I’m taking hippie to new heights, literally.

That’s thanks to a pair of El Naturalista heels I got to review. Called the Dome N762, these shoes have a cute, red leather top — and a rubbery-looking, upside-down zigurrat-like heel. The result? A funky and functional — or crunchy and clompy, depending on your tastes — pair of eco-friendly heels.

These burlap-sack hued, nubbly rubber heels got their inspiration from another crunchy design — environmentally inspired architect Nader Khalili‘s Eco-Dome (aka Super-Adobe) houses, made basically by laying earth-filled sandbags on top of each other to form a coiled, terraced structure. That building technique’s still taught at the California Institute of Earth Art and Architecture in Hesperia — so by wearing El Naturalista’s Dome shoes, I’m sort of wearing a local design!

Whatever your opinion about the chunky, blocky heels, if you try these El Naturalista heels on, you’ll have to admit one thing: They’re super comfortable, despite the height. That’s because of the gentle cushioning provided by the natural recycled rubber used in the outsoles and heels. The stuff bends easily, absorbs impact, and according to El Naturalista, lasts longer on your feet but degrades faster than synthetic materials post-use.

The green aspects of the Dome heels extend to the shoes’ less crunchy parts — like the recycled polyurethane footbed and the pull grain leather uppers, which were treated with river stones and vegetable tanned. Want to wear domes on your feet too? El Naturalista has a boutique in Santa Monica where you can stop by to try these on in person. You can also find El Naturalista shoes — which come in many designs, most of them with less funky-looking heels — at local and online shops. Prices at Amazon range from around $55 for slip-on clogs to $300 for stylish boots.

Top photo courtesy of El Naturalista; bottom photos by Siel

3 Comments

Trying to shop green can be a tortuous task. This pair of jeans has a tag that says it required less water to produce — but another pair proudly boasts it’s made with organic cotton — and yet another sports a fair trade label. Which do you choose?

GoodGuide‘s ratings aim to make that shopping conundrum disappear for green-minded consumers. GoodGuide has been giving out overall scores to big brands for environmental, health and social performance for several years now — but the guide recently released new apparel brand rankings, just in time for eco-fashonistas to peruse through before shopping for spring fashions.

Of course, a different nonprofit seems to release a new set of rankings on the relative greenness of companies about every week. From Greenpeace’s rankings of supermarkets on sustainable seafood to ForestEthics’ rankings of companies on their use of sustainable paper goods, the sheer number of rankings can be mind boggling. But GoodGuide aims not to add to the confusion — and instead, offer some simplicity and clarity. How? GoodGuide’s rankings don’t just rank companies on one eco-aspect, but instead consider all aspects of business — encompassing environmental, health and social issues — awarding a composite, overall score for each brand.

An overall score’s helpful for environmentalists who also care about health and social justice — and also helps the lay person get a more complete picture of a company. As you well know, many companies are adept at greenwashing — often by trumpeting the green changes made in one small aspect of the company while continuing to pollute, waste, and harm on all other fronts. An overall score for a company, then, could make people aware that the company making a big to-do about its new solar panels is also charged with labor abuses and water pollution.

Since fashion’s one of the topics I cover, I looked at the best-ranked companies in the apparel category. The contenders for the best scores? Patagonia and Levi’s, which scored 7.8 and 7.7, respectively, out of 10. That made me wonder — Is Levi’s really that green? (more…)

1 Comments

Would you pay a grand for a pair of shoes? How about a pair of used shoes? Before you answer, keep in mind these shoes come gently worn with great stories — and attached to a great cause. Buy a pair of these pricy pre-loved shoes, and you’ll be sending a grand to the Rescue Union School District in Northern California, which is facing serious budget cuts.

Shoes to the Rescue is the brainchild of Michele Miller, the principal of Jackson Elementary in El Dorado Hills. According to Sacramento Bee, Michele decided to donate the shoes “hoping they will help close a budget gap she says is estimated at a minimum of $1.4 million.”

