Beautiful, stylish, and unique, the new modern and minimalist vegan handbags from ONO Creations are more than just wardrobe worthy – they look like they belong in an art museum. Posh without being pretentious, this handbag and accessory line for men and women is a brand that we could easily deem the new face of sustainable fashion. Get behind.

Inspired by the Cause No Harm philosophy, ONO begin just three short years ago and has been blossoming ever since. The leading force behind ONO is Bernadette Bodenmueller who has been following her passion to build an outstanding eco-friendly brand. Drawn to an attractive aesthetic, Bodenmueller desired to position ONO as a lighthouse for beauty and sustainability. So far, we’d say she’s right on target.

According to ONO, the principal manufacturing material is made from cork and tencel (wood pulp and eucalyptus trees). The cork serves as the top or outer layer and the tencel is hand placed as the cork’s backing. Developed and honed especially for ONO, this highly unique material is resultant in the company’s ability to produce and utilize the only sustainable cork leather fabric currently available.

Other materials in the finished products include a luxurious organic bamboo lining, which is said to be dyed using plant based pigments and are fully natural, as well as straps that are made from organic cotton. The cotton is derived from non-genetically modified plants that are grown without any chemicals.

And, as if it couldn’t get any better, ONO also employs ethical working conditions and works with individual tailors and small businesses. Although certification does not exist, by following the standards of the ILO (International Labor Organization) and The Fairwear Foundation, ONO and its partnered workshops are able to give consumers peace of mind due to the agreement made between them that is designed to honor and uphold such stringent principles. Additionally, all products are handcrafted in Portugal and Indonesia, and are manufactured under “human, animal, and eco-friendly conditions.”

Furthermore, ONO Creations was kind enough to share some exclusive information with EcoSalon about one of its newest collections, Stelo, that has yet to even reach production.

Excited about this addition, Stelo is aimed to let women shine with a design that is said to be “a combination of three uniquely patterned, high quality materials that create the contour of a star when joining them together.” The new collection features “handcrafted and exclusively designed hardware from a gold brass composite” to add to the luxurious character, making it a “classy companion for each woman who follows her own star.”

ONO is currently evaluating whether or not to move the production of Stelo to Europe, so keep your eyes peeled for new vegan handbags and accessories to possibly pop up in the near future.

In the meantime, though, be sure to shop ONO’s present collections that are readily available on the company’s website. Featuring an excellent price point, and with products like laptop sleeves, phone cases, yoga mat carriers, cross-body bags, and more, there are so many great pieces to choose from. In fact, we’ve chosen a few of our favorites to share with you below.

Cor Unity

The Cor Unity is a unisex bag that can be carried over the shoulder, as well as cross-body style, or by using the handle. It’s crafted from the signature cork leather and the interior lining is tinted a beautiful shade of emerald green. This bag retails for $185.

Cor Life

Another beautiful unisex bag, the “Cor Life is for living,” or at the very least, perfect for toting around your laptop is style. This computer sleeve basks in all of it minimalist glory and definitely adds a sense of warmth to otherwise typical encasement designs. This laptop cover retails for $109.

Cor Love

You’ll fall in love with the Cor Love as soon as you lay eyes on the unique shoulder bag’s design. Not your typical looking handbag, this purse is sure to garner a lot of positive attention everywhere you take it. Fashioned in the signature cork leather, and with a brown interior lining, this striking bag retails for $229.

With the wish to not just make and sell bags, but to also show the world that beauty can be obtained through following a sustainable and ethical approach, ONO is bound to become a new fixture in the world of eco-friendly fashion.

Now that you’ve feasted your eyes on this beautiful brand, we want to hear from you. What do you think about the collections from ONO Creations? Did you love the designs as much as we do? Let us know what you think about this emerging eco-friendly fashion business on the EcoSalon Facebook page!

Related on EcoSalon

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5 Beautiful Vegan Handbags to Wear on Your Arm: Friday Finds

Image of Woman with Handbag via ONO Creation

The post ONO Creations: Stunning Vegan Handbags and Accessories Made from Cork Leather appeared first on EcoSalon.

