NOW Showcase - Designer Forum for what is new & sustainable

NOW Showcase - Designer Forum for what is new & sustainable

Submitted by Rebecca Luke on Sat, 09/26/2009 - 9:03am.

education & awareness

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Last week was an incredible NYC fashion week from the tents i.e. Mercedes Benz Fashion week, to all the other groups and shows around the city. Now we have the trade shows in town where the buyers all congregate to purchase what you will ultimate get to select from at their stores.

One showcase that I have had the pleasure of watching grow is the NOW Showcase. Started three seasons ago, NOW is a designer's forum featuring the newest in progressive as well as sustainably produced, independent collections.

When I stepped into the room the other night, I was amazed at how many designers and lines were showcased there. The product is getting better. Designers are really upping the anti on quality and style. Three lines stood out to me for the evening.

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First, for basics that are well made, feel good and look even better, I like SUST. Out of San Francisco, their basics are yummy to the feel and are designed to fit women. They also have cuts that are simple yet sexy.

Then, for funky and fun pieces, that I personally would wear every day, Jai Active Weary
is the brand I recommend to check out. Designed and made in New York.

And finally, Linda Loudermilk. Linda has been a pioneer in eco-fashion, well, since SSF began seven years ago. Her spring collection is sophisticated, as are her fabrics.

At SSF, we are looking forward to more with NOW and the potential it has to highlight sustainability, fashion and fabulous independent design.

For more on co-founder Rebecca Luke’s style adventures Rebecca Luke Style

Organic TV's Pick of the Week: SUST Organic Apparel

Organic Pick of the Week: SUST Organic Apparel

FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2009 AT 9:43AM

Over the course of my journey toward a more sustainable lifestyle, one of my favorite projects has been greening my wardrobe. And in my opinion, out of the growing number of eco-fashion options, SUSTorganic apparel is the cream of the crop.

SUST clothing is colorful, comfortable and stylish - perfect for an active lifestyle like mine. SUST clothes are versatile too; I feel like I could wear my SUST 'mod dress' to a fancy dinner or to one of our shoots on a sustainable farm. SUST uses 100% certified organic cotton grown in the US, and the garments are manufactured ethically in California.

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of meeting SUST CEO Tristan Gribbon at the NOW Showcase in New York. Tristan is one of those beautiful and inspiring women who radiate enthusiasm for their work and support others on the path toward positive change. You can tell that she not only enjoys helping women adapt to a more eco-friendly lifestyle through clothing but that she truly cares about the larger mission of sustainability in all sectors.

Tristan co-founded SUST in 2007. Here's an excerpt from the SUST mission:

"SUST is taking sustainable style to another level with a line of essential pieces in classic styles that will stand the test of time. Each piece of clothing has social and ecological responsibility woven into its very fabric with organic fibers that are produced with fair labor practices in California."

You can purchase SUST clothing online or at your local clothing boutique (if your retailer doesn't carry SUST yet, be sure to ask them!)

-Dorothee

get SUST: A Different Kind of Eco-Fashion

get SUST: A Different Kind of Eco-Fashion

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Published by Vanessa Brunner under Clothing, Sustainability, Sustainable

The name given to SUST’s clothing line is a perfect description of the clothes. A combination of “sustainable” and “sussed” (a British word for “cool”) SUST is just that: very cool, very sustainable clothes.

But gorgeous, 100% organic US cotton, ethically made in California clothes aside—what’s even more striking about this line are the people behind it. Childhood BFFs Marion McKee, a jewelry designer, and Tristan Gribbin, an actress were joined by Kevin Baum, a twenty-year veteran of the clothing industry. These fashionable forces all grew up in Palo Alto, just south of San Francisco–and they continue to base their line out of the Bay Area today

Photo c/o arniandkinski.com

The vision of SUST is what differentiates it from others. Rather than letting the entire focus be on the clothes—which, FYI, are absolutely amazing—SUST’s vision is something more compelling.

