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

Romping About in Samantha Pleet's Fall, 2009 Collection

Designing since 2005, Samantha Pleet was quickly recognized as an up-and-coming designer, earning her a collection with Urban Outfitters called Rapscallion.

Now, Samantha has gone ecofriendly, and her Fall, 2009 collection is locally made in New York City (Samantha lives in Brooklyn) and her factory is powered by wind! Fall collection pieces include organic cotton and organic wool and definitely has that hipster/piratey wenchy/magical thing going on.

Samantha Pleet’s Romper and Jumpsuit are available at Kaight, whose blog first alerted me to this fab designer.

Now I know what I’ve been missing my whole life! A gorgeous cape to wander through the woods in, with purple piping to delight. This one is made from organic wool.

The ruffle detail around the hips of this dress makes it sweetly sexy and very flattering by accentuating the waist and hiding the bum.

Perfect jumper for exploring the wilds of autumn, and could be worn with thick tights and high boots on mild winter days too. The military button detail is just exactly right.

Simple is as simple does.

All images by Jacqueline Di Milia from Samantha Pleet’s Fall, 2009 Collection.

Summer Sandals…..

There’s still plenty of summer left……and your feet want to breathe!

Gotta love the very modern design of the Dopie, from the masters of cool eco-shoes, Terra Plana. Made from recycled EVA and foam rubber, the sandal (?) is one piece of molded material. When you get good at walking in these, you can remove the strap. Sounds like a challenge!

El Naturalista’s slogan is “caminar por la vida” (walking through life). To help you hit the streets with your feet rather than a car, try these creative hippie sandals. Made from recycled cork footbed and recycled rubber scented with tea tree oil.

Splaff Flopps are made from recycled tires and more:

Splaff Flopps started in a garage in 1997 with a tire, a bike tube, and a shoe knife. The vision was to make comfortable, long lasting, fairly priced sandals from recycled materials. Today Splaff Flopps are hand crafted in California with the same integrity. The soles are made with recycled car tires, the straps are made with used bicycle inner tubes, the footbed covering and strap linings are made with hemp fabric, and the mid sole is made with regupol (a cushioned material made from used tires which have been chipped and pressed into mats). Splaff Flopps are produced in a 100% waste free process in which all left over materials are either re-used or recycled.

Learn how to make your own shoes from tires at this site (via: Great Green Goods)

And if you know how to knit, you can always recycle your old flops like Atomic Rose did!
(Via: FiftyRx3)

Simple’s Green Toe line is super-sustainable, and really cute, with fun fabric designs and creative use of materials. I haven’t worn them (yet) but they look super-comfy too! The Toe Foo flip flop (top) is made of jute, a sustainable plant, natural latex, and are held together with non-toxic water-based glues. The GT Jane (bottom) is made of a combination of jute, recycled car tires, and bamboo.
See more of Simple’s Green Toe line at The Daily Green.

The Battle of the Green Media

A sampling from GOOD Magazine’s media pack

I woke up this morning and I thought I was back in London. Why? Well, we are getting innundated with so much editorial on green things. Well, damn’t it’s about time. Newsweek, NY Times, WSJ, Time Out NY, Parade Magazine, USA Today, CNN, hell even Fox News…everything left of center and right of center is picking up on the scent of green.

From the latest grind…September is going to be a big month for new green mags. Treehugger reports on Verdant Mag, a new greenzine for influential people (influential = wealthy, in case you didn’t know). Really excited about this one. Design looks great, editorial potential seems right on target, and it’s a definite niche that will be taken up by a number of readers.

The second report that has been circulating of course is GOOD Magazine with their “Choose Good Campaign,” in which their goal is to give $1 million away to some pretty stellar organizations. (This is also launching in September, so get your subscriptions now). Good fills the niche of another reader: the educated, indie hipster who is in the need of stimulating editorial and investigative reporting on all-things-good.

Also, be on the lookout for other mags. Not sure if Shift is going to resurface, but seems as if Sublime Magazine is ramping up for a pretty successful year. What does this all say? There is a burgeoning interest in really good, in-depth green media, but it looks as if it’s getting to be a crowded space. Should be interesting.