lure computer screen conditioned readers, as with Entertainment Weekly. In terms of the fashion magazines, there are more eco sources developing on the web. It seems, that is where they will all end up.

Conde Nast spokeswoman Maurie Perl said some 180 employees of the four titles will be leaving the company with severance packages by the end of the week. Earlier in the year, the high-level publisher shut down Portfolio, a business journal, and Domino, a beloved shelter magazine.

It’s reported that in a staff memo, Conde Nast CEO Charles Townsend said the closures were required “to navigate the company through the economic downturn and to position us to take advantage of coming opportunities.”

Conde Nast, run by billionaire S.I. Newhouse Jr., also publishes Vogue, the New Yorker and Wired. The 19 remaining magazines owned by the company include Bon Appetit, which boasts a larger circulation than Gourmet at 1.4 million. Another foodie book, its ad pages drop isn’t much better at 40 percent.

Conde Nast promises Gourmet‘s brand will live on in books and TV programming and you will still see recipes on Epicurious.com.

Source: SFGate.com

The post Ad Drought Closes Gourmet and Modern Bride Magazines appeared first on EcoSalon.

Read all about it! Entertainment Weekly has published the first video advert with built-in speakers to get the attention of readers conditioned to respond to screens.

A report by the BBC explains the screen is built into a wafer-thin, cardboard insert and contains an ad for Pepsi Max, as well as trailers for CBS television.

“This is an extraordinary way to refresh how we interact with consumers,” said Pepsi-Cola’s chief marketing officer, Frank Cooper.

Desperate ploy, marketing breakthrough or annoyance? The chip technology, which holds up to 40 minutes of video, is likened to those singing greeting cards which have gained popularity. They are activated when you open the card.

The cardboard can add bulk to the magazines, and some male consumer have already complained it makes it hard to roll up a journal and stick it in your pocket.

BBC News‘ Los Angeles correspondent, Rajesh Mirchandani, says the magazine advert is mounted inside a cardboard insert and is instantly distinguishable from a normal flimsy page.

“You can’t really flick through the magazine, because the 4-page insert that includes the video screen is relatively bulky,” he reports.

“And when you do open up the relevant page, the actual advert takes several seconds to load and play and that’s a lifetime’s lag in the advertiser’s world,” he added.

Magazine containing the screens have been sent to several thousand subscribers in Los Angeles and New York. Will they catch on by other magazines to save the trade? We shall see.

Some other facts about the adverts:

The post A Screen Inside a Magazine to Lure Readers appeared first on EcoSalon.