Interview with Anna Griffin, publisher of Coco Eco magazine.
(Launching October 18th.)

You’re a popular commentator on the LA greenscene. You’ve filmed videos for Ecorazzi. We met on MySpace where you host some really terrific interviews with Hollywood celebrities and green business leaders. In a few days you’re launching your own new green fashion magazine online… Coco Eco…  It’s a labor of love, isn’t? How did the name come about? Coco Chanel? Who is involved?

Coco Eco Magazine is much more than a love.  It’s a privilege.  I am so fortunate to have the opportunity to do this, and be surrounded by very talented and visionary individuals who’ve made this a reality. 

The name came accidentally.  We were building under another name until we ran into trademarking issues, and to be honest, I don’t remember when I thought of Coco Eco.  It just came to me, and when I thought about it, it stuck.  Everyone loved it, and that was that.  And of course it doesn’t hurt paying accidental hommage to the world’s greatest fashion icon! 

As to my team, I have the best and brightest people in the eco-scene working with me.  They really are mavericks!  My Beauty Director is Emma Pezzack, CEO of Futurenatural.com, our Photo Director is Courtney Dailey who is one of the hottest new photographers in LA, and our Senior Stylist is Robin Garvick who is THE eco-celeb fashion stylist in town.  We also have Contributors like the legendary Barbara Kramer of Designers & Agents, Stefanie La Rue, breast cancer survivor and Founder of SLAM.

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Sameunderneath is returning to Portland Fashion Week on October 10th to premiere their very hush-hush Spring ‘09 line. According to Creative Director Amy Christensen, their look for ‘09 is inspired by the socio-political revolution of 1970’s Cuba. Bright whites and fuschias are juxtaposed against darker blues and military greens in linen crochet, bamboo, and organic cotton twill. Graphic tees will espouse quotes from the greatest revolutionaries of the 60’s and 70’s.

Company founder, Ryan D. Christensen has always made education and activism central goals of his line. Emphasizing equal rights and cultural harmony through the medium of fashion, “We evoke the enlightened rebel.” Sameunderneath continues to do just that for Spring 2009, reflecting the hope and excitement of the current election season by invoking the spirits of last century’s greatest cultural heroes.  ¡Vivá Revolución! 

Portland Fashion Week is here once again, and we at Greenloop are of course, quite excited about our hometown’s big green fashion event. Last year, we saw heavyhitters of eco fashion, like Anna Cohen, Stewart + Brown, Del Forte, and NatureVsFuture strut their stuff on the emerald catwalk. In 2008, Nike Considered returns as a sponsor and designer at the event. Another PDX native, Sameunderneath, is returning with their sustainable ready to wear line and egalitarian message, along with IDOM and Alula. Tons of fresh faces are hitting the 2008 runways along with the PFW veterans, like Collier, Salvationware, Revival Clothing, In Harmony, and Strung Out by Peniche. All will be showing their Spring/Summer collections for 2009, and all will be vying for the attention of buyers and press alike.

Portland Fashion Week is the only fashion week in the US completely devoted to sustainable designers; sustainable fashion means sourcing, manufacturing, packaging, and/or shipping in ways that are the most considerate of the ecologies and communities they effect in the process. PFW focuses mostly on the talent of indie designers, and aims to give these emerging business owners a leg up in the fashion world by making the show very affordable to participate in. PFW also seeks to draw national attention to this gorgeous city itself, and it’s unique blend of art, commerce, and sustainability. Portland is indeed a lush, green metropolis devoted to artisanship and strong community, making PFW the ideal scene for Portland’s design mavens to show the world what they got. The event runs from October 8th-12th at the Portland Design Center in the 14 Square building of Portland’s posh Pearl District.

I made the trek from Connecticut to the Lower East Side again on Wednesday night… Seems like it’s where all the cool green stuff is happening. Boho magazine’s been on newsstands for a few weeks now, but this was their official release party, held at Kaight, a trendy low-profile eco-boutique which you’d hardly know is there walking down the street since there’s no sign out front. But evidently, fans of sustainable design have no problem finding it.

Boho is published by Gina La Morte (top photo), a celebrity stylist based in New Jersey, who acted on an idea whose time has come, a fashion magazine aimed at the green conscious bohemian, in essence, probably every smart teenage girl out there. It’s a class act, and it’s been catching on. Their initial print run of 48.000 doubled after they got international distribution orders, and secured shelving space from Whole Foods, this after the chain yanked 90% of all the magazine titles they once carried! Somebody out there is clamoring for Boho.

