And the Sustainable Oscar Goes to...

Sophie Turner and Lily Cole!   

These two actors wore eco friendly dresses to the Academy Awards.

The dresses worn were in support of Red Carpet Green Dress which encourages fashion designers to create gowns that are ethically produced and environmental friendly for celebrity red carpet events. The goal of the organization is to "draw attention to the importance of more sustainable practices in fashion.”  Lily Cole's dress, designed by Vivienne Westwood was made of plastic bottles.  Vivienne Westwood is an iconic designer and is a major figure in the sustainable fashion movement. 


                              


“In order for a shift to occur we must make informed decisions to live more harmoniously with our planet and I’ve joined Red Carpet Green Dress because its message aligns with this idea.”
Vivienne Westwood

5 Great Finds At A Used Clothing Event

As spring time nears and we start to clear our closets to possibly make room for more clothes, consider purchasing second-hand clothes.  The reuse of clothes saves clothes from landfills as well as keeps more money in our pockets.

I've been considering getting a new pair of heels for a while.  I wanted something that was comfortable that I could wear with dresses and jeans.  I was prepared to shell out money --- precious money that could be put into savings, used for household necessities, even schooling --- for shoes that I did need.  Well, I unexpectedly was able to get some clothes from a second-hand clothing spring sale.  I wound up saving hundreds of dollars possibly because I got shirts and dresses that I needed. 
I found a silk blouse from Neiman Marcus, a couple of dresses by Calvin Klein, even a Coach handbag.  All were in great condition, included top designers and cost only $5.  The handbags, a few vintage, were also in excellent condition and most cost $5, the designer ones were $10.

From Scratch to Reality - Sustainable Designers at NYC Fashion Week 2016

One of the emerging sustainable fashion designers who showed her collection at Fashion Week 2016 is Ev Bassar, who is also a young philanthropist.  She makes beautifully fluid garments of primarily organic cotton, wool and leather.  Her clothes have a fantasy appeal looking as if they belong in a dark fairy tale.  Each piece is knitted, crocheted, sewn or felted using various techniques and is custom-made at her home in New York City.  Bassar is very eco-friendly and recently stated in an article from Eluxe Magazine that, "The leather I buy and use comes from a store that selects animals who have died of natural death and weren't killed intentionally for fashion purposes."  She intensely wants to help and not hurt.  To that end she established a foundation, HeartEd, to help children with congenital heart defects.  I like her clothes because they have a raw but rich edge to them which appeals to one's innate desire to construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct themselves.

                                                  
                   
                       

Beautiful & Sustainble Evening Wear

At the Grammy's we saw some of the best evening wear on the runway from classic design houses like Gucci - Florence Welch wore a whimsical Gucci dress - to newer fashion lines like DSquared2 - Zendaya wore a pantsuit from the line.  You may ask, are sustainable designers doing gorgeous clothes like these?  You can bet, YES!  Sustainable fashion, which focuses upon making clothes that are environmentally friendly and ethically manufactured, is starting to boom.   Fashion is the number two polluter of the environment.  A growing number of designers want to address this as well as ensure that their products are not made with exploited labor.  Therefore, people who are looking for eco-friendly clothes are seeing more options.  You can get stunning red carpet looks similar to what we saw at the Grammy's from Reformation.

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Hair to Dye for at the Grammy's

Another top trend at the Grammy's and on the street is dyed hair.  You see it coming and going, purple hair, pink hair, greenish-silver hair, dyed hair is in and the more radical the color the more normal the look.

At the 2016 Grammy's, celebrities amped up their look with dyed locks.  Kate Perry wowed with purple hair, Megan Traynor dyed her blond tresses auburn and Lady Gaga pumped up the volume with flaming red hair, in tribute to David Bowie.  While these ladies did full-on, all over the head hair color, I loved Ciara's pop of honey color tresses that framed her gorgeous face.

