Weekly Eco Fashion Wrap Up October 16th, 2010
Happy Saturday from the Big Apple's Upper East Side....CMar here giving you the latest and greatest in eco-fashion 
So let's get to it!
What to Read:
ECO Fashion by Sass Brown
Awesome new book from FIT professor, Sass Brown. Brown examines eco-fashion trends around the globe in this fabulous new read. Check it out today at your local book store or online. We can't wait to get our hands on a copy
What To Eat:
Photo Courtesy of http://girliegirlarmy.com
We are HUGE fans of The Girlie Girl Army weekly blogs with awesome recipes for the healthy chick! Check out this great and yummy recipe for Raspberry Ganache Fudge Cake by Raw Food Star Ani Phyo.
What To Do:
Photo Courtesy of Refinery 29 Blog
We aren't going to lie....Halloween is one of our favorite days of the year! Make it eco fab by picking up some cool finds at your local thrift store and then letting creative juices flow.... Once you have the perf outfit then rush over to a cool haunted house in your city to really get in the Halloween spirit! If you are in NYC be sure to check out the recommended Haunted Houses by one of our favorite daily blogs, Refinery 29! We are thinking Blood Manor tomorrow....anyone want to join??? Hehehe
News from c. marchuska:
Lots of awesome new posts for our amazing friends and fans to check out including new features like: AskHim and new posts: Introducing Christina Blacken: Six Questions in Six Minutes and How's My White Tee Bad: Demystifying Eco Fashion
Oh and some new projects in the works....let's just say CBS News stopped by....and a new web series has contacted our fav eco-fashionista.....SHHHHHH! Can't give more deets at this time, but stay tuned
Alright stay eco-chic my darlings and enjoy this amazing weekend!
xoxo
CMar
How’s My White Tee Bad? Demystifying Eco Fashion
I have an addiction to a great sale. And not just any wimpy "buy one get one 2% off" type deal, but a sale so good you feel like you're stealing from the establishment (just kidding..sort of:D). So this itching for some good ol' saving inspired another passion...thrift shopping.
Now thrifting serves two distinct and lovely purposes in this fashionista's life 1) I save big bucks...ever know what it feels like to walk out of store with 5 great staple clothing pieces for under 40 dinero? probably not..get like me!:) and 2) thrift shopping allows me to find distinct pieces that are timeworn and well made, but still affordable.
Thrifting should make anybody this excited:D photo courtesy of blog.timesunion.com
Photo courtesy of 20something.ca
With those two things in mind, I scour racks of Salvation Army, Goodwill, Beacons Closet (insert any standard thrift shop name), searching for that next stylish blazer, blouse, or vest that will amp my wardrobe. But, in the midst of my budget loving frenzy, I was completely unaware I was becoming apart of a movement, a change in an industry so large, not one person on this planet can avoid interaction with it (unless you're a nudist, and if so good looks on great body image confidence:D lol). I am apart of a movement to completely change the apparel industry, by supporting eco fashion and sustainable consumption. Funny how it all started with a slick vest at a thrift shop.
So I know you're thinking "whooa whooa hold up Christina Blacken, what exactly is wrong with my white tee, yup with my white tee? And what's this funny buzz word 'eco fashion'? Also, how is thrift shopping all eco and such?" Well I'm glad you asked! Read on my lost cyber friend read on:..
Have you ever wondered, if a shirt could talk, what stories would it tell? If my shirts talked to me (glad they don't, that's certifiable wacko but you get me?) they would enlighten me on where they grew, whose hands stitched them, and how they ended up in a retail shop down my block. But since shirts shouldn't be talking to ya, consumers are left very disconnected and in the dark about how their clothes are made and what impact those clothes are having on the future of this earth.
Sounds heavy I know, but the effects of the current structure of the apparel industry are detrimental at best, devastating at worst. The C. Marchuska team is spreading the message of the environmental, economical, and social importance of eco fashion through this blog, and will feature a Monday blog spot giving an insider's look at the apparel industry, where your clothes come from and their impacts, and how eco fashion is leading a necessary change in consumption. With 6 billion people each rocking some type of frock, clothes aren't fickle baby, they're crucial and affecting us in ways unbeknown to the public.
