In our last posting, we mentioned the ICInyc eco-event for the eco-elite in New York (for delicious inside pics visit RemyC and the fiftyRX3 blog for "perusing the crossroads of style and sustainability") and we discussed briefly the three eco-entrepreneurs (Summer Rayne Oaks, Chuck Heckman, and Josh Dorfman), but we forgot to mention the other two presenters - Treehugger.com and Lü Magazine.
Treehugger.com is a hugely popular “green” blog and useful
ecommercial that is dedicated to reporting on all products that have a modern
aesthetic and are environmentally responsible. The focus of Treehugger.com is not so much on gizmos for their own sake as
it is on environmental products that provide sustainable and eco-friendly
solutions. A global team of about 18
writers in many major international cities provide the eco-product news and
reviews while Graham Hill, who started Treehugger.com in July 2004, attempts to
orchestrate the direction from wherever he happens to be around the world. Graham Hill has stated that his goal is to
help push sustainability into the mainstream of public awareness and Treehugger.com
is an excellent low-emissions, green vehicle to drive this effort.
Lü magazine is perhaps more properly written as the Chinese character meaning “green”. The creative refection of Remy Chevalier, Lü is a
green fashion magazine that is still, and perhaps will always be, a
gestation-in-progress. The air surrounding Remy Chevalier must be charged with
ideas and eclectic tangent quarks which merge in and out of our normal reality.
Remy has dubbed Lü as the
Viridian magazine of fashion and design.
The edgy Viridian
design movement is an interesting story. It was founded by artist, designer and eco-futurist Bruce
Sterling and is a word play based on a durable bluish-green pigment coming from
the Latin word viridis for green. In its most
pedestrian definition, Viridian design is environmentally sustainable design
that can recreate a new ethic of sustainable communion and community on this
planet. Or as a Viridian product
commandment asks "What if Green Design Were Just Good Design." The Viridian design movement is centered
around the Greenhouse Effect and overcoming society’s addiction to fossil fuels
and our substance-abuse problem with carbon dioxide. Bruce Sterling’s poetically sobering Viridian Manifesto
should be required reading by everyone concerned about the environmental future
of our planet. If they weren't so serious, the Viridian design movement would be the Merry Pranksters of the eco-movement.
But back to Remy who has been championing a rangy variety of environmental and green social efforts for many years. Remy Chevalier has a long, long history with the fashion industry elite. Born in the US but raised in Paris, Remy’s childhood playgrounds were the photography studios of Elle magazine where Remy’s father was a dominant creative force and in the home and parties of Helene Lazareff, Elle’s founder and domineering editor. Remy has pieced together a troubling autobiographical sketch of these years in his e-memoirs, Elle on Earth. Think what you like, it is a fascinating read – as is his article “How Green Is your Catwalk” about the suppression of fashion models who had environmental concerns by designers and modeling agencies in the 80’s and 90’s. Speaking of a Victoria’s Secrets fashion gala in NYC, Remy sums it up with “it’s not easy being green when you are dressed in feathers and treated like a toy.”
By supporting the environmental efforts of eco-fashion
designers like Katharine E. Hamnet, Linda Loudermilk, and Deborah Lindquist,
and eco-models like Summer Rayne Oakes and by exposing the glitzy destruction lavished upon the earth
by the conventional fashion and garment industries, perhaps we can increase the
awareness of the need for positive change.
Enjoy.
Michael
LotusOrganics.com
Purely Beautiful & Healthy Clothing
They carry a nice selection of Linda Loudermilk at http://www.junoandjove.com If any one is interested. Seems like a cool boutique with a lot of socially conscious/eco fashions.
Posted by: Rachel | February 19, 2008 at 09:25 AM