If you love shoes — but often have trouble justifying the high cost of new shoes both to your wallet and the environment — buying from Shoes to the Rescue should be a near guilt-free experience. After all, all your money goes to keeping libraries open and supporting personnel at public schools. And the shoes are pre-loved — so you’d be reusing!

Interested in the shoes? You can pick from a wide variety — from boots to sandals to sneakers — which come in sizes between 6 1/2 and 7 1/2. Each pair of shoes will be delivered with a little card with a handwritten story by Michele, recounting the favorite time when she wore that pair of shoes.

It’s unclear how many shoes are up for sale, exactly. Sacramento Bee says 285 pairs, Shoes to the Rescue’s website says 300 pairs, while Michele herself says 350 pairs in the video she made for her fundraising effort. What is clear is the price per pair of shoes: A simple $1,000, regardless of the type of shoe.

Of course, you can always give more than a grand to the cause. Want to give less? Shoes to the Rescue will take donations of any amount! You won’t get to walk in Michele’s shoes, but you’ll give support to Michele’s school district.

Earlier: How to shoe shop green while saving green

0 Comments

Models have to learn to change into new ensembles multiple times during a single runway show — but one famous eco-model’s signed up to wear a single dress for an entire month. Summer Rayne Oakes will be donning the same LBD for 31 days as part of a bid to raise $10,000 for charity:water.

Summer’s eco-fashion challenge is part of The Uniform Project, a minimalist style initiative started in 2009 by Sheena Matheiken, who wore a single dress for an entire year. Now for 2011, The Uniform Project’s bringing on one eco-fashionista a month to show just how multifunctional and reusable a single piece of clothing can be by rearranging and reaccessorizing one basic dress — while raising money for a good cause.

This month, that fashionista’s Summer — and she’s already created some remarkably different looks from a single 50s-inspired dress designed by Summer with Terri and Sandy of Carasan Designs. Made with silk, hemp, and organic cotton, the eco-friendly dress will soon be available for sale on The Uniform Project’s website.

In the meantime, you can check out Summer’s blog, with photos of each day’s outfit — and donate to charity:water while there. Any money you donate will be doubled by Payless ShoeSource, which will match donations dollar-for-dollar — up to $10,000. Plus, there are fashion incentives for donators. Send $10, and you’ll get a coupon for 50% off Payless’ greener footwear line, zoe&zac. Send $50 or more, and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a signed copy of Summer’s book “Style, Naturally,” as well as eco-fashionable items.

Earlier:
>> Project 333: Dress yourself with just 33 items for the next 3 months
>> The Great American Apparel Diet: Vow to wear what you already own
>> six items or less: A minimalist wardrobe challenge for the summer
>> Edit your closet with the One-Year Wardrobe Project

Photos via The Uniform Project

0 Comments

A sad fact about environmental disasters is that the memory of them often quickly fades — sometimes before we’ve learned the lessons taught by our eco-missteps. Want to make sure the Gulf oil spill never gets forgotten? You can now wear its pollution on your sleeve — literally.

A new line of jewelry by Shondra Leigh is made using tarballs picked up from the beaches of Grand Isle, Louisiana. Why? “The goal is for the jewelry to serve as a reminder that our oil problem does not disappear just because headlines fade,” says Shondra.

Shondra Leigh’s “Stained” series takes the detritus of an environmental disaster — and turns it into something beautiful. The Atlanta jewelrer describes each piece of her jewelry as a unique “tar painting” — sealed under quartz and encased in recycled silver or gold. The tiny abstract “paintings” take many forms — Some look like broken shards of glass, others like leaves and petals, and yet others like soft, undulating bodies.

Wear them as earrings, necklaces, rings, bangles, or even cuffs made with reclaimed leather. Prices start at $85, with 20 percent of sales going to Vanishing America, a photography project by Holt Webb that documents nature’s changing ecosystems.