Crazy for chrysanthemums and other vibrant prints at Costello Tagliapietra’s Fall/Winter 2012 runway show.

One day last spring, fashion designer Robert Tagliapietra came home to find a workroom filled with chrysanthemum sketches drawn by his design partner and now husband, Jeffrey Costello.

“For some reason I was painting chrysanthemums all spring,” Jeffrey told EcoSalon just after their Fall/Winter 2012 show on Thursday.

“He was obsessed with them,” Robert added.

Designers Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra

The duo behind fashion label Costello Tagliapietra took the sketches, played with them in Photoshop, and used AirDye technology to digitally print the resulting patterns onto vibrant dresses and separates for their Fall/Winter 2012 collection. These looks, with others, paraded down the runway at Milk Studios on Thursday afternoon to a packed house, which included Susan Sarandon, Padma Lakshmi, Miss J. Alexander, and the Misshapes’ Leigh Lezark in the front row.

“New York Fashion Week is an important stage to showcase your work and we feel blessed to have had the opportunity and the audience for as long as we have been in business,” the duo told EcoSalon just before the show. “It would be a sad day when, as a designer, we would do all of this hard work and put in all of these hours of work and not get to showcase it!”

The audience certainly appreciated the parade of gorgeously draped gowns, cocktail dresses, and separates. But while the solid colored pieces were masterful, the printed ones seemed imbued with an entirely different energy.

“We love the prints this season,” Jeffrey told EcoSalon. “We love what they do to the clothes. They have movement to begin with so they give the pieces so much more movement.”

One reason for the vibrancy of the prints is the aforementioned AirDye technology, which Costello Tagliapietra has been utilizing consistently for six seasons and which appears on nearly every piece in the line. AirDye is a sustainable way to apply color to textiles without the use of water, which makes it environmentally preferable to traditional dye methods. The technology also allows for more precise color placement.

Below we’ve posted a selection of our favorite printed pieces from the show, with the chrysanthemum pattern up at the top. See what we mean about energy?

Images: Jessica Marati

The post EcoSalon at NYFW: Costello Tagliapietra appeared first on EcoSalon.

EcoChic Geneva could be a designer’s toughest challenge or wet dream.

Being asked to incorporate not only their current designs but sustainable textiles and their country’s myths and folklore, the show and exhibit will be unique to say the least.

Green2greener, in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, (UNCTAD) will be hosting EcoChic Geneva Wednesday January 20-21. The EcoChic Geneva Fashion Show and Exhibition will feature sustainable fashion in two parts: Eco-Couture and Ready-to-Wear.

Highlights include the launch of a sustainable fashion exhibition featuring many designers whose work with sustainable textiles marks a first, “But all have embraced the opportunity to make a statement about sustainability through fashion,” proclaims the website, noting many designers are incorporating their cultural heritage for inspiration. Let’s take a sneak peek at what to expect:

Oliver Tolentino, L.A. Fashion Week

The Eco-Couture designers, including Alexandre Herchcovitch, Diane von Furstenberg and Oliver Tolentino,  are just a small, international  sampling of designers who will create a showpiece look out of sustainable textiles specifically for this event.

Nixxi, Spring 2010

An equally impressive part of the EcoChic Fashion Show will feature sustainable and ethical ready-to-wear looks by fashion designers from around the globe. Top eco-designers including Elena Garcia, Deux FM, Edun and Nixxi will take a stab at interpreting the plight of today’s sustainable designer having to source from more conscious companies to employing fair trade workers.

Elena Garcia for EcoChic Geneva

And after all is said and done, EcoChic Geneva hopes to “bring together senior representatives from the private sector with key decision-makers from government, civil society and other public sector organizations,” who just might have a say so in all that is sustainable fashion.

Let’s hope the designers come wearing fashion forward duds but also their game faces to impress. Everything counts.

The post EcoChic Geneva Looking Good and Green appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s an uphill battle for many designers to “go green.”

Some walk the talk more than others.

I caught up with three pioneering eco-designers and asked them if the eco-fashion industry is simply lost in a waste-stream of organic textiles or if it is actually possible for the industry to slim down a bit.

