Malcolm Fontier designs awesome vegan bags for men and tough girls. The bags are so nice and high-end, it makes the fact that they are not made from leather actually a sign of luxury, not cheapness. They are amazingly soft, like leather, but without the whole Silence of the Lambs/nightmare/guilt complex part…And he makes men’s toiletry bags too, so dudes, you can totally clean up your acts.

(via www.thegreenset.com)

Colette Brooks, owner of LA-based biodiesel conversion company Biobling, is the new face of Keen’s recycled line of bags dubbed the Harvest Collection. For her day job, Colette resurrects old hoopdies and pimps them out with biodiesel-ready fuel systems and funky fresh interiors. This season, Keen Footwear resurrects the rice sack and creates an eclectic line of totes and backpacks for the eco-conscious suburban set. Colette and Keen make a great match as both reimagine materials to put a little funk in the trunk of folks with a Keen sense of style.

The A to Z of Eco Fashion: All you ever need to know about clothes. I guess we can just call it a wrap now. No one need write on eco-fashion ever again since everything you need to know about clothes is all right here. Well…maybe not. I can still think of a thing or two to say. But honestly, it is very well done, covering topics from banned substances to the concept of a ‘triple bottom line’, and everything in between, not to mention before and after. They might need to sing the ABC song a time or two again as they have “R” in there both before “S” and after “T”, they left out the Fair Trade header, but the discussion is there; K is M.I.A as far as I can tell, and the “X” is for eXport. Nonetheless, I am far from perfect in my editorial endeavors, so let’s not get bogged down in the grammatical, or in this case, alphabetical, details…. just read it. Here’s the A to Z:

A year in Eco Fashion, Banned substances, Conscious consumerism, Design pioneers, Environmentally friendly, Fair trade, Garment workers, Hemp, Inexpensive, Junior buyer, (No K) Lead times, Multi-stakeholder ethical trading initiatives, Natural dyes, Organic cotton, Polyester, Questions for brands and retailers, Reduce, reuse, recycle, Schools, Triple bottom line, Reducing negatives, Upcycling, Vegetable tanned leather, Wash less, wash green, Export processing zones, Yumbo, Columbia, and Zermenegildo Zegna.

The organic cotton jersey strapdress and crepe ruffle shift dress are just two out of so many hot new looks from eco fashion pioneers Stewart + Brown this Spring. They manufacture their designs right here in the US of A, at a time in retail when some of the most conscientious companies still choose to work with the less pricey workforces of Asia and Eastern Europe. Karen and Howard say they optimize their “designs and lives to attain the highest standards of quality and functional style while extracting the bare minimum from Earth’s precious capital.” These two continue to set the standard for environmental commitment in the ethical apparel industry. (more…)

The charismatic couple of Conscious Living TV, Bianca and Michael Alexander, show us “Urban Fashion At Its Finest” in this eco fashion tour de force. From our sustainably fashion forward neighbors in Montreal to the funky vintage shops of Hollywood, Conscious Living TV takes us coast to coast uncovering edgy and retro designs, useful green wardrobe tips, and Michael’s bootilicious dance moves. Relax and enjoy the show-the fun (and the funk) of these two is infectious.

Carol Tanenbaum recycles her good taste into hand-picked vintage treasures from the Olden Days (you know, back when cell phones didn’t have TVs in them.) She has an amazing collection of costume jewelry from decades past, although she seems a little light on the jelly bracelets from the eighties that you could get from those gumball machines at the grocery store. But seriously, let her do the work for you when looking for great vintage stuffs- she’s gonna do a better job than you anyway, and she makes it easy. As easy as watching an episode of The Hills on your cellular phone while driving your hovercraft over our new capitol city of Las Vegas.

www.caroletanenbaum.com

(from www.thegreenset.com)

No, we’re not featured in the “Men’s New Sexual Needs” article, though that would certainly indicate the complete and total saturation of eco-consciousness into society. Greenloop is instead featured in “Every Woman’s Guide To Going Green,” in the April 2008 print issue of Glamour magazine. They suggest shopping online rather than driving to the store…

“Shop online, too. By some estimates, every minute spent driving to a store uses 10 times the energy of doing the same shopping on the Web. For eco-driven sites so good you’ll never miss the mall, visit nau.com and thegreenloop.com for fashion and econsciousmarket.com for home finds.”

I was impressed to see the real deal “Eco Experts” who gave them the tips for their green guide: Simran Sethi (Sundance Channel Green TV Host), Robbie Cox (President of Sierra Club), Gina Solomon (Senior Scientist at NRDC), and Jennifer Boulden and Heather Stephenson (Cofounders of idealbite.com), Diane MacEachern (Founder of biggreenpurse.com), and Rajendra Pachauri, Ph. D. (Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.) A list like this is so validating! Thanks Glamour.

P.S. When is Glamour going to start using post-consumer recycled content in its magazine production? Keep us posted-we can’t wait!

GRACE AND CELLO

I should have written about these guys long ago, because they’ve been around since the dawning of the green age, and their clothes feel like… like… like really nice clothes, and their designs are conservative but cheeky. I really love this brand, and I’m sorry I pretended I didn’t know it when I saw it across the food court at the mall- I was just embarrassed to be seen with my friends wearing clothes made by children in a sweatshop in China. But I’m still totally into you, Grace and Cello, and I’ll totally go to the dance with you if you’ll still have me. I’ll wear something you made- something organic, sweatshop free and lovely.

And if I had a real job, I would have a closet full of businessy clothes from you, since you’re so good at making cute work clothes that stand out without making you a target for corporate treachery, and your prices are reasonable, so I wouldn’t be making money just to buy more clothes so I could go to work to make more money to buy more clothes for work.

www.graceandcello.com

(from www.thegreenset.com)