Feelgood Style

This week I met with Tierra Forte of TransFair USA, to discuss the new apparel certification pilot program they’re developing to extend fair trade benefits and protections beyond just the farm, but also for factory workers. I am very excited about this, as one of the main reasons I chose to pursue an MBA in Sustainability was to find a way to help improve labor conditions for apparel industry workers. Having worked in the US apparel industry for over a decade, I’ve witnessed the shift from domestic to foreign to predominantly Chinese manufacturing, and all of the benefits and difficulties that encompassed.

67% of American Consumers Don’t Know Fair Trade

The United States represents 30% of the fair trade market, even though only 33% of American consumers know what “fair trade” means. Have you explained it to your friends and family yet? I didn’t even know how environmentally rigorous the certification is until I dug into TransFair’s website. TransFair teaches and empowers producers to become stewards of their environment, so that Fair Trade Certified products are also environmentally responsible. For example, with apparel, they only approve factories which already meet the legal environmental standards. This is a big deal in countries where many textile mills dump toxic waste into the water supply as part of the dyeing and finishing processes. 58% of TransFair’s commodity products are also certified organic, and this is increasing.

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Thanks to EcoStiletto’s “Best of 2009″ post, I was able to catch a video of Julia Stiles that I previously missed. For anyone else who may have missed Julia’s breathtaking debut as an eco-friendly fashion designer, catch up to the rest of the eco-world by watching the following short film! Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week I spoke with Jason and Jeff, co-founders of PACT, the most socially and environmentally responsible underwear company on earth, as far as I know. Not only do they use organic cotton, GOTS compliant dyes and otherwise uber-responsible manufacturing, they also donate 10% of sales to charities. This is utterly astounding in an industry where even a 10% profit margin is a miracle. But then, most apparel companies weren’t founded by Haas MBA’s.

Cradle To Cradle For Everything?

Jason and I got to talking about Cradle to Cradle, as it’s an interesting topic, and well, they’re already doing everything else, why not take it a step further? Do I hear a protest? You don’t want someone’s underwear recycled into your t-shirt? But it’s for the cause, man… OK, jokes aside, and even if it wasn’t underwear being discussed, but some other form-fitting cotton garment, Jason did the research. Because he cares that much. The thing is, 100% cotton gets baggy and saggy. So it’s more likely to be thrown out soon. If it happens to be owned by someone who’s passionate enough to find a place to deliver their used cotton underwear, it can be recycled. Jason explained that less than 1% of all cotton is currently recycled, and Jeff pointed out that even pure cotton sometimes contains dyes and chemicals that make it impossible to recycle.

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When veteran celebrity makeup artist Christy Coleman decided to toss her top of the line makeup kit and use nothing but natural cosmetics on her clientele, she had no idea what would happen next. It was a risk, to be sure, showing up without the typical high-end makeup brands here clientele were used to. Furthermore, she had no book to peddle, no Makeup by Christy Coleman line to sell; she was doing this solely because she believed shunning the toxic chemicals in commercial cosmetics was the right thing to do.

But quietly swapping out her professional kit seemed insufficient, and thus Coleman created ChristyColeman.com to educate everyday consumers about the best natural and organic makeup and skin care products on the market.

Still, it wasn’t enough. She was consistently achieving gorgeous, high-fashion looks with nothing but natural products (click here to see her “natural portfolio”), something her peers thought was impossible. She knew she could make a bigger impact on the mainstream industry. So ChristyColeman.com underwent an extreme makeover. Read the rest of this entry »

This year’s edition of US Hair, published by US Weekly Magazine, included a one-page feature on natural hair care, based on an interview with one cosmetic chemist. My initial optimism was quickly snuffed out when I read that apparently my hair was dirty, because I needed synthetic cleansers – specifically, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate – to effectively cleanse the mop. Say what now?

To be sure, these misconceptions aren’t limited to one magazine, making it that much more important to dispell these urban legends whenever possible. So after running my fingers through my hair to make sure I hadn’t been sporting dirty tresses for the last year (my head felt quite clean, I’m pleased to report), I called Wil Baker, co-founder of the award-winning Max Green Alchemy line of natural hair care, to see if perhaps he could help set the record straight. Read the rest of this entry »

I can’t get enough of Vaute Couture, (if you haven’t read my recent post about Vaute Couture’s Bomono vegan winter coat you must read it!) so I thought I would share another goodie from the mind of Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart.

“For the Love of Dog, Adopt!” tee is clever yet blunt. Vaute Couture has once again enlightened me. I was unaware of how many animals are being put to sleep each year- a staggering amount- three to four million healthy cats and dogs. Read the rest of this entry »

Be lovely inside then out is Vaute Couture’s motto. With a coat as lovely as the Bomono Coat (doesn’t it make your mouth water?) it makes you wonder just how lovely Vaute Couture’s designer and founder, Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart’s, innards are. I’ll tell you, they are drop dead gorgeous… Read the rest of this entry »

In the early 1990’s, film and television product Jane Iredale was increasingly disturbed by the damage chemical-based makeup was doing to her actresses, most of whom had little choice but to wear massive amounts of it on a daily basis. Despite having no background in cosmetics, Iredale set out to create a professional-quality base to replace the pore-suffocating foundations that were de rigueur in Hollywood. Her solution? A little known concept called mineral foundation. Read the rest of this entry »

Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild panelists: L-R Nikoletta Skarlatos, Make Up Artist, Pirates of The Caribbean; Robert Hallowell, Hair Stylist, Dancing With The Stars; Christina Marcaccini, founder, Raw Natural Beauty; Rachelle Carson Begley, Co-Star, Living With Ed; Lisa Archer, Campaign for Safe Cosmetics; Paige Donner, Founder, Greening Hollywood.

There’s more to bringing the beauty industry and green scientists together, all at one table, then might first meet the eye. By the time I presented our panel of beauty experts, moderated by Rachelle Carson Begley, last weekend in my Greening Hollywood: Guild by Guild seminar and workshop, I had learned a lot. I had learned more than just that Tarte has come out with a game-changing mascara called Lights, Camera, Lashes! and that O.P.I. had removed all three of the most harmful chemicals in their nail polish, and that Suki Pure has re-defined how to be profitable and committed to pure ingredients in the cosmetic industry. Read the rest of this entry »

We all get a little run-down from time to time. And we all need to take care of ourselves.  Here in Hollywood there are truly devoted experts who have fine-tuned natural techniques to keep our engines humming. 

Timothy Martin, founder of the Izo Cleanze an all-natural juice cleanse, walked me through a 5-day juice cleanse or “fast” and offered some coaching along the way, which is documented here in our Moveable Juice Feast conversation.  Another option is Charisma Cuisine whose Victoria Wieszkowiak offers a 3-day juice fast which includes daily doses of fresh coconut juice, full of electrolytes.  Anyone who loves organic fruits and vegetables needs to stay up on two bills floating through Congress right now: H.R. 875 and especially H.R. 759.  Read up on them HERE.

For Springtime Regeneration and Renewal, nothing tops Raw Juice! Read the rest of this entry »