Eco-Chick · The modern girl's guide to living green & fabulous.

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 687 posts.

AUTHOR FEED

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.)

carrie brownstein, fred armisen, humor, ifc, Oregon, Portland, portlandia, Recycling, Seattle, Washington

Congratulations to Titania Inglis, an Eco Chick Fave, for Winning the Ecco Domani Sustainability Award!

No Comments

01/08/12

Ed Note: I am always excited to hear who has won the Ecco Domani awards, which gives $25,000 to up-and-coming designers for their next collection. In this case, it’s a designer we know and love (see the first part of the previously published excerpt of our coverage below).

The first time I saw Titania Inglis’ designs was last Summer at an eco fashion party at the Brooklyn Textile Art Center. She had a few pieces on a rack for sale, and I snagged a deep-V backed grey almost-seersucker sleeveless blouse. It was made of the lightest organic cotton and when I wore it to The Greenshows paired with my boyfriend’s jeans, and wooden-soled heels, I felt totally grown up, but comfortably so. I caught Titania’s recent show at the new Guilded showroom and the newest collection was just as exciting as those first few pieces I saw on that rack in Brooklyn.

String Theory — Titania Inglis FW11 from titania inglis on Vimeo.

The video for Titania’s Autumn/Winter 2011 line which played at her show at Guilded.

Naturally I wanted to know more about Titiana – and where she gets her inspiration for her future-perfect designs. Turns out that cotton blouse I so love is made with one of her favorite fabrics – a Japanese Organic Cotton – to design with: “The fabrics have a crisp, clean look that complements the geometric lines of my clothing perfectly, and their quality is unrivaled. I’m looking forward to working with Brooklyn’s Textile Arts Center on the dyeing for my next collection: they’re starting to grow a garden of dye plants, so although the fabric is sourced from abroad, the colors will be hyper-local,” says Titania.

To read more about Titania Inglis, click here for Eco Chick’s coverage of her work.

Eco Chick Escapes to Kaua’i: Hiking and Staying in Sustainable Style

No Comments

01/04/12

The walk from the St. Regis Princeville to the beach.

My favorite kind of wedding to attend is, by far, the destination wedding. While an open bar is never not fun, it’s even better if the drinks are located in a country that takes a passport to get into. And a wedding is a genuine excuse to blow your budget to travel (I barely need an excuse to get out of town, but it’s always nice to have one).

So when my boyfriend received an invitation to nuptials in Kaua’i, I started planning the trip immediately, even though I had never met the bride or groom. Having sojourned on the Big Island and visited Oahu numerous times growing up, I was excited to check out “The Garden Isle” of Kaua’i, which I’d heard so much about.

The Makana Terrace at the St. Regis is just one of the hotel’s restaurants that serves local, organic food. Image courtesy St. Regis Princeville.

After scouring the web for ethical accommodations, I ended up at the St. Regis in Princeville, a stunning hotel in the old-school style, with impeccable customer service and a lobby that I’ll never forget (picture several story-high glass windows fronting a view of one of the most famed spots in Kaua’i and miles of ocean and sky).

While not a small lodging, the St. Regis is well integrated into its environment, and unlike many of the newer hotels I’ve lately seen, it doesn’t try to be more than its location. I have a major antipathy for cheesy, overdone, glitzy hotels that seem designed in Des Moines and plopped down wherever tourists are flying this year. The St. Regis is not one of these, but in its elegance, seems almost to serve to remind us why a boutique hotel isn’t always the way to go.

I had a bit of a stretch out on the rocks in the bay off the beach at the St. Regis.

I had the chance to have a lovely breakfast with Stephanie Reid, the Director of Public Relations for the hotel; she is both a native Hawaiian from Kaua’i (going back 10 generations) and a wealth of knowledge of the natural and human history about the area where the St. Regis is located.

To read the rest of this post, and see all the amazing images, please click over to our sister site, Eco Chick Escapes.

green, hawaii, Hiking, Kauai, princeville, st. regis, sustainable style, travel

My New Year’s Intentions for 2012 and Beyond

2 Comments

01/02/12

In seeming contrast to so many writers and thought-leaders who think that New Year’s Resolutions are pointless exercises in torturing oneself, I find setting intentions for the year to be inspiring. I love all opportunities to fine-tune and rethink, to refine and change course, to challenge myself and my goals anew.

Intention: Spend more time in natural spaces

Two years ago I was lucky enough to spend 7 months travelling, and the bulk of that I spent outside in Hawaii and Australia. I have missed being out-of-doors, absorbing sunshine, swimming in salt and freshwater, and breathing the scent of tree sap and decaying greenery.

Plan of Action: Though I’m now back on my home turf of NYC and Connecticut, there are still many opportunities to get outdoors and enjoy the natural world. I’m going to start with iceskating on a regular basis in January and February.

Intention: Have the courage to begin a truly creative project

I’ve had several art/creative ideas floating around in my heart and head for the last couple of years, but have done little to realize them. Two in particular have stuck with me, including a novella-length fictional story that wants to be told, and a fabric that I am dying to see in more than my mind’s eye.

Plan of Action: I have made a list of the steps I need to take to achieve each of the projects I would like to see to fruition. I am going to take one step each week to making both my writing project and the fabric idea a reality. It’s ok if it takes awhile, these are things I want to do for myself, so I don’t have to stress about them, but they must actually move forward. In the past I have expected results too soon, and felt disappointed when relatively big ideas didn’t happen immediately. This time around, I am going to be more patient with myself and the process.

Intention: Simplify my Life

This sounds like a vague one, with an even bigger, vaguer end goal behind it, but I’m going for it anyway! I want to take my life from a static, live-in-one place existence to one that varies with the seasons or the year, and/or means that I can live at least part of each year as a traveller. But first I need to shed my life of everything that’s unnecessary.

Plan of Action: Like many Americans, I’ve managed to collect quite a bit of stuff, and I want to find a home for it that’s both responsible and not wasteful. This will take some time, but I’ve already started by changing the way I consume, and by how much ‘stuff’ I got rid of in 2011. I will keep going.

What are your resolutions, if you like to make them?

Simplicity at Its Best with Wintertime Nudes

No Comments

12/30/11

The depths of winter always make me want to pare down and cozy up. We need to wear more layers, but as the bright colors and patterns of the holiday season are washed away, and a New Year is born, we look to cleanse, restructure, and repurpose. Dressing in neutral tones is an easy way to visually achieve the clarity and purpose of beginnings.

More than ever before, I want everything in my closet (and my life) to matter, to be truly useful, to function at its highest purpose. These nude pieces will layer beautifully now, and will pair wonderfully with whatever colors and patterns are coming in 2012. With classic shapes and beautiful, sustainable fabrics, each of these pieces will find years of wear.

Clockwise from bottom left: Camilla Norrback Renate Bag Norwegian Wood wheat earrings, Priti Nail polish in water soldier, Camilla Norrback Jonas cardigan, and Vivienne Westwood Anglomania pumps for Melissa Plastic Dreams, all available from Kaight Boutique.

Many thanks to Michelle Legro for showing me some serious Photoshop skills (and just generally being awesome).

eco fashion, nudes, organic cotton, remnant wool, trends, Winter