Inhabitat

It certainly is no newsflash for any vegan-fashionistas out there that Natalie Portman recently launched a collection of luxury vegan shoes. Te Casan started featuring her designs on January 15, 2008 and the media party seems to have gained momentum ever since. Criticized by some as a collection that is under designed and somewhat overpriced (even though the designer/actress contributes a portion of sales to charities), we wanted to take another look at Portman’s sleek alternative to high end Jimmy Choo, Christian Louboutin, and Manolo Blahnik stilettos. Walking the red carpet is tricky business these days and green style is surely an attention grabber. Natalie Portman’s new collection is backed by her lifestyle as a vegan and animal friendly, eco-conscious starlet, though, not by PR spin doctors or a need to find a cause as the curtain goes up.

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There is something to be said about experience making all the difference, and this is indeed the case with eco-chic fashion house Loyale Clothing. Founded by the hip and stylish fashion designer Jenny Hwa, Loyale’s sophisticated and future forward collections are the result of the designer’s irrepressibly focused vision and genuine desire to make a real difference in the fashion industry. Loyale’s pieces are luxuriously crafted from eco-friendly materials like silky bamboo jersey, pure organic cotton, surplus fabrics, and even tree free papers for their marketing materials. Loyale is definitely “loyal” and “royal” when it comes to the chicest choices for green fashion as well as environmentally responsible production. Not many urban design shops can wear their tag with such pride, and we think that a special preview of their Spring 2008 collection is one of the best ways to highlight April’s greenest Earth Month ever!

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John Patrick Organic is leading the campaign to end what he calls “masstige” or “mall-sprawl robostyle, toxic denim, and sweatshop ‘it’ things.” If your definition of sustainable style also includes integrity, well folks, this is your guy. Generation ORGANIC combines down-to-earth and cosmopolitan attitudes on style for a fresh, sexy angle on modern alchemy and organic materials. ORGANIC’s offerings are the best of locavore ingredients melded with a timeless, global outlook. With this in mind, we wanted to exhibit a little “integrity” of our own by showcasing several stunning pieces from John Patrick Organic’s upcoming Fall 2008 Collection.

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New men’s green Inhabitat Root T-shirt

Drumroll please…… After many long months of product testing, research, and hard work, we are excited to announce the launch of a brand new Inhabitat T-shirt - totally green in both color and in spirit! Our new sage green Tree T-shirt features a one-of-a-kind (award winning!) roots/lungs design printed across the chest with the motivational tagline “I am the root of the solution”. This awesome tee is not just green in color, but is also as environmentally friendly as a T-shirt can get - with 100% US grown organic cotton and water-based, eco-friendly inks (unlike the plastic ‘plastisol’ which most screen-printed T-shirts use). Not only does Inhabitat aspire to be the root of the solution, but we encourage you to take root, too!

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If spring fashion fever finds you hunting high and low for a reliable and sexy pair of eco-chic jeans, look no further, as Nau has just released their super hot ‘his and hers’ 2008 jeans collection. Made of 100% organic cotton, these flattering and incredibly well made denim numbers will eliminate the nagging concern about toxic chemicals in both your weekend threads and local watershed. These are tailored jeans meant to last both in terms of sustainable style and their environmental ripple effect. Besides, who can resist a totally rockin’ garment name like ‘loose but not slutty’?

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Whether you are the kind of guy who sports jeans on a skateboard or for meetings in a boardroom, Nau’s latest spring 2008 jeans collection will help you to get completely ramped up in sustainable style. Their 100% organic cotton denim line is awesomely form-fitting and tinted with indigo-dyed fabric to create a clean look no matter how deep you are in the dirt of environmental matters. Boys can be ‘loose but not slutty’ as well with these blue (green) threads that offer high quality, eco-friendly denim ‘without the (toxic) extras’.

