The first part of the Project Earth Day Fashion show included the student competition, which was stronger this year than ever! I was really impressed with the range of design aesthetics and materials used. Colors, neutrals, textures, patterns; they were all on display, and all Earth-friendly too.

Judges for the competition included Drew Becher, Executive Director of the New York Restoration Project, Janine James, Founder and Creative Director of design think tank, The Moderns, John Schroeter, President and CEO of Applied Textiles, and Josh Dorfman, The Lazy Environmentalist himself. Scroll down for all the entries, and then the winning design.

How did they judge? According to Inhabitat: “Judges, clipboards in hand, were asked to rate student designs on Creativity & Concept (50%), Technical Execution (25%), and Eco Design Principles Checklist (25%). We thought it was quite clever that the Eco Design Principles portion included criteria such as Sustainable “Sites”, Energy and Atmosphere and Innovation in Design, mimicking the checklist that sponsor USGBC NY uses for LEED certification of buildings!”

The first look in the student competition- starting it off with a visual BANG!

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The new InhabitatShop has some lovely stuff for sale- all handpicked by Inhabitat’s editors for both great design and ecofriendliness. I’m loving the felt “ring” above, which comes in four different colors. There’s lots of other stuff there too- like the shoes and planter below and more. Check it out!

The Melissa silver flat, so cute!

I don’t know why a giant half-eggshell makes a pretty planter, but it does, no?

Project Runway designer Leanne Marshall (Season 5) shows us the gorgeous ecofriendly wedding dress she whipped up for the event!

I had lots of fun at last week’s Green Weddings event put on by Housingworks in Manhattan. A lively panel discussion was moderated by author Mireya Navarro (who wrote the gorgeous new book, Green Wedding). Mireya was joined by Mary Cleaver of The Cleaver Company organic catering, Project Runway designer Leanne Marshall, and Danielle Venokur, of dvGreen sustainable events.

Old friends and new! Brenna McLoughlin of Elegant Bride magazine, Gloria Dawson of The Daily Green, Jessica Mischener of Portovert and Inhabitat and Rene Ebersole of Audubon Magazine.

Attendees included magazine editors, bloggers, ecofashionistas, fashion and graphic designers, brides-to-be, green enthusiasts and random passers-by, as well as the generous Housing Works staff and volunteers. Housing Works provides medical care, housing and legal assistance to people with HIV/AIDS who need help.

The panel, l to r: Mireya, Leanne, Mary and Danielle

Food was a hot topic for the panel, with Mary Cleaver telling the audience about how when she got her start, it was hard to find local food in NYC. “Food came from California, even in the summer. There’s been a tremendous growth in growing locally in the last 3-5 years. It’s not just the impact of shipping the food, it’s the flavor that’s so much better with local,” she said. She recommended Alice Water’s “The Delicious Revolution” to those who were new to the local/organic/seasonal food table. All the panelists agreed that local, seasonal food was the way to go for a wedding dinner.

Local, seasonal food was also served by the Housing Works Catering Company, who provided yum hors doeuvres

Danielle Venokur of dvGreen agreed that for some parts of a wedding, going green means it will cost more, but there are ways to integrate sustainability for a lower price tag. “You might have to be a bit more creative, or do more legwork, but sometimes it will actually cost you less–photography for example. Going digital and only printing the images you really want will save money and paper waste. A wedding website will cut down on paper and shipping,” said Danielle. Then you can use those savings towards more ecofriendly transportation options.

“For anything that’s a part of your wedding, you should be asking ‘Where did this come from? Where does it go when I’m done with it?’ If I can’t get to the bottom of these questions,” Danielle said, “I don’t want to get involved with it.”

When it comes to the dress, Leanne suggested borrowing was an ecofriendly and economical way to go, in keeping with the ’something borrowed’ theme of the old bridal advice quartet. “A lot of brides want new dresses though, and there are some great ecofabrics out there to design with,” she said.