Keep your eye's peeled for next Monday's rundown on what major impacts are occurring from the fashion industry. In the meantime I leave you with a quick vid to get your feet wet..educational and all:D
http://www.bbc.co.uk/thread/blood-sweat-tshirts/
til we cyberbond again,
stay fly
-CBlack
Monday’s Fashion Focus: London Chic Vocab
Happy Monday Everyone!
We are starting a new weekly blog series at c. marchuska this week. We have received your feedback and want to give you, our community, what it wants So every Monday we will be demystifying what fashion means to the masses. As most of us return from a social media filled weekend (totally recommend the Social Network movie - go see it NOW!) and get back into the grind of the week I thought we could focus this week on our brethren on the other side of the pond. I mean after all Prince Charles is now singing the praises of eco fashion so what better time to decipher the terms used by most fashionable Brits....
Whenever I travel to a new city, country, etc I want to go into the experience well informed. I want to know where the locals eat, where they play and more importantly how they speak. So on a recent jaunt to London I realized none of my Lonely Planet or Zagat's Guides could give me what I really needed....the fashion terms they used and embraced. I mean c'mon now....fashion is my passion and no amount of fish and chips will ever satiate me when it comes to Ted Baker, John Smedley....and (gasp) Burberry.... So here goes nothing your Monday fashion guide to the UK:
Jumper: no that Hugh Grant look alike is not referring to a cute little silhouette you wear over your button down... a jumper is a sweater in London....preferably one made of cashmere...
London Fashion Lesson #1: a Jumper is a Sweater
Pick up a John Smedly jumper today at: http://www.sherrys.co.uk/
Waistcoat: actually not a coat, nor is it some random too short to wear to the office dress pants...a waistcoat is a vest...hopefully Dolce & Gabbana and found under a suit
London Fashion Lesson #2: a Waistcoat is a Vest
Braces: oh I know this one....yeah those horrendous things that the dentist puts on your teeth to make puberty about a million times worse...sorry kiddies - but not in London....braces are suspenders....so classic and found frequently at Hermes....
London Fashion Lesson #3: Braces are Suspenders
This trivia is fun...but what is even more exciting is giving out some c. marchuska ecofashion swag.....as we enter my favorite season ever in NYC...um, yeah, FALL....check out the three web spots below and tell us what the hottest accessory (hint: hunter scarf) would be called in London and win yourself your very own sexy bamboo viscose unisex hunter scarf. Here's what you need to do to win:
1 - Comment on this blog and tell us what they call scarves in London
2 - Share this blog on your facebook page (more points rewarded to those that share it on twitter, gchat status, etc)
3 - Like this post on our c. marchuska fan page
Get it? Got it? Good! Now for your inspiration....check out these fab web spots we filmed to inspire your senses....
xoxo,
CMar
Weekly Eco Fashion Wrap Up-Sept. 30th
Nothing like an eco fashion wrap up to start the weekend off right! Here's what's been happening in the world of sustainable fashion this week:
Blogosphere>>
Prince Charles, an avid supporter of conscious consumption and eco clothing, recently sat down with UK Vouge to discuss his ideas about sustainable fashion. Vintage materials and up-cycling (restructuring old clothing into new items) are a few of his fav ways of keeping a stylish, yet earth friendly wardrobe. I say cheers to that Prince Charles! You can catch the full story over at Ecorazzi.
>>Speaking of the U.K., C. Marchuska has traveled to the other side of the pond to offer all our British bound eco lovers a chance to catch the fall collection in London's Soho store, Sherry's. Go check out the online store. Sustainable never looked so international:D
London's Fashion Week>> Estethica, London's premier sustainable fashion showcase, was the backdrop for many aspiring and cutting edge sustainable designers. One of the strongest eco fashion shows in the world, designers pulled out all stops, displaying the avant guard to the demure. Check out Ecouterre's inside scoop on this amazing fashion show.
