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

Fall Eco Fashion Beats the Chill In Style with Keds, Loomstate and Eileen Fisher Organics!

It’s official. Fall is off to a cool start! The best part about fall is the chance to start anew: new initiatives (turn off that a.c. and switch to eco-bulbs), new motivations (make lunch), and new clothes! You want to look street smart even when it is cold and this new apparel is both warm and eco-chic.

The limited-edition eco-conscious Loomstate poncho!

Since there’s been a chill in the air, there’s never been a better time to sport a cute overlayer. But with the season not quite winter the hustle and bustle of a thick wool coat overwhelms. Eco-Chick has a solution! In mid- October Loomstate, a men’s and women’s eco-conscious brand, presents their limited edition poncho in celebration of Barney’s CO-OP’s 25^th Anniversary.

Pair the chic poncho with organic denim and prepare to be enviable!

The poncho is made from organic cotton canvas and recycled blankets. It’s cute brown and blue colors make it an essential wardrobe piece to pair with the cutest of cotton organic skinny jeans, for they go the best with the sneaks, like these from Eileen Fisher. Not only are these jeans made from cotton grown without pesticides, they are dyed (jean dyes are notoriously polluting) under the Global Organic Textile Standard. And if you’re not into this style, Eileen Fisher offers a whole line of organic denim on their site and in stores.

Made from non-polluting organic cotton canvas, these sneaks are eco-chic.

Sneakers are a must – whether you’re running around, walking home from work, or taking a stroll in a local pumpkin patch. Whatever you’re up to, cute comfortable sneakers are essential! Keds are superclassic and come in various colors – but this month they’re eco-chic too! Introducing Keds Organic Champions, chic footwear made from one-hundred percent organic cotton, stitched eyelets, and tea-stained laces. The sneakers are 55$ and can be purchased at www.keds.com. 

Don’t back down for the fall chill. Beat it. Sport this super cute outfit and be an eco-chick.
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How Sustainable is Your Favorite Wine? Greenopia Rates 25 Wineries

Greenopia has just rated 25 wineries for their environmental impact. Here’s why:

Any oenophile worth her spitting glass has heard the dire stories about how global warming will affect wineries, altering the very microclimates that make it possible to grow champagne in Champagne, France and enable growers to eke out a Pinot Noir under a very precise set of conditions. Wine production is a multibillion dollar-a-year industry in the United States, and wine-growing regions are set to migrate northward (or shrink- by up to 80%- disappear altogether) as warm days with moderating sea breezes shift with the increased temperatures, and general local and worldwide climate disruption alters the conditions and locales where grapes have been growing for hundreds of years.

So it makes sense that the wine industry (and vino lovers) would take action against climate change and environmental degradation.

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Hurricanes in Europe?

Two years ago, my husband and I were invited to a presentation by one of Germany’s top Climate Change Researchers at The Wuppertal Institute in Berlin. I forget the presenter’s name now but remember bits and pieces of what he said … mainly those things I’d never heard before.

Like that the way the climate has been changing over the last century – carbon emissions related or not (he was being diplomatic because the audience was strictly American and this was before global warming became a topic the Administration talked about) – would result first in an intense warm weather cycle throughout Europe that would occur for about a decade. The hot weather would result in fires, deadly heat waves, and devastated crops.

It sounded exactly like what happened during the summer of 2003, when I’d first lived on the continent. In Portugal, forest fires raged and in France, hundreds died from heat stroke. Though the weather hasn’t been exactly deadly warm here in Germany since then, last summer proved murderous in Italy, Croatia, Spain, and Greece, with temps over 100 degrees for days on end which produced forest fires and droughts. An early spring and mild winter meant a potato shortage (!) up here though and some seriously confused birds who returned from their southern migration early.

This expert presenter then said that the heat would be followed by an intense cold weather cycle that would prove equally, if not more devastating, as the Gulf Stream changed and pushed Arctic air down into Germany. And I’ve got to say – after a winter visit to Wisconsin, where temps dipped to -20 with a much lower wind chill, I’m so hoping that this prediction doesn’t prove true…

What’s a bit eerie, though, is that a third prediction he made, one I thought impossible, has proven twice in the last two years to be true. Prior to 2005, Europe had never seen nor experienced a hurricane. But as part of the warmer weather, Germany’s just lived through its second in two years (the first ever to make landfall on Europe was in 2005, a Category 1 that hit the Azores Islands).

