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

Lara Miller: Eco Fashion’s Quick Change Artist

Eco Fashion designer Lara Miller is an Eco Chick fave; her supermodern, often convertible, sensuously romantic, yet travel-friendly designs are deceptively simple but always on point.

Lara says she didn’t plan her designs for the travelling types (though they suit us so well), but that her ideas come from a playful, fun place that happens to result in highly variable separates (think dresses that can be worn three ways, or trousers that have adjustable hems):

I graduated from a very conceptual design program at the School of the Art Institute where I researched Eadweard Muybridge images and architectual theory by Gregg Lynn. I was fascinated with the idea of animation and gestures in every day life, especially when getting dressed. I wanted to give the wearer a relationship to their pieces and allow them to be more individual. As my line and I have grown up, the functionality has really become key.

The Fern Flip wrap in recycled cotton
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Fashion Fixture: Theory Ellissa Trench

Spruce tailoring meets functional yet form-flattering fit. The trench coat, or trenchcoat, is a true statement in sophisticated style. An enduring symbol of modern elegance, it has wrapped the famous frames of fashion icons from Audrey Hepburn to Gwyneth Paltrow to uber-it-girl Sienna Miller.

Now us eco-chicks can get in on the trench-trend with the Ellissa coat from Theory’s Green Capsule Collection. Available only at Barneys and Theory retail stores nationwide, this double-breasted spring/summer item is expensive, $515 to be exact. But, if you value fashion and beautifully crafted organic sateen, then this might be splurge worth splurging for. Ruched belted waist, seam pockets, button-tab detail at cuffs and center vent—or just look at the picture below. To purchase your Ellissa trench visit Theory or Barneys.

Sevilla Solar Tower

For months, my husband has been raving about a solar tower in Sevilla, Spain, and finally, I’ve seen pictures!

Catching the Rays (c) BBC

The BBC took a tour of the power plant, one of the first of its kind, and it was exciting to see the theory in action. They also included a graphic to explain how the plant works to gather energy from the sun (much more effectively than in photovoltaic modules though using much of the same technology), and they’ve done a much better job of explaining this than I could have. Check it out:

How It Works Graphic (c) BBC, Getty Images

Hopefully, we’ll see many more of these replacing the old coal burners soon.

(thanks to EcoMonkey for pointing this out)

Luminous Fish

This afternoon I managed to catch MR2, the radio show of the Massachusetts Review, broadcast from WMUA at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst. The guest was Dr. Lynn Margulis, there to talk about her latest book, Luminous Fish, just released from Vermont-based independent press Chelsea Green.

Margulis is best known for her theory of endosymbiosis and her contributions to the Gaia hypothesis. Margulis is also known, however, for criticizing the scientific community and the culture at large for accepting the narrowness of anthropocentrism, sloppiness in the popular press, and crookedness in the medical establishment. Her voice is refreshing at a time when many scientists are too specialized and fearful that they’ll lose their funding for their work to be as influential or relevant as it might otherwise be.

Lambasting the medical establishment, Margulis said today, “I think medical science is as big a contradiction as military intelligence.”

During an interview last October during the Bioneers by the Bay conference, she said, “To think that there is something special or chosen about people is part of the human delusion. Without human delusion we wouldn’t have six thousand million people on Earth and only 10,000 chimps…We expand by bringing our habitat to places it shouldn’t be, it never was.”

For anyone in the New England area, Dr. Margulis will be reading from Luminous Fish tomorrow night (Feb 20) in Memorial Hall at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst starting at 7PM.

Another Eco-Chick in New York

I’m in New York City, for the first time ever this week. I think my new favorite thing to do is to just go around taking random photos, landing at my friends house and photo shopping the hell out of them.

Anyway, I have to say I’m impressed with how ecologically aware the city is. There is one talk I really want to draw some attention to:

Sustainable Development – Can It Save the Creation?

Date:
Thursday, November 16, 2006 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm EST

Location:
Columbia University, Morningside Campus, Miller Theatre, 116th and Broadway

Contact:
For further information regarding this event, please contact CSSR by sending email to cssr@columbia.edu .

The Earth Institute’s Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR) 2006 Seminar Series presents, “Sustainable Development – Can It Save the Creation?” with Edward O. Wilson, Pellegrino Research Professor in Entomology, Department of Organismic and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University; Jeffrey D. Sachs, Director, The Earth Institute at Columbia University; Robert E. Pollack, Professor of Biological Sciences and Director of the Center for the Study of Science and Religion (CSSR), Columbia University. Open to the public.

Please RSVP to cssr@columbia.edu.

Edward O. Wilson’s latest work, The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, will be available for purchase. A book signing will also follow the event.

For more information on CSSR visit www.columbia.edu/cu/cssr/index.html

For more information on the Earth Institute visit www.earth.columbia.edu

Yes, the Edward O. Wilson. I’m sure going to try to be there. (I’m supposed to leave Thursday morning, but I’m looking into a ticket switch, just for this event.) E. O. Wilson is one of the most influential eco-writers. Off the top of my head, he’s won the Pulitzer Prize twice, the U.S National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement and the Crafoord Prize. The Cradfoord Prize is the highest award that is given for the feild of ecology.

His scientific theories include Island biogeography, in regards to sociobiology. (I’m no biology major so this might turn out a bit rusty.) Wilson was studying the basic behaviors of social biological communities. By combining this sociobiology to the theory of evolution he established sociobiology as a completely fresh feild of science. Wilson coined the term “genetic leach” (as well as scientific humanism, actually where he says: “the only worldview compatible with science’s growing knowledge of the real world and the laws of nature”.) with the understanding that all animal and human behaviour is essentially influenced by genes and nevery entirely of free will.

Another big scientific theory of his is the unity of knowledge. In this theory he defines human nautre as a collection of epigenetic rules. Things such as cultural phenomena, rituals, music etc. are thus products of human nature, not naturally occuring phenomena. These can be studied, he argues, by methods of reductionism.

Anyway, I highly recommend going to see him talk. I think it’ll be really great. E-mail me! We can go together and get coffee! …As long as the coffee place is off the 1 subway line. Its the only one I know how to use, the others scare me.