For years, the crème de la crème of American foodies have feasted on locally-raised dishes presented by “farm-to-table” restaurants around the country. These leaders in gastro-sustainability have cut out the middlemen and gone straight to the farmer for the best selection and pricing on organic local produce and meat. The Farm-To-Table movement has bolstered the number of American family farms while ensuring the highest quality product for culinary connoisseurs. In 2009, this trend is actually spreading from a culinary circles to catwalks.

At the upcoming Portland Fashion Week, eco fashion eminence Anna Cohen will be presenting an entirely new concept for both the worlds of fashion and sustainability: Ranch-To-Runway. Through her visionary partnership with the Imperial Stock Ranch in Shaniko, Oregon, Anna Cohen is bringing the highest quality sustainable wool to her fashion-forward clientele while enriching the lives of ecologically sound local ranchers.

Though fashionistas and farmers make a unique juxtaposition, both stand to benefit grandly if Anna’s concept catches fire. Perhaps we’re right around the corner from Cavalli cattle ranches and Comme des Garçons cotton farms. If not, we’re at least that much closer to being right around the corner from where our clothes come from, thanks to Anna Cohen.

The Imperial Collection by Anna Cohen will premiere Sunday, October 11th at 8pm at the Vigor Industrial Shipyard; arrive at 6 for the pre-party.

If you’re interested in experiencing your own version of Ranch-To-Runway, take a gorgeous 2-hour drive through the Oregon countryside for a stunning tour of the Imperial Stock Ranch before hitting Anna’s show on Sunday night.

Framed by a lush Amazonian tableau, Dame Vivienne Westwood’s Spring/Summer 2010 show kept in step with her support of Prince Charles’s Rainforests Project even as she squired visions of an Anglo Arcadia down the runway. Wide-brimmed straw hats were the order of the day, paired with deconstructed pinstriped shirt-dresses, bloomers festooned with harlequin diamonds, and dainty gingham frocks.

Photo credit: Stefan Wermuth/Reuters

Fusing fashion with activism, the “Godmother of Punk” has become one of the environment’s most vociferous advocates of late. “Governments just treat [climate change] like it’s one on a list of things to do, but it’s really a matter of life and death,” Westwood tells The Telegraph. “We already may be too late, but the terrible irony is that we probably are in time if we act.”

By Jasmin Malik Chua via Ecouterre.

In the course of organizing Project Green Search (PGS) we have come across a whole world of pageants and beauty competitions we didn’t know about, which have a green twist to them, like Miss Earth, founded in 2001, the annual international beauty pageant promoting environmental awareness. They host an Eco-Fashion Design Competition through their foundation.

The winner of Miss Earth UK, Caroline Duffy (featured above) contacted us. She cannot enter PGS in our first year, because of work permit concerns we are limited to US residents. But Caroline is helping us spread the word. She is currently representing Natural Empathy, a new British organic cosmetic line.

Caroline writes:
“For me, being Miss Earth England was an honor! I love nature, animals and our earth is a beautiful place. I’m so passionate about keeping it that way for future generations to enjoy! A competition like Miss Earth means that young women like myself can be heard. On a large scale, we can make a big impact, which is what Miss Earth is all about. 85 countries meeting in the Philippines for the finals showed the world that we can join together and make a difference, we are all in this together!”

See 2008 Miss Earth contestants plant trees with the Philippine Army.

Last Thursday, at Visionary’s Greendrinks in LA, Tamara Henry (below with PGS judge Darren Moore) covered our press conference with her Green T camera crew.

Tamara has personally entered PGS as a contestant, and so happens, works with the Miss America Pageant, helping them go green. You can see more images from the evening on Roxio Photo Show.

In Miami, the gateway to the Americas, Green Fashion Miami invites winners of International beauty pageants to walk the runway, like Miss World, Miss Earth and Teen Earth. Top designers from Latin America and the United States, present sustainable collections. Amy Diaz is Miss Earth United States 2009. She’s from Rhode Island. Miss Teen Earth Florida, Jolie Noelle Schamber is the new Miss Teen Earth United States 2009. Runner ups are referred to as Miss Air, Miss Water and Miss Fire!

See more photos from the show at the Sun Sentinel newspaper.

In The Loop wants to thank Magda Rod, owner of  the amazing Visionary Boutique on 5285 W. Pico Boulevard, for hosting this month’s Los Angeles Greendrinks. If you’re in LA on Thursday August 20th, don’t miss it, it starts at 7pm.