Events>> Since we are keeping this week's wrap up global, our friends over in the Netherlands are kicking off October in Tillburg during Textile Weekend. There will be enough exhbitions, lectures, and clothing swaps for any eco fashion fanatic.
Oct. 1st marks the last day to register for the annual Ethical Fashion Source Expo, which brings together the movers and shakers of ethical fashion. With so many designers, buyers, suppliers, and lovers of eco fashion in tow, this event is NOT to be missed!
That's all folks..
until next week
stay fly:D
-Cblacken
Weekly Eco-Fashion Update Aug 29th
Happy weekend everyone! Here's our weekly update:
Blogosphere: Emma Watson of Harry Potter fame (when is that new movie coming out?!) has partnered with the Fair Trade fashion brand, People Tree, to bring us the winter collection, now on sale! The 20 year-old was curious about how the eco-friendly clothing line is made, so she took a trip to the rural towns of Dhaka and Bajshahi in July to visit Swallows, the Fair Trade production firm. Watch this video to see what she experienced!
Also check out the collection via OK Magazine - it's pretty cute! 
Another celebrity getting involved with eco-fashion is Chrissie Hynde, who is the frontwoman of the band, The Pretenders. The company is called Fairground Luck and will contain no animal skins and all products will be made in an eco-friendly fashion. While the high-end is targeted towards musicians, almost anything could be worn by anyone since the collection includes stylish t-shirts, skinny jeans, faux leather jackets and cowboy boots. All in all, it should be a rocker-chic look! Read more about it here.
Want to make an impact easily? Wiloh, a green fashion line of hip t-shirts (each designed by an up-and-coming artist from around the world, dyed with water-based inks and made with bamboo fabric) has a philanthropic twist too. Like TOMS Shoes' One for One campaign, for every limited edition t-shirt sold, Wiloh will donate a t-shirt to a child in need through their charity, called "Tee for Tee" and a collaboration with Kids in Distressed Situations (K.I.D.S.) All men's and women's shirts retail for $38 and are available online at Wiloh.
"The Heist" by Tokyo Candies
"Melody D" by Puloverchito
Lastly, have you ever been curious about what the heck it means to be sustainable? Reuters (with content provided by Matter Network) recently published a pretty comprehensive article about the sustainable supply network, describing each and every step of the manufacturing process that can be made more sustainable. Go read it!
ok, have a great rest of the weekend
Weekly Eco-Fashion Wrap-Up – Aug 21st
Hi all! Happy weekend!
It's time for the weekly eco-fashion wrap-up!
c. marchuska: We've been featured! TreeHugger has listed c. marchuska as one of the top 5 green fashion designers favored by the 'Great American Apparel Diet' Founder hooray!
Also, we've been featured over on CasterineCouture! Go read it to find out about what it's like Inside the House of CMar.
Lastly - our favorite celeb blogger, Tia Walker, wore the monika dress to the Quintessentially and the Couture Council's annual Summer Party. Thanks Tia! you look awesome!
Blogosphere: There was a great article in the NYTimes this week about zero-waste design and how it's the new trend. Apparel industry professionals say that about 15-20 % of the fabric used to produce clothing winds up in the nation's landfills because it's cheaper to dump the scraps than to recycle them. But now there's a small but impassioned group of designers who are taking the scraps and creating garment patterns with gussets, pockets, collars and trim that fit together like a puzzle. It's not easy, but Parsons the New School for Design will offer the world's first fashion courses in zero waste. Pretty cool!
Great things are happening in NYC! This past monday, Mayor Bloomberg signed into law a new program that will try to reduce the amount of clothes dumped into landfills by posting clothing-recycling bins around the city in an effort to re-route the clothes from the trash to thrift stores. An initial 50 bins will be placed in public places, but the eventual goal is to have the majority of bins located in the basement and/or laundry rooms of apartment buildings. Personally, I've always wished that there was an easy way to recycle my clothes! I have been lugging bags of clothes up to Goodwill every year, but it sure would be awesome if I could just recycle it in my very own apartment building!
