A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

Conscious Dying: The Right To Choose is a sensitive examination of physician-assisted suicide. Libby Lowe writes: “Jack Kevorkian’s recent death brought back a flood of memories for me. He was my grandmother’s hero. While she was admittedly—and quite proudly—a touch twisted, I happen to agree with her and Jack: We should have a choice when it comes to end of life decisions. Growing up with her in my life, it was impossible not to see suicide as an option. Our first conversation about this took place when I was four. She explained to me that it would be up to her, that made sense to me then and it makes sense to me today.”

In Part 4 of our series on The Post-Recession Fashion Industry, we take a look at the new Sewing Circle Rebellion and ask the question: “Did the recession birth new DIY designers tired of being branded with corporate logos?” Certainly in times of economic despair, there will always be a surge in the use of hands to quell the storm of financial uncertainty and to give meaning to otherwise challenging lives, but this new generation is more rebellious – and business-savvy – than ever.

Shelter Editor K. Emily Bond interviews Todd MacAllen and his creative partner at Molo Design, Stephanie Forsythe, about the Nebuta House in Aomori, Japan. In Merging Form And Function, The Nebuta House Captures The Japanese Spirit, Bond gets the Molo partners to discuss “the mercurial nature of the Nebuta House project, its new function as a community cultural space, and what he learned about the Japanese spirit along the way.”

This week EcoSalon Launches Our New Foodspotting Channel to help you navigate your way through the foodie world. As columnist Anna Brones writes: “In need of a place to eat? Use the mobile app to help you track what dishes are close to you and what looks appetizing. It’s visual, it’s positive, it’s global and we are in love with it.” To celebrate the official launch of our new EcoSalon Foodspotting channel, we want to hear what local foodie destinations you love. Is it a taco truck, a hole-in-the-wall vegan joint or a wine bar with a local selection of wines and cheeses? We want to know! Submit your own list of Top 5 Locavore Picks from your city and we’ll compile a Readers’ Picks guide with a selection of our favorites. Even better, the person with the most intriguing list will win a Root of the Earth Platter from our sister company, VivaTerra.

From Vegan Women Loving Meat-Eating Men: At the beginning of a relationship, any faux pas is sufficient grounds for termination. Columnist Abigail Wick writes:  “Love isn’t the exclusive domain of romantic partnership. Love is a choice about how you will show up in the world. Love drives my opposition to the death-penalty in America; it governs my decision to ride a bicycle rather than drive a car; and it motivates me to extend equal consideration of interest to animals. I am an animal. I am also an animal who doesn’t eat other animals.”

The post The Friday 5, Vol. 18 appeared first on EcoSalon.

A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

As one of the most sustainable cities in the U.S., it’s not hard to fall in love with Austin. In fact, the love is so strong that 1,500 people move there weekly. In Austin: Texas’ Most Sustainable Oasis, our new EcoSalon writer, Shira Levine tackles all the reasons why people do consider it an oasis and what her own trek was like while there recently.

Since 1995, Japanese artist SASAKI has been creating portraits from human heartbeats, which he does by spraying a steady stream of paint to the sound of beating hearts. HeARTbeat columnist Dominique Pacheco writes in HeARTbeat: Sasaki connects with heartbeat Portraits, “What can one expect from a live Heartbeat event? During a recent 6-day workshop, Sasaki gave us a taste by creating ‘Heartbeat Portraits’ of 139 participants. A pulse monitor was attached to the finger of each individual and the measured signal was output as audio in real time through a set of speakers – the sound and rhythm echoing and reverberating throughout the space.” The result is a multi-sensory experience unique to all involved.

In Part 3 of The Post-Recession Fashion Industry: A Return To Nature, we again look at how the fashion industry is emerging from its cocoon post-recession, a changed sector where consumers are more cautious, manufacturers are on their toes and designers are struggling to stay afloat doing business as usual. In this five-part series, we take a hard look at the fashion world, speaking with industry leaders, luminaries and experts. This week we asked: Now more than ever, is eco-fashion inextricably linked to conscious connections with land and place?

This week marked the summer solstice, and if there’s any place that knows how to celebrate this time of year, it’s Sweden. Foodie Underground columnist Anna Brones writes: “Its northern latitude makes the winters dark and long and the summers light and short, which means there’s plenty of reason to celebrate the official start to the summer season which kicks off at midsommar.”

