Feelgood Style

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This week I interviewed Leslie Richard who writes for our sister site Crafting a Green World and runs an amazing online eco-boutique called the Öko Box, featuring eco-styles like these:

Here is our Q & A:

1. Tell us more about how you came up with the name for your organization? I also dig your blog. Which one came first the blog or the company?

I have been deeply involved with the organic movement since the first day I walked into a health food store as a teen growing up in New Orleans. I naturally knew any business I would run would have to be related to health and preserving nature. So when my childhood best friend moved to Germany and began bragging about his “oko box” of affordable organic goods delivered from the farmers each week, his excitement really stuck with me. “Oko” is german for organic, and his descriptive stories of what arrived in his “oko box” left me feeling inspired- I knew I wanted to be part of a movement that made organic more accessible and affordable in the US with the ease he was experiencing in Europe.

Being that I have chemical sensitivities and some health probs I quickly became conscious of the connection that not only did our food need to be ecological & organic, but that every purchase we made, every product we used, every consideration must be done with the earth in mind. When I saw that there was plenty of organic baby products out there, but eco minded adults were being left behind by the organic fashion industry I decided to start “The Oko Box”. The catch for me, was it had to be affordable and break certain style barriers. I think I have a little something for everyone now, whether classy, hippy, punk, or suburban there’s a garment to love. The blog was born after the store and fairly recently, but has gained a huge following already which is a lot of fun for me! I really love to interact with customers and readers, your opinions totally matter to me.

2. The Öko Box mission is wonderful and we love that- “The Öko Box donates monthly to the National Wildlife Federation, in support of their Backyard Wildlife Habitat Program,” Please tell us more about your wonderful connection to these organizations and nature. Read the rest of this entry »

Let’s face it: American’s have an obsession with white teeth, and what better way to get those pearly whites clean than with the ultra-comfortable wide head Radius toothbrushes. I initially spied them in my local Whole Foods and was curious about their HUGE heads.

When I finally decided to test them, they turned out to be comfy, comprehensive and eco-sensitive. Not a bad combination. The Original lasts 3x longer than a regular toothbrush; the handle is also made from renewable materials (and have been for 20 years). Their Source toothbrush not only has a handle made from renewable material but also has a replaceable head which uses up to 1/5 the material of a regular brush.

Both brushes have extremely comfortably shaped heads to reach all those nooks and crannies between your teeth and ergonimically designed grips. The Original comes in fun colors, like berry and lime, while the Source has an earthier feel. They range in price from about $7 for a single to $38 for a 6 pack and accomodate righties and lefties.

In the green market, the interior design world is about healthy settings with visual appeal. The goal is to create rooms for physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual benefits. That means avoiding things like VOCs, chemicals, and clutter.

You can see that earth and human-friendly designers and decorators are increasingly riding the green wave. And we now know that natural wool, hemp, silk, seagrass, bamboo, cork, and other organic fibers are here for us. Ancient craft techniques are reviving and some know how to blend it all so well into the present. Recycling is one method that seems to create new artistic magic.

One such conscious professional creator is Marla Henderson. She identifies herself as more an artist/producer of interiors than a traditional designer. Marla frequently works with artisans to develop unique spaces. Her course of life leads us to the Babik rug collection she offers today.

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I often think about how ‘feel good’ a one-stop shop online would be if it could really answer my call for style. Just imagine…..eco-friendly cosmetics, jewelery, clothing, all the things every girl looks for, under a single cyber roof. Folks I have good news: Eco Zen Boutique, a socially conscious, Arizona based green fashion boutique owned and operated by eco-preneur Tandy Stepp, has recently opened a new online store at ecozenboutique.com.

This eco-friendly shopping site offers eco chic clothing, organic cosmetics, recycled handbags, earth friendly jewelry and green gifts and goodies at competitive prices. What’s more, in light of a new environmentally conscious business trend, Eco Zen Boutique has aligned itself with two different environmental organizations: it is offsetting its carbon footprint through Carbonfund.org, one of the country’s leading carbon offset organizations and through its alliance with 1% For The Planet, Eco Zen boutique contributes 1% of company sales to environmental organizations. Read the rest of this entry »

Looking for Style in All the Green Places

Lately I’m a bit obsessed by home decorating with reclaimed goods like old doorknobs, ornate metal heating grates, and odd hanging crystals from a long-gone chandelier. Sure, it would make more sense if I actually had a house — at the moment, my new husband and I are squeezing into our 600 square feet, one-bedroom apartment — but one day soon we will own a home, and when that day comes, I’ll be able to spread out and complete all the projects I have going in my head.

