Who says beauty trends have to be safe? If you like your beauty with a side of wild, you are in for a treat this season.

Once the season changes we feel like changing too. Worn out clothes and shoes have to go. Dark polish and blow outs are put away until next fall. Now for some new items.

You could try some neon brights, a fresh lip color or a new pair of Birks. Looking for a bit more adventure? If you don’t want to play it quite so safe, try one of the more bizarre beauty trends of the year.

4 Bizarre Beauty Trends for Summer 2015

1. Nose Rings // Vogue featured a story on them in this spring’s April issue. Of course, Rihanna and Zoe Kravitz can pull this look off effortlessly. But are you up for getting your septum pierced in the name of summer beauty trends? No worries. Clip on nose rings(aka septum cuffs) are available and pretty darn good looking too. This one from Free People is the bomb. Remember, the idea is to add a bit of edginess to a dressed up look. A nose ring with anything less than uber polished hair, makeup, nails, and clothes is heading back toward grunge.

2. Eyebrow Extensions // Yes, incredibly thick eyebrows are on trend. Yes, we all want them. And yes, growing out eyebrows is a tough thing to do. Brows, like the hair on your head, varies in thickness person to person. What’s a thin-browed gal to do? Well, you could fill them in with a little help from brow color and shaping. Or go big and get yourself some eyebrow extensions. As with hair extensions, hair (mostly human) is adhered to existing brows in desired color and shape. They can be washed, brushed…whatever you do to your own brows. Extensions typically last 2-3 weeks, then you’ll need to go back for a fill. Ranging in price from $40 to $250 this is a somewhat costly trend. But nice, thick brows may just be worth it.

3. Colored Brows // And while we are talking brows, what color would you like? Nope. Not brown, black or taupe. Think brighter. On the Badgley Mischka runway at NYFW last fall, models were sporting green, pink, and blue brows. To experiment with this, here is what I would do. Dab a teensy amount of Haut Cosmetics Bio-Cocoa Balm onto brows and dust on a layer of the Haut mineral pigments in an ultra sonic hue, like Lapis or Tourmaline. This trend probably looks best on those with thick brows. Or once you’ve had your eyebrow extensions put in. Kind of weird, maybe. But a lot prettier than dyed pit hair, no?

4. Smudged Mascara // Ok, this goes against every natural instinct we have regarding mascara. The whole idea is to find one that won’t leave you with raccoon eyes, right? It looks like smudged mascara is making an appearance, former beauty editor turned memoir penner , Cat Marnell, surely inspiring this one into existence. The way to get this look is very easy. Just get messy. Applying a thick, very smudgy, line of black pencil to upper and lower lids helps. Then, when applying mascara, be sure to let the brush hit your skin a few times. Smear slightly with fingertip if you feel like it. Really, there are no rules here.

So what do you think? Ready to take on any of these bizarre beauty trends for summer? Colored brows, maybe. Septum cuff, for sure!

Related on EcoSalon

11 Beauty Trends Every ’90s Girl Was Totally Buggin’ Over

7 Ways to Go Bold With Your Day Makeup (and Not Look Like a Clown)

19 Ways to Rock the Hair Jewelry Trend By Making Your Own

Image of woman with nose ring via Shutterstock

The post 4 Bizarre Beauty Trends You May Not Totally Hate appeared first on EcoSalon.

This week’s link love gives you 75 reasons to get in the garden. It’ll make you happy and we’ve got the scientific proof of how that works. Louis C.K. is finally back. The Met Gala stunned and Annie Leonard takes the helm at Greenpeace.

75 Gardening Ideas to Kickstart Your Food-Growing [via Eat Drink Better]

How to Get Happy, Scientifically Speaking [via Well+Good]

This Way Back to His Discomfort Zone: Louis C.K. Returns With His Brand of Dark Comedy [via New York Times]

With hits like these, we don’t have time for misses: Vogue’s look at the best of the Met Gala. [via Vogue]

A happy ending! Annie Leonard of “Story of Stuff” will be new head of Greenpeace USA [via Grist]

Related on EcoSalon

Link Love: Turn Tea Into Dye + ‘Mean Girls’ Turns 10 + Designer Agnes B Makes Her Directorial Debut

Link Love: Stella McCartney Goes All Out for Animals  + Yoga Dates + How to Shop Vintage Like a ProA

Link Love: Diane von Furstenberg’s Morning Routine  + Vegan Cinnabon + Snails are Basically the Cutest Ever

Image via Vogue

The post Link Love: The Science of Happiness + 75 Gardening Ideas + The Met Gala’s Hits appeared first on EcoSalon.

Diana Vreeland, the legendary 1960s Vogue editor, is popping up everywhere these days. The passion for the eccentric fashion doyenne and her visionary layouts clearly endures. The question is: will today’s fashion and fashion magazines hold the same allure in 50 years?

