Eco On The Road - San Francisco CA

My sister and I got very lucky in San Francisco. While traveling by bus from Golden Gate Park to the Golden Gate Bridge a fashionable young woman behind us must have overheard us talking about shopping and told us that the Renegade Craft Fair was taking place that day at Fort Mason. The name alone was enough to win us over.

The Renegade Craft Fair www.renegadecraft.com is a huge free-to-enter craft fair with hundreds of homemade items and artwork. It was almost overwhelming how large it was, there were mobs of people looking at the rows after rows of what I would classify as vintage inspired-bohemian-chic style arts and crafts.

A lot of the jewelry and prints were really good. My sister bought a little adorable ceramic hanging pocket vase made by jfish designs which came with a little air plant inside. It was fun trying to take care of the plan over the rest of the trip. I hope it's still alive.

jfish pocket vase

I was on the hunt for a vintage pocket-watch necklace, but never found one that was quite right (though there were a lot of options to choose from - which actually may have been the reason why I couldn't decide).  I ended up finding a very cute dress with a great print on it from Maryink. They are based out of Nashville TN and print all of their designs by hand. It's a super cute dress with a super cute design, and it was only $40!

bad photo of the dress, but you can see the design, I added the belt.

We had a great time at the Renegade Craft fair and if it were coming to Boston I would totally go again (looks like next stop is Chicago in September).  Here are a couple other designs I loved but didn't buy.

Wood ties by Wood Thumb - seriously so awesome - www.woodthumb.com

I should have bought one of these - jewelry by Oh Hello Friend - www.ohhellofriendblog.com

Eco On The Road - Santa Cruz CA

The last two weeks I took a vacation to the beautiful west coast of California and Oregon. It was a pretty amazing trip in so many different ways: gorgeous scenery, beautiful weather, friendly people, happenin' cities, and delicious food. The whole 9 yards. One of the other interesting side effects was that I got to see what the west coast has to offer when it comes to eco-friendly fashion.

Santa Cruz, CA
I didn't get a chance to shop in LA (though I'm sure I missed out on some amazing vintage shopping) so the first town I took time to shop in was Santa Cruz. The downtown really surprised me with a slew of vintage and antique shops. There was plenty of eco-friendly shopping to be had, however my favorite two stores I want to highlight specifically:

Eco Goods was a shop with only eco-friendly items in it. It was pretty great. They had everything from clothes, to shoes, to bags, to accessories, all of which were either organic, recycled or non-toxic. The clothes seemed a step up from the hippie-ish threads of a store like the Hempest, but not quite creative enough to for me to consider them fashion forward. There were some nice simple items (like a black jersey dress), but at a price tag of over $100, it was to simple for me to want to spend my money on it.

Idle Hands was.the.coolest.store.ever.seriously. My sister and I walked by the doors before they opened, mesmerized by the pretty dresses and cowboy boots in the windows. We made sure to go back after breakfast once they were open. Once inside, it was even better. There was a wide array of really interesting clothing, graphic t-shirts, jewelery and shoes. Most of the styles seemed to be either bohemian or western inspired, but all very fashionable and different. I could have stayed in there for hours.

And now here is the coolest thing about Idle Hands... everyone who works in the store is an artist/designer, and also sells their items in the store! So the woman who made a particular row of graphic t-shirts and clothing was working behind the counter. When my sister bought a necklace she was told, "if you have any problems with it just come back on a Thursday and the girl who made it will be working." Such an amazing concept! I love supporting local designers and the way this business worked and the quality of the merchandise was really inspiring.

My road trip was off to a great eco-friendly fashion start! Check back later this week for posts about what I did in San Francisco and Portland!

Helz Yeah Rule #3!

Rule #3 of my eco-fashion project is to sew more of my own clothing, and after starting with the rules in February, I've finally actually made myself a dress!

This weekend was my good friend's wedding, and I decided a long time ago that I would try to design and make my own dress to wear to it. That way I've made something for my lovely rule #3, and also wouldn't have to spend $$ on a new dress. Of course even though I had this plan in my head for months, I didn't start the dress until a week ago, and I finished it the night before the wedding. It's OK though, it worked out great! I got it done!

Sewing late into the evening...