Hurricane Emma started on Friday and with winds of up to 120 km/hour (that’s about 70 mph), it’s not nearly as bad as those that make landfall in the US annually. And Germany’s Baltic and North Sea coasts, including the port city of Hamburg, are barricaded against sea storms nicely, with storm walls and a series of locks and floodplains that have been successful in preventing surge damage. But the rest of the country certainly isn’t prepared for storms like this, as was shown Saturday. The country kept up business as usual – Cologners visiting the daily vegetable market, where veggies were literally flying off the shelves and travelers hopping high-speed trains that were hit by falling trees.

As someone who evacuated Hurricane Andrew just a day before it hit, I realize that Germany’s been pretty lucky to not have incurred the serious damages Florida faces every year. But if this is a sign of things to come (and if it proves Mr. Wuppertal Institute’s predictions true), I may be in need of a new home soon….

Be a Cycle Hottie!

Keeping warm in colder weather without looking like a North Face refugee

We all know riding your bike instead of driving is not only eco-friendly, but good for our butts and legs (and hearts!) too! But to really make a dent in how many global warming gases you produce, you have to ride your bike for more than just recreation, and treat it as a vehicle, and integrate it into your life.

I ride my bike all over my seaside Connecticut town, as do plenty of other folks, the difference being that I don’t ever dress like a ‘biker’. I hate the spandex, helmets, and stupid bootie-shoes that Americans seem to think they need to ride a bike around town or on the streets. (Yeah, I know, helmets will save your skull, but you know what? I’m old enough that I don’t have to wear one, so I don’t. They’re ugly and mess up my hair. So sue me.)

A great example of a great warmer weather bike ensemble!

Turns out, I’m not as iconoclastic as I’d like to think I am. European ladies in cities like Amsterdam, Paris, and Copenhagen regularly ride their bikes, looking as chic as ever. Women wear whatever they would normally wear (read: really chic outfits and heels, jewelry, and even makeup!) to hop on their bikes to get around town. The site, Copenhagen Cycle Chic, documents this style phenomenon. Love it!

I ride in skirts and tights with knee-high boots in the winter to go to the library, sundresses with bare feet or flip flops in the summer to ride to my local beach, and my cute bags get thrown in the basket in front of me. Just make sure your bike has fenders so you don’t get dust and mud all over your adorable outfits!

Beards Are The New Hotness!

Letterman and Conan are wearing their ‘strike beards’ to show their solidarity with the writers on their shows.

I’ve been seeing it everywhere in New York City; guys with beards now that the cold weather is here. And I’m loving it! It’s sexy, and just a little bit fuzzy too. When I put together a meeting of green bloggers a few weeks back, ALL of the guys had beards, and none of them are hippies, though they are all creative, dynamic men.

Why am I talking about beard trends on an eco-blog? Because not shaving every day is definitely low-impact:

-Less hot water used in the shower or at the sink

-Less or no need for razors or shaving cream (which often comes in those huge unrecyclable containers)

-Hair on your face keeps you just a bit warmer outside- and in. Turning the thermostat down just 1 degree can save you 5% on your heating bill!

Boys with Beards! My friends (L-to-R) Dan Shapely and Brian Howard, editors at The Daily Green, and Muhammed Saleem, top green Digger, and
Me with my friend Ari, who hasn’t worn a beard in years, and is now a convert!

That’s (L to R) Joe Hollis, Botanist, Herbalist, Mentor and Master of Teas, Curtiss Martin, blogger at Scribemedia, and Shea Gunther, blogger and eco-entrepreneur sporting the facial fuzz.

Leo was spotted with a beard recently while being honored at the Marrakesh Film Festival!

But ladies, please DON’T try this at home…. even if you’re as cute as Avril Lavigne!

Do you NEED more cute guys with beards? Check out the New Yorker’s slide show!