“Allure is a word very few people use nowadays, but it’s something that exists. Allure holds you, doesn’t it? Whether it’s a gaze or a glance in the street or a face in the crowd or someone sitting opposite you at lunch… you are held.” – Allure by Diana Vreeland

Forgive me. I’m obsessed with Diana Vreeland, the legendary Vogue editor and style visionary. And it seems as if I’m not alone. The recent release of Amanda Mackenzie Stuarts’s biography Empress of Fashion: A life of Diana Vreeland caps off a three-year period of veritable Vreeland-mania. In addition to countless recent tributes and editorial layouts devoted to her bold signature style; and a widely celebrated documentary and accompanying book by granddaughter-in-law Lisa Vreeland, The Eye Has to Travel, Chronicle books published a third edition of Vreeland’s Fashion Classic Allure, with a foreword written by designer Marc Jacobs. Clearly, we can’t get enough.

Images: William P. O’Donnell/The New York Times

All this nostalgia for the past has me wondering if there’s a kind of cynicism growing for the future of fashion.

 Vreeland’s daring take on style and her ability to connect the dots between what we wear and the larger world of history, art, film and literature is inspiring us now more than fifty years since she left American Vogue. The current state of fashion inspiration begs multiple questions: Is today’s world of celebrity, fast-fashion, brand building and product placement leaving us hungry for something more? Has the focus on buy, buy, buy finally rendered the medium of fashion meaningless to its more intelligent followers? And shouldn’t we have our own version of Vreeland by now?

Whatever the explanation, the fact is we’re enjoying a mid-century moment in fashion that is truly worth embracing. For those starving fashion lovers wanting to embark on a journey of Vreeland-mania all of their own, may I suggest, in my best Vreeland impersonation, “Why don’t you… Get hold of a copy of her best-selling volume, Allure and see for yourself.”

Images: William P. O’Donnell/The New York Times

Authored in the ’80s, it’s a magical stream of Vreeland-consciousness paired with the work of some of the greatest photographers of all time – Richard Avedon, Cecil Beaton, Irving Penn, Horst P. Horst and Man Ray. Edited by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Allure also captures the 20^th century’s most iconic cultural figures – Coco Chanel, Maria Callas, Greta Garbo, Fred Astaire, Marilyn Monroe, Mick Jagger, Rudolph Nureyev and Audrey Hepburn.

As the great lady once said, “Fashion must be the intoxicating release from the banality of the world.” So if you’re sick of flipping through yet another predictable style magazine makeover, join the legion of new fans currently enjoying Diana Vreeland’s timeless and witty allure.

Check out the trailer for Diana Vreeeland: The Eye Has To Travel.

Top Image: WWD

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They’re hard to resist, but have modern-day fashion magazines lost their link to art and become too focused on celebrity culture?

French women as early as 1700 pored over magazines – then sketches of the latest dresses simply bound together – to see what was going on in fashion. Now blamed for causing eating disorders, wafer thin models and conspicuous clothing consumption, reading fashion magazines is a slightly spurious and increasingly guilty pleasure these days.

But before the influence of television and movies – let alone blogs and social media – fashion magazines were solely responsible for spreading Parisian fashion trends around the world. Both Harpers Bazaar, founded in the U.S. in 1867, and Vogue, in 1892 were created to provide sketches and patterns of fashion derived from Paris designs. Vogue was expressly designed to promote the superiority of French couture to an American clientele.

In 1900, fashion magazines began to publish photography and later fashion illustration by the most modern of visual artists, forever cementing the idea that fashion is an art form – and the glossy pages of fashion magazines, its catalogs.

Another perfect marriage appeared to be fashion and the lifestyles of the rich and famous. The first fashion magazines fueled the birth of today’s celebrity culture with readers eagerly following the exploits of early movie stars like Mary Pickford, Gloria Swanson and Clara Bow from its pages.

Nearly 100 years later – and inundated with dumbed-down celebrity fashion face-off stories- we might do well to reestablish the link between high culture and fashion magazines – and pay more attention to the effects on ordinary women of glorifying imagined “ideal” lives via mass media.

The Way They Were – Lets take a look back at some of fashion media’s most important milestones:

1886, Cosmopolitan is launched in the U.S. as a fiction magazine for the family.

1937,  Diana Vreeland writes her first “Why Don’t You?” column for Harper’s Bazaar, she eventually becomes editor.

1938, Harpers Bazaar editor, Carmel Snow hires Russian-born Alexey Brodovitch as Art Director. Revolutionizing editorial layout and design he was known for his signature use of white-space. He inspired some of the greatest visual artists of the 20th century (including protégés Irving Penn and Richard Avedon) to create some of fashions most legendary images.

1965, Helen Gurley Brown becomes the editor-in chief of Cosmopolitan turning it into the bible of single girls worldwide and the magazine for “fun, fearless, females.”

