We couldn’t include all our refashioned favorites. Drop by our archives for any stories you may have missed.
Want to do the time warp with us? Check out the most bizarre eco-fashion stories of 2011.
Still think the world isn’t going to hell in a hand-basket? We’ve got more WTF fashion moments than you can shake a stick at in our archives.
Feeling nostalgic? Skip back a year for seven of the most ground-breaking eco-fashion stories of 2011.
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With 2012 almost behind us and a brand new decade looming, we took the opportunity to look back on a year’s worth of eco-fashion and beauty stories. Peruse our end-of-year roundups below and vote for your favorite posts. We’ll announce the winners of the Readers’ Choice Awards in the new year—see you on the flip side!
TOP RECYCLED FASHION DESIGNS >
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Our readers have spoken! Make way for the most awe-inspiring, heart-rending, ground-breaking, game-changing, mind-boggling, and future-forward eco-fashion stories of 2012, as selected by you. As for the year ahead, don’t miss what 27 sartorial soothsayers, including journalist Lucy Siegle, eco-model Summer Rayne Oakes, and Coco Eco’s Anna Griffin, had to predict. Here’s to you, 2013.
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1. Lucy Siegle (The Guardian, Green Carpet Challenge, To Die For: Is Fashion Wearing Out the World?)
2. Summer Rayne Oakes (Source4Style)
3. Sass Brown (Fashion Institute of Technology, Eco Fashion)
4. Li Yifung (Greenpeace)
5. Elizabeth Cline (Overdressed: The Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion)
6. John Patrick (Organic)
7. Leanne Mai-Ly Hilgart (Vaute Couture)
9. Tara St. James (Study NY)
10. Karen Stewart and Howard Brown (Stewart + Brown)
11. Carrie Parry
12. Meghan Sebold (Afia)
13. Timo Rissanen (Parsons The New School for Design)
14. Leah Borromeo (Dirty White Gold)
15. Owyn Ruck (Textile Arts Center)
16. Bahar Shahpar
17. Anthony Lilore (Restore Clothing, Save the Garment Center)
18. Anjelika Krishna Daftuar (A.D.O. Clothing)
19. Angelina Rennell (Lina Rennell, Beklina)
20. Abigail Doan
21. Adriana Herrara (Fashioning Change)
22. Bob Bland (Brooklyn Royalty, Manufacture NY)
23. Joshua Katcher (The Discerning Brute, Brave GentleMan)
24. Britt Howard (Portland Garment Factory)
25. Christina Dean (Redress HK)
26. Anna Griffin (Coco Eco)
27. Amy DuFault
28. Starre Vartan (Eco-Chick, The Eco Chick Guide to Life)
29. Johanna Björk (Goodlifer)
30. Emma Grady (Past Fashion Future)
Makers’ Row wants to make it easier for businesses to produce their goods in the United States. The New York City-based startup has launched an online database that seeks to provide “unparalleled access” to industry-specific factories and suppliers across the country. Its first offering, which targets apparel and accessory manufacturers, couldn’t have come at a better time. From automobiles to Apple computers, a “made in the U.S.A.” renaissance is sweeping the nation for the first time in decades. We caught up with founders Matthew Burnett and Tanya Menendez to learn about the impetus for their project, their plans to demystify domestic manufacturing, and the company’s mission to get long-shuttered assembly lines humming once more.
Read the rest of Makers’ Row: An Online Database That Links Designers With U.S. Manufacturers
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Michael Preysman founded Everlane in November 2011 with the goal of overhauling the typical retail experience. Having quit his job at a venture-capital firm in San Francisco, Preysman wanted to create an “exciting, collaborative and experimental effort” that cut through the clutter to provide luxury apparel without the exorbitant markup. The online-only collection, like its website, is minimalist, orderly, and thoughtfully curated. Instead of bombarding its customers with options, Everlane offers only the most basic of basics—one style of cashmere sweater, a single silk blouse, a men’s button-down shirt, a merino-wool scarf—preferring to focus on quality over quantity. Ecouterre recently spoke with Preysman, a self-proclaimed perfectionist, to discover how Everlane’s unconventional business model is subverting an entire industry.
Read the rest of Everlane’s Quality-Over-Quantity E-Commerce Model Espouses Less is More
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Navigating the beauty industry isn’t unlike watching an episode of The Real Housewives of Orange County—you’re equal parts baffled and alarmed, there are flashes of self-loathing, and although you have a sneaking suspicion that it’s bad for you, you can’t help but breathlessly indulge. Throw in barrage of mostly meaningless buzzwords like “natural” and “organic,” and it’s no wonder most of us are at sea. Mia Davis, former organizing director of the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics and currently the safety lead at Beautycounter, is at the front line of a new revolution to replace toxic chemicals in cosmetic and personal-care products with healthier alternatives. We spoke with Davis to learn why it’s perfectly legal for beauty firms to use ingredients linked to cancer, how to spot greenwashing in the beauty aisle, and what we can do to make sure our products are truly safe.
