Women of the Green Generation held their first meeting in June of 2009. Kris Willey felt inspired to start a sustainable networking group for women because she had been attending green events for the past 2 years and suddenly realized that the majority of people she was connecting with were other women. When she mentioned this idea to some of her girl friends in green business, the response she received was an enthusiastic and resounding “YES!”

Women of the Green Generation creates a space where women can share their ideas and passions for solving environmental and social problems with economically viable eco-solutions.  The purpose is to provide a space for professional women to support each other. This can be done by means of sharing resources, business referrals, patronizing each other, sharing knowledge and experience, supporting sustainable community projects & non profits and the by the simple act of volunteering to help each other when help is needed.

Members consists mainly of women who either own or work for green businesses, but the group is not limited to green business women only, in fact they actively encourage other women to get more involved in sustainable business practices or think about creating products or services that reflect the sustainable paradigm of  “good for you good for the planet.”

WOTGG is dedicated to helping women find success in the green business space. Their mission is to inspire, educate, motivate, share resources, and connect with other individuals and organizations that are actively engaged in sustaining our planet and working towards positive transformation.

Their are hosting their Annual Summit at Evo-South in downtown Los Angeles on June 12th, 2010.

You have members all over the country, but you’re mostly based in Los Angeles. How does the business of LA influence the direction WOTGG is taking?

Los Angeles is a great place to be if you really want to connect with others who are actively engaged in the green or environmental movement. But what I have come to realize is that many women that are involved in green business need a place to be able to connect with other women and for various reasons; for support, for inspiration for business leads, to share knowledge and so on.

Tell us about some of the events you are planning, and the audience you’re trying to reach.

Well, on Saturday June 12, 2010, WOTGG will celebrate our first year anniversary with a one-day event. Over 300 women and 50 green businesses will participate in a event will that touch, move and inspire those who feel called to actively participate in a much-needed evolutionary transformation of the individual self, society and our environment.

The event will feature inspiring and powerful women who are passionate thought leaders, visionaries and drivers in making a difference and a contribution to our current environmental threat, economical crises, and social systems.

Speaker topics will include; women who are finding success in the green business space, health and wellness, eco fashion and beauty, greening your passion, getting down to e-business and more!  (Visit website for all details: www.womenofthegreengeneration.com)

LA is a City the world over known for its film industry, yet today, a good portion of that industry revolves around violent video games and the sex trade. How do you reach out to these professionals and help them catch up to the greening of America, and do you even try?

This is a tough question to answer, because I personally have not even been able to connect with these type of businesses yet. Our goal to is to help existing green businesses succeed, but hopefully by setting an example and showing other companies a new paradigm to work out of, we can then influence them to make positive change. Remember Gandhi’s quote, “Be the change you want to see in the World.”

I’m looking at this from a male perspective. There’s an old saying: “What Lola wants, Lola gets!” which means that much of the world goes round inspired by the desires of women. Armies have fought over their whims. Men are too often blamed for military conquest, but in a sense, if there wasn’t a commitment to protecting mother and child, and now the Earth itself, I think we’d rather just hang around and let the time go by. How does WOTGG view its role in the grand green scheme of things? Do you have a relationship with Mothers For Peace and other such organizations?

WOTGG is still relatively a new organization so we have not had a chance yet to connect with organizations such as Mothers for Peace; one of the groups we have connected with has been “Yoga Gives Back” which provides micro loans to women in India and other impoverished countries.

In the grand scheme of things I feel what is starting to take place is a rising of the Divine Feminine energies. This may sound abstract and strange to some people, but the “Mother” energy has been squashed over the past 100 years, especially here in the Western world. Women have had to take on “male like attitudes and qualities” in order to succeed in the business world; not to mention the forming of huge corporations and consumption of oil and plastics and toxic materials have further suppressed the feminine qualities all because we have completely devastated Mother Nature.