1988, Anna Wintour’s first cover as Vogue editor. Wintour wrote. “This one broke all the rules.”

2005, Scott Schuman’s street style blog The Sartorialist is launched, unleashing a tsunami of DIY camera-phone-in-the-mirror-shots online.

Want to catch up on some more fashion history?

Now & Then: The History of the Bikini

Now & Then: The History of the White Wedding Dress

Now & Then: The History of the Ballet Flat

Now & Then: The History of the Breton Shirt

Now & Then: The History of the Pencil Skirt

Now & Then: The History of Skinny Jeans

Read more Now & Then articles here.

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ColumnVogue, Clean by Design and the CFDA collaborate to clean up the fashion industry.

In a new initiative, leaders of the mainstream fashion community from the Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA) and Vogue have joined forces with the NRDC’s Clean By Design program in an effort to reduce the impact of the textile industry on the globe’s environmental state. With the backing of Vogue’s “Nuclear Wintour” herself and the CFDA’s President Diane von Furstenberg, could Clean By Design now have the potential to push the issue and bump environmental and social issues associated with the textile industry toward the front of prominent designers’ methodologies? The NRDC’s National Media Director Jenny Powers tells EcoSalon that engaging industry opinion leaders gives them a powerful and enhanced edge.

“Clean By Design aims to make the way we produce our clothing more sustainable by cutting water and energy waste and reducing pollution,” Powers tells EcoSalon. With the intention of utilizing the buying power of multinational corporations as a lever to reduce the environmental impact of their suppliers abroad, Clean By Design is stepping up their media presence and future goals with this recent collaboration. As shown by the above diagram, the spectrum of Clean By Design’s approach to bettering the textile industry’s impact starts with the raw materials and goes full circle through to addressing the way consumers are caring for their finished garments.

Spearheading the research abroad, the director of the NRDC’s health and environment program, Linda Greer has traveled to Asia in hopes to better understand the four core impact areas of the supply chain. Through visiting a range of factories that create clothing for major retailers, Greer has been able to secure pilot programs with The Gap, Levis, H&M, Target, and Wal-Mart, who are all now exploring ways to clean up the factories that supply their clothes. As companies that produce massive quantities each season with loyal global customers, the impact these pilot programs could have on the environment is vast.

Waste water from the discharge pipe at the Youngor Textiles Factory

By focusing on China to begin, the possibility to make a big change exists, as many of these factories produce a large percentage of our mass retail clothes.

“Transforming the way the major players do business can have a ripple effect throughout the industry. Fashion leaders can play an important role in this effort by shaping popular attitudes and creating demand for sustainably produced fashion” says Powers.

One massive waste example that was prevalent throughout Greer’s travels in Asia was leaky tubes. Textile pollution is often associated with the chemical emissions from fabric dying or the number of dirty dozen chemicals that are utilized in conventional cotton production. While these are key issues to address in the raw materials and manufacturing sectors, another often forgotten problem involves tubes with leaking steam that can be found everywhere in fabric dying and printing mills. For instance, a hole in a steam pipe only 2 mm in diameter can cause a textile mill to waste energy equal to more than 10 tons of coal a year.

DVF’s Spring 2012 Collection

With higher profile initiatives like Runway To Green in the past, the NRDC has been on a consistent mission to bring these environmental concerns related to the textile industry to the forefront of high end and mainstream fashion houses. While the CFDA/Vogue/Clean By Design initiative is strongly focused on the environmental impacts and the effects of environmental pollution on human health, it doesn’t focus on social or labor issues.  Powers tells EcoSalon, “Dirty water and dirty air affects us all – humans and critters alike. And the reality is that by cutting waste and making factories run more efficiently, these factory owners are actually saving money in the process.”

With the environment as a starting point, the transparency and exposure of these realities could potentially open designers’ eyes to the way people connected to their supply chains are affected as well. By continuing to work with individual designers on ways in which they can apply the Clean by Design principles to their own operations, the future affects of upcoming and established designers on the globe’s flora and fauna is hopeful.

Image: Greenpeace, H&M

The post THREADED: Cleaning Up The Fashion Industry From The Top Down appeared first on EcoSalon.

Is it just us, or does that red carpet look a little greener?

Tonight, while most people will tune into the 69th Golden Globes to see if The Help will beat out Moneyball for Best Picture, our eyes will be trained on the red carpet pre-show coverage to see Livia Firth kick off her annual Green Carpet Challenge. What can we say? She has us hooked.

Firth, who runs Eco-Age and is married to actor Colin Firth, started the Green Carpet Challenge in 2009 to bring attention to her work in ethical and sustainable fashion. That year, she pledged to only wear upcycled, vintage, and eco-friendly outfits while accompanying her husband on the red carpet during awards season. The following year, the challenge picked up speed when Colin was the Best Actor pick across awards shows for his performance in The King’s Speech. Livia was by his side the whole way through, notably in a gorgeous upcycled Gary Harvey dress at the Oscars.

