Design^Sprout | Your Guide to Green Design

Project Runway Winner - Eco Friendly!

    Congratulations to Leanne Marshall, Project Runway's Season 5 winner. Fifty percent of her innovative collection was crafted with sustainable fabric. Her dowdy glasses and cliche´ hipster style bugged me at first but her lovely personality and talent won me over. You go (green) girl!

Why Do Garage Sales Start So F-ing Early?

   Rummaging through other people's junk is one of my favorite things in the world.  The fact that I have to drag my sorry ass out of bed at the crack of dawn to do it - not so much. Cue the design stylings of Tawny Holt.  She not only finds the cool, early-bird gems I'm always missing, but remakes them into modern, couture pieces you can pretend you paid a lot of money for. Check out her Etsy shop here and go back to bed.

 

Guilt Free Clothing with Kick-Ass Style

    So you wanna be good. You want to dress sustainably in organic cotton with bamboo thread manufactured only by fair-trade companies but paying $95 for a t-shirt seems a bit c.r.a.z.y. to you. I understand. That's why I'm so thrilled for the change of seasons when things previously waaaaay out of my price range suddenly become affordable.
   Sublet, a green clothing line, whose designs I DROOL over is having a humdinger of a sale with some options under $100 and Greenloop, the mac daddy of sustainable fashion, has loads of items for men and women up to 60% off. Now is where is where I say something cliché like "Go green without spending a lot of green" but what could be more fitting?

Eco Chic!

     I don't normally write about fashion (although I am such a slave to it!) but every so often I find myself so enamored with someone new that I just have to share. My absolute favorite, "new-on-the-scene" designers, Tara and Inessah of Sublet Clothing, have seamlessly blended their fashion savy with environmentally-friendly manufacturing, resulting in some of the most elegant, forward-thinking and wearable clothing on the green market. Most of their items are priced around $100, making this a splurge you can feel good about twice!

Silk Wonders

     The magpie in me cannot pass a hanger full of scarves in a thrift shop without fondling them.  In my college days I bought scads of them and hung them from my otherwise drab staircase in my two room apartment.  Lately I've been looking at them and dreaming of the many silk scarf tops you can find on etsy - so simple and elegant.

     But it took a real imagination to create some amazing dresses.  Paula Malesardi Hansen's Allma line has several pieces made from a collection of vintage silk scarves.

 

How fun are they!  (And I'm totally loving the orange tights.  That's not something you see every day).

Bags, Bags and more Bags!

    Since there are so many cute re-usable totes on the market, I thought I'd give you a glimpse of some of my favorites! From left to right, top to bottom - Floral Mexican OilCloth, Blue Knit, Shoplifter, Frieda, Recycled Juice Bag, Cute Animal Tote, Collapsing Basket, Elephant Tote, Canvas Bag. Now, go forth and shop!