Fashion week is coming up in a couple of weeks! This means that we'll also be looking forward to the third season of the GreenShows! As the only premiere fashion event exclusively committed to eco-friendly, ethically sound, fair-trade fashion, this 3-day event will showcase some of our favorite designers, including Joann Berman and Samantha Pleet!
joann berman
joann berman
This week's reading also included an article about a great eco-fashion business supporting women of domestic violence. The Annie O. Boutique accessory collection was founded by Annie O. Waterman, who was inspired by vibrant Peruvian textiles and the desire to bring work to female cooperatives in South America. The boutique works with 80 women who are victims of domestic violence and/or living in impoverishment to help them attain financial independence by applying their skills in handcrafts to create beautiful hand-embroidered handbags, belts, scarves and more.
ok all - have a great rest of your weekend! make sure to go check out our c. marchuska store - we have some awesome stuff for the upcoming fall!
Weekly Eco-Fashion Update – Aug. 13th
Happy Friday the 13th everyone!
It's time to announce the winner of our c. marchuska giveaway!
Autum22 has won the Leslie dress! and we loved what she said about our SS2010 video: "Really loved the backgrounds and the sense of the girls being the only people there-It seemed like there should be traffic,noise and so much going on behind them but there wasn't. It allowed you to focus on the lovely outfits."
Thanks Autum22! Get in touch with us so we can ship your Leslie dress!
ok, now onto the weekly update
Events: Levi's is hosting the Care to Air competition - Levi's is asking consumers to let all their good green laundry ideas hang out! They're looking for green pioneers and inventors to submit original air-drying solutions with the chance of winning $10,000 in prizes. A panel of judges will pick the winning design on August 16th! Check out some of the finalist entries (how clever right??)
Nothing is What it Seems by Caleb Hill
Vogue and Fiat have launched an "eco-fashion" competition to design a bike helmet for the Fiat 500 folding bike to coincide with Fashion's Night Out in Milan, Italy. The winner with the best graphic design will win a €3,000-prize pot!
This is kind of fun (if you can find pictures of this online - send it my way!) At London Fashion Week, the Conscious Designers Collective staged a renegade roving ethical catwalk in the street. This featured a half-dressed man courtesy of Pants to Poverty and female models in ethical labels such as Elena Garcia and Tammam.
Blogosphere: I just recently found out about two inspirational up-cycle businesses!
The Clothing Bank, a non-profit organization that helps low-income and unemployed women prepare to enter the workplace, was founded in Capetown by Tracey Gilmore and Tracey Chambers when they recognized the potential of using excess clothing from retailers to drive enterprise development. Go read about them here!
RecycleMyDress.com is Nicole Kulp's business that takes your old bridesmaid dresses (with all the puffy shoulders and unflattering bulges) and transforms them into new creations sold for anywhere between $20-$200. Check out her etsy store and read the article about her business!
Another fabulous eco-friendly mission! Edun has worked with the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) to create the Conservation Cotton Initiative (CCI) to improve the livelihoods of communities in Africa by investing in sustainably harvested "conservation cotton." Starting this week, Nowness.com is preventing a preview of a documentary that will air in October highlighting the efforts of the CCI to encourage African farmers to employ organic production efforts. Go watch the preview! Also - can I just say that Edun's fall line is pretty awesome?
have a great weekend! =)
Weekly Eco-Fashion Update – Aug 6th
Happy Friday!!
There's good news for everyone! We at c. marchuska are extending our giveaway and will be announcing the winner next Friday, August 13th (yup...Friday the 13th...might be a good test to see how lucky you are =p) Enter now to win a monika, leslie, or roli hoodie! Just comment on our new SS2010 video and tell us which dress you want!
ok...now it's time for the weekly update!