This year, Firth has recruited an impressive roster of designers who will dress her for awards season in accordance with GCC’s strict ethical and sustainable standards. The list includes Tom Ford, Chanel, Giorgio Armani, Gucci, Yves Saint Laurent, and Stella McCartney.

Tonight’s gown was designed by Giorgio Armani with eco-friendly materials, and Firth has been involved in its creation from day one. Firth described the process as “unreal” and writes on her blog:

To work with Armani was a real lesson in the design process. Everything begins with the material. Fortunately, Giorgio loved the eco material and knew he could work with it. The passion and efficiency of Giorgio’s team has been infectious.

Just before the show kicks off, Livia will release photos of and details about her dress on her Green Carpet Challenge blog at VOGUE UK. We’ll be there too.

Images: VOGUE UK.

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2011 was a landmark year for eco fashion: EcoSalon had it covered.

From more mainstream designers exploring sustainability and declining fast fashion sales to record numbers of museum goers enjoying a non-consumer fashion experience, 2011 was a game changer in the way we consume and think about fashion. Recognition for the need to slow down the fashion juggernaut created by fast fashion, compelled new approaches to how we can become more connected to fashion as a way of improving our lives and the global environmental crisis. Our top 10 fashion stories encapsulate the year that proved, once and for all, that eco fashion is not simply a trend.

We got acquainted with bamboo’s true environmental impact. 

1. For years the eco movement centered around finding more alternative materials to cotton, the production of which accounts for 2.6% of annual global water usage. Grown without chemicals and as one of the fastest growing plants on earth, bamboo, in particular, initially seemed like the go-to eco fabric. “Bamboo seemed like a miracle fiber – and in a sense, it is. It’s turning it into fabric that’s the more complicated issue,” Kelly Drennan wrote in her article Bamboo, We Hardly Knew Ye, getting to the bottom of an issue that’s responsible for the majority of greenwashing accusations leveled at the industry.

A condom hat may be great for clicks, but it’s bad for eco fashion progress.

2. A further image problem faced was the reliance on gimmicky “trash to treasure” designs and stories that trap eco fashion in its worst stereotype and ultimately, shortchange the production of clothing we do want to wear. Abigail Doan’s call to action “to move beyond the glorification of trashion and recycled art projects,” in Why Anna Wintour Won’t Green Vogue reminds us of the  need “to address long term solutions for waste reduction and sustainable economic development.”

Vilte’s February 2011 collaboration with designer Josephus Thimester for his AW2011 collection, illustrated the exquisite potential of recycled materials.

3. While the trashion has to go, recycled and found materials can be beautiful. In her eye-opening round up of designers using recycled materials to create unimaginably gorgeous clothing in The Wilder Side of Fashion Fashioning Self and Environment Abigail Doan shows us what is possible when we start looking at what we already have.

Luxury Shift: Recycled products that rival those from the best fashion houses in the world.

4. By the time summer was in full swing, reports of numerous eco initiatives and green clothing launches showed that eco fashion is an idea that luxury designers finally caught on to. In Hooked on Recycling we reported the “buzz is that fashion retailers are turning to reusable materials and some innovative techniques to get mainstream fashion consumers hooked on recycled fashion.” Our fashion forecast for next year: expect to read more stories about high end fashion houses recognizing the benefits of going green in 2012.

Shopping Made in the U.S.A. isn’t really so patriotic…or is it?

5. While luxury will always have an audience, the continuing concerns for the economy and high unemployment put the Buy Local/Made Here movement front and center. In her two part series, Made In The U.S.A. Isn’t Cause For Patriotism (Or Is It?) and What Goes On Behind The Business Of American Fashion industry insider, Louise Lagosi, dares to ask, “Aren’t there still values and standards that we as Americans believe are worth saving? If you can’t find what you want with a ‘Made in the USA’ label in it, is it wrong to buy it if it is made elsewhere?”

Feral Childe and EcoSalon partner to create a limited edition t-shirt designed to make you feel rebellious for fashion.

6. The increasing awareness of what has been lost in our appetite for fast fashion made by mass corporations turned to growing support for the “little guys” who fight valiantly against having their designs copied. In Amy DuFault’s passionate championing of an indie designer’s cause in Fashion Giant Forever 21 Steals Sustainable Label Feral Childe’s Design, EcoSalon drew readers into the discussion for greater protection of intellectual property rights in fashion.

Undercover writer Louise Lagosi helps us track our cast-off clothing.

7. Unlike traditional fashion which concerns itself chiefly with buying new clothes, eco fashion devotees consider fashion holistically. With roughly 75% of our discarded clothes ending up in the trash and in landfills, we lifted the lid on what happens when we throw away our clothes in EcoSalon Investigates: What Happens to our Castoff Clothing?