The panelists came together to give a list of the three most important “To Do’s” for greening a wedding:
1. Food (local, seasonal, organic, veggie/vegan)
2. Flowers (local, seasonal)
3. Invites (recycled paper, websites, soy or nontoxic ink)

In addition to the panel, there were a number of NYC-based vendors who showed their wedding-appropriate wares:

Maryanne Loverme of Wabisabi Jewelry

Wabisabi Jewelry up close- this necklace is made from upcycled pennies with recycled images adhered to them.

I loved Lovely Day Designs’ soy candles that are poured in vintage teacups- they make perfect party favors and are upcycled to boot!

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I was in Ohio last weekend to attend the Beachwood, Ohio Greendream gathering and while there I ran into recycled/upcycled cardboard artist Mark Langan, who is local to the area. He was nice enough to let me ask him a few questions about his creative reuse and he filled me in on his process. Thanks Mark!

The Greendream, which brought together Cleveland-area’s greenest businesses and services (and there were plenty!) was a project of Greg Perry’s high school class, who were just awarded TDG’s 2009 Heart of Green Local Hero award.

See more of Mark’s work on The Daily Green’s slideshow.

UPDATE: Comments are closed and a winner will be announced shortly. Thanks for entering!

Eco Chick is teaming up again with Delight.com to offer you a chance to win some cool eco-friendly stuff!

Nellie’s PVC-free dryerballs have proven to be a really popular item at Delight.com, and for good reason: they’re a safe, non-toxic and environmentally friendly way to reduce drying time and soften your laundry naturally without the use of chemicals or disposable dryer sheets. Nellie’s Dryerballs tumble around in the dryer along with your clothes, lifting and separating fabrics so that air can flow more efficiently, reducing drying time up to 25%. That saves money and energy. Plus, they now come with optional all-natural lavender fragrance sticks to give your clean laundry a fresh, natural scent!

For your chance to win, simply leave a comment below (be sure to include your email address!) and we’ll randomly draw names from a hat to come up with the THREE winners, who will each receive their very own set of Nellie’s PVC-free dryer balls! AND, if you sign up for Delight.com’s newsletter or follow either Tracey, Delight.com’s founder, or Jenny, Delight.com’s community manager on Twitter, you’ll get an extra entry! Just tell us your Twitter user name in your comment or let us know you signed up for the newsletter*.

Deadline to enter is Tuesday, May 5th at noon.

Delight.com is a carefully edited, ever-changing showcase of fabulous products.  Every day at noon, Delight.com staff debut a new product with an extra ‘gift’, be it free shipping, discounted price or some kind of extra.  It’s a blend of social shopping, product reviews, special offers and hand-selected merchandise. My favorite item of the moment: Delight’s new RuMe metallic tote bags – they’re too fabulous to miss!

*Please use the same email address in your comment and to sign up for the newsletter so we can verify. One extra entry per person.

Everyone’s doing awards these days (Treehugger’s Best of Green, The Daily Green’s Heart of Green), and most of the sites include some kind of public participation and voting of some sort.

Well, I wanted to do awards for some of my favorite things from the past year, and the only voter was ME! I’ve been doing the green thing for quite some time and I like to think I know a little something, after all! (Really I wasn’t organized enough to get a post up last week and didn’t know how to tabulate votes and stuff).

Without further ado, here are some of my favorite fabulously green things from the past year:

Best Eco Fashion and Beauty Coverage from a Mainstream Publication

1st Place: Lucky Magazine wins this one hands down! The last year has featured not one, but TWO beautiful, entirely ecofashion spreads, and at least four natural beauty articles (including one with the fantastic Summer Rayne Oakes). Their support of eco fashion designers and boutiques is unsurpassed, and in their inexplicable (and totally enviable) way, they make everything look extra fabulous and totally easy to incorporate into one’s own life. Check their online eco sourcebooks (including beauty, denim, shoes and more) for ideas and brands that have been covered in the mag. Thanks Lucky!

