So I just moved back to Albuquerque, NM from San Francisco – hence the slowdown in posts. Sorry about that – we should be back up to full speed ahead by next week, so hang in there! But the transition has been interesting. I’m the kind of person who has equally strong leanings towards both [...]

Fall cometh. Summer was awesome and fun, but I am definitely in fall mode. I loved the runways this fall – camel, tweed, military equestrian, and loads of leather and fur. Fall means dressing up, layering, boots and coats, the chance to pull blazers and trousers on again.

Of course, Style.com’s Fall Buyer’s Guide is a key place to look to bone up on essential trends and pieces for fall. So look I did, and I was pleasantly surprised – not only did I cement my must-buys for this season, but I also saw some eco fashion being featured. Let’s take a look:

With the necessary contention of saving the world comes plenty of witty ideas, creations, and publications conceived and manifested because of the eco revolution. Big ideas come from random thoughts and this week at Green By Design, we bring you several random thoughts, turned big ideas, from some of today’s most clever and creative eco-minds. From must-read magazines to al fresco dinnerwear, you’ll be [...]

The devil is in the details, people. Winner of Fashion Takes Action’s Design Forward Award, Nicole Bridger is now having a sweet sale on all her summer styles plus her fall looks are now up for oogling. Why the win, you might be asking. Stints at both Lulu Lemon and Vivienne Westwood ensure a solid design sense which is definitely played out in her timeless and classic cuts.

Well, it’s almost time for back to school, which means brushing up on our literacy skills. Luckily, we’ve done our homework so you don’t have to. Below we reveal three eco-fab reads that are totally worth a perusal. These delightful publications are so chock full of gorgeous images that you almost won’t notice the words – don’t be so quick to skim though – the text content is just as satisfying as the pretty pictures.

I thought today we’d take a break from fashion and talk outdoor parties that glow with laughter, the warm light of the setting sun, and the velvety swish of wine dancing in glasses. You can definitely tell where my mind is. In San Francisco we are currently experiencing our very first solidly warm day of summer – and it immediately makes me think of having a dinner party al fresco in the vineyards of Napa. Obviously we will all be wearing flowy, floral patterned dresses, sandals and ethno-chic jewelry, so with the fashion out of the way, I wanted to talk fashionable dinnerware.

It’s pure poetry. The idea behind the blog 01MATHERY is that one new thing is invented everyday. Run by two designers, the “inventions” are wonderfully ingenuous and simple – reminiscent often of something that Calvin of Calvin and Hobbs might make. The inventions are almost always a “reuse” of a common household object – but instead of seeming hokey or janky or jury-rigged, the photos and the style of the blog gives everything the patina of some wonderfully romantic, genuine, life-lived-to-the-fullest indie foreign film called something like “Everything is Beautiful.”

This week at Green By Design, we stepped away from a few common topics to take deeper look at the buzz, buzz, buzz of current fashion news. From dissecting The Guardian’s take on some of the most recent controversial topics to analyzing if unconventional beauty will be taking over the catalogs soon… Read on for the compilation of the most interesting reads in green fashion and design today, starting now:

The first thing on my mind is this cheeky article by the Guardian’s fashion squad, castigating two of the stories we’ve covered recently on GBD – Steven Meisel’s oil spill photo shoot and the Rodarte/MAC Juarez-inspired cosmetics collection. The Guardian really takes both Rodarte and Meisel to account on what the Guardian terms “the latest in a long line of fashion faux pas on a scale that makes Alexander McQueen’s mankini seem in good taste.”

Models with quirks, with unconventional beauty, with actual personalities, are becoming more and more popular as brands look for a representative of lifestyle/persona, rather than just a blank canvas to hang clothes on. Lara Stone is the poster child for this movement, with her “curves” and gapped teeth.

I used to defend the skinny models and the designers who use them by saying, but it’s true! Clothes look the best on skinny people! And they do, but that’s not because that’s how it’s hard-wired into our brain, it’s because of Twiggy and the media.

Commercial silk is made by boiling the cocoons with the worms still inside and unwinding the single silk strand onto reels. Peace silk is the ethical alternative – hurray! With peace silk, the moths are allowed to emerge from the cocoon.
Wear to for the peace silk? Try Elena Garcia, a sustainable designer based in the UK that uses it in her gorgeous dresses.