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.

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.

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.

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.

For two years, TOMS Shoes has been a shining example of a For Benefit company. Toms has a One For One program; for every pair of their Argentinian-style canvas shoes (known as alpargatas) sold, one pair of TOMS is given to a child in need. Founder Blake Mycoskie and team have travelled to Argentina and South Africa for their soon-to-be-famous “shoe drops,” where they fit the kids personally with the new shoes.

This season, Blake’s come up with a new out-of-the-box design-”The Wrap Boot.” Inspired by his polo playing days in Argentina, Blake modeled The Wrap Boot after the “polo wraps” wound around the bottom of a horse’s cannon bone during a match, which serve as both decoration and tendon support. The Wrap Boot is made with a classic alpargata base and a stretched elastic upper with velcro closures, and comes in five colors. If you’re a TOMS fan, welcome to your new Winter shoe.

With the launch of this new boot, Blake has made it a TOMS Shoes mission to eradicate Podoconiosis, a debilitating condition found primarily in rural districts of Ethiopia which causes swelling and ulcers in the lower legs and feet. The disease is 100% preventable by wearing shoes that are able to keep the soil completely away from the skin, so TOMS has pledged that for every pair of wrap boots purchased, they will give a pair of specially-designed footwear to an Ethiopian in need.

In addition to playing polo, this Renaissance man also has a past with screenwriting and directing, so Blake headed back to Argentina to shoot a short film to promote his new shoe. If you’re in SoCal, there is a screening tonight of No Polo Widow at Huntington Surf and Sport in Huntington Beach starting at 6pm. The Toms team will be there in full swing with music, food, drinks, and of course, shoes. Vicky and Fernando Aguerre (Founder of Reef) will be hosting. The film is a little bit Disney, a touch Almoldovar, and a healthy dose of 80′s style Cinemax after hours. Fyah. If you are one of the billions of people who do not live in Southern California, you can check out the scintillating No Polo Widow right here on In The Loop…

No Polo Widow from TOMS Shoes on Vimeo