An outdoor shopping experience this Sunday in San Francisco.

Discovering the hidden gems of the fashion universe, brands that are small, regional, or simply up-and-coming, is the favorite part of the job for fashion editors. And while the style rummager gene may well be in our DNA, this weekend’s Urban Air Market in San Francisco might be just the ticket for those looking to find a truly unique piece of jewelry, or a great under-the-radar brand in just one fun and sun-filled Sunday afternoon.

Bringing together the best in independent design in an outdoor marketplace setting, the expertly curated mix of designs suggests it’s time to forget everything you thought you  knew about fashion from street fairs and festivals and embrace what may prove the fashion shopping experience of the future. The event’s producer, Danielle Cohen, believes the goods available from more than 150 participating designers will surprise you.

“I do my best to curate the show to make the event about design, not discount brand-name shopping or hippy craft browsing, but about independent design. I am especially inspired by designers who are pushing fashion design in the direction it should be going, toward sustainability.”

We couldn’t agree more. Here’s a sneak peek at some of our favorite sustainable designers participating this weekend:

Adina Mills Designhouse

Jewelry designer, Adina Mills‘ beautiful, one-of-a-kind pieces feature natural minerals and found objects. Mills says, “my designs are funky yet sophisticated, and they transgress the limits of art while encouraging their wearers to redefine beauty and freedom for themselves.”

Sarah Lillier

Sarah Lillier specializes in reworking vintage textiles into feminine dresses and separates. Her repurposed line, called Romantic Repurposing, takes vintage home linens like tablecloths and curtains and makes them into something new and modern. “The work, hours, and love that went into making, using, and cherishing these textiles is what inspires me to craft my own creations out of them.”

April Hansen’s line of delicate pieces in recycled gold and silver are designed to be layered over other jewelry and clothing for a unique and romantic look.

Daily San Franciscan

Specializing in hand cut gemstone jewelry and high end, upcycled  jewelry designs by Julia Szendrei,  Daily San Franciscan‘s goal is to always use what is available and to minimize material waste. “We are creating a free artist network for artists and boutiques alike to help better inform the world about what the artist community is doing here in California.”

Montree

Monica Zaidman’s handmade and sustainably sourced garments made from eco-jersey, up-cycled lace, and indigenous embroidery are inspired by her work with women in need in Mexico, Ghana, Peru, and shelters in Brooklyn. “Montree is comfortable, wearable, versatile, and above all beautiful.”

The Urban Air festival takes place this Sunday, May 6th 2012 11am-6pm in Hayes Valley, San Francisco

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Designer Sarah Liller’s “Romantic Repurposing”  helps to redefine the fashion community.

It doesn’t take a Joseph Campbell to look at the confusing state of the world and want to find some primordial meaning or try to put it in larger context.

Alongside our culture’s obsession with celebrity, is the increasing desire for beauty. Connecting with bigger lives can motivate us to lead better ones, and traditionally beauty is an indicator of health and fertility to the opposite sex and of a potential rival worth monitoring to other women.

But beyond evolutionary cues, our voracious modern hunger (New Beauty magazine, anyone?) for beauty – hair and skincare products, anti-aging diets, neutraceuticals, botox and fillers – begs the question, what’s it all about?

Call me Pollyanna, but I can’t help thinking it’s the powerful ability of transformation that is at the heart of the matter. Devoting time to one of the few permissible self-care rituals allowed in our too busy lives, hair, fashion and make-up makeovers represent a deeper sense of renewal and metamorphosis that as a society we’re yearning for.

Last week, a fashion event by an enlightened San Francisco-based non-profit, Groundwork Opportunities, offered both a chance to redefine what beauty means to a community and reestablish fashion’s self identity from glossy posse to bountiful brigade.

Held at Madrone Studios, an airy space at the heart of San Francisco’s creative Mission district, the Define: Beauty event was designed to fund a clean water well for 4,000 people in Moshi, Tanzania.

“Given the many eco-friendly and socially responsible fashion shows, we wanted to focus on a specific cause to let guests directly see the community they are supporting and demonstrate how our support can impact their ideas,” says Bartlomiej Jan Skorupa, executive director of Groundwork Opportunities.

His team found inspiration for Define: Beauty while scouting sites for a clean water well with community members in Tanzania.  The local women didn’t define beauty by the latest styles or products; instead they defined individual beauty by “selflessness, inner strength and community.”

Eight designers were brought together – Cari Borja, Ken Chen, Dallas Coulter, Sarah Liller, MENK, Kajan Padraig, Retrofit Republic and Daniel Sudar –  chosen because their organic or recycled and locally-produced collections reflect the values of beauty found in Tanzania.

More than 50 looks were showcased to an enthusiastic crowd of 300 who were alternately invigorated and humbled by the mesmerizing multimedia installations that demonstrated the possibilities of community through audience participation. Take a look at some of the highlights from the runway.

Kajan Padraig’s slashed and tucked details enhance the earth-toned collection’s wearability

Dallas Parke’s ultra flattering tiered peplums and bustles

Cari Borja’s vivid designs come to life on the runway

Photography by Jayson Carpenter.

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Sustainable style news from EcoSalon’s West Coast Fashion Editor.

Beauty Does – Defining beauty, or rather redefining it from its traditionally narrow confines, is a charge that eco-fashion editors hold dear. Please join EcoSalon and Groundwork Opportunities, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that supports projects to reduce poverty in the developing world, for Define: Beauty the first annual fashion show that will fund a clean water well for 4,000 people in Moshi, Tanzania. Held this Thursday, September 29^th, the show will feature original pieces created by San Francisco designers Cari Borja, Ken Chen, Dallas Coulter, Sarah Liller, MENK, Kajan Padraig, Retrofit Republic and Daniel Sudar that are designed to show the intrinsic beauty within us all. Beginning at 6:30 pm, the event includes a reception that will feature expertly crafted bites from Mission Cheese and Beast and the Hare. Want two tickets to the event? Just leave a comment below and you’ll be automatically entered to win.

Equinox Fever – The best thing about it being officially fall? We can get serious about picking a piece, or two, from Pendleton Woolen Mill’s magnificently modern and fashion smart Portland Collection.  Created by the newly signed on design team of Nathaniel Crissman and Rachel Turk, co-founders of the vintage inspired label, Church & State and John Blasioli, who designs an eponoymous menswear line, the designers reported in this Month’s ELLE having “their minds blown” by a visit to the company’s archives of hundred year old garments that had been “frozen and thawed to preserve against moths” in downtown Portland. Although the collection’s Native American-inspired motif is this season’s surface pattern touchstone, the unisex line of sweaters, coats and knitwear (prices $68 to $650) are designed “to make it something people would still want to wear 10 or 20 years from now.”

Posing Questions – The salient “Posing Beauty in African American Culture” show currently at USC’s Fisher museum in Los Angeles examines a wide range of media, including photography, film, video, fashion, advertising and internet that, according to the program notes, hopes to “challenge idealized forms of beauty in art by examining their portrayal and exploring a variety of attitudes about race, class, gender, popular culture and politics.” The exhibition includes images of women clad in frilly white dresses and sun hats in 1938 Louisiana, Lyle Ashton Harris’ 1987 photograph, “Miss America,” which shows an African American woman with white face makeup and an American flag draped across her bare upper body, and a striking photo of Michelle Obama taken in 2006, engendering a stirring discussion about what is considered beautiful, both within African American culture and beyond. Don’t miss the panel discussion, “Posing Beauty Posing Questions,” on Oct. 4.

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