The first thing I decided to do before making this dress (and probably the reason I procrastinated so much) was to make my own slopers. For those who might not know the sewing lingo, a sloper is essentially a very basic pattern that fits my exact size. I make it customized to my measurements, and then I can alter the sloper to draft more complicated patterns. It ended up not being as hard as I imagined, and now I have something I can use again and again to make clothes that fit me perfectly!

The next step was to start drafting the pattern for the dress. The final design might not look too complicated, but believe me it took some working out. Let's just say that pattern drafting is a really good way to practice your fraction adding skills.

Stella was helping by, um, keeping all the patterns safe?

Then putting it all together was pretty straight forward, no major problems. I used this very pretty blue and green patterned polyester fabric my friend no longer wanted. So except for a couple of hours of my own time, the dress was essentially free. Oh and I conquered my fear of invisible zippers! I honestly don't know how I didn't figure them out at MassArt, but all I did was watch a youtube video and it was the easiest and most amazing experience. The zipper just disappears! Magic. Highly recommend.

And tada! The final product! I was pretty happy with it (as you can see by my grin - though that might also have to do with the awesome wedding, and a few glasses of wine).

 

 

Thanks to Eric for the photo!

This Week's Eco Boutiques

So I just moved to Porter Sq two weeks ago, and lucky for me there are a few awesome stores in the area. I'm going to focus on two that are definitely eco-friendly.

Greenward
www.greenwardshop.com

Greenward

This store is pretty much as eco as you can get. They have everything from jewelry to house hold items to bike accessories in their store. It's definitely not a clothing store - more of a one stop shop for all things green. They even have a little drop off center for recycling in the back. I'm planning on returning to safely dispose of a broken compact florescent light bulb I have at home.

When I was there I bought two of these fabulous cloth food bags which are perfect for bringing lunch to work without using plastic bags or tin foil. They are washable and totally cute! Now if I can just get myself to actually pack lunch in the morning...

Sudo Shoes

Sudo Shoes
www.sudoshoes.com
They post a lot on facebook: www.facebook.com/sudoshoes
Sudo is a all vegan shoe store, which means every part of the shoe (including the glue) is animal free. So the shoes are ethically conscience (no animals hurt) and also sustainable since most shoes are made of microfibers... Ok, to be honest I'm not really sure why a microfiber is considered to be sustainable. When I went into the store the women called the shoes "eco-friendly" and I wished I had asked her exactly what she meant. I think it's because producing leather and using other animal byproducts uses a lot of natural resources and creates harmful emissions, while microfibers do not. 

What I like most about Sudo is that while they have some incredibly expensive (albeit gorgeous) vegan shoes, they also carry brands like Steve Madden and Saucony as a cheaper alternative. I didn't buy any shoes when I stopped in Sudo (because I was still dealing with my Berk's Groupon dilemma at the time), but I think this would be a great place to shop when I need a new pair of shoes.


I have to say I love having these eco options so close to home!

Instant Impluse Shopping

Hey ya'll, sorry I've been MIA lately. I've had a lot of stuff going on, moving my apartment being one of them. But now I'm all moved in and happy in my new place, hurrah!

So I think I'll go on a little rant today, because, well, why not.

I realized I have an issue with this new fad of internet email deals like Groupon, Ruelala, Living Social, Gilt Groupe, etc.. I feel like every morning when I go to check my email, it's just filled with bs emails about bargain buys. I can see why consumer like these companies, you can get great deals on all sorts of things. However how often do we really need what we end up buying? They are all impulse buys. I'm not planing on buying a new french cookware set, but there it is on Ruelala at such an amazing discount, how can I not? Because they do it under the guise of being helpful, these companies have figured out a way to invade our brains without us realizing it, and it ends up making us spend money on things we never would have purchased otherwise. It's instant impulse shopping. No longer do you walk buy a shop window and frivolously buy the shirt on display, now you can purchase whatever you want with one click. The purchase is so instant that we don't even think about it. Because of this blog I've been thinking a lot lately about not buying things I don't need, and these websites honestly just keep pissing me off. I find myself searching Ruelala every day hoping I might find something eco-friendly to buy, and then I step back and say, why? What do I need? If I need something specific, I should go to the store and buy it, not hope it shows up on this site. Plus not to mention that practically everything I buy online doesn't fit me or looks different once I get it home... and how often do I return it? Yeah, exactly. So you know what I just did? I unsubscribe from Ruelala, Yelp Deals, Groupon, and Urban Outfitters. It was actually kinda scary, but I tried not to think about - I just did it instantly with one click. 

