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

Eco Fashion Basics: An Ode to the Perfect Little Black Dress

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by Starre Vartan · 01/07/10

Wearing my Carol Young LBD at the Mini Exhibit at the Go Green Expo in LA.

It is only this year, my 32nd, that I have truly understood the value of the Little Black Dress. Of course I have heard the legend; what woman hasn’t? This mythical raiment could be worn anywhere, tarted out or demurely cover up, achieve figure flattery whether one was surviving on a diet of tropical fruit and raw macadamia nuts or daily chocolate bars and creamy pastas nightly. A frock that would work equally well with flats or heels, could be thrown in a bag and would never wrinkle, and be made of fabric that would dry quickly after a drenching but keep you from perspiring in the blasted sun (and could even hide said dampness when it inevitably made its moist mark). And of course it had to be impossibly chic.

This Little Black Dress from the very specialized boutique, Little Black Dress Shop

Frankly I had more faith that unicorns still existed in some ruddy-mudded and tangled corner of Eastern Europe.

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art, car, corn, dress, Easter, eco fashion, ecofriendly, Europe, fabric, farm, Fashion, fruit, natural, skin

Eco Chick Third Birthday and Book Party: Fun for All (Species)!!

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by Starre Vartan · 12/17/08

Eco Chick is three years old! To celebrate her growing up (there are over 900 posts!) as well as the launch of my book, based on the blog, The Eco Chick Guide to Life: How to Be Fabulously Green, called for a kid’s themed party of course!

Eco Chick Founder and Editor, Starre Vartan, with Eco Chick Writer Kim Jordan Allen

I didn’t know how I was going to pull it together, but in just two days, the fabulous Kate McGregor, owner of Kaight, my favorite ecoboutique, and Arina Vikdorchik (AKA Arina Greenaholic for her eco party-planning fabulousness) offered me a venue, and some extra time and hands to help, and I HAD to go for it!

Kate McGregor and friend, and party guests!

I will, of course, be FOREVER indebted to Kate McGregegor of Kaight, for not only helping me dress fabulously, as well as GREENly but giving me such an amazing space to have my party. Thank you, thank you, thank you Kate! You are an honorary Eco Chick!

Singer/songwriter LiliAna Rose and art director for The Daily Green, Gloria Dawson

Soon, 360 vodka and Wolaver’s organic beer (both of which I buy, drink at home and serve when I entertain!) hopped on board as sponsors, which made me very happy since I consider them ‘my’ fave brands. Natura organic wines joined in with a delicious Sauvignon Blanc donation, and though I’d hadn’t heard of them yet, I was so glad they came to my party (with their wine!).

Ama the Bartender, and one of the many pooch attendees

Thanks soooo much to 360, Wolaver’s and Natura! A party without booze is no party at all (unless it’s a tea party, but this wasn’t).

Starre Vartan and Seth Leitman, author of Build Your Own Electric Vehicle, and Tiffany, Tatiana Gelfand and friend.

I am SO proud to say that all my food sponsors come from AMAZING women-owned businesses! Babycakes, which couldn’t be MORE local (it is about 3/4 of a block around the corner from Kaight) made up pretty purple and green vegan cupcakes, vegan and gluten-free banana bread, and brownie bites. They were so amazingly tasty I walked around with the box at one point but was just mostly eating them myself, hee hee. (I am NOT the kind of girl to skip eating awesome treats at my own party!) Babycakes was founded by the retro-cool Erin McKenna- thanks to Erin and her nice-as-could-be staff!

Brian Clark Howard, editor at The Daily Green, AKA DJ SocialPyramid

One of my favorite snacks, Laura’s Wholesome Junkfood, also supplied sweet vegan treats (their oatmeal raisin bitelettes are my fave low-guilt dessert when I’m at home of an evening). Laura’s is such a cool company, started by a doctor (named Laura!) who started her own good-for-you food biz. Thanks Dr. Laura!

Bonnie Hulkower and Emma Grady of Treehugger, and Boho Magazine‘s assistant editor Ashley Kittelsen and Boho fashion editor Margo Helliwell

SweetRiot, whose founder, Sarah Endline, I met years ago at NYC GreenDrinks holiday party, gave us lots of their directly-sourced, fair-trade, dark chocolate covered cocoa nibs in lovely martini glasses (I was so afraid there wouldn’t be enough chocolate!). And they were even nice enough to give me extras to take home after the party in their cute (recyclable, and original art-covered) tins. Thanks Sarah!