In many indigenous cultures, women have to push the men out of the hut to go hunting. It’s not just up to men to stop playing with toys, it’s also up to women to stop associating these toys with male attributes, then these toys would lose their appeal, they’d lose their symbolism. We’d move on to something else to impress. And yet, today, more women are wanting to join the military and play GI Jane. How do you feel about that? Where is it all going? Are male drawn comic books to blame for a woman’s need to identify with Wonder Woman?

I think because women have been told for so long that we can’t do certain things, or at least we can’t do the same things that men are allowed to do, what happened over the past 100 years is we started to buck the currents and demand equal rights. I think it is safe to say, not just for women, but for the human race in general, we always want the things that we can’t have. I am not sure where it is all going and I don’t see anything wrong with women wanting to play GI Jane, but I think what will eventually happen is women will start changing their minds about the type of careers they want to be involved in and our roles in society.

I feel we will want to be more involved in things that we are truly passionate about and want to have success with our endeavors that is equal to men in business.

One of the things we do at Electrifying Times, is stage pin-up shoots with electric cars, using the tried and true to shift male attention away from gasoline. The strategy is working, since nowadays, some say you haven’t arrived in LA unless you drive a Prius, or better yet, a Tesla! Human nature isn’t going to change! Won’t the lure always be there? Don’t things need to be sexy to attract attention?

Sex always sells and not just for men but for women too. But I think the image of what is sexy is always changing. Sexy does no have to be limited to pictures of a half naked woman or man hugging a beautiful horse or straddling a Harley Davidson. Green and eco friendly can be sexy too – This may sound a bit dorky to some readers, but I personally think that rain forests are very sexy. I have been to a real rain forest in Costa Rica and the experience really turned me on, not in the same way that maybe a handsome man would, but you get the point. But as far as the strategy of ad companies, this will definitely take some time to change. I think when consumer’s attitudes towards the type of advertising they are exposed to changes, then the ads will change ~ right?

Right! In mythology, you have Gaia, and you have the Green Man, they compliment each other. They come at stewardship of nature from a different perspective. How do you relate environmentalism with feminism?

Everyone has heard the term “Mother Earth” women in general, are naturally more sympathetic to Planet Earth and many of us are feeling threatened right now by what is currently happening on a global scale. Women are also usually the decision makers for the family and I am seeing more and more women who want their children to have something to look forward to in the future; other than rising tides from global warming, plastics in our ocean, toxic chemicals in our air, so called “incurable diseases” and foods that have been heavily doused with pesticides and GMOs. So women right now are leading the way in the environmental movement at a grass roots level. At least that is what I have been seeing.

During World War 2, Americans were urged to start victory gardens, to help with food production. Then after the war, all caution was thrown to the wind, with chemical agriculture. Today, small organic farms are springing up all around us with markets everywhere, like in Europe, and the rest of much of the world. It took us this long to realize our mistakes, how disconnected we had become from the fruits of the land. We can decrease smog with alternative fuels, increase oxygen and remove CO2 with more trees and vegetation, redesign our neighborhoods with new urbanism, especially in LA where things are so sprawling. How do you get all the different communities in LA involved, how to you cross ethnic barriers? How do we get to green low riders?

I think one way we can accomplish this is for each community to have someone who can be an “Ambassador” a person that “rallies the troops” so to speak.  Sadly most people feel that they don’t have the capacity to be a leader. I think taking the first step is always the hardest, but after you have taken the first step things begin happen and when things start to happen we find the courage and momentum to continue on. Every community or neighborhood should have a leader who can inspire and motivate others to get involved in creating sustainable communities. And maybe it starts within your own family and friends and then expands from there.

Tell us more about Evo-South. What makes it such an extraordinary building in the heart of downtown LA? How did you get involved with them, and can a building in fact, have a mission?

