‘What if I could create a brand that would have an impact on fashion, as well as improving the living conditions of people worse off than me?’ Peter Ingwersen, on eco-fashion and his new company Noir.

“The look and philosophy behind 21st-century eco-fashion - which last year was worth £43 million in the UK - is far removed from combats, grubby T-shirts and friendship bracelets. Leading labels such as People Tree (which this month goes into Topshop) report a staggering 70-per-cent rise in sales. Other names include Ciel (shop) (worn by Sienna Miller and Cate Blanchett) and Edun, which was set up by Bono’s wife, Ali Hewson (Cameron Diaz loves its jeans). Ciel’s designer, Sarah Ratty, is typical of this new generation. “Our clothes are for cosmopolitan, busy, fashionable people who care about the planet, but don’t want to sacrifice style,” she says.

Read the full story at telegraph.co.uk

Anna Blossom Cohen (shop) worked as a designer in the fashion and textile industry in Florence, Italy for Max Mara, Patrizia Pepe, Guess and Binicocchi. She returned to the US in 2004.

In 2004 she was one of fifteen designers selected worldwide to participate in a fashion design competiton and showcase in Florence Italy; awards were given by Ferragammo, Pucci, and Pitti Imagine. Anna has now returned to the US in Portland, Oregon, a center for sustainability, to create this “Italian street couture” line of sustainable fashion apparel.

Anna Cohen, on the forefront of moving both fashion design and the global fashion industry toward more sustainable practices that support environmental and social justice through creating cutting edge fashion apparel using globally responsible business practices. Shop Anna Cohen at Greenloop

How to wash your Loomstate jeans form the article, Only fashion could make me bathe with jeans on by LEAH McLAREN of the theglobeandmail.com.

…and when I tried them on at home I was pleased to note that they fit. The only glitch was the washing instructions. I found them printed on an unbleached paper card tied to one of the belt loops by a piece of twine. “We think it’s best to wash these with a little shampoo while wearing them in the shower or bathtub. You’ll notice the indigo will bleed so don’t spend all day in there. While they are wet, bend your knees to stretch them out, but don’t strain yourself. When done, simply hang to dry in the sun.”

Pardon?

The next day, I phoned up the Loomstate offices in New York and spoke to Scott Hahn, one of the company’s founding partners.

“Dude,” I said, “what’s with the washing instructions?”

“You don’t want them to dry with the wrong wrinkles,” he explained. “You want them to dry in your leg form. Avoiding detergent and dryers tightens the fibres, so you get a closed fibre, with an intensely personalized sculptural fading instead of the uniformed fading and a bloomed yarn, which creates a hairy, fuzzy aesthetic. That’s something serious denim people want to avoid.”

Loomstate (shop), I learned, uses only organic, pesticide-free cotton to make what they describe as “responsible clothes” for people who are “committed to treading lightly on the earth.” On its website (http://www.loomstate.org), you can watch an interview with an organic dairy farmer talking about how much his cows like eating the organic cottonseed byproduct that is produced in the making of Loomstate jeans. What this has to do with washing your jeans while wearing them in the shower is anybody’s guess, but it seemed credible enough to convince me that the washing instructions are no joke: Loomstate is a post-ironic brand.

You can read the full article at www.theglobeandmail.com

When John Masters started styling hair just out of high school in 1975, the health risks posed by inhaling and handling harsh salon chemicals were barely a passing concern. After embracing organic foods, he began investigating the dangers of chemicals such as ammonia and sulfates, staples in most hair dyes and highlighting treatments.

Using nontoxic bases, Masters developed his own line of hair-care blends (shop) from essential oils, plant extracts, and health-food staples.

“For my first wholesale order at Barneys New York, I filled every bottle by hand with a funnel,” he recalls. By 1994, he had launched his salon just off the SoHo grid, and today his line includes skin-care products and doggie wash.

Though he no longer mixes by hand, Masters spends months developing his products with chemists and herbalists. He also imports most of his ammonia-free, clay-based hair dyes from Italy because they aren’t distributed in the United States.

Text adapted from www.johnmasters.com

This California based Sandal Company started by Cliff Drill and Craig Wallace with a tire, a bike tube, and a shoe knife is making a difference. Their vision is to make comfortable, long lasting, fairly priced sandals from recycled materials.

Splaff Flopps (shop) are field tested by surfers who virtually live in their flip flops and often own no other footwear. The Flopps come with either an exposed black recycled rubber footbed or with an additional layer of natural colored hemp. Both versions use hemp in the strap linings and are equally comfortable. The black recycled rubber footbed is waterproof, slip resistant, and odorless.

Good products don’t have to have bad consequences on our environment.

Completed entirely in San Diego, California by the designer/owner Margaret. SalvationSack’s environmental goals center upon using creative design to, “breathe new life into items that we so easily reject in today’s disposable society.”

SalvationSacks (shop), Created in “episodes” of a certain style are either grouped and numbered within multiple series or numbered collectively like artwork. There are usually about 100 to 150 bags made per episode. Each bag is reconstructed from vintage, salvaged and recycled clothing, linens, accessories, jewelry, belts, and other objects from the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s.

Check out SalvationSacks March 20th on the runway @ Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in los angeles, CA along with fab eco-designer Deborah Lindquist!