Delia, d/b/a Chic Eco on www.ChicEco.com, established herself as an eco fashion guru by learning "who makes what in the world of environmental fashion and design."
She gets her kicks this way. From sustainable fashion apparel to paint and flooring, discoveries are a rush and even better when she connects suppliers with retailers as a broker. Aspects of her business vary with services, but Delia is known to be the contact that embraces weird gigs.
Delia enjoys freelance writing about environmental design, fashion and art, ― from both consumer and supplier perspectives. Her published portfolio includes Conscious Choice, Fiber Ethics, Design Works, Natural Matters and Yogi Times (U.S. and Canadian magazines), as well as OmPlace, Feminist.com, EcoMall and other green-minded websites. Her bimonthly Eco Style column for In Business, a magazine dedicated to helping innovative individuals grow sustainable enterprises, ran nearly eight years until the publication dissolved 2008. For six years she wrote The Environment for Chevy Chaser, a monthly Kentucky community paper.
Delia is originally a Kentucky Blue Grass gal who relocated to the tropical Puna District of Big Island, Hawaii late August 2007. Her cabin rental is near her vacant property lot where she intends to build off the grid with organic landscaping. Reputed as a slum neighborhood and in a flood zone, she's determined and challenged with the tiny lot. Also in the lava zone, but then everybody in the region is. She happens to dig the earthquake vibrations while living alone, yet amongst everyone else's pets. Heck, it's paradise to her!
Time for fall/winter fashions and when it comes to staying warm in freezing temperatures, the eco-minded public feels left in the cold by more than the weather. There aren’t many choices beyond synthetics. So what’s the solution?
The answer lies in one’s moral perspective on what constitutes a sustainably made garment. Some find it strange when a petroleum-based synthetic is praised while natural materials like fur and wool are condemned.
Raffaele Ruberto founded Mod.Skin Labs, LLC in 2006. Two years is not long ago, yet seemingly perfect timing for a rather new awareness of conventional personal care product hazards. After all, the certification journey of organic foods was a battle in itself. The debate over whether skin care formulations could hold shelf-life with organic and natural ingredients followed.
Early 2007 Organic Bouquet CEO Gerald Prolman predicted that by Valentine’s Day 2012, the U.S. market for environmentally-friendly flowers will exceed $100 million, as Americans spent $230 billion each year on environmentally responsible purchases. In 2005 the U.S. organic market was estimated to be worth $14.6 billion in annual sales, growing at approximately 17% per year. Clearly, this is not a passing fad as organic flowers are now the fastest growing sector of the non-food organic market.
Organic Bouquet, based in San Rafael, California, was successfully launched nationwide in August 2002. The business originated with the goal to establish the national market for organic flowers. But cofounder Prolman said it was hard convincing growers to convert. However thankfully, the pursuits of combined commitments, charitable fund-raising partnerships, and determination resulted in a reliable certified organic distribution system.
What is a card or wrap trap? A waste of resources that eventually cost more than money! Most people spend special occasion and holiday funds on ultimate trash when they buy conventional cards, gift wrapping paper and ribbon. Such items are rarely recycled and cause an excessive landfill burden, especially during December.
Perhaps you’ve noticed gift and holiday supplies proudly claiming recycled, post-consumer, chlorine-free, or tree-free? Sounds nice, but are you confused? Most consumers are when trying to decipher it all. Frustrations peak when claims are misleading.
Just tested new eco poly bags from The Finer Liner.com and I’m impressed. Both business and home owners who simultaneously care about tasteful decor and being green have a solution.
Company owner Annette Savio offers lovely white biodegradable trash liners with shimmering gold ferns printed on them. The scalloped edge is unique and stylish. As pictured, simply fold the liner edge over for a fashionable wastebasket.
Each liner fits up to a 36 inch perimeter, which is your typical basket size for decorated living, bed and bathrooms. A pack of 12 liners is $9 or retailers can place minimum orders for 36 packages.
Whether a farmer, designer, or shopper, tagua nuts are gems from nature to treasure. Especially crafts people love to enhance their creativity with tagua.
A tagua nut sure has a lot of names. Like The Rain Forest Ivory or Vegetable Ivory. Other titles are Corozo (also spelled Corrozzo), Binroji Nut (Japanese), Steinnuss (German), and Coquilla Nut. A tagua nut is the fruit of a palm tree, primarily Phytelephas macrocarpa, which flourishes in tropical rain forests from Paraguay to Panama.
Natives replant palm trees for their seeds instead of logging them, which saves a bit of the rain forests. They polish the shell of the seeds and typically carve them into the shape of a button, living creature, or beautiful jewelry. Just think: an object much like a gem with all the qualities of ivory, but without harming wildlife.
The most exciting fashion aspect of recycling is art. Wearing art as jewelry is common, but not so true when it comes to clothing. It takes a special talent to make stylish clothes from recycled materials, — an artistic talent.
Hence, I am honored to introduce you to Thai designer Nunthirat “Koi” Suwannagate, who approaches her work through the prism of art. Each piece she designs is a completely unique, one-of-a-kind handmade garment, and reflects her own personal vision.
Koi has a thing for vintage cashmere and incorporates the recycled material into her collections. Her signature style is to hand-sculpt the cashmere into fabulous rosette appliques. She also designs with organic cotton and silk. The combination is a richness and superior softness that Koi says is the epitome of luxury and pure indulgence.
Koi’s talent to enhance and beautify the natural contours of the female body are obvious, but less emphasized in the press. I think it’s because each admirer is hypnotized over the construction details, and speak less of the drape that allows fluid movement and ultimate comfort. Yet the press is dishing loads of favorable reviews from the pages of W and WWD, Vogue, Bazaar, and much more.
In the green market, the interior design world is about healthy settings with visual appeal. The goal is to create rooms for physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual benefits. That means avoiding things like VOCs, chemicals, and clutter.
You can see that earth and human-friendly designers and decorators are increasingly riding the green wave. And we now know that natural wool, hemp, silk, seagrass, bamboo, cork, and other organic fibers are here for us. Ancient craft techniques are reviving and some know how to blend it all so well into the present. Recycling is one method that seems to create new artistic magic.
One such conscious professional creator is Marla Henderson. She identifies herself as more an artist/producer of interiors than a traditional designer. Marla frequently works with artisans to develop unique spaces. Her course of life leads us to the Babik rug collection she offers today.
Isn’t it nice to learn about a company that so admirably exceeds the goal of sales?
