Eco-Luxury: Guilt-Free Pleasure
February 15 2010
When Linda Loudermilk trademarked the term “luxury eco” in 2002, luxury was all about couture-branded labels—eco meant wearing Birkenstocks and bad hemp.
Eight years later, Linda’s personal crusade to fill closets with gorgeous clothes that are as sustainable as they are luxurious has inspired a whole host of designers. Some emerged from the navel-gazing world of haute couture where fur is still in fashion; some came up as treehuggers and realized there had to be more to eco-fabric than bamboo jersey. We’re not sure which camp spawned Leanne Marshall, who won “Project Runway” last year with a collection of organic pieces, but she now sells couture skirts at her Etsy shop for $2,500. And legendary designer Deborah Lindquist, who pioneered the use of recycled fabrics in sustainable fashion, recently introduced spidery, recycled-alpaca, thigh-high tights that retail for $275. Luxury, indeed.
But unlike big-brand couture, eco-luxury doesn’t mean expensive for the sake of expense alone. When you buy an eco-luxury product, you’re buying something that’s typically sewn by hand rather than on an assembly line, crafted from high-quality and eco-friendly materials, designed with the intention of supporting sustainable manufacturing, resources and traditions, and made to last for generations.
You’re buying into a concept, not a label.
Case in point? Casey Larkin, whose Mr. Larkin debut collection caught the eye of Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway last year. Casey crafted her newest collection—all triangulated shoulders and sexy, plunging necklines at Shopflick this spring—in sustainable fabrics that she hand dyes with Japanese maple leaves collected near her home in Berkeley, CA. Talk about labor intensive.
WEEK OF 4.19 ONE MEMBER WILL WIN $100 TOWARDS ANYTHING IN THE MR. LARKIN SHOPFLICK STORE!
Heather Heron‘s organic hemp totes are the It Bag of choice for ecoistas; the designer recently debuted a high-end lifestyle collection of bags, scarves and throws, created in partnership with design company Environment Furniture. Crafted in organic hemp, surplus Japanese denim, and Environment’s classic reclaimed U.S. military tent fabric, the pieces are as drop-dead gorgeous as they are sustainable.
WEEK OF 3.8 ONE MEMBER WILL WIN A $190 HEATHER HERON FOR ENVIRONMENT FURNITURE ORGANIC HEMP SCARF!
Leila Hafzi, a designer based in Norway who created a fair trade project in Nepal, manufactures ridiculously gorgeous silk cocktail and evening gowns hand-painted with environmentally friendly dyes, which are finally—finally!—available stateside at Eco Citizen. We previewed Leila’s Fall 2009 collection at the EcoStiletto One-Year Anniversary Party last year, where ecocelebs like Josie Maran, Sarah Jane Morris, Rachelle Carson-Begley and Anna Getty—as well as our own intrepid founder Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff—wore her designs on the green carpet.
WEEK OF 4.26 ONE MEMBER WILL WIN $100 TOWARDS ANYTHING IN THE LEILA HAFZI ECO CITIZEN STORE!
Can’t afford to invest? DIY your eco-luxury! Alabama Chanin’s local artisans use organic and recycled materials to reverse-appliqué, visible stitch and embroider gorgeous, one-of-a-kind, heritage-quality t-shirts that retail for $250, but for $49, buy you can make your own with a DIY Kit or follow the instructions in the Alabama Stitch Book (Alabama Studio Style will debut in March).
Of course, nothing says luxury like jewels. But once you know about the cyanide used to mine gold and the child labor employed to source gems, it becomes astoundingly clear that luxury jewelry production is nobody’s best friend. That’s why the most exciting developments in jewelry design are small manufacturers who use recycled metals and fair-trade gems to create gorgeous pieces that can go toe to sustainably-stiletto’d toe with any luxury brand on the red carpet.
In the past, we’ve written about Alkemie and Melissa Joy Manning—both of whom produce collections that regularly make us drool—but we’re equally excited about new discoveries like the uber-feminine Lustre collection from Christine Mighion and the nature-meets-modern interpretations of okomido. Both designers work exclusively in recycled metals and sustainably sourced stones, which deliver all the luxury you can handle—without the guilt.
WEEK OF 5.10 ONE MEMBER WILL WIN OKOMIDO’S $130 RECYCLED STERLING SILVER VINEYARD STACKING RING!
P.S. Living the eco-luxe life? Our new EcoStiletto SHOP features Areaware show-worthy sustainable wood flashlights, carbon negative Vers Audio’s AM/FM/iPod alarm clock and Luxe Essentials’ organic spa products that bring the eco-luxury concept into every room of your house.
WEEK OF 5.10 ONE LUCKY MEMBER WILL WIN $100 in LUXE ESSENTIALS ORGANIC SPA PRODUCTS!
WEEK OF 5.3 TWO MEMBERS WILL WIN ONE OF TWO $80 AREAWARE FLASHLIGHTS!
FROM FEBRUARY 8TH TO MARCH 8TH GET 20% OFF AT VERSAUDIO WITH “STILETTO” AT CHECKOUT!
