Getting Eairth-y: Fabulous Phillipino Eco Fashion

I picked up some great Fall pieces at some of my fave Eco-boutiques in NYC last week, discovered some new lines (which I’ll be sharing soon in an upcoming post) and tried on A LOT of different stuff. I was really excited to try Eairth’s dresses, which I first saw at the Fashion Flipside event on the LES at the end of the summer. Kaight was carrying several styles, and I especially loved the dress above, which, paired with my over-the-knee black faux suede buckle boots made me feel like an eco pirate lass!

Besides all organic, natural (and super-soft) fabrics, incredibly low-impact dyes (you can see slight variations in color when you get really close to the dress above), the Eairth dresses both seemed very architectural, with boning in the bodice of the one at the top, with another layer of fabric over that, and many zillions of gathers below the waist of the second. I find that this attention to detail is pretty uncommon and I thought it lent an air or old-world style to both pieces.

For a great interview with Eairth’s designer, check out paolosavi.

A quick (and Fascinating!) excerpt:

….the anchor was truely when i was exposed to the mangyan tribe in mindoro during a hike through the jungle. stumbling into their little village.. I saw one of the mangyan girls wearing a thrashed, weathered ACDC rock tee shirt with a primitive woven frill skirt.. she had a machete(knife) roped around her waist … i was so inspired by this that i had to do it… the sun drenched colors all faded out… greys and this sort of chalky coral and stained whites….so we went on that trip to south africa to look for natural pigment sources… having a difficult time figuring out how to manage the importation of mud, claya and tea…. decided to look for resources here in the philippines. We found it…
realized that we were able to extract endless colors from leaves, fallen wood/bark….

For images of the dresses from the Fashion Flipside event, see pix 4 and 9 from my coverage of the day.

dyes, ecofashion, Fashion, Organic

Starre Vartan is the founder and editor-in-chief of Eco-Chick and author of The Eco-Chick Guide to Life (St. Martin's Press). A problogger and oft-quoted green living expert who has been featured in the NYTimes, Elle, Glamour and Whole Living, she is a contributor to The Huffington Post, Inhabitat, and Hearst's The Daily Green, and is currently editor-at-large for Coco Eco Magazine. An active ecofashionista, she has style edited for Plenty magazine and coordinated runway shows. She splits her time between Connecticut and NYC and calls Sydney, Australia her second home, even though it was her first (as that's where she was born and most of her family resides). When not writing, blogging, or researching her next book, she is trailrunning, trying to cook, or snowboarding.

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6 Comments on “Getting Eairth-y: Fabulous Phillipino Eco Fashion”

Stephanie
Gorgeous! That dress looks great on you, Starre!
11/10/08 » 3:29 pm »
eco chic weekly : The Alternative Consumer
[...] Eco-chick Starre Vartan Gets Eairth-y in Fabulous Phillipino Eco-Style [...]
11/15/08 » 8:52 am »
Eco Chic Weekly #06 » Victoria Everman
[...] + Eco Chick “gets Eairth-y with some fabulous Phillipino eco-fashions.” [...]
11/17/08 » 7:29 am »
This Week in Eco-Chic | Green Grechen Eco-Friendly Fashion and Shopping Online
[...] Eco-Chick Eco-Chick gets Eairth-y with some Fabulous Phillipino Eco-Fashion [...]
11/17/08 » 8:37 am »
Eco Chic Weekly - 17th Nov ‘08 | Green Girls Global Blog
[...] Eco-Chick Eco-Chick gets Eairth-y with some Fabulous Phillipino Eco-Fashion [...]
11/17/08 » 9:00 am »
myann
no doubt Filipino designers are fantastic and are very good when it comes to innovation!! bravo Filipina
07/02/09 » 11:59 pm »