Here’s what they had to say:

Sandy of EcoSkin:

As this question is so broad it is difficult for me to give a specific answer, but what I can do is hopefully provide some insight into this issue for EcoSalon readers.

The fashion industry as a whole may never “go green” because the demand for inexpensive clothing and the American way of having more for less is still very present today. Even with the onslaught of green designers and the incredible movement we have seen these past several years of men and women like me taking a stance on social and environmental responsibility, there are still and will likely always be consumers who choose the other option.

I feel like I am kind of preaching to the choir because EcoSalon readers already understand the importance of the fashion industry going green, and what is going to actually move this process forward is education of those who do not care or understand the purpose of green fashion.

All I can do is focus on keeping my carbon footprint smallest, and providing those who do want to see green fashion thrive with an affordable, high-quality, fashion-forward product, and encourage the growth and sustainability of this industry.

Of course I believe in it, and you believe in it, but for the fashion industry to go green as a whole, we will need to move the rest of the world into this mindset. I believe it is possible though, which is why I started EcoSkin. I knew a contemporary label could be produced entirely eco, and therefore, “why not?”

It is up to the consumer in the end to make a choice between the labels that are green and the labels that are not. When the American public and its influencers in government and, I’ll say it, Hollywood, demand eco fashion, the industry will follow and this has thankfully already begun.

Lara of Lara Miller:

Absolutely not impossible. Sustainability is comprised of three main factors in my opinion  – economy, environment, and social good. Economy is what will drive the industry to be more eco-concious.

Recycling and engineering will be the future of our fibers. We need synthetic fibers, we cannot pretend that we do not – performance fabrics for athletics and various other industries. We want the varieties of fabrics as designers to allow for shine, stretch, and individuality.

Right now eco-designers have to be creative with what’s available. But our options continue to grow and expand as the consumer demand does. In just four short years I am amazed by the variety of textiles that have become available… in the next 10 years I truly see the sewn products industry using 75 percent recycled, organic, or renewable resources for fibers. Green choices simply make economic sense – thankfully – and those of us who are passionate about our environment will see the shift in the fashion industry that has been notoriously wasteful for way too long.

Lindsey of Reif Designs:

I don’t think it’s impossible for the fashion industry to go green, but it will take a very long time to get everyone on the same page. Given the fact that as designers we are in the business of creating new things, and we make our livings off of getting people to buy new clothes, rather than used, our definition of green can be very narrow or very broad, but there are steps that every designer large or small can take to work towards a more sustainable industry.

One of the biggest things I noticed when I started my line was the staggering amount of fabric that is wasted in production. Even the most precise cuts will yield waste, and the more garments produced the more there will be.

My first collection did a really small run, like 50 garments total, and I had 4 bags of scrap fabric from my floor cuts. These are pieces that can’t really be used for anything else but I couldn’t bear to throw them away. My solution was to post an ad on Craigslist offering the fabric to local crafters. I received 32 emails in 2 hours, and was not only able to give the bags of scraps homes, but I felt good knowing that the fabric was going to be used for some good. One recipient, for example, makes quilts for people in nursing homes, and another makes cat beds for cats waiting to be adopted at a shelter.

Another thing that I toil with as a designer is using newly produced fabrics. Regardless of how sustainable the fabric is, it is still brand new fabric, and there are warehouses full of fabric that has already been created and isn’t being used. I buy a lot of fabric end-run, and while some may say not like that its not organic, the fabric is just as sustainable as organic cottons and jerseys, possibly more so, because it’s keeping fabric out of landfills and using what we already have rather than producing new.

Plus, I find some great fabrics that way! There is a place here in Portland, for example, that buys leftover performance and outdoor fabrics from companies like Patagonia and Columbia. These are huge companies, and they might have 100 yards of a particular fabric that they can’t use any more, but for a small designer this is more than enough to create and produce a collection. These fabrics are also really durable and great for climates like the Pacific Northwest. These fabrics round out my collection, and I am able to provide customers with cool prints, colors and textures that I can’t get in sustainable textiles.

Image: Vincent Boiteau

The post Will the Fashion Industry Ever Achieve Sustainability? appeared first on EcoSalon.