You can get these looks with eco-friendly permanent or temporary color or you can also use hair extensions and wigs.  Here are a few of my suggestions on getting the look but keeping it relatively natural and healthy for your hair.   Madison Reed delivers salon-quality hair color that has no parabans nor ammonia and is PPD & Resorcinal free.  The product is absolutely luxurious.  EcoColors is also has safe products.  For fantasy color streaking, I recommend Blingirls Chalk-it Hair Coloring Chalk.

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Top 3 Jewelry Trends at the 2016 Grammy's

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Rings, rings, and more rings. 

That was the one of the biggest trends at the Grammy's, celebrities were going big with rings often wearing four or more rings on one hand.  Always gorgeous Demi Lovato, above, looked beyond fabulous in her black dress with five rings full finger rings --- two on one hand and three on the other.  Ellie Goulding looked stunning during her acclaimed performance with Andra Day, Goulding wore four rings on each hand.  Welch wore three rings on each hand with her middle fingers embellished with a permanent tattoo.  Nail rings, which are so delicately gorgeous, were also popular on the red carpet. 

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Five Great Leather Handbags and Made in USA!

A luxuriously supple leather bag is fabulous.  But sometimes it is hard to find the perfect bag. Well,   I found a wonderful company that makes top quality handbags.  Gigi New York.  It's the chic and a bit edgy.  This company is the recent offspring of the iconic Graphic Image, renowned worldwide for their classic and sophisticated leather diaries.  "Our style is our brand," says owner Tom Glazer, who runs the New York company that was started by his father in 1969, with his sister Carol O'Connell.  The newer generation company, GiGi, has gorgeously sleek leather accessories plus a beautiful range of leather handbags and wallets.  The company also collaborates with some of the top people in fashion to create elegant handbags of superior quality.  Their  Nina Griscom Collection is handmade in New York.  In a recent New York Times article where she discussed the manufacturing of the product, she said, "“I do everything.  I have zero staff. I pick the zipper, the lining, everything, I’m not phoning this in.”  Ms. Griscom's made to order line has an exquisite simplicity.  They certainly don't need any bells nor whistles. 

Other items I loved were their stylish agendas.  I loved the white gold agenda.  I also love their French inspired collection from Kat Tanita, author of the fashion lifestyle blog withlovefromkat.com.
The silhouettes are clean and timeless.

                                                

 Charlotte Tote, Bone Embossed Python

Feminizing the "Button-Up"

Tailored button-up shirts, whether masculine with boxy edges or feminine with loose contours, are beautiful on women.  But it's the attention to detail, the seaming, the fabric, the collar, the silhouette, and, of course, the buttons, that make a shirt look exceptionally elegant on a woman.

Rue Mercer has mastered the shirt, in fact, they call their capsule line of women's shirts, "A Shirt Like No Other."  The shirts, meticulously handcrafted in Manhattan, are modern, luxurious and feminine. The line was established by two women, Pamela Semmache and Julie Luyindula, who saw a lack of quality and style in women's button up shirts.  Since the button up shirt is a key piece in women's wardrobe they wanted design shirts that were more elegant yet still wearable for everyday.  The designers describe their shirts as Paris chic meeting New York City edge.  What a vibrant mix!

The designers are proud to make their garments in New York.  "The energy we find everyday in New York is amazing. People are open-minded and they love discovering emerging designers. We also feel that everything is possible in New York, if you put your heart and passion into what you're doing."
                               

Pamela Semmache and Julie Luyindula

Photo Credit:  www.fashbe.com

                           

Opera

Valentine's Day Gift Ideas

Valentine's Day for me is not only a romantic holiday, it's a way to say thank you and I love you to family, friends, co-workers, and other special people in our lives.  Below, I have chosen some of my favorite gifts.  All of these are considered sustainable in that they were either made in the United States and/or they are environmentally friendly and ethically made. 