Evo-South is the only “LEED silver certified” eco luxury high-rise in down town Los Angeles. For those who don’t know what LEED means – LEED is Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design. Basically this means that the Evo-South building has been built in accordance to specific environmental guidelines. Developed by the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), LEED provides building owners and operators a concise framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions. To learn more about these guidelines you can visit the US Green Building Council at www.usgbc.org.

Evo boasts stunning city views, designer amenities, a roof top pool, private gym, and a helipad for those who like to fly around town in their helicopter. And to top things off Evo is conveniently located 2 blocks from the Staples center in waking distance from all that down town Los Angeles has to offer – such as world famous restaurants, music halls, nightclubs, movie theaters, the Urth Cafe (my favorite place to get a cup of organic coffee) and so much more!

I got involved with EVO because they were looking to partner with a green organization that could produce some events at their space. Thanks to my friend Daniel Vanderbark of Dezine, LA. He recommended WOTGG to Evo and the rest is history.

I want to thank you for your time, and for your patience with my confused approach to things. Is there anything you want Greenloop readers to know? What can they do, and how can they get in touch with WOTGG?

With the current global threat and economic downfall the time is ripe for the possibilities of forming new partnerships, teams and intentions of coming together for the prosperity, health and sustainability of individuals, businesses, projects and causes in our immediate neighborhood and globally.

Ultimately we are preparing to usher in a new paradigm of working and co-existing together in this beautiful place we call Earth, by becoming conscious stewards of our planet, our communities and our own self.

We welcome suggestions and would like to encourage more women to step up and manifest successful green businesses and products and become leaders in their communities.

(Promo video for Evo-South)

Readers can contact Women of the Green Generation at: info.wotgg@gmail.com

or visit their website at www.womenofthegreengeneration.com

Your Daily Thread

The two ladies behind the drunken jam ruse of yesteryarn recently spoke about their revamp of YDT. “Oftentimes we don’t realize what great resources we have right in our own backyard, so we’re thrilled to be able to provide this service to our community,” states Lauren (whose mother’s “backyard” is actually an orchard and goat farm.) Tracy went on, “We’re excited to bring more detailed coverage to the spread out and often isolated neighborhoods of Los Angeles.” Amen to that, sister.

It turns out these blossoming green media moguls at Your Daily Thread will soon be expanding beyond the confines of LA to other major cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco.  In the meantime, look out for YDT’s green holiday guide and more episodes of Lauren and Tracy getting their eco-Angeleno on.

What inspired this husband and wife team to take on such a massive production, in addition to all their other projects? “Chicago has some of the most amazing eco-designers in the world, yet there was no show during Chicago Fashion Week to promote their work.  We basically saw that if we didn’t take responsibility for putting on a sustainable fashion show during Chicago fashion week that it wouldn’t happen. The city’s Director of Fashion, Melissa Gamble was also extremely supportive in helping to bring this show to fruition, and we have received a tremendous outpouring of support from Chicago’s conscious community.”

Vert will be featuring fresh designs from up-and-coming green seamsters Vaute Couture, Frei Designs, Elise Bergman, and Bryant McLemore Smith, along with veteran eco fashion line Mountains of the Moon. Conscious Planet has ensured that stylish examples of sustainability reach way beyond the runway. Vert Couture is contributing to the new Greensburg, Kansas wind farm by purchasing travel and energy offsets for the show through Native Energy. All their printed promotional material from posters to press kits is printed on recycled paper with eco-friendly ink. And for every organic Veev-spiked “Treetini Cocktail” served, a tree will be planted. Even getting your swerve on at Vert Couture is green. Bottom’s up people, let’s save this great planet.

We asked Bianca and Michael what kind of impact they most hoped to make on CFW, and their answer was very appropriate to their new home-it was full of HOPE. “The City of Chicago and Mayor Daley are extremely committed to making this the greenest city in the country. Given the waste and un-sustainability inherent in the fashion industry, we feel that by producing VC and highlighting the amazing eco-designers that are comparable to what you would see on runways in Paris, Milan and New York, that we can not only influence consumer demand for eco-fashion but that designers and buyers will see that you can have amazing style and be green. In doing so, we hope that several years down the road all the shows and designers will be green.”