“The vision of SUST is to create an engine of giving,” says SUST founder Tristan Gribbin. “We want that to work alongside a strong and compelling brand that aids the movement for sustainability.”

Working with the highest quality US organic cotton, and collaborating closely alongside local manufacturers, SUST guarantees that fair trade principles are carefully incorporated into every aspect of the process. SUST also believes in a larger definition of corporate responsibility–choosing environmental causes that are supported through a portion of profits from every purchase.

The clothes themselves are very “sussed.” Clean lines, strong structure, simple style that can still make a statement. It’s refreshing to see clothing that is sustainable, but can still allow for fashion and flexibility.

My personal favorite? SUST’s simple, comfortable, and beautiful mod dress. It’s the perfect everyday dress with a pair of flats or sandals, but can work just as easily for a night out with heels and a bold necklace. I love it in the emerald hue of SUST’s True Green.

SUST's Mod Dress, in True Green

Most importantly, SUST’s line is made to last. Sticking to the epitath of eco-fashion, these pieces are classic and essential pieces that buyers use and keep for years.

Recently, SUST has expanded its line of cotton supima knits to include super-soft sweaters. SUST is also adding some hemp items to the line. SUST retailers are about to go to MAGIC, the massive and hugely influential Fashion and Apparel Trade Show in Las Vegas, where they will show their Fall 2009 and Spring/Summer 2010 lines. The SUST collections will also be showing at NOW Showcase, a new show for eco fashion designers, which will take place in September 2009 during New York Market Week.

For more information about, or to contact SUST:

Twitter

Facebook

Kevin Baum: kevin@getsust.com, (650) 464-3021

Native Wisdom from Glacier National Park

September 5, 2009 at 9:34 am

Glacier National Park is ripe with wilderness, and we’re catching it just at the end of the season when the roads are empty but the sun still shines bright and warm. This rugged landscape immediately stole a little piece of my heart and I was giddy like a kid in a candy shop, trying to take photos from the car as we bounced down a bumpy unpaved road for almost thirty miles to get to our remote campground for the first night of our visit.

The National Park System has made an impressive effort to give Glacier’s rich cultural heritage a leg to stand on as the jagged mountains and crystal clear, deep blue glacial rivers and lakes battle in a competition for your attention. Luckily, the story of this World Heritage Site is as enthralling as its skyline, and that’s what I’d like to share with you.

Historically, Glacier’s passes and trails were well known routes to Native Americans, who used to traverse what they called, “The Backbone of the World” to get from one hunting ground to another. The Natives, among them Blackfeet, Kalispell, Crow, Sioux and Assiniboine people, believed that spiritual beings and values exist in every element of the land. Their stories are rich with animals, anthropomorphized with human characteristics like a chatty raven or a wise Grizzly bear that are embodiments of spirits who can teach important life lessons to humans. One Blackfoot elder has said that, “Everything under the sky has a voice to speak with and knowledge to tell.”

According to many regional tribes’ philosophies, humans are but a single instrument in an ongoing orchestra of life and are themselves responsible for keeping in tune and playing correctly in time with the magical production that is life on earth.

I was really moved by this fundamental aspect of Native philosophy and the harmonic picture it paints of days of yore when humans thrived alongside nature. Setting off on this journey around the country, I wanted to visit as many national parks as possible in an attempt to regain a certain level of appreciation for the earth that in daily life is too often paved over and landscaped between city blocks. I got the feeling sometimes working a nine to five that I’m walking on a concrete shell instead of the earth itself and it left me hankering for something else, something wilder, maybe something more human than what civilization has built.

Spending so much time immersed in natural landscape makes me think that somewhere down the line, humans as a species had broken off and started our own band and that our beat no longer matches that of the greater orchestra, that we can’t even hear it anymore over the din of our city streets and factory pumps. Today’s society doesn’t offer its young the opportunity to venture off into the wilderness like Glacier’s Chief Mountain for a rite of passage or a vision quest, our life trajectories have become disentangled from the rest of the wild and we’ve lost touch with our place in the natural world.

