With the hullaballoo and drama of Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa (or for some folks all three), New Year’s Eve is a holiday that can easily sneak up on you. You can find yourself scrambling last minute for fabulous plans, the dress of your dreams, and the cash to make it all come true. Here’s some down-to-earth NYE options that won’t put the planet or your bank account in jeopardy.

Affordable Eco Couture

René Geneva Design creates the ultimate in glamazon party dresses. Her extensive background in eco corset design lends to super sexy well-constructed knockouts in shiny and colorful hemp silks, organic cotton, and non-GMO soy jersey. René Geneva designs are romantic, sexy showstoppers, so be prepared to turn heads. The most exciting part of all-affordable eco couture. You may have never seen these three words together before, but René Geneva is unique in more ways than one. Pieces range from $150-$285 and believe me, these are heirloom worthy garments. If you need to alleviate consumer-related guilt, check out René’s work installing solar panels in a Nicaraguan sewing cooperative, organizing the Scraps For Schools program in Austin, and guaranteeing that each and every piece she creates is carbon neutral. Even her website is wind-powered. René Geneva is a true green goddess of the design world.

Vintage Vixen

If you’ve watched any classic film from the 1940′s or 50′s, you can attest-those women knew something about glamor. Scour the fab local vintage stores in almost any city large or small to find a stunning New Year’s gown or party dress in your price range. If you don’t have a quality vintage boutique in your area, check out online vintage meccas like Vintageous and Blue Velvet Vintage.

Ashley Van Dyke is a fashion model, high speed race car driver, and if you don’t beleive me, check out the YouTube clip below. So much for women having poor hand-eye coordination. Ashley is part of this new crop of female automotive thrill seekers making their way into the racing circuit. But she’s also a green girl! We met at the Tesla Motors showroom and took the roadster out for its paces. You can read all about it on the Electrifying Times website.

Ashley wanted to attend the Coco Eco magazine launch party at the Designers & Agents Green Market but she had a previous engagement at a charity function. It was great meeting all the people I’d been working with for the last few months in person. I’d hooked up with Anna Griffin on MySpace, Courtney Dailey on Model Mayhem, and discovered Emma Pezzack’s FutureNatural on a CT blog. We all shared the same mission, taking green to the next level. I introduced them to each other and they formed the core team of what is now the first all green editorial fashion studio in Hollywood.

So you’re back on campus and in need of some essential school supplies-new shoes, a bag, a hot party ensemble? You’re sure that once you obtain these key study tools, your semester will go swimmingly. Well, Greenloop definitely has the ideal pieces to make you a better student (or at least just look like one.)

The Abalone Top by EcoSkin is perfect for a stud-filled study group, an afterschool cocktail hour, or blowing off academic traumas at the local nightclub. Made of eco fibers bamboo and tencel, the Abalone Top is sleek, sexy and sustainable. This hot little number from EcoSkin deserves to be matched with some very affordable organic cotton jeans from Good Society. Good Society denim is designed in Japan and made in India, which is one of the biggest hubs in the world for organic cotton. The two pieces together are sheer genius.

If clothes make the man, then shoes make the woman (happy). Rushing through the quad each day will call for kicks that are both cute and comfortable. These adorable strappy Toepaz flats by green design gurus Simple Shoes are made of hemp, recycled tires, and bamboo. Dress ‘em up, dress ‘em down, these vegan zapatos are gonna make your studymates green with envy. Oh darn.

Clearly your new mountain of scholarly tomes is going to require a bag strong enough to handle the weight and cool enough to erase the overloaded-with-books dork factor. What could be more perfect than the Vy & Elle “Bookman”? This utilitarian messenger bag gets points for both convenience and cool. It features pockets-within-pockets to help organize all your school supplies, and each Bookman sports one-of-a-kind graphics. Vy & Elle produces their entire line from recycled PVC billboards, upcycling material headed for the landfill and transforming it into wearable art. Pretty smart. In the case of sustainable design, fashion may indeed inspire academic greatness…Or it could just make you feel more enthusiastic about actually attending class.

EcoSkin aims to give women women a hip, sophisticated collection, as well as a sustainable product with a minimal environmental footprint by combining eco-friendly fabrics with a high design aesthetic.

* Amazingly soft knit with the perfect drape
* Boat neck, loose sleeved blouse
* Falls to hips, self ties at front or back at waist
* Made from: 67% bamboo, 28% Tencel, 5% Spandex
* Colors: Red Mahogony (shown), Deep Taupe (a light chocolate brown) or Black

EcoSkin ‘Cobalt’ Top- $119.00

Sandy Skinner of ecoSkin continues to turn out hot LA disco glam designs for the summer. Made of a sleek blend of 67% bamboo and 28% tencel, with a touch of 5% spandex, her sexy dresses continue to impress both eco fashionistas and Hollywood starlets alike.

Skinner has really gone the extra mile when it comes to crafting her garments responsibly. Unlike many designers using bamboo fabric these days, Skinner imports the raw bamboo fiber from China and has it spun it locally in LA so that she can oversee all the aspects of manufacturing this sometimes controversial fabric.

Even though costs are greatly increased with domestic manufacturing, Sandy believes it’s absolutely worth it. The fabric is woven and the garments are all dyed in LA, so that, according to Skinner, she can go to sleep at night knowing that she’s made the best decisions possible for the environment and the people who create her fabrics. “Yes, bamboo’s not perfect. No fabric is. But it’s certainly better than using a rayon or poly and it’s only going to get better if we continue to push for better ways of manufacturing it.” She says the fabric makers are the slowest sector of the fashion industry to react to the market, but they will most certainly change if designers and shoppers continue to ask for better practices.

Through talking with Sandy, it became plainly obvious that this is one of the designers out there making the tough decisions to do the right thing, even though it takes more time and costs more money. Skinner’s the real deal and that will certainly help all us eco divas go to sleep at night knowing we were the hottest mama at the party in one of her dresses.

This autumn, look out for ecoSkin’s fresh new looks in hemp silk!