We hope so too.  If you’re a Chi-town fashion hound, be sure to get your ticket to Vert Couture and support the sustainable evolution of Chicago style.

1.  TreeHugger leads the pack of Green Fashion Tweeters with 29,172 followers.  Although they are a comprehensive source for all things green, there is plenty to learn about eco-fashion when you head over to their website www.treehugger.com and click on Fashion & Beauty.  Here is where you will find 7 Reasons Why You Should Care About Sustainable Fashion and 5 Back to School DIY Projects to Get You to the Head of Class in Eco-Style.  My favorite idea is to host a clothing swap with your friends.  Get new clothes and accessories without spending money.  That is my idea of modern economics!   www.treehugger.com is doing their part to help guys who want to look good by providing an excellent Men’s Green Fashion Guide.

2. Threadbanger is our second place pick with 6,380 followers.  Visit their website www.threadbanger.com where you will get a healthy dose of edgy, alternative attitude.  This multi-media network is ready to help you in discover and create your own alternative fashion style.  The Threadbanger network includes videos, a forum, blog, newsletter, contests and viewer-take-overs.  This is the DIY clothing center of the cyber-universe.  They will show you how to recycle, up-cycle and re-fashion anything with simple sewing techniques.  Anything can be made cool, even your old fanny pack from the eighties.

3. Ecofashionista has 5,223 followers and is the Twitter-based conscience of the fashion world.  Kelly Drennan’s website www.fashiontakesaction.com educates fashion based businesses, the media and consumers about sustainable fashion.  Fashion Takes Action is a Canadian based group that has sponsored high-profile events such as the Green Gala, Canada’s greenest fashion event.  Sit back and enjoy their video, Sustainable Fashion 101.  Are you pro-bamboo or no-bamboo?  This is an excellent resource if you are interested in learning more about issues like whether or not bamboo is an environmentally friendly material.

4. Ecofabulous with 4,206 followers is sure to be your new guilty pleasure.  Once you visit www.ecofabulous.com it will not take you long to conclude that they are indeed the authority on sexy, sustainable style.  Here is your trusted friend, personal shopper, and inside source on green fashion for men, women and children.  All of the products are selected, tested and recommended by their editors.  I must confess a little envy for the editor who got to try out Oakley’s Bob Burnquist Signature Series Recycled Sunglasses.  You will sleep better at night knowing that their recommendations are guaranteed to be pure and free of toxins and good for your personal health and the environment.

5. EthicalStyle has earned over 3,900 followers.  If you are an internet shopper like me, you will surely appreciate their website www.ethicalstyle.com.  Their goal is to help you create a closet where your personalized fashion sense matches your social conscience.  They know that your inner fashionista is truly unique.  You will feel like you have your own personal eco-minded stylist bringing you high-quality clothes that might be organic, recycled or fair-trade but are above all beautiful.

Find more of the Top Ten Tweeters On Eco-Friendly Fashion…

Via Improve Your Home & Garden

7 Hot Green Male Models Who Are Also Environmentalists

Red hot model and carpenter Carter Oosterhouse. Credit Carter Oosterhouse

1. Carter Oosterhouse: Red Hot & Green

Green living enthusiast, carpenter, and model with dashing good looks Carter Oosterhouse rose to fame using his handyman skills on the hit TLC show Trading Spaces. He now lends his talent in sustainable design as the co-host of HGTV’s Red Hot & Green, where viewers learn simple ways to go green and how to cut energy costs, and see the latest in green gear — all without sacrificing style. Oosterhouse also founded Carter’s Kids — a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting fitness and self-esteem for America’s youth.