It became clear to cultural programming committees across the country that we want to see more fashion.

8. One of the most thrilling developments of 2011 was our culture’s deepening ability to enjoy fashion beyond the act of consumerism. EcoSalon covered the growing popularity of fashion exhibits in 4 New Fashion Exhibits Translate High Style For The Masses. Our coverage of the Alexander McQueen exhibit at New York’s MET included Abigail Doan’s thoughtful take on Why We Need More Savage Beauty in Life And Fashion which examined “those fashion conventions that genuinely stifle our creativity and ideas about self in relation to the environment.”

EcoSalon’s look at the art of  slow fashion launched a knitwear line, became required reading in some knitting groups, and even got a few off their meds.

9. Valuing the lost art and craft of fashion and its many psychological benefits was examined in a special 3 part series by Amy DuFault in her fascinating journey to inner peace when, Using Your Hands to Soothe The Brain.

What if all fashion runways were mossy paths through redwood groves?

10.  As the year draws to a close it’s time to think about the next steps towards a greener 2012. Alongside Amy DuFault‘s The Post-Recession Fashion Industry Series, which provides an excellent starting point, was EcoSalon’s report on a remarkable runway show in Flowering Of Fashion’s Consciousness. Reminding us that all the inspiration we need to make better fashion choices in 2012 is right outside our doors.

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New fashion book inspires and elicits fashion industry conversation.

Logo-emblazoned tote bags and clothing and Vogue magazines more than half-filled with designer ads beg to question: Does indie design still exist? With New On The Catwalk, a coffee table compilation of fresh faced designers, readers get to explore what fashion’s future looks like. Daab Books says: “The fashion newcomers are introduced with an informative portrait and a selection of images that feature the hallmarks of their creations, bringing out the stars of tomorrow and their collections onto the open runway of fame now.”

Forty designers spanning the globe fill the book’s 400-glossy pages.  Each have produced more than two collections—one gauge for “making it.” While this number by no means accounts for the volume of independent designers sending their creations down the runway and into shops each year, it’s a shimmer of hope that indie design still has a prominent place on and off the runway.

Can creativity, however, accompany success? According to Patrice Farameh, editor of New On The Catwalk and notably a publisher, not a fashion insider, “Yes,” with a few caveats.

“Financing [the first collection] is so tough and so important for a new designer. And designers like Vivienne Westwood [by all accounts far from the indie point in her career] have to constantly ask, ‘How can I survive, keep my independence and adhere to what the buyers want?.’”

Farameh is convinced that the true art of fashion still exists. “Just look at Lady Gaga. One thing the recession has done is it’s made people very selective, and they care more about quality. People are looking for something different. I think you have a better chance now [as a designer] of standing out and making it.”

Success, free from price tags for the sake of this conversation, requires a few essentials. Simon Collins, Dean of the School of Fashion at Parsons The New School
for Design in New York City, believes a designer must unequivocally have, “Hard work ethic, absolutely incredible skills and a genuine vision.”  The last bit, he says “is something we can’t teach you. You’ve either got vision or you don’t. Our role at Parsons is to help people find their vision and articulate it.”

Indie Inspiration

Up-and-comer Long-Nam Tô, whose collection Tô Long-Nam, under his Vietnamese last-name-first nomenclature, is featured in the book.  Tô’s equally conventional and unconventional career in fashion is felt in his lines’ vision: “A man’s style for a woman.” After graduating with a Masters Degree in Fashion Design from the Academy of Fine Arts Berlin, an education he describes as “great for free time and not great for learning design,” Tô aspired to have his own line yet recognized a need for experience. Rather than apprentice for other designers as goes tradition, Tô worked as a stylist in Paris assisting the likes of Victoria Bartlett. Within a few short years, he began designing his eponymous collection. To foot the bill of his creations, he still works as a design consultant by day, a common story for many emerging designers.

“When I design, I don’t think about anyone [buyer’s needs, customer’s opinions], I just think about what is important to me. You have to if you want to stay true to your vision,” says Tô.  Not to mention, he adds, “As a young designer, success is relative, and buyers’ feedback on what you should and shouldn’t create really becomes part of a natural evolution that works so long as you keep your identity.”

Tô Long-Nam

Others, like Cushnie et Ochs have taken a more classic journey. Created by Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs, both graduates of Parsons The New School for Design, the duo racked up internships with Proenza Schouler, Marc Jacobs, Oscar De La Renta and Chado Ralph Rucci. Currently among the top ten finalists for the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, you could say they’ve made it. Ochs, as a designer, looks at fashion design like an MBA. To her, “it’s 90 percent running a business. We really don’t start designing until everyone else goes home. We’ve also learned it’s all about the team. Without them, we can never create anything.”