Time's running out!

Of course I leave things to the very last minute... I just realized my Berk's shoe Goupon is going to expire TOMORROW May 24!! That means I have to find a time to get over to Harvard Sq by the end of the day tomorrow (or I wasted $30), and I still don't know what I should buy that's eco-friendly!

My friend Rebecca shared a few good links that point out a problem with the structure of Toms Shoe's charitable giving. Since they produce the "give away" shoes elsewhere and give them out for free they are taking away business from local shoe manufacturing companies and are wasting money and resources by shipping the shoes to these communities. Basically they are hurting the economies of the communities they are supposed to be helping, plus all that extra shipping and wasting resources is definitely not eco-friendly.

http://www.thecrimson.com/article/2011/4/27/shoes-local-toms-pair/

http://goodintents.org/in-kind-donations/toms-shoes 

I think I'm going to take Toms Shoes off my list of companies that are OK to buy. Instead I'll buy a pair of Reef or Teva flip flops, as both companies just launched eco-initiatives. But let's see if I even make it over there to use my Goupon!

I've been a busy bee lately and not posting much, but I'll get back to it soon. I'm moving my apt this week so after that's over I'll have some more free time!

An eco-shoe dilemma!

So I have a Groupon for Berk's Shoes in Harvard Square. Great right? Well now that I've started doing my eco-fashion thing, it seems buying shoes isn't so easy. Especially when I'm limited to a particular store.

Let me start by saying that I find the eco-friendly shoe world to be utterly confusing. It's hard enough for a consumer to determine if a clothing garment is eco-friendly, but for shoes? It's even more difficult! There are a variety of different materials used such as leather & plastics, production involves chemicals and glues, and while some of the leather may be from Italy and "handcrafted" the other half of the shoe could be made in China with who-knows what kind of materials and working conditions.

Walle and his plant in a shoe - he knows what's up

Because of this there are many different criteria under which a shoe could be considered "eco." I found a good list of eco-friendly shoe brands on this site: www.planetshoes.com/Eco. Planetshoes considers shoe to be eco-friendly if they meet one of these criteria:

• Made from sustainable natural materials that can easily be recycled or biodegraded.
• Made from recycled materials.
• Made of vegan materials.
• Fair Trade and/or ethically produced.
• Energy used to make the shoes come from renewable resources like wind or solar.

For my sanity, I'm going to also use Planetshoes's criteria, because my own "rules" seem a little too stricted in the shoe department.

I've been trying to research the eco-friendly practices of some of the brands Berk's carries. And actually (I'm not surprised) Berk's is pretty good. They sell quite a few eco-friendly shoe brands.

Eco-friendly brands Berk's does carry: Arcopedico, Birkenstock, Chaco, Kigo, Merrell, Naot, New Balance, Reef, Teva, The North Face, Wolky.

Some of these brands are really great! But they aren't exactly what I'm looking for - I don't need sandals, and I don't wear the chunky style of many of those brands.  Unfortunately the brand I like the best from Planetshoes's eco list is not carried by Berk's, but you should still check them out: Naya.

One thing Berk's does carry is Tom's Shoes. I was sort of on the fence about Tom's because they aren't specifically eco-friendly. They say they use Earth and eco-friendly materials whenever possible, and although they manufacture their shoes in Argentina, China, and Ethiopia, they say they require their factories to adhere to their standards of fair wages and good working conditions. These things don't exactly fit my rules, but I think their philanthropic mission makes up for it. If you don't know, for every pair of shoes purchased, Tom's donates a pair to a child in need.  Pretty awesome.

Hmmm and cute!!

So what does everyone think? Can I buy a pair of Tom's shoes and stretch my eco requirements since I have a credit to Berk's? I vote yes, but I'm curious to see other's opinions... 

Also I stopped into the vegan shoe store Sudo Shoes near Porter sq this weekend and was very impressed. I plan on going back and giving you a full report!