Guest, Elizabeth Harrington of Greenopia, and freelance writer Beatrice Aranow

Continuing with the women’s-owned theme, publisher and ecofabulista Gina LaMorte gave us a stack of Boho Magazines for our goody bags (My book is reviewed in the current issue-yay!!); the bags themselves were donated by Whole Foods (where I shop so much I feel like I practically earned those free bags, haha!). The bags are the cool new reusable Sheryl Crowe shoppers and so pretty! John Masters Organics, who makes my fave new haircare products, offered up samples for the goody bags (thanks!)

Arina Vikdorchik and Starre Vartan

I couldn’t have done this without the dogged persistence and unflagging energy of Arina Vikdorchik, who pulled all the nonsense together and made it make sense. Some unvarnished PR- use Arina next time you want to plan a party, green or not!!!

From left to right, Glenn Michael Gordon, Brook Wilensky-Lanford, Christina Rumpf and Rachel Carter, all of Columbia University’s MFA writing program.

From left to right, a friend, Josh Garrett-Davis, and Rob Verger, Columbia nonfiction MFAers

Thanks too, to all of you who came, including the incredibly supportive and loving cast of characters (I mean colleagues!) from Columbia’s University’s School of the Arts nonfiction (and fiction too!) writing program, my agent, Mary Ann Naples (didn’t get a snap of her, darn!!) of The Creative Culture, my publicity team, Emily Fry and Stephen Lee of St. Martin’s (who do a lot with very little!), Brian Clark Howard, my friend, DJ, proofreader for the book, and URTH Guy, my amazing girlfriend Cara Joy, who started off her day at her farm in Vermont gathering eggs and ended up at a book and blog party in the LES, and was indispensible the day-of, helping everything get done, and of course, Danelle Marqui Brown and Kim Jordan Allen, long-time Eco Chick writers, supporters, and fabulous, amazing, inspiring women all-around.

Shane McQuade, CEO of Voltaic systems and Margaret Lydecker, founder of NYC Greendrinks, and Meiling Chen, ecofashion designer

A big shout-out to my friends and colleagues at Greenopia, who are mostly on the West Coast, and whose NYC guidebook (and online listings) are indespensible for navigating this growing green world.

Arina Vikdorchik and Danelle Marqui Brown, Eco Chick writer

Starre Vartan, Michelle Legro, producer and host of Storyville and nonfiction MFA student at Columbia U. and James Yeh, fiction MFA student at Columbia.

Two people who could not attend but to whom I owe debts of gratitude are Dan “Mobius” Sieradski, Eco Chick’s webmaster, who’s single-handedly kept the site running all these years, and my Dad, who has supported the site since its inception, given me great ideas on how to promote it, and encouraged me to keep going with my ideas and aspirations.

Emily Fry and Stephen Lee of St. Martin’s, and Michael Schwarz, writer and animal advocate

Party Guests and a Pooch, and Starre Vartan and ecofashion designer Christine Marchuska in one of her own designs

Party Guests!

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Dubai Greenwashing and (Ew!!) Inedible Corn

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by Starre Vartan · 04/17/08

Way more amusing than environmental news has a right to be, as usual!

corn, dubai, farming, fiat, fuel efficiency, greenwashing

Global War by Dawn Maxey

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by Ann Benoit · 02/08/08

I was introduced to Dawn Maxey’s spoken word poetry at the recent AIGA Compost Modern event.

Here’s some excerpts from her very spirited poem, “Global War” about eco-hype:

But then/ just the other day,
I began to notice people at Whole Foods with entire shopping carts full of ‘organic’ and ‘go green’ items. These people are the same ones that say things like “did I bump into you? I’m sorry. I just didn’t expect this ENVIRONMENTALLY SAFE dishwashing soap to be so heavy.”
I want to pour environmentally safe salt in their eyes.

In fact, I imagine a day when things get so bad you’ll live in a glass house so that everyone can see you wake up in the morning, get out of your organic soy bean bed and pack your “this is not a plastic bag”, bag. You’ll open a box of Tony the tiger’s non hydrogenated hypoallergenic free trade grain flakes, and drive your not-tested-on-animals bicycle to work. Then you’ll help Nike ‘save’ the rainforest by branding large red swooshes on all the lemurs or maybe organize a photo shoot for Abercrombie’s new cotton free cotton underwear.