In Foodie Underground: Celebrating Midsommar, we learn all about this Swedish food fest and even learn a few recipes.

EcoSalon Senior Editor Kathie Butler writes, “If you are an American woman who decides to get married, you will likely change your name. In fact, three million American women do so every year, roughly encompassing the 90 percent of women entering matrimonial bliss. This leaves the 10 percent of women who decided to keep their birth surnames, or the men who decide to change their own, navigating an interesting cultural landscape.” In 7 Reasons Married Women Keep Their last Names, Butler makes us reflect on the history of how this whole tradition even started.

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A weekly roundup of EcoSalon’s top stories.

In Part 2 of The Post-Recession Fashion Industry-Discounted Sells, we take a look at how the fashion industry is emerging from its cocoon post-recession, a changed sector where consumers are more cautious, manufacturers are on their toes and designers are struggling to stay afloat doing business as usual. In this five-part series, we take a hard look at the fashion world, speaking with industry leaders, luminaries and experts. This week we asked: Has the recession turned us into cheapskates so we can feel like fulfilled consumers?

At the forefront of the film industry is an upbeat environmental consultant, Lauren Selman, CEO and Producer of Reel Green Media, an organization designed to “help green the entertainment industry both on and off screen and create a new culture of entertainment that is committed to environmental protection and sustainability.” In Shade Grown Hollywood: Can A Film Shoot Ever Really Go Green? columnist Kathie Butler had the opportunity to speak with Lauren, who took her through the greening of Hollywood and the weirdest thing she ever had to recycle on set.

We never know what columnist Dominique Pacheco is going to come up for her weekly HeARTbeat. This past week we got to learn about Suzanne Tick’s weavings made from discarded materials. Pacheco writes: “The ethereal quality of thin metal doesn’t immediately give way to the knowledge that the medium is recycled from discarded coat hangers from dry cleaning shops. In fact, 2,555 dry cleaning wires make up RefuseDC, which was commissioned for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Offices in Seattle.”

Luckily this week, food columnist Anna Brones did a round up of The Top 10 Stories In Food You Might Have Missed. Brones writes: “In honor of food, and given that it’s the season for dinner parties and farmers market strolls, here are the top 10 food stories that you may have missed the first time around but are certainly worth a read, be they thought provoking political pieces, or just reminders of why we love food.” Happy reading!

Ever wonder what men think about when it comes to sex and love? Relationships are tricky but one thing we love at EcoSalon is that our columnist Abigail Wick is never afraid to dive in and attack delicate issues. In Sex By Numbers: Hot German Men In Cold Northern Climes, Wick interviews four Northern European men who offer insight into their culture’s subtle approach to love and loyalty.

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SeriesPart 2: The fashion industry is emerging from its cocoon post-recession, a changed sector where consumers are more cautious, manufacturers are on their toes and designers are struggling to stay afloat doing business as usual. In this five-part series, we take a hard look at the fashion world, speaking with industry leaders, luminaries and experts. This week we ask: Has the recession turned us into cheapskates so we can feel like fulfilled consumers?

Since 2007 they’ve popped up like dandelions: The discount clothing venues we love for all the hot bang we get for our hard-earned buck.

Gilt, My Habit, FashionStake, eBay Fashion, and now even discount eco-commerce sites like the recent launch of JP Selects and LovingEco tantalize us with a designer discount warehouse vibe that appeals to our need to shop. Recession? Heck no, we’re all the same when it comes to discounts whether wealthy or middle class, hoarders or sample salers who need to get more for less. If you think this concept is something new, just look back to post World War 2 consumer habits and you’ll see a direct link to the burgeoning of low-profit-margin strategies designed to attract price-conscious consumers.

The only thing that’s changed is the technology and marketing to hungry consumers and struggling designers.

NOW Showcase, 2011

Joslin Van Arsdale, owner of San Francisco’s Ecocitizen boutique, says sites like Gilt affect eco-commerce because they encourage the quick consumption of cheap, mass produced and disposable goods, and therefore skew the consumer’s perception of value.