Retail: In promoting its first hybrid, the CT200h, Lexus has begun the Darker Side of Green campaign, in which they show that eco-friendly can be sexy and not all about "flowery sunshine-filled days in the park." Lexus has created the Dark Ride Card to line up cool hotels, nightclubs, and fashion partners as part of its investment of marketing tools. This includes the Luxury Eco driving glove, created by eco-luxe designer, Linda Loudermilk.
This week, I also discovered the cutest eco-friendly kids boutique! Cornflowerblue is a gorgeous online boutique where you can find eco-friendly, organic, and ethical kids clothing from local and international brands. Go read more about them here! Seriously, aren't these dresses adorable?
Blogosphere: There's quite a bit of eco-fashion movement in the Project Runway world! First, I'm happy to report that the winner of the past two episodes of PR is an eco-lovely, Gretchen Jones of MothLove.
Also, the winner of season 7 of PR, Seth Aaron Henderson, is now creating solar-powered clothing, which he will debut at Portland's upcoming Fashion Week on October 9th. I'm looking forward to seeing exactly how he will mix sustainability with his punk-rock designs.
Sales: Get 50% off all full-price items at Stewart + Brown with the code FIFTYOFF.
NIMLI is also celebrating summer by offering 30% off from 8/3 - 8/9/10. Use the code DOIE30 at checkout
c. marchuska: Again - go enter our giveaway! We're excited to be giving people free monika, leslie, or roli hoodie! Just leave a comment at our SS2010 video video & let us know which item you want
c. marchuska giveaway!!
Get excited everybody! We at c. marchuska are planning a giveaway to celebrate our new SS2010 web spot. You can win the monika, leslie, or roli hoodie just by doing the following simple tasks:
1. Go watch our new SS2010 web spot by Hero Status Films and leave a comment on youtube!
2. Retweet this blog post and tell us whether you want the monika, leslie, or roli hoodie!
We love our fans and wish everyone the best of luck! We will be randomly selecting and announcing the winner this Friday, August 6th, on our weekly eco-fashion update
monika dress
roli hoodie
leslie dress
Weekly Eco-Fashion Update – July 31st
Hi all! Sorry for the delay in posting! This week has been kind of crazy, but I still wanted to do a weekly update for y'all so that you can see the awesome stuff happening.
Retail: Jean-Philippe Gawronski, a former designer at Lanvin, is launching an eco-friendly line - Imitation and Disguise! He's taken his learnings from Alber Elbaz to create apparel, jewelry, shoes, and handbags. I'm pretty impressed by the details he's put into everything!
Need some chic travel essentials? TEICH, a local Brooklyn brand, has created a few items that's making me rethink what I take with me on my trips. The TEICH scallop clutch serves as an awesome makeup bag and the TEICH/Ryann belt with detachable waist acts as a great fanny pack for those touristy adventures. Lucky for all of us, TEICH has a special 40% off summer sale through August 12th.
Need some summer sandals? For a casual look, check out TOMs wedges with a One for One outreach program, where "every pair purchased is matched by a new pair given to a child in need."
For a more dressy look, I am swooning over these Cri De Coeur "Hannah" asymmetrical sandals and Terra Plana "Betty" Sling-Backs. For more awesome eco-friendly sandals, check out the list on EcoFashionWorld.
Blogosphere: Last year, actress Julia Stiles put together a hilarious spoof of eco-fashion. This year, she tells Ecouterre that she actually likes eco-fashion, particularly the Edun line by Bono. However, she doesn't know how to find that many other lines in eco-fashion...
On the other hand, Jennie Garth, a supporter of keeping the Earth green, says that she just uses Google to find green clothing for her family. How efficient! Hopefully she finds c. marchuska!
By the way, is anybody excited that there's an eco-friendly designer on Project Runway? Go Gretchen Jones!
c. marchuska: Through today, you can get 30% off on c. marchuska products at blendnewyork! Go get your sale on
Another one of our retailers was highlighted on MindBodyGreen. Go read all about Kate McGregor of Kaight!
Have you ever wondered if eco-fashion can be considered sexy? Check out our c. marchuska web spots! Make sure you're sitting down first...haha