3 Comments

The average woman reportedly has 22 unworn items in her closet, yet on the blogosphere, minimalist wardrobe projects abound. In fact, eco-closets seem to be shrinking fast! Project 333 takers pared down their wardrobes to 33 items for 3 months, while Six Items or Less challengers whittled their closes down to just six items for an entire month.

Now comes a woman who’s pretty much pared down her closet to just one item — for a year. Kristy Powell, a therapist and pilates teacher in New Haven, Conn., plans to wear just one dress for 365 days, blogging her experience at One Dress Protest.

Of course, one dress projects aren’t entirely new. Alex Martin wore a little brown dress for a whole year back in 2005-2006, and more recently, Sheena Matheiken’s The Uniform Project documented a year of wearing a simple, multifunctional black dress — reaccessorized every day to create unique looks.

Kristy’s project is directly inspired by the Uniform Project — which is where Kristy purchased her Little Black Dress for her experiment. In fact, Kristy purchased two identical dresses from the Uniform Project — thereby giving herself some laundering wiggle room.

Why’s Kristy documenting yet another one dress project? “I’ve set out to explore what it looks like to openly, publicly and boldly survey what clothes and fashion mean to me, and to investigate some of the more meaningful implications the world of clothes have for our lives and hearts,” writes Kristy, who describes her choice as part lifestyle experiment, part cultural protest. “One Dress Protest is meant to be both a statement and an action to express my disapproval of and objection to the ways that fashion undervalues, denigrates, objectifies and oftentimes insults women.”

So far, Kristy’s experiment’s run into some comical snafus. First, she spilled split-pea soup on a dress — a stressful mess if the plan’s to keep wearing the same item all year. Then she managed to make one of the LBDs a mini LBD the very first time she washed it. “It shrunk ALOT — 3.5 inches in length to be exact. It was noticeably smaller, resembling more of a long shirt than a dress.”

All that makes for a pretty entertaining read. Kristy’s just finished her first month of her One Dress Protest project. Read her blog to see how the fashion fast went.

Photos via One Dress Protest

2 Comments

Want an eco-friend little white dress for spring — but don’t think you can afford one? You can, if you’ve got $19.95. That’s the price of a white recycled fabric dress from H&M’s new Conscious Collection, debuting this April.

The all-white collection of affordable fashions is made with eco-friendly materials like organic cotton, organic linen, recycled polyester, and tencel. Many are very versatile, basic, minimalist pieces that’ll go with most items in your closet — since every piece is white, after all. According to H&M’s press release, the Conscious Collection will be a semi-permanent feature at its stores, returning at different times during the year in different iterations.

Prices range from $9.95 for an organic cotton vest to $59.95 for some flouncy recycled fabric dresses. Men too get a whole collection of basics, from T-shirt and shorts to blazer and pants. A basic white button down shirt made of organic cotton will cost just $9.95! Plus, H&M’s created a kid’s line — though I’m not sure how long the kids will be able to keep the all-white collection white.

Of course, one does wonder at the labor practices that help keep H&M clothes so affordable — especially considering the fact that H&M made news several times last year — for cutting up perfectly good clothing, selling non-organic cotton clothes as organic, and getting its clothes from sweatshops — one of which caught fire, killing 21 workers.

After each of those incidents, H&M’s promised to do better. Are you willing to give H&M a second (or fourth, depending on how you look at it) chance?

4 Comments

Planning to go trail running with your Sierra Club buddies? Now comes a new pair of green shoes that’ll make your fellow environmentalist friends green with envy: Brooks Sports Cascadia 6. Finally, you can go trail running wearing shoes made with 50 percent recycled content!

Half of that 50 percent figure is post-consumer recycled content — which means that a full quarter of the Cascadia 6 was once used as water bottles, furniture foam, or other products by another human being — before ending up on your feet. The laces, gillies, and tongue webbing are all made from 100 percent post consumer recycled materials, while the shoe’s meshes and sockliner both boast 30 percent post-consumer recycled content. Recycled rubber makes up 30 percent of the shoes’ outsole. Plus, the Cascadia 6 gets its bright green color from non-toxic dyes and colorants — and is held together with water-based adhesives.