Carly Cushnie and Michelle Ochs

Beyond the Runway

As cutting edge and boundary-pushing as these up and comers are purportedly free to be, the conversation around sustainability hasn’t quite run abuzz. When I ask Farameh about the sustainable practices of the young designers in her book, she notes, “I see it in fabrics and inks—a care about what they are producing.” However, when probed for examples, no designers came to mind, leading me to believe this isn’t the most topical conversation among young designers today. Tô, however, hushes with excitement, “We’re beginning to use new fabrics in our 2012 collection.  The textile manufacturers are able to reduce their water consumption by up to 40 percent. I can’t say more. It’s not ready to be released, but soon!”

Tô Long-Nam

Fashion Forward

If fashion’s future lies, as Farameh and Collins would lead us to believe, in the hands of the young creatives, sustainable design practices ought to be a given—built into the core of all design classes rather than as an add-on elective, and inspiring a new way to look at design and the life of a garment. As Farameh says, “It [fashion design] is more experimental than ever before; your fashion taste is good taste so long as you are confident.”

And, we hope, aware of the consequences of all your choices.

Image: Reviews

The post New Book on Emerging Fashion Labels Sparks Conversation appeared first on EcoSalon.

EcoSalon’s top 20 favorite sustainable fashion sites from around the globe.

They help us find out about new designers, industry news, trends, learn what sustainable fashion means, and discover all the swanky events we can attend on a global level – these are our eco fashion writers and designers, our go-to girls reporting all the news fit to print, from the exciting and beautiful to the all-too-often tragic and wasteful designer landscape. These are the pioneers of a new type of fashion that explores, connects and draws us in to what the industry could be if we simply supported it more.

We’d like to throw our own hat into this ring, as well- but then, you’re already here reading us, aren’t you?

Past Fashion Future

Past Fashion Future founder Emma Grady says: “I founded Past Fashion Future one year ago as a platform to explore my personal style aesthetic and to show the beauty of timeless and classic fashion and style. I love hearing people’s personal style stories, specifically about their sentimental connection to the clothing that they wear.”

We love the site layout, sharp, stylish images and especially, Something Old, Something New, a series that reveals how modern day style mavens wear heirlooms, vintage, and ethical fashion.

Vogue’s Green Style blog

Come on, It’s Vogue, it’s Livia Firth, it’s eco fashion and it’s high style – do we need to say any more about it?

Ecco eco

BurdaStyle

BurdaStyle, is an online social community that uses the web to bring the craft of sewing to a new generation of designers, hobbyists, DIYers and anyone looking to sew. What could be more sustainable than making clothes yourself? Sewers flock here to mingle, share and support over projects, patterns and full galleries of completed designs.

Join their community to keep current with what other budding (and seasoned) designers are doing. We most certainly do.

Six Magazine

SIX says it was founded with one aim, “to celebrate the designers, individuals, independent brands and companies who are creating a more ethical and sustainable future for the fashion industry.”
We love how the site incorporates beauty products as well as high fashion and packages it so beautifully we want to read every article.
We also love that SIX represents the sixth sense we all have when it comes to style and value.

Clever.

4 Equal Sides

Tara St James, founder of Study NY and 4 Equal Sides believes that “open source material plays a strong role in the development of the sustainable design community,” making her the rare designer that has vision enough to see how the sustainable designer’s new model needs to play out. Under her guidance, Study’s interns have developed, produced and continue to sell their own sustainable mini collections. St James is very open about her production and design process and documents her own story as a designer in a visually as well as editorially personal way that makes you come back for more.

Fashion Me Green

FashionMeGreen is a sustainable fashion awareness project and style site. Founder Greta Eagan says it’s “Conscious coolhunting from around the globe,” and we are in total agreement.

All the curated product pulls, designer features, amazing photo editorials and fashion trend pieces give us extreme hope for the future of ethical fashion that it can in fact be stylish enough to become mainstream without anyone even noticing.

Closette

Yuka Yoneda, founder of Closette and Ecouterre’s Senior Editor calls herself a shopaholic.

“Well, I was a shopaholic. I was always a jeans and sweatshirt kinda girl, but when I graduated from college and got a job in the city, I went a leeeetle crazy with the shopping – okay, a lot crazy. Then I learned about where the clothes I was buying came from and how they were affecting and hurting other people, particularly women and children, around the globe. The idea that these crimes against women, pollution and chemicals going into our water and bodies, and just shear waste were all happening because I wanted a new top or jeans really made me feel ashamed. I knew I had to make a difference in my own life, so I started thrift shopping, supporting sustainable designers and making my own clothes and I feel wonderful knowing that the garments I wear don’t contribute to anyone else being hurt (except maybe for the people who have to look at my crazy outfits).”

Check out Closette for some fun DIY ideas, shop vintage and secondhand clothing or try winning one of her fun giveaways.