2. Hayden Christensen: Organic Vegetable Gardener

Credit Gordon and the Whale

Hayden Christensen, otherwise known as Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, and one of People magazine’s 50 Most Beautiful People, isn’t just an actor: His modeling days date back to Louis Vuitton’s Spring/Summer 2005 ad campaign. When Hayden’s not posing or acting, he’s working away on his 200-acre farm–outside Toronto in his native Canada–growing organic produce. Christensen also ran a public service announcement for Do Something, a non profit youth organization that inspires young people to change the world. The organization has initiatives for the environment, disaster relief, poverty, and more. Via Wikipedia; Gaiam.

3. John Abraham: Speaks up for Animals

Credit John Abraham

Indian male model turned Bollywood actor John Abraham is a vegetarian and has worked with Habitat for Humanity and PETA. Simran Kodesia of PETA speaks to his influence: “When John Abraham speaks up for animals, young people across India listen. His close association with PETA means that the message of compassion for birds and all other animals will reach more people than ever before.” Via OneIndia.

“Read” more about hot male models who are also environmentalists at Treehugger.com…

See Visionary on AlterEco video clip.

Aysia Wright is flying down from Portland to LA to meet with four of our Project Green Search judges who will be on hand to give a press conference announcing a series of open casting calls where green models, or models wishing to start pursuing green avenues in their career, can learn more about our project.

Omniquest Media – Michael Kaliski
Friday: August 21. 11am to 1pm
1416 N. La Brea Ave. Hollywood, CA 90028
323.802.1630

I guess that’s why they say: ”I love you to death.” I just got through writing about how I love magazines, and how the new sustainable trends in fashion are changing the way we are going to reinvent our media… but this afternoon, on the newsstand, appears this aberration. At a time when launching new magazines seem like corporate suicide, Conde Nast UK sends out this absurd love note to the world and falls flat on its face.

I couldn’t have imagined a worse way to miss the mark, to be so far out it demonstrates that the fashion strata hasn’t learned a single thing from the green fashion revolution that’s taking over the hearts and minds of young girls and women all over the world, who have come to realize their close knit relationship to everything they love, buy and wear… the world they live in. Women who have learned to care.

The magazine is called LOVE… flipping through its pages, you FEEL it… it’s infectious, and disheartening, because it’s love for all the wrong things, love for oil, coal, virgin paper clear-cutting Siberia, love for toxic inks, love for pesticide laden fabrics, love for poison cosmetic ingredients… yes, LOVE, for everything that’s wrong with fashion!

Is this the last gasp of a world gone awry… the last throws of a demon machine grasping for breath? The magazine is page after page short interviews with fashion mavens asked what they love… and they l-o-v-e indeed, with all their might, a love so strong as the love found in the court of Louis the 16th before the peasants rush through the palace gates and drag out a silly 17 year old girl, who knew no better, to chop her head off! All in the name of love.

There is not a single hint of social redemption in LOVE, other than a page with our beloved Lindvall, who probably had no idea what the final product would be like. LOVE is a gaudy, bombastic, pretentious appeal to our worse instinct, keeping the monster afloat with splashes of fresh paint. I dare you to flip through its pages, a testament to the often predicted but never witnessed fall of Western civilization.

Feel the love… misdirected love, misconstrued love for misbegotten affluence… It’s no wonder Hermes and Louis Vuitton have never sold better, it’s all the wives of Exxon/Mobil and AIG planning trips to the Riviera, to join the wives of Russian mobsters and Arab sheiks! Is that the meaning of Beth Ditto on the cover… there’s MORE to LOVE… a mirror for gluttony? LOVE magazine… obscene! It flaunts excess… it might be the love we want, but it’s not the love we need. It’s just a box of artificial ingredients chocolates.

I don’t hate LOVE… I’ll just pour my love elsewhere, hoping the new generation is smarter than the Conde Nasties give them credit for.