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Tinkerer Phil Ross is a one-man laboratory for geeky eco-art experiments. His illuminated hydroponic sculpture, ‘cultured’ living organisms, and clever splicing of ancient and future technologies aim to make controlled environments and gadgets a bit less daunting. Part quirky and part eerily familiar, Ross’s bio-tech works examine ‘the idea of nature’ within an identifiable social or historical context. His are the home-brewed science projects that you just cannot take your eyes off. ‘Nurture vs. nature’ is part of the underlying tension that seems to populate both his world and ours.

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The Re-Run Messenger Bag by Fleurville is yet another fine example of how green design and product-alchemy seem to just get better with the passage of time. Fleurville’s entire line of recycled plastic bottle fabric totes, packs, and transport gear keeps on average ten 600ml plastic water bottles out of the landfill with the creation of each piece. We love their Spring 2008 eco-fab floral prints and clean graphic contours. These spacious and lightweight totes and shoulder bags make parenting a breeze and surely send the right message to small peeps who are looking on from their strollers as inheritors of the planet.

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The 2nd Annual Project Earth Day Student Eco-Fashion Show is coming up on April 24 here in NYC, and Inhabitat will be there scouting the runway for future eco-fashion stars and sustainable style innovators! We will cover both the Project Earth Day Eco-Fashion Show as well as the student competition, and we are totally psyched to report on ‘just how green’ this year’s student line up will be. Last year’s runway show featured a dazzling line up of future-forward creations, and the 2008 competition is bound to up the ante on new and improved ways to advance green design and couture.

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It’s no secret that we are totally obsessed with trash-to-treasure here at Inhabitat - we just cannot get our fill of landfills with a brighter lining. These pop-art recycled trash paks by Monsoon Vermont (part of Monsoon Group) really caught our eye when we spied them floating around the blogosphere. Crafted from recycled trash in Java (primarily detergent packets and toothpaste tubes) that are collected by slum-dwelling scavengers in Jakarta, this brilliant eco-enterprise is not only cleaning up the face of the planet but putting a new spin on dignity and right-livelihood in an otherwise economically impoverished area.

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There is quite a bit of eco-buzz circulating around the current E.P.A. exhibit at NYC’s Exit Art gallery, and with good reason as the tag ‘E-P-A’ has gained new momentum thanks to the show’s pro-active agenda. E.P.A. or “Environmental Performance Actions” is a group exhibition that sets a new stage for critical performance work that addresses contemporary environmental crises. One of our favorite green initiatives, ecoartspace, is the force behind E.P.A., providing thought-provoking curation as well as visual prompts that might finally move us to take notice and take action.

E.P.A. is on view at Exit Art in NYC until May 3, 2008 but we also want to let you know that there is a can’t miss HUMAN/NATURE panel discussion tonight (Wed, March 26th) at 7pm

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The tagline: “Is another world possible?”, is a good way to sum up Veja’s dream of being the most ethically inspiring trainers out there. Their new 2008 Volley Collection makes cool, green style and enviro-responsibility seem totally within reach and accessible for all. We love the fresh pastels and eco-geeky primary colors in this latest line up of natural latex and organic cotton shoes. With thousands of hectares of the planet’s primary forest rapidly disappearing, who can afford to play around in anything else?

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We cannot properly usher in spring without checking in to see what hometown gal Natalie “Alabama” Chanin has cooking down in Florence, Alabama. We love that the former star of Project Alabama has returned to her old haunts to set up a ’sustainable’ design studio, manufacturing facilities, and a soon to open flagship store. Alabama Chanin’s home-brewed, limited-edition products for the individual and the home incorporate a mixture of new, organic and recycled materials crafted by artisans who live and work in the local community. Thanks to Chanin, “made-by-hand in the USA” is undergoing a true renaissance and her Slow Design creations have set a captivating tempo and high standard for eco-fashion collectibles.