Goodlifer

Founded by Publisher and Editor-in-Chief Johanna Björk, Goodlifer is all about style and the good life. “With your help, we’re writing a guidebook for a new generation of Goodlifers. We want you to share in and help craft a positive, enthusiastic vision of a future that is both sustainable and achievable. Through first-hand, personal journalism and thoughtful exploration and discussion we’re here to consider daily choices, reconsider assumptions, pose questions, uncover opportunities, make you think and collaborate with us on what it means to be a Goodlifer.”

Sign us on Johanna.

We’ve been following Timo Rissanen since we came across him in this New York Times article and were more than elated to finally meet him recently at the Yield exhibit in Brooklyn. Timo says on his site: “I’m investigating fashion creation without fabric waste creation through design practice.”

We are fascinated by his finds.

EFW

EcoFashionWorld says they aim to inspire with new ideas, ideals and information. “Our goal is to keep you green, gorgeous and growing with a comprehensive guide to finding sustainable designer brands and online eco fashion stores.” For those new to the game and fumbling over the words like Peace Silk or tencel, check out their glossary for the latest terminology definitions.

Ethical Fashion Forum

The Ethical Fashion Forum is a non-profit organization, that makes life just a little more easy “for fashion professionals to integrate sustainability at the heart of what they do.”
Membership to the EFF delivers support for sustainable fashion businesses through three programs with each program including several essential tools which members can take advantage of to succeed in ethical fashion business.

Members can also stay current with events, sourcing and EFF socials.

Ecouterre

The fashion daughter of Inhabitat, Ecouterre is a heavily photo-curated website devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design. “We’re dedicated to showcasing and supporting designers who not only contemplate cut, form, and drape, but also a garment’s social and environmental impact, from the cultivation of its fibers to its use and disposal. Our ethos: To follow the evolution of the apparel industry toward a more environmentally sound future, as well as facilitate a conversation about why sustainable fashion matters.”

Treehugger

What came first, eco blogging or Treehugger? I think many of us were reading Treehugger when eco fashion was just beginning to evolve past the point of crunchy. Still on track to provide us with timely fashion news, we’ve bookmarked the site and will continue to go back.

Eco Chick

Eco-Chick editor Starre Vartan, consultant and author of The Eco-Chick’s Guide to Life, says the main intention of her site is to “inspire readers toward a healthier, more sustainable life (which we think means a happier life too). That includes slowing down, unplugging, getting out, going in, making mistakes and moving on, being choosy, doing research, and growing every day. Rest and relaxation are real and important, and so is time with friends and family. We love local food, farmer’s markets, independent designers, handmade everything, and connecting with where our stuff comes from and who makes it. We especially love inspiring women who keep us on our toes and asking questions.”

Her site covers all aspects of the fashion industry and Starre is a known girl about town on the streets of New York City when it comes to getting the scoop on eco-fashion. If you’re where she is, you’re in the right place.

Magnifeco

Magnifeco is an eco-fashion blog currently based in Tokyo by founder Kate Black and features fair-trade, sustainable, organic, recycled, vintage and vegan brands in a place where ethics meet aesthetics. From earth friendly fabrics, to sustainable manufacturing processes and fairtrade practices, the site features conscious designers and products for the conscious consumer.

Market Publique

Market Publique is an eclectic marketplace dedicated to vintage fashion “committed to bringing the community together so we can all have a place to buy, sell and discuss vintage in a positive and focused environment.”
The Brooklyn based company started when the founders realized there was a lack of options for quality vintage sellers online.

We are obsessed with how great the styling is and are always inspired to grab a piece to add to our own wardrobes or to simply wear clothes differently after we leave the site.

Holly McQuillan

Holy McQuillan, Yield Curator, designer and lecturer in the fashion design program at Massey University’s College of Creative Arts in Wellington, New Zealand says since completing her Masters of Design, which explored the presentation of cultural memory through garment design, her work has focused on exploring the possibilities that arise when garment design is restrained by one goal – zero-waste.

Peruse her site or get in touch with her with some of your own zero waste design questions. She will get you rethinking fashion for sure.

Organic Girly

Organic Girly founder Jennifer Barckley is not only one of the nicest people we’ve ever met, she’s also a fantastic resource. Utilize her “Ask me anything,” button and she will get back to you quickly. Check her site for periodic updates on vegan and sustainable fashion forays that sometimes even lead her to chicken sitting.

Social Alterations

Mary Hanlon’s Social Alterations was “developed with fashion and textile design educators in mind, it also acts to create a platform for design educators to benchmark themselves against other educators not only within their own field, but across various design disciplines. In order to create real lasting change, designers of all disciplines must work together to foster transformation.”

A wonderful venue for timely fashion news regarding everything from Fast Fashion to CSR.