“In the past a sample sale was last seasons leftovers. Today, designers who participate in Gilt sales are selling are specifically commissioned by the site and its buyers. Most of the items offered at flash sale sites, are past season designs, or popular designs reinterpreted into cheaper versions of  the original which enable companies like Gilt to maintain healthy margins while also offering  60-70% off.  This is similar to how Target and H&M do their designer collections, same name and design, just cheaper labor and lower quality fabrics,” says Arsdale.

If we think about low-pricing power in the classical sense of the term, we might look at the Wal-Mart volume model, with the idea that the more powerful you are (thousands of locations), the more you can drive your cost down. While we can understand that lower prices drives more sales in the short term, what about the integrity of the brand being sold? Do thoughtful designers really want to brand themselves as deep discounters offering bottom-barrel markdowns?

Designer Eliza Starbuck says it’s become a fear-based business for sustainable designers.

“It’s hard enough to be eco and fashion, an oxymoron in itself, but then having to go against the sustainable model and sell a whole lot of stuff seems pretty counter-intuitive,” says Starbuck.

Van Arsdale says sites like these are training shoppers to expect sales all the time and while in the short term this business model can be a great marketing opportunity for designers, in the long term, it erodes a brand’s perceived value.

“Judging from the success and proliferation of flash sites, it seems that the consumer is unaware that there is a difference in product and quality and mostly doesn’t care,” she says. “Shopping is evolving to a scale of extremes between the very cheap and the very expensive, with nothing in between, similar to what is happening to our middle class.”

But with a current valuation of some $400 million, Gilt Groupe appears to have more staying power than most fashion trends struggling to stay afloat in a traditional way. New York Magazine likens it to a safe haven for designers.

“Last year, as incomes tightened and the fashion industry was left with ruinous amounts of inventory, the company’s business model proved to be a counter-cyclical savior, sucking up goods that otherwise would have moldered,” says the magazine’s writer Andrew Rice, adding that some designers have found “Gilt’s model lucrative enough that they’ve decided to do away with their brick-and-mortar sample sales; others are now making clothes specifically for the site.”

As a result, more and more shops are turning to online sales only and closing brick and mortar venues.

Closed boutique on Newbury Street, Boston

We asked an eBay Fashion spokesperson, who insisted on anonymity, about traffic patterns since the company changed its selling model from what was already in the waste stream to recent high-profile collaborations with Alexander Wang and the CFDA. While they weren’t willing to release statistics at this time, they did respond with this statement:

“Fashion has a new home on eBay at fashion.ebay.com – a dedicated destination that delivers an enhanced shopping experience with new features and sales channels like Fashion Vault that make it easier than ever to explore, find and buy items based on favorite styles, brands and popular trends.”

No longer a hot spot solely for automotive enthusiasts – who in 2005 were eBay’s biggest audience –  eBay has evolved into a clothing and accessory mecca for all financial brackets. And sites like Gilt and eBay Fashion aren’t alone when it comes to selling luxe labels for less.

Trista Dedmon, consignment manager of Brooklyn’s best secret Eva Gentry, sells higher end designers that include Zero + Maria Cornejo, Helmut Lang, Alexander Wang, Marc Jacobs, Chloe, and Marni.

Dedmon says business has picked up with both customers and consigners each season since it opened about five years ago.

“There are definitely a wide variety of shoppers we cater to from the college students looking for affordable Alexander Wang to the established professional who wants to save on a mint condition Balenciaga piece,” she says.

Brooklyn’s Eva Gentry

When asked why, Dedmon says, “It is more than likely due to the current economic climate and everyone reassessing their values. If we become more conscious of our spending habits, this doesn’t necessarily mean our taste level changes. Customers still want designer level garments, but like to stay within their new found budget, which is where a store like ours comes in.”

As recently as 2008, stores like Eva Gentry were gaining popularity quickly, not only college students but with wealthy shoppers accustomed to pricey labels. USA Today writer Laura Petrecca wrote: “There have been many euphemistic labels applied to secondhand goods, including ‘gently used,’ ‘pre-owned’ and ‘like new.’ But in the current economy, they have a new and candid label: ‘hot sellers.’

In the same article, Petrecca notes that three-fourths of resale stores polled said they had higher sales in September and October than in the previous year, and according to the National Association of Resale & Thrift Shops, “The average sales increase was about 35%.”