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It’s official that the eco-chic Smart Car is coming to the USA in 2008, and to add to this momentum, Smart is releasing a gorgeous creative anthology, “Sideways: A Smart Art Project”, as a means to highlight’s Smart’s goals of greening urban transportation and our contemporary motoring lifestyle. The project combines the diverse work of 100 international contributors in collaboration with 11 leading international magazines. The eco-based submissions have been cultivated from the fields of photography, illustration, graphic design, painting, sculpture, architecture, and fashion. “Sideways: A Smart Art Project” is definitely moving us forward with 240 pages of modern ideas about creative inroads for our environmental roadmap as well as progressive transportation alternatives.

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It’s no secret that needless waste and heaps of scraps are part of the equation in today’s textile and garment manufacturing process. Granted there are some amazing results in terms of cutting edge fashion and eye-catching furniture designs, but this often comes at a huge cost in terms of the throw-away elements. The Cabbage Chair by Japanese designers, Nendo, defies this trend by taking waste paper from the pleated fabric industry and turning it into an organic marvel. This gorgeous recycled textile waste chair was designed for the XXIst Century Man exhibition curated by Issey Miyake. It’s no coincidence (visually) that ‘Pleats Please‘ has found a new expression in this layered demonstration of waste as upcycled renewal.

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We like to talk trash here at Inhabitat, so when one of our readers tipped us off on the new Nike ‘Trash Talk’ shoe, we obviously wanted to find out if this was a load of garbage that we should truly get excited about. Launched in February of 2008 by Nike celebrity endorser Steve Nash (All-Star guard for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns), this newly soled-star uses recycled scrap waste from Nike’s own production facilities. Nike has gone to the basket before with the use of organic cotton in its active wear collections (though, only after other sporting apparel companies tested the consumer field). So what makes this eco-friendly sneaker so darn special? The greening of a must-have status item such as this is surely a play to watch.

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Edun Men’s ‘Twisted Tree’ Tee, $55 and People Tree’s ‘Pedal Power Hoody’, £45.00

Organic cotton collections for men no longer consist of just plain old white tees. Both Edun and People Tree are sporting cool, earth-savvy graphics on their t-shirts and hoodies for Spring/Summer ‘08. Easy to care for and even easier to wear, we love seeing our favorite eco-activists in green threads like these. 100% organic cotton never looked so good!

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Edun Women’s ‘Aura Sleeveless Hoodie’ $115 and Edun Women’s ‘Vine Cardigan’ $198

Edun’s ‘Aura Sleeveless Hoodie’, made from 100% organic Peruvian cotton, is a great contemporary piece for both active wear layering as well as street chic dressing. Features include a hidden front pocket as well as symmetrical line detailing, but we particularly like its lengthening effect as well as its beach cover up potential.

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Nau ‘Chrysalis’ Convertible Overlayer-to-Dress - $198

With spring drawing near (at least in the northern hemisphere), it is time to begin shedding our old layers in order to don lighter layers for the days ahead. For some of us, this will entail doing a bit of ‘DJing’ in the closet to make last season’s threads seem like this season’s must-have’s. Add to this the unpredictability of seasonal temperatures, and it becomes apparent that casual dressing is no longer what it used to be. With this in mind, we thought that we would offer up a few eco-friendly solutions for ways to revitalize your wardrobe with sustainable pieces that are trans-seasonally engineered, not to mention stylishly versatile.

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Patagonia Women’s Rhythm Hoody $70, and Patagonia Women’s ‘Valley Sweatshirt’ $70

We certainly cannot talk about spring sustainable style and layered dressing for the great outdoors without checking in with Patagonia to see what they have on tap for the season ahead. Whether you are a surfer chick, a seasoned rock climber, or an urban adventurer, Patagonia organic cotton hoodies and hemp separates create eco-chic combos for both travel and at home lounging.

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One of our favorite green public artists, Edina Tokodi, is at it once again with her shape-shifting moss graffiti and urban guerrilla tactics. Tokodi was recently commissioned by SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) to encourage Philadelphia’s commuters to ‘Go Green’ with her navigable moss icons and green walls in the Market East Station’s passenger service area, ticketing area, and on the exterior of the station building and Transportation Museum. The initiative is part of SEPTA’s mission to help commuters become more aware of the positive environmental impact of using mass transit regularly.

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