Starre Vartan · Eco-Chick

Browsing all posts by Starre Vartan

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.

http://www.svartan.wordpress.com

This author has contributed 676 posts.

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Eco Designer Carrie Parry Wins the Green Fashion Competition at Amsterdam Fashion Week

2 Comments

01/30/12

Eco-Chick fave Carrie Parry (check out Haley’s coverage of her F/W 2011 collection here) has just won the 15,000 Euro prize at Amsterdam Fashion Week for her latest collection. Congratulations Carrie!

“It feels amazing to be honored by such a prestigious group whose goals in advancing sustainable fashion are so matched with my own,” says Parry.

According to a press release: “Counting previous posts at Jonathan Saunders, Marc Jacobs, Norma Kamali, and fashion’s leading environmental non-profit Earth Pledge FutureFashion, Carrie Parry brings something totally new to eco fashion: a wardrobe of whimsical yet gorgeously polished staples boasting detachable and versatile pieces. The label recognizes the two sides to making fashion sustainable: (1) how garments are made — sustainably sourcing recycled, organic and carbon neutral textiles from domestic sources and artisanal communities around the world — and (2) how garments are worn — introducing the concept of interchangeable and detachable pieces and designing with an emphasis on versatility (day to night, season to season) so we get more wear out of the garments we own, and therefore need to consume less.”
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Giveaway: Drew Barrymore’s “Big Miracle” Movie Tickets, Whale Toy and Tee for An Eco Chick Reader!

10 Comments

01/27/12

Drew Barrymore’s latest movie (which she stars in with with Jon Krasinski, Kristen Bell, Ted Danson, Dermot Mulroony and Tim Blake Nelson), Big Miracle, is based on actual events that took place in 1988, when grey whales got stranded under the ice off the Alaskan coast. I got a chance to see a screener of the new film a few days ago, and it was one of the best films I’ve seen in awhile. Read my full review here.

“With an oil tycoon, heads of state and hungry journalists descending upon the frigid outpost, the one who worries Adam the most is Rachel Kramer (Barrymore). Not only is she an outspoken environmentalist, she’s also his ex-girlfriend.

With time running out, Rachel and Adam must rally an unlikely coalition of Inuit natives, oil companies and Russian and American military to set aside their differences and free the whales. As the world’s attention turns to the top of the globe, saving these endangered animals becomes a shared cause for nations entrenched against one another and leads to a momentary thaw in the Cold War.”

Experience the heartwarming tale of Big Miracle with this Eco Chick giveaway package!

One (1) winner will receive:
· $25 Fandango Gift Card

· Whale Plush

· Big Miracle T-shirt

Prize pack valued at $55
Giveaway open to US mailing addresses only
Prizing courtesy of Universal Pictures

To win: You have the chance to win the prize. How? Simply sign up for our newsletter here.

Submit with a valid email address (so we can contact you if you win!).

Deets: Eco Chick does not sell or lend email addresses we collect. One reader will win the prize. Entrants must be 18 or older and located in the US or Canada. Submissions will be collected until February 3rd at midnight eastern standard time. Good luck!

Images courtesy Universal Pictures.

The New Source4Style: THE Eco Fashion Designer’s Key Resource

No Comments

01/24/12

Summer Rayne Oakes works on Source4Style from her home office.

For years, designers with a conscience spent an inordinate amount of valuable time tracking down fabrics that had a smaller footprint, looking for materials that were made from organic and ethical sources and colored with less-polluting dyestuffs. The textiles were out there, but finding them was a job in and of itself, until Source4Style came along.

Source4Style can be searched by fabric type, color, material origin, and more, as well as by price.

The brainchild of activist, eco model and environmental consultant Summer Rayne Oakes and her business partner, Benita Singh, Source4Style launched about a year ago in Beta, featuring a number of fabrics from several different companies. In the year since, the site has grown to include more fabrics (the total is now in the hundreds) and will soon include zippers, buttons, lace and trim, all sourced from responsible manufacturers.

This organic merino wool is an example of one of the trends for 2012, Wanderlust.

“Our goal is to provide the most cutting-edge tools to facilitate commerce between two groups that are currently disconnected in the global market – the leading sustainable suppliers and the designers looking for them,” says Singh. “Suppliers all over the world – whether they be a cooperative of artisans or an emerging factory -can apply to showcase on Source4Style’s platform and be opened up to a rapidly-growing designer and apparel brand base.”

This handwoven Kente cloth is indicative of the Hipstamatic Prism trend.
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Who Made YOUR Pants? (Or, Shall We Say, Undies?)

2 Comments

01/17/12

Victoria’s Secret drove me nuts even before they were accused of their most recent child-labor scandal. With high prices for low quality, their kinda-cheesy designs that have to be dug through to find anything cute, and their puke-pink-overload stores (hey, I like a little pink, see above but VC takes it to a level that’s just insulting to the color), I finally gave up on the retailer a few years ago.

I know I’m not the only one looking for alternatives.

Enter Who Made Your Pants, a British project (but they ship worldwide) that upcycles unused lace from the garment industry into new undies. And they benefit refugee women.

And I’m so into the way they talk about their company: C’mon, this just sounds like they are directly addressing all the unethical lingerie companies out there: “We also think that it’s not really on for anyone to be made to work in bad conditions just for a cheap pair of pants. Who could feel lovely in something made in a bad place? So we make our pants in a great place.” LOVE!!!

And these undies aren’t just making the world a better place – they are making your butt a smoother place too. They are designed to have no visible panty line (VPL), stay in place, and (GOOD GOD) be comfortable all day long. I’ve died and gone to underwear heaven!

“Who Made Your Pants is structured as a worker co-op, creating jobs and training for refugee women in Southampton. Who Made Your Pants was set up specifically to empower women. The women it employs and works with are primarily refugees, from Afghanistan, Somalia, the Sudan – often places where there have been wars. They may have been educated or worked, they may not, so their needs are all different and Who Made Your Pants’ training and support varies in relation to need.”

More Great Green Undies from Eco Chick:
Artful Undergarments: Rio Wrenn’s Eco Lingerie
Collection
Lovely Lingerie That Just Happens to Be Eco
Under the Root: Sexy Eco Lingerie

british, english, lingerie, underwear, upcycled

Funnytime: Portlandia’s “How to Recycle Everything”

1 Comment

01/17/12

I was raised in the great state of New York, but as a teenager in the 90′s, I totally idolized the Pacific Northwest – everything from the music (Temple of the Mother Love Bone JamGarden!) to the clothes (plaidplaidplaid) to the beer. I even thought the guys from there were cuter. (The fact that my boyfriend today is from Oregon is no random thing – when I first heard about him via our mutual friend I remember being really excited about the detail that he was from the Northwest).

In the last year or so, I’ve gotten to travel to Portland and Seattle, and it’s pretty much as awesome as I was expecting. (I even had a ‘dream achieved’ joy-meltdown in a bar in Eugene, OR). So I was really worried when I first heard about the IFC show, Portlandia. I knew and liked Fred Armisen, and I thought I recognized co-creator Carrie Brownstein from somewhere….. but I was concerned the show would be stupid and everyone would laugh (or, not laugh, I guess) at it.

How wrong I was! While not every sketch is full of unicorn-popsicle-awesomepower, many of them are fall-off-the-couch hilarious. Both my grew-up-near-Portland boyfriend and I enjoy it muchly. Watch it!

A fun Eco Chickie-ish sketch below about recycling will whet your palate. (Oh, and Carrie Brownstein? She was the lead singer for Sleater-Kinney, a band I have been listening to, on and off, since I was 17. She must be the coolest girl in the world, sigh.)