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The campaign is a coalition of nonprofit organizations that work to ensure our skin care and makeup are safe for long-term use. Seems like a no-brainer, I know. But right now, it is perfectly legal for cosmetics companies to use harmful chemicals linked to cancer, reproductive problems and other serious health impacts. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have the power to ensure that these products are safe before they hit the market. They can’t even do a recall of unsafe products.
The FDA doesn’t have the power to ensure that these products are safe before they hit the market.
Since “cosmetics” is a catchall term for virtually everything women, men, and kids use on their skin, this affects all of us. On average, women use more than 10 cosmetics a day, but everyone uses multiple products—even those of us that are pretty low-maintenance. So our exposure to cosmetics chemicals really adds up, and some of the chemicals are potent at extremely low doses (like hormone disruptors).
Luckily, the campaign has had a lot of success moving the market away from toxic chemicals. [It's] working to pass common-sense federal policy that will empower the FDA to protect American consumers from these unnecessary toxic exposures.
Greenwashing is when companies use deceptive “green” marketing practices (basically, talking about how “green” or “eco-conscious” they are, but not really walking the walk).
Many consumers think that “green” products are always safe and nontoxic—it’s not necessarily the case.
Many consumers are left thinking that “green” products are always safe and nontoxic, which isn’t necessarily the case. After all, heavy metals are “natural.” And, on the other hand, there are natural ingredients that manufacturers buy from ingredient suppliers that come preloaded with preservatives, but since the preservatives aren’t an individual ingredient, they don’t always appear on ingredient labels.
For example, I could buy aloe vera with preservatives from a supplier, put it in my lotion, and not list the preservative on the product label. Some of the companies that claim they are natural and that they don’t use synthetic preservatives are really misleading the consumer. Not cool.
Read the rest of 6 Ways to Clean Up Your Beauty Routine for the New Year
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Read the rest of 14 Eco-Friendly Lingerie Gifts to Burn Up the Sheets on Valentine’s Day
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Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre
Vegan diets are all the craze but vegan fashion is a term that is gaining traction as the likes of Vaute begin to hit the runway. The emerging label by Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart had its first ever NY Fashion Week premier yesterday, marking it as the first animal-rights all vegan fashion label to show during New York Fashion Week. The young designer is building upon the outerwear and tee line she’s had for several years to show off a ready-to-wear line that includes tops, satin dresses, skirts, pants and sweaters made from vegan and eco fabrics for both men and women. Hilgart paired her looks with vegan men’s shoes by Novacas for Brave GentleMan and vegan women’s heels by Love is Mighty Check out Ecouterre’s exclusive photos from the presentation.
Read the rest of Vaute’s Vegan Fall 2013 Collection Goes to the Dogs at NY Fashion Week
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Photos by Amanda Coen and Jill Fehrenbacher for Ecouterre
For Organic‘s Fall/Winter 2013 collection, designer John Patrick revisited his personal connection to the East Village, NYC’s downtown neighborhood known of its hip, grungy-chic style. Patrick was inspired by three indie “glamazons” and friends, Sable Starr, Cyrinda Foxe and Anya Phillips. Wednesday morning during New York Fashion Week, Patrick displayed a collection that spoke to those downtown tastemakers. “The catwalk is meant to tell a story and create an emotion,” he told Ecouterre after his show.
Read the rest of Organic by John Patrick Goes Downtown at Fall 2013 NY Fashion Week
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Photos by Jill Fehrenbacher for Ecouterre
It’s virtually impossible to tease EDUN apart from its rock-star provenance. Such is the star power of U2 frontman Bono, who founded the socially conscious label with his wife, Ali Hewson, in 2005. And indeed, the mood at its Fall/Winter 2013 presentation—an “exploration of youth culture,” according to show notes—at New York Fashion Week on Thursday was equally charged. Models, both male and female, paced frenetically on the circular runway wearing black leather, black skinny jeans, black lamé, and a studied insouciance. (Full review to follow.)
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Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre
Samantha Pleet may have taken a break from formally presenting her FW2013 collection, but the young designer has by no means been standing idle. Celebrating the opening of her new Manhattan showroom, the designer took the opportunity to invite friends and loyal clients to preview her latest collection as well as new shoe and boot designs from her ongoing collaboration with Wolverine for the 1000 Mile Collection by Samantha Pleet. With a focus on form and signature silhouettes, the collection features a painterly color palette and several playful prints with ethically-sourced fabrics ranging from silk to wool to velvet. Ecouterre was in attendance to learn more about the Expressionist and Post-Impressionist artwork that inspired the former painting student’s latest designs.
Read the rest of Samantha Pleet Gets Post-Impressionistic at Fall 2013 NY Fashion Week
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Only fools mistake femininity for weakness, and if there’s one thing Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra are not, it’s foolish. The married duo’s signature elements were on full display at New York Fashion Week on Thursday: the draped silk and jersey dresses, the saturated jewel tones, the watercolor-esque AirDye prints. But they also ventured outside their typical milieu by plying their Fall/Winter 2013 collection with brown alpaca “teddy bear” wrap coats, vine-knit capelet cardigans, and even a two-toned tailored trouser, cordovan in front, steel gray in the back—the sartorial equivalent of an iron fist in a velvet glove.
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