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Tonight, deep down in the Financial District of funky fresh SF, leaders of the exploding eco fashion industry will be discussing the intersection of environmentalism and fashion at Eco-Fashion: From Birkenstock to Couture.

If you’re near the Bay, join the likes of Tierra Forte (Del Forte Denim), Zem Joaquin (ecofabulous.com) , and Caren Holzman (Transfair USA) as they discuss the what, where, why and how of greener manufacturing and eco style trends at Temple, one of SF’s most visually delectable venues. Is sustainable design a short term fad or a long term evolution? What is more important when it comes to greener manufacturing-the cost to customers or the cost to our planet’s delicate ecosystems?

After you get your hard-hitting ethical style questions answered and your debate skills sharpened, you can mingle with fellow eco fashists (I coined this for humor’s sake-please take no offense) over cocktails at the after-party. Hippies and hipsters unite at Eco-Fashion: From Birkenstock to Couture!

Location: Temple, 540 Howard St., San Francisco
Time: September 15, 6 p.m. check-in, 6:30 p.m. program, 7:30 p.m. reception and party
Cost: $15 members, $25 non-members

Someone said “Let’s have a fashion show,” just like Mickey Rooney in Strike Up the Band! Next thing you know, the whole town of Ridgefield, Connecticut, breaking rank with the Stepford Wives, is rising to the occasion. The Green ROCK Inn offered their quaint little suburban get away, but the fire marshall got wind of all the people who were coming, so the venue moved to Nature’s Temptations, the town’s brand new health food store, which couldn’t have been a better idea.

Starre Vartan of Eco-Chick was signing her book at Go Practically Green, also brand new. She assembled a wide selection of sustainable fashion designer clothing. Shine, the local Aveda salon, asked a few friends to strut down the runway… among the Sicilian olive oil and the 7-grain cereal boxes. Brian Clark Howard spun the sounds.

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While everybody was busy debating Palin or Obama, I went to a fashion show, but not any fashion show, one hosted by Angela Lindvall, who has dedicated her life to sustainable design issues, and now stars with Adrian Grenier on the flip side of his Entourage, in a wonderful new TV show called AlterEco. All her cast mates from Planet Green made the trek from LA to support her. The event was held under the life size blue whale hanging inside the American Museum of Natural History’s Millstein Hall of Ocean Life.

On September 4th, at the height of New York Fashion Week, Angela’s agency IMG helped sponsor this benefit for the Sierra Club to launch Be EcoChic, a convergence of many different people, companies and organizations who share the same environmental concerns about the fashion industry, and who are all working together to instill practical sustainability solutions in both their personal lives and their profession.

You couldn’t have hoped for a better turnout or a hipper crowd. Lauren Hutton, who recently launched her own makeup line, is a hero of mine. Always an adventurer and an explorer, I suspect her picking giant live flying bugs from the air and sucking their insides out, around the light of a camp fire while spending time with an African tribe, was an inspiration for Survivor! Few years ago she got herself into a terrible motocycle accident. It was wonderful to see her goofing around at rehearsal, back on the runway wearing a beautifully green and romantic steampunk long coat from Maggie Norris, who four months ago invited Riverkeeper lawyer Philip Musegaas to walk her runway.

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Fashion and poverty seem like an unlikely pair to be matched up against one another, unless of course it’s between your personal desire for a couture piece and the emptiness of your bank account. Truth is these days, the two just keep running into each other, but on a much larger scale; and this time fashion is alleviating poverty instead of encouraging it. On September 26th, the ethical fashion organization Fashion Fights Poverty (FFP) will be hosting their 4th annual eco-fashion benefit at The St. Regis hotel in Washington, DC.

Each year, Fashion Fights Poverty combines established brands like American Apparel and Donna Karan with premiere eco fashion lines like Edun and Loomstate, alongside emerging talent, to present clothing that is sophisticated and truly sustainable. For the 2008 “America” theme, FFP has chosen to honor not only fashion design, but also American ingenuity. “In this historic election year where the focus is change and innovation, we believe, to be an American is to conceive and build innovative solutions to our common problems,” says Michael Dumlao, Co-Founder and Creative Director of FFP.

Fashion Fights Poverty brings attention to eco designers and organizations who use fashion, artisanship, and creativity to build long-term economic opportunity in poverty stricken communities. This year’s runway will feature designs from eco and ethical lines by Kayce Armstrong, Mae, Annatarian, Adele Wechsler and local DC menswear designer Eric Finn.