So what of the plight of the sustainable boutique owner, the entrepreneur supporting conscious consumerism?

Mission Savvy’s brick and mortar store

Vegan boutique owner, Jennifer Miller, has her hands full with her shop, Mission Savvy. Miller has had to forge her way forward through the muck and mire of retail since she opened two years ago in the midst of the recession.

“People want to get more, pay less. Despite its goodwill, the price point on ethical fashion for the average consumer is a big turn off – and I’m in the market to turn people on. Better to purchase something from my store, support the ethical fashion industry, feel good about it with no guilt of over spending and therefore continue to return than not shop at my store at all,” Miller says.

She says her nontraditional approach to operating a boutique has her stocking ethical products but selling at a less than average mark up which is challenging – but it keeps her customers happy and coming back.

“We’re just not there yet as an economy and in commitment. Especially if you are far removed from the fashion industry and the appreciation of the art of it, so that leaves a lot of people spending lots of money on clothes with absolutely no purpose other than to buy something new that looks awesome,” says Miller.

“And as much as people do understand the concept of responsible consumerism, it still comes down to what money can buy and for a lot of us money does buy happiness. Spending too much money on very little is not as appealing as spending a little on a lot.”

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SeriesThe fashion industry is emerging from its cocoon post-recession, a changed sector where consumers are more cautious, manufacturers are on their toes and designers are struggling to stay afloat doing business as usual. In this five-part series, we take a hard look at the fashion world, speaking with industry leaders, luminaries and experts.

Journalist and author Lucy Siegle is an avid proponent for ethical lifestyle issues. In addition to writing a weekly ethical column in The Observer, she is a member of the Noi Collective, formed in 2009. Siegle, along with Livia Firth, Orsola de Castro, and Jocelyn Whipple, have combined their collective experiences to influence sustainable practices in the fashion industry, which include The Green Carpet Challenge and the Observer Ethical Awards.

Siegle’s recent expose: To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World? is a look at the inhumane and environmentally devastating story behind the clothes we so casually buy and wear. We caught up with Siegle to talk about her new book as well as what she thought about the state of the fashion industry.

Here’s what she had to say.

You mentioned in your recent Observer column that women now buy four times the amount of clothes they did back in 1980. Why do you think that is?

Well the first point to make is that fast fashion hasn’t always existed and hasn’t always dominated the UK’s fashion landscape. That is the main driving force that has seen our wardrobes bulking up since 1980. In my book I actually begin by showing how fast fashion brought a sort of welcome injection of life (and to some degree pace), into the UK high street scene. Unfortunately it kept speeding up and became conflated with discount or value fashion.

As well as these factors, the following are to some extent intertwined and enable bulk buying: the dominance of celebrity culture over other forms of culture (we no longer want to know what A-listers wear in Cannes or on the Red Carpet but what they wear in their cars when going to a drive thru and this has spawned new categories of fashion apparel i.e. luxe loungewear), the speeding up of mainstream fashion media (the change from a monthly style bible such as Vogue to a weekly such as Grazia or Closer), the more explicit retail role of the fashion media – increasingly selling directly from the page, we’re starting to see the sponsorship of TV fashion shows by mainstream retailers, the emergence of the multiples (supermarkets), as fashion retailers and the consolidation of luxury houses into conglomerates. The emphasis across the industry is on multinationals flogging units of product. This has all had an effect on how we buy (in bulk and at speed).

We are so conditioned to shop and consume and buy more than we ever will need. What are some ways we can disconnect from our addiction?

As consumers I would argue that the first thing to do is to understand a little more about the model. So in To Die For, I try to reveal elements of these prevailing models that aren’t working. This includes the Global Assembly Line – a bit of a misnomer because it suggests that there is a more coherent structure behind mass produced fashion than is always the case! Millions of garment workers are set up to fail on this line and cannot meet their targets however hard they work. This leads to enforced overtime and workers being locked into factories and then there are horrific deaths in factory fires and on it continues.

Once you understand some of the flash points, I’m hoping people will be persuaded to look for some alternatives or search out better practices and want to shorten the distance between the producer and their wardrobe (this is how the Fairtrade model operates). People will understand that you may have to pay a little more in some circumstances but the trade off will be that you will ‘re-skill’ understanding how to assess quality and longevity. I also want to open the mainstream fashion consumer up to more creative ways of breathing life into a wardrobe – swapping, loaning, customising, refashioning and to a certain extent making your own.