Green is chic now, but when the stock market of trends crashes
no one will want to be caught dead with biodegradable polos, environmentally safe dirt, or toilet paper made from corn husks.
the earth will be just as trashed as Lindsay Lohan in a Bacardi factory
and people will care
even less

So how do you fix the problem?
Make being green
sustainable
show people that it’s not hip or trendy or fun to be green
it’s an obligation

AIGA, Animals, car, corn, cotton, environmentally safe, Food, oil, Organic, paper, plastic, rainforest, Shopping, soap, soy, sustainable, trash, underwear

Nature Kids, Hot Water Woes, and Pellet Stoves

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by Starre Vartan · 02/01/08

I want my child to connect with nature, but how can a suburban park be designed to both protect visitors from Lyme disease–carrying ticks and restore the natural ecosystem?
—Lena Crandall, Scarsdale, NY

The funny thing about wildlife (even the kind that finds its way into parks and playgrounds in developed areas) is that it’s wild and therefore not completely controllable. In order to eliminate Lyme disease–carrying ticks, you would have to ban all warm-blooded animals and pave over the greenery. Still, you wouldn’t be creating an optimal environment for children. “In a matter of a few decades kids’ interactions with nature have been reduced significantly compared with all of human history,” says Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods. “A new body of evidence suggests getting kids out-
side, which engages all the senses, leads to a longer attention span, increases in cognitive development, and [reduces] stress.”

So unless you want your child to grow up playing in a parking lot, the best way to avoid deer ticks is prevention. “You can’t really prevent ticks from being in outdoor areas, but you can be proactive about your own actions,” says Beth Herr, pro-
gram director at New York’s Westchester County Parks Department. (New York had more cases of Lyme disease in 2006 than any other state.) “Be sure that you tuck your pants into your socks, wear light-colored clothing, and check yourself and your child for ticks right after using outdoor facilities.”
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I’m considering buying a tankless water heater. With all their great energy-saving features, why haven’t these systems caught on?
—Louis Weiss, Berkeley, CA

Whoever invented the storage water heaters most of us have in our homes today must have been thinking of how best to waste energy instead of save it. Think about it: Conventional systems keep water warmed to skin-scrubbing temps 24/7 even though hot water is needed for only an hour or two a day. Tankless (or demand) types do just the opposite: Water is heated instantly when you turn on the shower. Since roughly 13 percent of a home’s energy is used for this purpose, making the switch to a tankless kind could save an average of about $180 a year, and also help reduce your family’s carbon footprint.

If you choose a natural gas–burning model, it will use about 30 percent less energy than an electric one, and you can up the efficiency even more by picking a unit with an intermittent ignition rather than a constantly burning pilot light. (Two companies that sell such models are Bosch and Takagi.)

You will also save water. “You don’t need to run the shower waiting for the hot water, which wastes an average of five gallons every time you do it,” says Claudia Chandler, assis-
tant executive director for the California Energy Commission.

So why haven’t these caught on? Tankless heaters supply two to five gallons of water a minute, which might not be enough when you want to take a shower and run the dishwasher at the same time. A simple solution is to just add another unit. You will never run out of water completely, as with other heaters. While a tankless unit might be more expensive up front, you will save so much on your electricity bill it could pay for itself in as little as two years. You might also enjoy a windfall come April 15. The federal government and many states (see Energy Star and DSIRE) now offer rebates and tax deductions for energy-efficient appliances, including a $300 credit for certain tankless water heaters installed between January 1, 2007, and December 31, 2007.
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I might start heating my home with wood pellets. Is this a sustainable resource?
—Jon Bradford, Lancaster, PA

What could be cozier than the smell of wood smoke drifting over a snowy landscape? Until the early 1900s, 90 percent of Americans heated their homes with wooden logs, which are a renewable resource, since trees can be planted to replace those cut for fuel. When fossil fuels became cheaper and more widely available, many people switched from the messy fires that needed constant stoking to furnaces that burned oil or natural gas (which are both finite, nonrenewable fuels).

Concerns about global warming, rising fuel prices, and ground-level air pollution have led some homeowners to rethink how they heat their homes, and wood is slowly making a comeback. Unfortunately, traditional wood stoves and fireplaces contribute to local air pollution, since they produce particulates (few older stoves have an air smoke filter), and they can be high maintenance to keep going. Stoves that run on pellets instead of logs are cleaner and require less upkeep (picture a bag of half-inch-long pellets instead of logs).

The fuel for these stoves is also sustainable, as most pellets are made of compacted sawdust, waste paper, and bark, all by-products of the paper, agriculture, or lumber industries. Sawdust wood pellets produce the least amount of ash. Some stoves can also burn other biofuels, including soybeans, corn kernels, nutshells, barley, and cherry pits, that might otherwise end up in landfills. But make sure your stove can handle alternative fuels before trying them.

You might also have an energy auditor or certified provider come check out your house to see what size stove you need based on the area you want to heat and how well it is insu-
lated. Most pellet stoves do need to be plugged in to run their fans and controls; you can expect to use about $9 worth of electricity per month. Setup for a pellet stove is faster than for a wood stove, and about half the price. Although a pellet stove costs considerably more than a wood stove ($1,700 to $3,000 compared with $400 to $700), the pellet stove could pay for itself in as little as four years.

From my column “Green Guru” at Audubon Magazine.

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