I love Sabon a luxury bath and fragrance boutique.  They have several locations in New York State including Times Square.  What makes this store so special is commitment to customer service and making superior products.  They have a spectacular range of fragrances and body products.  The company began from the owner's experimentation with an ancient aboriginal recipe to make soap and blossomed into an international company.  I also love the company's commitment to the environment.  The website states, "We are humbled by the majesty of our planet.  In return, we recycle all plastic, paper and glass; use recyclable packaging and biodegradable packing material. We support Friends of the Earth, and refrain from testing our products on animals."  I love that!

Sabon - Love Beyond Words  

Upcycling Garments from Recycled Materials

Designers are finding more ways to take renew the life of old clothing and material to resurrect beautiful and stunning fashions.  This is upcycling. 

Tawny Holt, a fashion designer, is the owner of Armour sans Anguish http://www.armoursansanguish.com/ in California.  She also has an Etsy shop.

Holt makes handcrafted clothing from lingerie, old prom dresses, bedsheets and tablecloths.  She primarily designs custom bridal gowns and bridesmaid dresses.  Her dresses have beautiful flow and graceful silhouettes.  They evoke a romantic and whimsical nature.  It's hard to believe that such spectacular dresses came from thrown away clothes.  

Holt follows New York Fashion Week shows to stay informed on new trends in fashion.  "I joke that I look at all the New York Fashion Week photos every season to make sure that lace and ruffles are still happening somewhere, since those are my favorite things, and I’m always going to be doing them! So I check in to make sure they’re not over," says Holt.  She finds her fabric inventory from places such as rag houses, flea markets, and thrift stores.  In addition, Holt also has a group of people who send her salvaged fabric.  

In an interview Liz Volt from Wear Your Voice, Holt says that her career as a bridal designer was spontaneous and that she didn't go to school for fashion.  "This definitely wasn’t something I planned on. I never marketed myself as a bridal designer, or intended to be one! But the things that I was making happened to be fluttery and layered and romantic, and people started coming to me for that."

Here are some of her gorgeous designs. 

Let's Celebrate Black History Month!

Today, we celebrate Aurora James, the founder of Brother Vellies, a shoe wear company that is introducing authentic African footwear to the United States.  The company has contributes to sustainable fashion by first developing sustaining artisan employment in Africa. Brothers Vellies makes sandals, shoes and boots in South Africa, Kenya and Morocco using ancestral methods of shoe making.  Their classic shoes are made from Kudu (a relative of the antelope) leather, which is a byproduct from government mandated culling to prevent over-populations.  Furs from rabbits and other animals come from farmers discarding the fur to make edible food.  Vegetable dyes are used in 70% their products, minimizing the harmful effects that chemical dyes have on the environment and workers who process the dyes in the fashion industry.  For more information on their sustainability practices please click on this link - http://www.brothervellies.com/site/sustainability

Aurora James, Founder of Brother Vellies

James started out as a model and then worked in publicity.  She did not have interest or experience in fashion designing but always was trying to explore her creative side.  "I founded Brother Vellies in January 2013 with the goal of preserving the shoe making craft in Africa and creating new jobs for the artisans in our workshops. I launched the first official collection, Spring 2014, working with shoemakers in South Africa. Not long after we expanded to working in Kenya and Morocco, to continue producing authentic, modern-day desert boots, shoes, slippers and sandals," says James.  "I've always been someone who's very hands-on," she explains. "That's how I learned about shoes, by getting into workshops and physically doing it."  With regard to creating a sustainable supply chain, she learned by fire by the internet.  "I don't have a formal education, so it's just about asking questions. I am a huge question-asker — I will go into a meeting and ask questions that I kind of already know the answer to because you can never be sure. Going into any situation with the idea that you already know anything is a mistake," James said.

Aurora James was one of the 2015 CFDA Vogue Fashion Fund Award winners, receiving a year mentorship and $300,000. 


Here are some of her beautiful designs.  Brother Vellies has a store in Manhattan. 

Cloudy Sphere Sandal - $584.00