Image: Shandi-lee

The post From Eco to Vintage to DIY, 20 Fashion Sites We Can’t Live Without appeared first on EcoSalon.

ColumnNatalie Chanin’s bi-weekly column, Material Witness, offers a seasoned designer’s perspective on the fashion industry, textile history and what happens when love for community trumps all.

Last weekend, I had the opportunity to travel to Berlin and speak at the Hello Etsy conference. Every speaker was incredible and the amount of information and energy that was present during each presentation was astounding. I think that it will take me weeks to process the incredible passion that fueled those days (and nights) in Berlin. It is almost impossible, at present, to string together a cohesive thought as the ideas are still swirling in my mind; however, I keep coming back, over and over again to Charty Durant’s talk and the images she used to illustrate her ideas.

Charty is a former fashion editor of the Sunday Times, The Observer, and British Vogue and a lecturer at the London College of Fashion. Early in her talk, she reminded us that “Our love of adornment and artistry is uniquely human. Other animals don’t do it– you don’t see tigers walking around wearing earrings. It is as natural and necessary to us as breathing. It really is. How can this joyful human expression be driving our destruction?”

She goes on to talk about two photographs that were taken around the turn of the last century: “I love this picture. This is by Henri Lartigue, the great master who documented the last century. It is a picture of his family members. So, this was the beginning of the 19th century. And you can see here that women are wearing corsets, full gowns, very, very complicated stuff. It was the Victorian era.”

“But, you know twenty years later, they looked like this.”

Charty goes on to explain that in this twenty-year span, women went from the extreme constrictions of Victorian purity to “no underwear, suntans, and short hair.” She correctly states, “That is an extraordinary expression of how fast society went in a
twenty year period.”

Around the turn of this new century, I find the promise of such a leap heartening as I think about the throngs of samples now being presented globally in the name of seasonal fashion. The funny thing about seasons now is that there are so many of
them! We went from the four seasons we all know: spring, summer, winter and fall to additional fashion seasons with names like Holiday 1, Holiday 2, Cruise 1, Cruise 2, Pre-Fall, Spring 1, Spring 2, etc.

How encouraging to think that something that was so ingrained – the Victorian-era vision of the perfect woman – melted away in twenty short years into women’s freedom of living a more undressed life. The thought of that sweeping change gives me
incredible hope that the rapidly growing fashion industry will evolve one day soon, too.

Charty also pointed out that our fashion has changed so little in the last twenty years. It feels to me that we are caught up in a Victorian-like cycle of ever-developing seasons (with ever growing closets) that could possibly evolve any moment into a more humane, beautiful and forward-thinking fashion perspective. During her presentation, Charty talked about the joy of longing as she saved her money to purchase a beautiful chandelier from an antique store. She explained that she was not able to afford the piece but went back to the store over and over again to admire its beauty. The shop keeper saw her longing and agreed to sell it to her over time. During the months that she put away funds to buy it, she built a story, a relationship, a conversation with that product and she still loves that piece today. So it could be with fashion as well: we could long and want and save to get that piece that we will be proud to wear in 20 years.

I see our society moving towards a period of undressing. Charty’s comparison between the austere Victorian woman and the freedom of the modern woman is relevant in today’s world. I am beginning to witness such an undressing, a peeling away of cheap layers and transitional garments coupled with a return to the idea that quality clothing can last a lifetime. This undressing also includes the principles of sustainability and slow design. I see the undressing as a sexy and beautiful act, one that truly represents who we are as women today.

My grandmother had two dresses as she was growing up: one for every day of the week and one for Sunday. I am not suggesting that this is practical in our modern lives. My love for clothes could never survive such austerity in my closet. I prefer the thought of longing, saving, receiving and then savoring. As part of her Happiness Project, Gretchen Rubin recently sent out this Bertrand Russell quote: “He forgets that to be without some of the things you want is an indispensable part of happiness.”

Charty said at the beginning of her speech, “I spent 25 years in the fashion industry. I love fashion. I love creativity. I love the beauty and the passion of the industry. The thing I love most about fashion is that it’s a haven for eccentrics and mavericks – and long remained so.” I feel the same way.

Someone recently told me that they wanted to be buried in an Alabama Chanin garment. And, I can’t tell you how proud that makes me – but I hope that she will also wear the piece while she is alive. Wear it a lot. Because the true beauty of our garments lies in the fact that they grow more beautiful with each wearing.

Natalie Chanin is owner and designer of the American couture line Alabama Chanin and author of three books including Alabama Stitch Book  (2008), Alabama Studio Style (2010) and the upcoming Alabama Studio Sewing + Design which comes out spring 2012. Look for her bi-weekly column, Material Witness here and follow her on Facebook and her own blog at Alabama Chanin.

Top Image: Pennyspitter

The post Natalie Chanin: Getting Undressed appeared first on EcoSalon.