Fashion photography is not immune from the economic downturn. Its importance in our industry can’t be overlooked. Designers depend on editorial fashion photography to bring their creations to the attention of the buying public. Magazines depends on fashion photography to give their titles allure and status. The more luxurious the image, the more affluent the demographic attracting advertisers. It’s a mystical ring of fire.

Fashion photography does a lot more. It molds careers. Fashion photography takes young women with beauty, ambition and intelligence, gives them a chance to shine in the public arena. Many of our most talented performers have come from humble backgrounds as fashion models. It’s the perfect Cinderella story.

Fashion photography is in trouble! Magazine circulation is down all over the world, and the Internet has yet to come up with a proper medium to take its place. Most fashion magazines online are still struggling with inadequate software, hard to read text, small images lacking detail. Nothing can replace the experience and touch of a high resolution page under your finger tips. Which is why print fashion magazines are here to stay.

The way they are being circulated and distributed is changing. Newsstands are dropping fashion titles because fashion magazines have never been mainstream. They’ve always been an acquired taste for a choice clientele, which sets the trends, and trickles down with their sense of style. For decades before there was a successful US ELLE edition, you would find copies of French ELLE in every beauty salon in America!

There has never been more fashion magazines on the market than today, but they are rare and hard to find. These two books, and the bi-annual conference they chronicle Colophon, appears to have successfully addressed the problem, by giving readers and fashion photography enthousiasts the means of collecting their favorite titles, by reaching them online.

Fashion magazines are the outlet for a multitude of trades; photographers, designers, stylists, make-up artists, graphic artists, illustrators, models, set designers, lighting designers… Without fashion magazines, the digital world hasn’t caught up with the more sensual needs of the fashion world. They’re still hell bent on designing war games for overstimulated teenagers.

As newsstands and libraries cut down on their selection of titles, many titles die, without the window of opportunity to the world these shelves provide. This is where a space like The Aquarium fills the gap, a countercultural library in Norwalk, Connecticut, which stocks a large selection of international fashion titles, not for sale, but for the pleasure of its members.

Dedicated fashion newsstands are few… It takes a large metropolitan city like London to support a store like RDFranks. If the fashion photographs showcasing the lines of designers, make-up companies and other products strategically placed in the images do not reach a maximum number of viewers who are going to desire the items on display, the dollars that go into the production of this art form will dwindle.

I love fashion photography. If I wasn’t so busy trying to save the planet from imploding, I’d be out there with a camera shooting all day… I envy the state of political bliss most fashion photographers live with, while knowing that the best work often comes from politically charged images! Fashion photography has always rode the shock wave of the times… especially in the 60′s and 70′s… while strangely, disconnecting from current events in recent years, which might explain its lack of relevance.

What always made an extraodinary fashion image, was a sense of subliminal awe you felt looking at the personality of the model, the expression in the eyes, the beauty of the clothes, the subtlety of the foundation, the quality of the paper, the ink, the sensuality of the whole presentation, no matter what the subject. This can be faked, it often is, which is why so much of it today might look like the real thing, but falls short, has no meaning, fashion without substance is criminal, it’s greenwashing.

The sustainable fashion industry has a responsibility to not only preserve the art of fashion photography, but to restore its standing in the world, as one of the great cooperative art forms. The great photographers of today, rare few exceptions, have been devoid of green ideology, so when hired to portray green trends, fall short of the task for failing to grasp the finer sensibilities of the spirituality that comes with the assignment. In this respect, many models and designers are way ahead of the curve.

Fashion photographers answer to the needs of the editors… Editors answer to the expectations of their readers and advertisers, carefully weighing the trade offs. Our green fashion industry is growing its own titles, many of them listed on our Paper Project page. These two books from Gestalten may not show you how to generate green images, but they will point the way to all the publications green fashion professionals need to know about to grow their own business concerns. They contain vast definitive listings of all the available fashion titles today, from every nation on Earth, with contact information. They are beautifully produced and worth every penny.

Colophon 2009 Part1 on YouTube