Meanwhile, I’ve found that trolling architectural salvage yards and house-part recycling centers is a fascinating diversion. You can find some amazing ways to decorate your home in completely unique (and green) ways, but you can also find perfectly good double-hung windows, newel posts, kitchen cabinets, big pieces of wood flooring, and bathroom vanities (from this century, even!).

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Continuum Textiles is a sales agency in Vancouver representing textiles and garments from environmentally responsible supply chains. Their partners have decades of experience in organic cotton, merino wool and the textile business.

i-merino is about three years old, but a recent discovery to many. It may be the most sustainable performance activewear fabric on the planet. i-merino is the brainchild of a fourth-generation merino wool grower and first-generation snow boarder, Australian cofounder Stuart Adams. As a devotee of numerous sport and physical activities, Stuart experienced first hand the superior performance characteristics and comfort of merino wool. Merino is a renewable resource where a new fleece grows on the sheep’s back every year. The wool is obtained without harm to the animal. From farm to fabric, the process is fully tracked and certified, so you are guaranteed the wool passes stringent environmental, social and quality controls.

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Clark’s Honey Farm is committed to help SAVE THE PLANET.

With all the news’s going around about the disappearing of the bees, (about 70% on the East Coast) I became very intrigued to learn more about this honey farm’s passion to help save the planet.

At the current time they have over 2,000 healthy bee colonies. Their goal is to double the colonies in the next few years. Each colony has over 60,000 + bees.

They claim to provide enriching environments for their bees to thrive. “The bees are instrumental in the survival of the planet”.

They also ship their bees across the country to help farmers in need of pollination.

Bees pollinate up to one third of our food plants, and in recent months, bee colonies have been mysteriously collapsing. Up to 70% of bees on the East coast have disappeared, and about 50% in other parts of the country. One recent news account from New Hampshire says this: “The problem, called colony collapse disorder, already has hit beekeepers in 24 states, part of Canada, and several European countries. Many bees seem to disappear, with few to no bodies of dead bees found near the hives. The remaining bees, meanwhile, show mysterious symptoms. ”

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Getting the basics for natural and organic living includes earth-friendly fabrics and yarns. Goods from suppliers are expanding almost as fast as organic foods, yet nay sayers ask, “why bother?”

There are many reasons to overcome fashion’s destructive downside. Dye and mordant toxins, polluted waste water, and cheap sweatshop labor for production are a few examples. Fortunately, positive and innovative changes make 2009 fabric choices exciting.

This time of year the rag biz is normally showing retailers winter collections. For obvious reasons, fabric mills are more time-advanced. So while you feel the summer heat now, vision cool sustainable fabrics for next year. You can simultaneously be ahead of the game, and be an educated fashion critic!

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I’m not really a big shopper, but there are few things more satisfying than finding beautiful baubles to adorn oneself that are also ethically and sustainably created. Okay, so maybe more than a few things are more satisfying, but it is a great feeling to know that while decorating ourselves or someone we love, we can also be more mindful of where these things come from, who made them, and perhaps even where some of the profits of the purchase may go.

I love jewelry, so this is an easy one for me. In my travels over the last couple of years, I’ve come across some interesting jewelry designers and concepts, some of which are really gorgeous in addition to being a feelgood style. Here are just a few I would recommend:

 X-NYC Traffic Light Jewelry!
I met a woman (whose card I’ve lost) last summer at an eco-event @ Lincoln Center who had purchased literally tons of the old glass that used to be used for NYC traffic lights. When they changed to LED-style lights, she heard that all this glass was headed for the landfills. She asked if she could have it, and arranged to have it delivered to her instead! She has a method of breaking them down and tumbling them smooth to make some wonderful jewelry. Visit her web landing page to find out more - SoleArts.com

More Beautiful Eco-Jewelry . . .

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The organic & natural beauty market is increasingly saturated with new brands and products, and growing confusion about what’s ok for you and what’s not. Now seems like a good a time to provide a basic outline of what you need to know. In the posts to follow I’ll cover these in more depth but here’s a good starting point:

Natural: Widely defined as any substance harvested or derived from nature and then isolated, processed or purified by a variety of environmentally sound techniques including filtration, fermentation, distillation, expressing and other like processes.

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