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

Artful Undergarments: Rio Wrenn’s R.A.W. Eco Lingerie Collection

Portland, Oregon based textile designer Rio Wrenn has a unique vision for lingerie, combining modern eco friendly materials and dying techniques, antique constructions and ethical manufacturing to create her line, R.A.W. “I started R.A.W. in 2007, which is inspired by vintage undergarments ranging from the 1800′s to the 1950′s to modern day,” says Rio. Her collection of corsets, bras and undies has a special look, and with the Summer and Autumn 2010 trend of exposed undergarments, she’s right on target with perfect base layers for style mavens and lingerie fans alike.

And not only is Rio a conscious creator of unique pieces, she’s an advocate for women’s bodies and all the curves that go with them, and explained that her corsets aren’t meant to be restrictive or to reshape a body (she’s a fan of hips especially). “Corsets are actually very therapeutic, they make you stand up straight! I think people have a bad vision of corsets, but I don’t make them to be oppressive, they should be comfortable and supportive,” she says.

Each piece in R.A.W.’s collection is also a work of art and are handmade in Portland. Rio is a visual artist, but found that fine art was often out of reach to many people; fashion is a way to take a creative project and make it more accessible, wearable and affordable, she says.
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Leanne Marshall's New Eco Friendly Collection at BlueFly

That’s Leanne on the right!

Project Runway 5 (and Eco Chick fave) Leanne Marshall is debuting her eco friendly line for Bluefly today!

Check it out; gorgeous stuff with Leanne’s signature flair for color and drape. There are nine pieces in all, which range from $98-$990. The two tops, the skirt, and jacket are bamboo, organic linen, and tencel, and the dying method is earth-responsible too. The gown is not made from ecofriendly materials.

Check out a video interview I did with Leanne here.

Crimes of Fashion

Original Article from Ethical Style

Last Valentine’s Day, the U.S. House of Representatives’ Rayburn office building was the venue for an unusual hearing. Famous designers, fashion executives, and well-styled attorneys talked among themselves while waiting for legislators to return from a vote. Someone described the room as “a strange cocktail party without drinks.”

Capitol Hill isn’t known as a place for fashion-related affairs. Slowly but surely, though, times have changed. Once considered too frivolous a problem for the United States Congress, fashion design theft has finally been brought to the table in the form of the Design Piracy Prohibition Act, or DPPA.

The intellectual property issue has been a pressing one in the fashion industry for many years. However, the lack of legal rights for designers has left them to rely on their own means — and the minimal protection of trademark and patent law — to defend their work against fashion copycats.

Many garment vendors and journalists have credited these loose laws with continued creative innovation and the success of the American mass market. Some have even theorized that the nature of fashion and trends is inconsistent with the notion of a truly “original” clothing design. As one uncompromising San Francisco Chronicle editorial put it, “Is it really realistic to believe that there are really, truly, no designs being invented now that haven’t been created before?”

The answer is a resounding “yes” if you ask ready-to-wear designers Diane Von Furstenberg, Nicole Miller, Zac Posen, and Narciso Rodriguez. They, with a gaggle of other industry supporters, have been pushing hard for the DPPA through the Council of Fashion Designers of American (CFDA), a trade association.

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Green Sheep of the Bush Monarchy? “Lauren Pierce” Launches Eco-Fashion Line

Lauren (Bush) and (David) Lauren

Twenty-four-year-old Lauren Bush let the word out in September that she’s launching an eco-friendly fashion line, although her decision to name the line Lauren Pierce has raised some eyebrows.

But for George Bush’s neice, it’s probably not easy being green when someone like Robert F. Kennedy states that your uncle “George W. Bush will go down as the worst environmental president in U. S. history”! And Lauren Bush isn’t alone in having different strokes from her politically high profile family folks. Just look at Newt Gingrich’s activist sister Candace.

But I give Lauren Bush “cool” points for her principled achievements. As an anthropology student at Princeton University in 2005, Lauren went to Chad as a student ambassador for the United Nations’ The World Food Programme.

In 2007, Lauren Bush designed a bag for FEED Projects, which she started with Ellen Gustafson, a former UN Communications Officer. This raised recognition and over 5 million dollars for the UN World Food Programme. A portion of each “FEED 1” bag sold brings hope of an education to an underprivileged child and supplies him/her with meals for an entire school year. Each “FEED 100” bag (available at Wholefoods) provides 100 meals to children in Rwanda. Many celebrities have been caught rooting for the FEED bags, like Desperate Housewives star Marcia Cross and Lauren Bush’s friend- PETA activist Elizabeth Berkley.

Lauren Bush is a serious Fashion Diva, as her modeling has been featured in Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines, and with Tommy Hilfiger, Abercrombie & Fitch, Isaac Mizrahi and Gai Mattiolo. She is signed with Elite Model Management- the agency that America’s Next Top Model winners sign with. Although Lauren’s degree is from Princeton, she also studied fashion design at Parsons The New School for Design in NYC and Central Saint Martin’s College of Art and Design in London.

I find it interesting that Lauren’s taste for fashion and eco-adventure extends to her personal relationships. She’s now dating…

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Lucky Day at Fashion Ethic = Crazy Deals

OK, I don’t normally post emails or releases directly from stores, but these are really amazing!–SV

Today, 08-08-08, Fashion Ethic celebrates their customers with a Lucky Day!

As the world comes together for the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, we wanted our customers to experience a day seen as triple-lucky (8 is a lucky number in several Asian cultures), so Fashion Ethic is offering deals, discounts, and giveaways on this day that will come just once.

Shop our collection of eco-friendly and socially conscious apparel from “Fashionably Responsible” designers and lines like EDUN, naturevsfuture, Ryann, Peligrosa Knits, Emily Katz, and MORE.

ALL orders receive a FREE black BAGGU reusable bag and 8% of all the day’s sales will be donated to World Wildlife Fund…

…Plus, Shoppers can choose from 3 lucky deals:

Use code TANKYOU to receive one FREE SPUN tank with $50 purchase of SPUN’s organic cotton tank, tee, or tops

Use code EDUNTEE to receive one free EDUN tee with purchase of any other EDUN apparel

Use code ETHIC08 to receive $80 off a purchase of $280 or more – including already reduced clearance items!

And there will be a special sneak peek at Fall items from Sublet Clothing, Kelly B, She-Bible, and other Fashionably Responsible lines on the blog.

Event starts at 12:01am PST and ends at 11:59pm PST on Friday, August 8th at www.FashionEthic.com. One code per order, while supplies last.