In your book, you talk about “Wow Prices,” “Tantalizing Exclusivity,” and “Cheapskating,” all terms that reflect back to fast fashion and our incorrigible desire not to miss out on a bargain. Has fast fashion made us cheapskates?

When I use the term ‘Cheapskating’ I’m referring to a specific trend: spending in the region of £1000 on a handbag or single ‘it’ or ‘status’ accessory and bulking out the rest of the wardrobe with discount wardrobe fodder. This is something that the fashion media has really encouraged. I think it represents bad value on a number of levels and I would argue it leads to the degradation of the consumer. It is a commercially beneficial idea of how we should interpret trend that encourages us to embrace extremes but not to utilize any of our skills or intuitive understanding of style. So we shove the luxury handbag on a credit card (fast fashion’s rise has coincided with unprecedented levels of female debt even though it claims to save us money), and scratch around for the rest of our wardrobe. We diminish our own spending power.

You work often with Livia Firth, such as for the Green Carpet Challenge. Is it important for celebrity figures to wear sustainable clothing to further the message?

It’s the other way around, really. It’s important for designers who prioritize sustainability and ethics to get the chance to be seen on the big platforms and to get the press attention. You may or may not agree with celebrity culture, but the fact remains that the big red carpet events open doors for designers and design ideas. Interestingly that’s become more homogenized too. I was reading a piece by a celebrity stylist from LA who charted the real commercialization of the red carpet to Uma Thurman’s wearing of Prada in about 1995. Since then it tends to be big labels (luxury conglomerates) to the big stars. If anything it can be a little safe. Livia and I got the opportunity as her husband was nominated for a clutch of awards in 2010 and 2011 to try something different.

Vogue.com ran the blog for us and we just tried to raise the profile of sustainable style and throw some other designers into the mix. We found that a number of other actresses wanted to join in – they felt ethical fashion was really important and they loved some of the pieces. So we’ve been able to work with Elizabeth McGovern (Downtown Abbey) who loves Henrietta Ludgate and Amanda Seyfried, who worked with Karen Caldwell. Fashion is a big place, and the Green Carpet Challenge is a tiny corner, we’re not suggesting we’re solving the whole problem with this but many people connected with it. But it was also interesting (and heartening) that a lot of journalists picked the stories up and ran pieces on the dresses. I think they were pleased to find a new angle and they were surprised by the quality of some of the designers. The best kept secret about a lot of ‘sustainable brands’ is that they use designers and makers who are enormously skilled and can turn out pretty impressive pieces.

If you were to weed out only five retailers we could sustainably shop from, who would they be and why?

I am happier with retailers who are upfront. If they genuinely acknowledge there are problems in the overall supply chain over all but are committed to changing them I’m much more amenable, but I do like to see some evidence that this is the case!  In the book I single out Whistles for Jane Shepherdson’s approach and Ted Baker who are working with the Made supply chain inventory and metrics as two brands I feel have the capacity to change things on the high street and reinstate the middle market (which I think important).

But I want to make the point that it’s not just about a tick list for the high street or me providing a directory. Ask questions of stores (we’re beginning to), and make them work a bit harder for your fashion pound. Personal tolerances vary. I might not get upset about mulesling for example, another consumer might find it inconceivable that I would buy mulesed wool or that a retailer would stock it. I would like people to save up for a Pachacuti hat, put their fashion pound towards little known Veja sneakers (at similar price points to the major brands), wear a Traid remade jumper, go to a clothes swap, do one of those empowering and realistic sewing courses – you know they have titles like, “Trousers You Actually Want to Wear” or similar. But it’s not just about substituting one brand for another. It’s about reclaiming personal style before it’s too late and allowing your aesthetic to match your ethics. Right now, I don’t trust multinationals to do it. They are beholden to shareholders and therefore they just want to flog large units of product often irrespective of who made it and in what conditions and they want us to discard the product as quickly as possible. If they could persuade us all it was a lovely thing to wear single-use boiler suits, they probably would.

Image: Jason Hargrove for Nicole Bridger, Lucy Siegle photos

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