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

Last Friday the Greenloop, Lü magazine and a host of other great sponsors and media partners quietly kicked off Project Green Search, our first national green model search with finals held on the runway during Portland Fashion Week October 11th.

The green bloggosphere is starting to pick up on it, so hopefully our contest will come to the attention of models everywhere who aspire to shift their career in the same direction they have taken their personal lives.

We’ve been written up on Eco-Chick, the Daily Green, Mother Nature Network, Elephant Journal, Ecorazzi, Kaight, Greenopia, GreenGirlsGlobal, LiveEarth, Sustainablog, Inhabitat, Magnifeco, Christy Coleman and Treehugger. Friends of Lü and the Greenloop are telling all their friends on facebook, Model Mayhem, MySpace and other networks.  

We have on board with us some terrific people. Photographer Courtney Dailey, who helped launch CocoEco magazine with publisher Anna Griffin and Emma Pezzack of Future Natural, is building an all green photography studio in downtown LA’s fashion district. She will be on hand with her green make-up and styling team to photograph all the contestants.

(more…)

Photo and article discussed from The Huffington Post: Starre Vartan in the audience.

Starre Vartan, eco-fashion blogger extraordinaire, and author of the book, ” The Eco-Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green“, shares the inside scoop on her recent attendance at the “Is the Future of Fashion Green” discussion.  As always, Starre is a steadfast supporter and dare I say champion of sustainable fashion.  Starre and I see eye to eye on this issue, that eco-fashion is one, very visible piece in a greener, more sustainable lifestyle where dedicated  hands & hearts are making change, often most visibly and most poignantly, from the bottom up.  Her response to the assertion that only “professionals” and those “in the energy sector” can effect real change is right on, as such a sentiment is not only preposterous, but insulting to all of us out here busting our asses to bring about positive change.  Not to mention, just take a look at the track record.

Yes, cooperation and support is needed from the “big guys”, so to speak, but each of us has the power to contribute and support the development of a more sustainable fashion industry, which can in turn serve as a vehicle for advocacy, not the mention the intrinsic value of converting a notriously wasteful and polluting industry to one with a far smaller ecological footprint.   Read on to see what Starre has to say:

“Having covered ecofashion designers for four years now on my blog and having written a book discussing ways to live green (including supporting ecofashion), I was interested and excited to attend the “Is the Future of Fashion Green” discussion recently held at SoHo House in association with the NY Salon.

The crowd, despite the subject matter, was definitely not filled with agreeable zombies nodding in blind acceptance as Bruno might have us believe about fashion-industry folks. No, instead this was a real salon-style dialog (attendees were heartily encouraged to participate, and they did), which included disagreements, tangents, and departures, and some difficult but worthwhile issues were raised. The intellectual wranglings were, however, made by a crowd was also obviously quite involved with fashion; most who sat in designer chairs and perched upon overstuffed couches, or even lounged on the floor- were dressed a la mode.

(more…)

The latest news from the 2009 Project Earth Day runway show in New York come to us courtesy of Inhabitat, via a report on their meeting & interview with this year’s Project Earth Day eco-fashion design competition winner, Stacy Longo.

“The success of this year’s Project Earth Day eco-runway show which took place in April in NYC was a brilliant indication that green fashion is no longer just a fad. The energy-packed show featured today’s hottest eco-lines as well as a student competition which challenged the brightest designers of tomorrow to whip up their own sustainable garments. All of the designs were brilliant, but in the end, FIT student Stacy Longo’s mod, hand-woven outfit prevailed, winning her the grand prize. We were lucky enough to catch up with Stacy to pick her brain about the inspiration for her design and what eco-fashion means to her.

(more…)

It’s about time.  I can’t tell you the number of suggestions, comments, inquiries, and occasionally ravings we hear about why there is not sustainable fashion for the full figured woman.   It seems that until recently, most eco designers have focused on the contemporary fit market, with typical size runs ranging from 0-12, with the occasional 14 or 16 in there.  Now, even if 14 or 16 sounds like it might accommodate curves, they tend to run on the small size, sending many a beautiful woman away empty handed and feeling poorly about herself.  But good news, some eco designers are embracing  full figures, as fashion writer Amy Dufault reports on Green +Chic. (Image from Green+Chic – features the Diane Kennedy ‘Serene’ Pant)