How are they on the trail? At 9.3 ounces (11.2 ounces for men), the Cascadia 6 provides great cushioning and has a fairly generous toe box (I find the toe box for most running shoes far too narrow) without being heavy. (more…)

4 Comments

Do you have a closet full of guilt? You’re not alone. Guilt is the big reason why women don’t clean out their closets — letting an average of 22 never-worn items languish on their hangers. (via Ecouterre)

That’s according to a study conducted by shopping channel QVC U.K. — but I’m guessing American women too keep similar numbers of unworn clothes in their closets. Men too are guilty, keeping an average of 19 unworn items in their closets, according to the survey.

Why buy clothes that are going to sit unworn? Impulse shopping’s the most common reason, according to the survey respondents. Why keep clothes that won’t be worn? Guilt over money wasted is the big reason for that one — though, of course, keeping unworn clothes in the closet isn’t exactly going to put that money back into the wallet.

There are other reasons for clothes hoarding too — reasons that you might find uncomfortably familiar. Daily Mail reports: “41 per cent insist they are planning to lose weight before getting some use out of their unworn outfits. Some 17 per cent are hoarding particular styles in the hope of a fashion revival.”

I honestly don’t have any unworn items in my closet — but I do have a number of rarely-worn items that I occasionally take out, wonder if I should get rid of, then put back. Most of these are accessories — like scarves I rarely remember to wear — or very dressy clothes — like gowns only appropriate for black tie events. But I’m somewhat proud to say I have less unworn items than the average woman. Partly because I pretty much never impulse buy clothes, partly because have a tiny closet, and partly because I just have a distaste for clutter, I rarely buy items that I don’t have a need for. I also often cull my closet — and donate or exchange the no-longer-loved fashions.

If the unproductive and space-stealing fashion hoarding described in the QVC U.K. survey seems to describe you, I have a quick and fun solution: Throw a fashion swap party! My friend Anastasia actually had one yesterday — and I got to purge my closet of fashions I tired of while having a fun afternoon of hanging out with the girls and trying on different outfits.

Plus, I left the party with three new-to-me fashion pieces — free! One of those is a cute red and white spring dress — that had never been worn by the girl who bought it. It’ll finally get its debut when the weather gets warmer in L.A. –

Earlier:
>> Project 333: Dress yourself with just 33 items for the next 3 months
>> The Great American Apparel Diet: Vow to wear what you already own
>> six items or less: A minimalist wardrobe challenge for the summer
>> A Thing a Day: A simple uncluttering challenge for a saner home
>> The Uniform Project: 365 new outfits — created with the same dress
>> Edit your closet with the One-Year Wardrobe Project

Photo by EvelynGiggles

3 Comments

Always have your reusable bag because reusing’s a lot greener than recycling? With Threadless’ new tote bags, you can reduce waste and reuse a tote — while closing the recycling loop. These sturdy, multifunctional bags are made with 100 percent recycled cotton!

About 40 percent of that cotton’s post-consumer, while the other 60 percent’s recycled pre-consumer waste. The totes don’t seem any less sturdy for the greener materials; the thick canvas will hold both heavy melons or pre-med textbooks with ease. Each tote’s 16-inches tall and 10-inches wide, and expands to be about 5.5-inches deep. With a snap-closure inside pocket for cash and valuables, the tote’s perfect to carry to the farmers’ market — then carry back with the help of the adjustable shoulder strap, to give your hands a break.

Just like the Threadless T-shirts designs, the bag designs too come from the Threadless community. I opted for the Swan Song design for its simple note — but cyclists who BYO-bag may like the Infinity MPG option! Each bag costs $25 at Threadless.

Photo via Threadless

0 Comments