LeStellaSac Season 2

Friend of the forest, Stella McCartney, and All American handbag company, LeSportSac have collaborated for a second season with fresh line of bold colored, light weight handbags and accessories.

Stella McCartney is known for combining animal activism into her eccentric designs and business structure by creating leather and fur free garments and a skincare line that is free of any animal bi-products. In addition to her own private label, she has been past commissions include Chloé, Adidas, and H&M to name a few, gaining credibility as a collaborator.

LeSportSac was founded in 1974 and has since contained all of their manufacturing practices in the United States. Over the past several years, they have built an impressive resume by recruiting high profile designers such as Jonathan Adler, Diane von Furstenberg and Gwen Stefani. But, never has LeSportSac gone the rout of choosing a designer whose shares similar values in social responsibility. The collaboration of both LeSportSac and McCartney seems almost inevitable.

The two joined forces earlier this year with fun prints that were adorned by chains and miniature stuffed bunnies and is shipped biodegradable plastic dust bag. This season’s collection is just as whimsical, incorporating a deer motif throughout the line including the Deer Rucksack– a backpack shaped like a deer head. The body of each bag is constructed out of 100% Recycled Eco Polyester and lined with 100% Eco Mesh (also polyester) and comes in the signature dustbag. The full line is slowly being extended and is available at the LeSportSac website. Please visit Treehugger to find out more about sustainable fabrics including recycled polyester.

Being good never felt so…Good.

Oeuf NYC is a company that is very interested in doing good by being good. Be good to the earth, be good to the ones you love, be good to each other. This is what they believe.

By partnering with manufacturing facilities in Latvia and Bolivia they have helped to bring income to areas that are less fortunate, and to minimize Oeuf’s impact on the environment. The wages that workers earn in Bolivia give them the financial support necessary to send their children to school and feed their families. In Latvia, not a single thing in Oeuf’s four factories goes to waste. All of the material scraps, cuttings and leftovers are reused or recycled. Even sawdust. Oeuf’s production processes all meet E1 standards, which are lower than California’s standards for 2012, and they use the most eco friendly materials possible.

So what is it that they make you say? What else could be more suitable for such a caring company than baby products? That’s right, Oeuf NYC has developed and entire line of eco friendly and baby safe furniture and clothing. You can view their entire list of wonderful products on their web site.

Jewelry_Cycle Exhibition

Jewelry_cycle is an educational showcase of wearable treasures made from re-purposed and re-cycled materials. With the idea of an exhibition in mind, co-curators Christine Dhein and Christophe Koch asked the collective members to create wearable art from a variety of small, discarded circuit boards. Read more: here.

Currently exhibited at the San Francisco Museum of Craft + Design on 550 Sutter Street (until January 4th, 2009).

Connect - Nau in Chicago

Chicago area shoppers will soon get a chance to see the new progressive and sustainable line from Nau clothing at Connect, a sustainable retail and event space opening its doors on November 7 in the Wicker Park/Bucktown neighborhood.

Connect will be one of only two retailers in the world to house Nau’s entire 2008 fall/holiday collection. Nau, which unexpectedly closed it doors in May, has re-launched its clothing line and will be bringing its sustainable apparel back to Chicago. Along with Nau, Connect will showcase other collections that also focus on sustainability and social and environmental responsibility.

As well as being a retail store Connect will also be hosting monthly fundraising events in their showroom and at other locations as well. They will feature numerous non-profit organizations at their events and will give a portion of sales from their own private label back to the local community. Connect’s innovative approach to retail and commitment to the community pair perfectly with Nau’s goal of responsibly revolutionizing the apparel industry. For those in Chicago, look for Nau clothing at Connect when it opens it doors on November 7!

Connect Chicago

Nau

Sustainable Shoes for You and Me

Shoeaholics of the world may feel a little bit better in the coming months as Payless ShoeSource has just announced plans to launch a new line of eco-friendly, sustainable shoes. The shoes will utilize materials such as organic cottons, linen and natural hemp, recycled outsoles, as well as the use of eco-smart packaging.

Payless plans to bring the new line of sustainable shoes to market in about a year, and will be comparable in price to other shoes sold in their stores. To help drive innovation, Payless has partnered with Eco-consultant Summer Rayne Oakes to oversee their green initiative.