Maybe what this movement for sustainability needs is a sibling uprising, a call to return back to nature and to rediscover our roots. The media plays a big part in driving the movement with fear, of rising seas, record temperatures and the threat of global epidemics. But, maybe what we need is not another reason to be afraid, but instead to simply fall back in love with our habitat and to come to want to live benignly out of kindness and respect for our land and our peers in the animal kingdom.

Last year, I traveled all the way to Patagonia to experience a wilderness that exists quite comparably in my very backyard. Every day that I travel on this journey and simply sit in beautiful little nooks and crannies of this country, I’m stunned to silence by the extraordinary splendor of our home, and the need to make conscious, responsible daily choices is internalized more and more. So, although the season is almost over, I urge you to go outside and get even one more taste of the warm summer sun on a tall mountaintop. Soak it up! Fall in love again.

I don’t think anything can move people to do such incredible things and complete seemingly insurmountable tasks as love, and maybe that’s what each of us needs to help us get back to our roots, to pick up our instruments and play again, in tune with the orchestra of life.

SUST appeal

Sust Appeal

WRITTEN BY LISSA LEON © 2009 ECOSTYLE MAGAZINE

The word on the street is about sustainable style with sass appeal.Sust is a super cool clothing line made with love and loaded with eco-conscious luxury. Ecostyle is loving this line...from the buttery-soft tees to the skinny stringbean pant...leggings that just say love me forever. Sust is 100% organic, sustainable, and proudly made in L.A. with a flair for fashion forward. Need a style to go ga-ga for every season? Keep it real. Get Sust.

Shop S U S T and Save. Click Below to Shop My Faves.

Getting Back To Our Roots: The Sustainability Across America Tour

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Published by Vanessa Brunner under Clothing, Design, Lifestyle, Sustainability

In my quest to become an eco-fashionista, I’ve been doing a lot of research on sustainable fashion lines in my beautiful city–San Francisco. Just by chance, I happened upon SUST, a sustainable fashion line based out of SF. What struck me immediately about SUST (besides their gorgeous clothing) was their evident and unwavering passion about starting a movement. The line isn’t so much about making cool clothes and being fashionable (although it definitely does that!) as it is about inspiring people to integrate green into each and every part of their lives. And it’s very evident, in every aspect of their business.

SUST's beautifully designed website

*Note: We’ll be doing an in-depth post on SUST later this week.

The Sustainability Across America Tour, sponsored by SUST, is a perfect example of how that passion can be used to expand out and make a difference.

SAAT is a one woman tour, run by Laura Jones, who also runs Social Media for SUST. Like myself, Laura was struck by the drive of the group, and their desire to start a social revolution. She was lucky enough to be able to get involved with the project, and use her talents and know-how to reach out to those who want to know more about the people at the root of this movement.

I think the best way to explain her goals is a quote frrom her blog on the tour:

“There are people out there like you and me who wake up every morning and work to change the way we live and behave, consume and interact with our social and natural environments. These people must have great stories, I want to hear them and I want to share them with you.”

Passion is contagious. And I think I’ve caught it too.

Some snapshots from the SAAT so far

I highly recommend checking out the blog. I love road trip/travel blogs in the first place—you get the doubled pleasure of seeing where they’ll go next/living vicariously through the traveler.

But more importantly, Jones is talking to some seriously innovative people. Aysia Wright, Founder of Greenloop; Gifford Pinchot, President of Bainbridge Graduate Institute; Scott Leonard, CEO of Indigenous Designs. These are people to be looked up to and followed—and it’s inspiring to see and hear them through Jones.

Long story short: definitely visit the site, and see what SAAT is all about. I can guarantee that you’ll learn something of lasting value.

(Follow them on Twitter too! )

Jones’ trip thus far:

1. Indigenous Designs (7/27)

2. Walking Amongst Giants at Redwoods National Park (7/28)

3. Crater Lake National Park (7/28)

4. Aysia Wright of Greenloop (8/8)

5. Gifford Pinchot of Bainbridge Graduate Institute (8/19)