2nd Place: Elle Magazine has done some serious work this past year covering eco friendly designers, in the always ahead-of-the-trends way that only Elle does. Elle gets special mention for digging up lots of amazing jewelry designers who use recycled metals, unusual materials (ancient walrus tusks anyone?) and Earth-friendly processes in their designs.

Honorable Mention: Shape Magazine isn’t a fashion mag- I read it for the strength training tips because I’ve become an obsessive gym rat in the last six months (it’s the BEST way for dealing with stress and makes your legs way more sculpted than a vodka martini). Shape gets kudos not only for their kick-butt strategies and healthy-eating tips (though more veg recipies would be nice!) AND their love-your-real-body stories, but sprinkled throughout each and every issue are small ways to go green (from products to new foods and drinks to actions and new companies), indicated with a little green leaf. Their April environment issue featured several great eco articles; thanks to the (no-doubt superfit) women at Shape for connecting the dots between women’s health and the health of the planet.

Best New Beauty Product Trend

1st Place: Oil! We spent the nineties and aughts banishing fats and oil from our diets and from our skin care routines (and from our skin). Well, turns out, our bodies need (good) fat and our skin definitely need oil- in fact, as Eco Chick beauty writer Stephanie Rogers pointed out, one of the best ways to a less-oily complexion is to use some good oils on your skin, since the skin overproduces oil when it’s lacking it- so organic facial oils actually cut down on shine. I swear by Saaf facial oil- it is completely organic, smells amazing, and both Stephanie (oily combo skin) and I (dry/very dry skin) use it with great results. I also use facial oil for my decolletage and neck before I go to bed.

2nd Place: Getting Beautiful from the Inside Out- One of the simplest ways to get great skin and hair, prevent aging, and reduce acne is a healthy diet filled with lots of high-antioxidant fruits and veggies, healthy fats from sources like nuts (especially coconut), green tea rather than coffee, and of course, plenty of filtered tap water. I’ve been supplementing my pretty damn healthy (except for the aforementioned martinis) vegetarian diet with aloe supplements and Murad’s Pure Skin Clarifying vitamins , which have worked wonders on my skin by providing a boost of yellow dock, burdock, Vitamin E, and Zinc.

Honorable Mention: DIY Hair and Face Masks- I’ve been using the inside skin of papayas and mangos as a natural fruit acid treatment, and avocado and honey hair masks for the last couple of years, but lately I’ve seen quite a few mainstream pubs pushing this old-school hippie idea. Probably because it’s super-affordable with so many women are looking for less-expensive alternatives to high-priced treatments, this one is way low-impact on the planet too (no packaging!).

Best New Ecofashion Trend

1st Place: Attention to Dyes- never before have there been so many natural or low-impact dyes been available (well, since the Industrial Revolution anyway; before that ALL dyes were pretty ecofriendly). And none too soon! Heavy metal pollution from dyes is a serious concern in Third-world Countries where our clothes are colored-up. From Virginia Johnson’s graphic printed scarves, to Talla’s bright floral patterns on silk, there are tons of eco designers working to find more sustainable dyes. While natural colors still tend to dominate (see Barney’s house line by Philip Lim and John Patrick Organic’s dreamy prairie visions) as a color-lover I never have any problem finding fun, bright colored outfits from my fave eco fashion designers. In fact, I’m wearing a fun Mediterranean-blue organic linen dress by NaturevsFuture right now! :)

2nd Place: HOT Shoes- This year saw ecofriendly shoes go from ‘cute and totally wearable’ to ‘Damn!!’ Cri de Coeur doesn’t seem to make an unsexy shoe (even their boots scream ‘yank me off and do me!’ - or maybe that’s just me) to Olsen Haus’ sharp yet kicky vegan stilettos and Charmone’s yummy pumps.