Known across the country as an affordable retailer of shoes, Payless is in a unique position to dispel the assumption that all green products must be expensive. According to Matt Rubel, CEO of Collective Brands, Inc., the parent company of Payless ShoeSource. “Green items are often expensive and inaccessible to so many. With our mission to democratize the latest ideas in footwear and accessories, we are in the best position and proud to bring forward a green footwear line that is affordable and accessible to all.

Payless ShoeSource is the nation’s leading specialty footwear retailer and as of 2006, operates a total of 4,602 stores. By delivering great quality and value, Payless has grown into a potent force in the retail industry, and its new line of green shoes will be able to reach a wide range of customers.

further reading

Payless Website
Payless Press Release

Ecolect + MoSS

This past weekend was the first year edition of MoSS- Museum of Sustainable Style in Chicago. MoSS is an exhibition of sustainable fashion and furniture that highlights the reality that one does not have to sacrifice style for the environment.  Curated by Pivot  boutique owner, Jessa Brinkmeyer, the exhibit was created to run in parallel with Fashion Forward Chicago, Chicago’s fashion week.

It was the first Ecolect + MoSS collaboration. Ecolect was invited to curate a sustainable materials Petting Zoo focusing primarily on the fashion and furniture design industries. We highlighted materials such as hemp linen, faux biodegradable leather, Geami packaging, LoVo paint, and a sorghum surfacing material. The MoSS exhibit was designed as a self-guided tour.  First, buyers and fashionistas walked through to learn about the garments, the designers, and the story behind each designers decisions. Then they ended up at the Petting Zoo with hands on experience to the materials themselves and corresponding material information.

Saturday afternoon MoSS hosted a panel discussion moderated by Jonathan Shaun of Connect and 3.Zero, and on it sat Natural Living Expert and TV show host Sara Snow; fashion designer Lara Miller, Brentano founder Iris Wang, and Green Exchange founder Barry Brusak. The panel conversation highlighted the importance of our decisions as consumers to make responsible purchasing decisions.

In all, we taught viewers the importance not only of the end result but of the importance of sourcing decisions, transportation and packaging decisions, and all the associated design decisions that make sustainability a vital Pivot point.

MoSS: Museum of Sustainable Style

This weekend in Chicago, Ecolect is hosting a custom curated eco-materials Petting Zoo at MoSS- the Museum of Sustainable Style. Moss is a part of Fashion Forward Chicago, Chicago’s fashion week.Curated by Jessa Brinkmeyer of Pivot boutique, MoSS exhibits garments by Chicago eco-fashion designers, and seats and tables by local sustainable furniture designers. The collection exhibits how one can live and outfit sustainably without sacrificing style. To go along with this theme Ecolect was invited to co-curate an eco-materials library of fashion and furniture specific materials. Included in the exhibit are materials from Brentano, Hemp Traders, Pickering International, Noon Solar, and more.A panel discussion will be held on Saturday, October 4 from 2-3pm to discuss the details of sustainability, style, function, and our tomorrow. Come by and check out the collection. Admire the custom designed patterns by Chicago’s graphic design guru, Alex Fuller, and a video animated by Chicago’s One Design Company.

Nau We’re Talking!

For anyone who missed it, Nau (the cutting-edge, amazing eco-friendly clothing brand) who closed their doors this May, have announced they will re-open this October. Their new line will release for the fall and holiday season, incorporating the same design philosophy of balancing beauty, performance, and sustainability. The re-opening of Nau is being taken on by a group of former Nau employees, and they’ve found a partner to purchase the bulk of the company’s assets. The partner company, called Horny Toad, is a successful Santa Barbara-based lifestyle apparel business. Nau will continue to source materials and produce garments in the most environmentally possible ways, while adhering to their high factory standards and practices. Clothing will still be available for purchase on nau.com, however they will not be operating their own retail stores (at least not yet) upon this re-launch. To quote their site, “we’re coming back. Smaller and a little wiser, our ambitions tempered a bit by the experience, but our passions most definitely intact.”

To learn more about Nau and their re-launch, visit their blog - The Thought Kitchen.