Best Tech to Green Up Your Life on the Go

1st Place: iPhone Applications- So Apple is hardly the greenest computer company on the planet (far from it, and shame on you Apple!) but I have an iPhone and despite the fact that I’ve broken one and had one stolen, I keep going back- the applications are awesome! From HopStop, that helps me navigate the ever-confusing isle of Manhattan (I’ve saved money and gas NOT hopping in cabs because I get such good directions from HopStop instead) to Craigsmobilelist, there are just lots of ways you can use your phone to cut down on energy use, and shop smarter. How great that one can find local green businesses (restos, dry cleaners, green salons, and more) at Greenopia.com (there will be an iPhone application coming in the next month, for now you can search using the web browser). Power of information, for the planet!

2nd Place: Proliferation of Laptops as Primary Computer- They use 90% less electricity than a desktop, and these puppies are powerful, as well as portable- what could be better? I’ve been using a Macbook as my only computer for about a year now and I’ve been able to do everything I need to do, and I’m on a computer all day, every day as a blogger, writer and editor.

Check out my win for Best Twitter Feed (individual) in the Style and Beauty category in Treehugger/Planet Green’s first-ever “Best of Green” competition.

But you can vote for me (and lots of other great folks, but if you could give me a 10, I would appreciate it) on the Planet Green voting page here. You give each entry a score of 1-10 and the one with the highest score overall wins.

Thanks for voting and thanks to Treehugger and Planet Green for including me! There’s only two days left to vote, so head on over now, and if you’re on Twitter, you can find me at ecochickie there :)

In a statement made yesterday by the Institute of Cetacean Research, Japan announced that it made it back to the mainland with only 679 whales slaughtered, as opposed to their annual minimum of 985 killed. The Japanese fleet pointed to the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society as the primary cause for their failure in the annual hunt.

Criticized for their tactics, mocked for their motley crews, and adored for their perseverance, the Sea Shepherd holds true to the course, regardless of public intrigue. Paul Watson, noted demagogue, eco-anarchist, and purported “eco-terrorist” (a creative use of language in our opinion), leads activists out to sea on anti-whaling campaigns to intervene in the unlawful acts of poaching. Animal Planet has been recording the campaigns for the past two years, producing the popular television show Whale Wars. The show has brought international attention to the Japanese whaling fleet that slaughter the approximate one thousand whales annually in the name of ‘research.’

Regardless of opinion and conjecture, the Sea Shepherd and her crew place themselves in harm’s way to act on behalf of mammals that are unable to avoid the nets and explosive harpoons that determine their existence. According to the Japanese, the direct interventions of the Sea Shepherd are what caused the fleet’s inability to meet their quota this year. The whales are supposedly killed for scientific research but it is well known that the meat is packaged on the ships at sea and sent back to Japan for consumption.

According to Watson:

“We continue to speak the one language these whale pirates understand,” said Captain Paul Watson. “Profit and loss: we need to keep their losses up and their profits down. We will eventually beat these killers with aggressively applied economics.”

Go Sea Shepherd!!! Congratulations.

I tried to keep my shopping to a minimum the past six months, but these super-wearable items were the ones I chose to spend a bit of cash on. Each of them is highly versatile, on-trend and most importantly, sustainable. They are also pretty seasonless, and I’ve been wearing them in all kinds of temps, and they all travel particularly beautifully.

Starre Vartan and Arina Vikdorchik at Kaight on the LES

NEVER have I worn a single piece of clothing so much. My organic cotton Prairie Underground Sweatshirt Dress works as a dress (as seen here, my friend Arina has one too!), as a coat over a dress, over jeans, or (admittedly) as ultracozy nightwear. Kate MacGregor at Kaight (where I bought this great piece) says it’s the line’s best seller and they keep making them in different colors. The hood is huge and makes me feel like I’m going to romp in an enchanted wood.

Um, that’s not my butt, but that is the style of my jeans!

Aristocrat Jeans are marketed as “Pure Luxury Denim” and they really nip and tuck in all the right places due to their excellent cuts and lines, which are designed to slimmify. They don’t stretch out in between washings, which always annoys me about denim and means I also need to wash them less (how eco!). They are made with a super eco-friendly dying process and have stayed nice and black. I got these at Kaight and they are still in stock there.

So delicious.

Melissa makes the cutest vegan shoes in all sorts of shapes, from flats (which they are famous for) to heels. Friends Jill Fehrenbacher at Inhabitat and Gloria Dawson at The Daily Green both love their ballet slippers in silver, but I’m a heels devotee, so I chose the Vivienne Westwood Mary Janes and they are comfortable to wear for walking around NYC and feel very Frenchy-chic with black tights.

Melissa’s ARE made of (usually-avoided in my life) plastic which is great for vegans and the factory where they’re made has tight controls on water use (making sure that any effluent is super-clean) and any chemicals used in production of the shoes are not ending up in any kind of waste stream, so I consider them quite sustainable, since the company is so attentive to possible pollution and they are high quality and long-lasting (and waterproof!).

At Greenwich, CT beach in November

I get insane compliments on my Virginia Johnson graphic print shawl made with eco-friendly dyes. It’s got duckies on it! Johnson is known for the quirky, modern and fun prints on her shawl-size neck warmers.

At Mammoth Mountain, Cali in March and the thermal baths in Weisbaden, Germany in December

And when I looked through pix, maybe I actually wear it more than my Prairie Underground sweatshirt dress. It is a huge, soft scarf, perfect for travelling, and she has a number of cotton scarves on offer for summer in her fab prints (you can also just buy her fabrics, and she makes cute clothes too).

Starre Vartan at left in the Fin dress, model in a dress from the Ryann collection by Raina Bleyer (at right).

My Fin Bamboo Little Black Dress is almost too wearable. Though it doesn’t seem to be still on sale anywhere (I found my at Ekovaruhuset), there are a few similar styles at Equita.

My Romp tunic-length t-shirt- and look closely- I’m wearing the Melissa pumps!

Romp (based in the UK, but they have a super-sexy store in Los Angeles) makes some serious ecofriendly leather goods (their story is fascinating), and lucky for me really fabulous organic cotton t-shirts too. This one has a dirty French limeric on the front, and an unusual length and cut. Love the longer-still-short-sleeves.

I like to try out new makeup a lot, so I must admit my cosmetic bag is packed full of stuff. Ideally, though, I’d love to pare down and in reality I only use about 4 different beauty products on a daily basis. The fewer cosmetics you use, the less packaging you’re throwing away (or hopefully, recycling) every few months – and it just makes your whole routine easier.

Spring is the perfect time to go for a minimalist, fresh, dewy look. It’s all about subtle shimmer, barely-there eye enhancement and lots of moisture for a youthful effect that only takes a few minutes to achieve – with just 4 products.

Step 1: After cleansing and exfoliating, apply Kiss My Face Tinted Moisturizer in the shade that most closely matches your own skin tone from your hairline down onto your neck. The sheer coverage lets your skin shine through for a look that’s natural, but polished.

Step 2: Apply just a hint of pink mineral blush to the apples of your cheeks with a brush or your fingers (it’ll blend in well if you do it right after applying the tinted moisturizer). I like Alima Pure Luminous Shimmer Blush in Guava and Everyday Minerals blush in Corner Office.

Step 3: Moisturize your lips with your favorite lip balm (I’ve always got Alba Coconut Cream lip balm in my purse) and pat just a little of the mineral blush on top with your fingers. It’s like custom-creating your own sheer tinted lip balm in a manner of seconds.

Step 4: Use a natural, paraben-free mascara to give your lashes some length and volume. Don’t be afraid to apply more than one coat – you want to make your lashes pop when the rest of your makeup is so subtle. Real Purity mascara is the purest lash enhancer on the market with just a handful of ingredients.

Photo credit: Digital Sophia