Wearing Eco-Conscious Clothing for Earth Month

With April being Earth Month, it’s a perfect opportunity to explore eco-friendly designs that both look great and are good for our environment. When you hear the phrase “going green,” it doesn’t just mean putting on a green T-shirt with your new denim jeans.

Eco-conscious clothing is usually made of natural soy, bamboo, hemp, or cotton, sometimes recycled fabrics, and is always sustainable. It utilizes local or global methods of production. Being eco-friendly can mean having simple styles and preserving the cultural treasures of human beings as well.

Many think of eco-conscious clothing as meaning putty colors and ill fits, but you can say goodbye to these old ideas. With the new spring season, bring in the fresh, new, and fabulous.

Alicia Silverstone is an actress and activist with a unique sense of style. While she loves to wear natural, organic, and simple fabrics, she never compromises when it comes to dressing up. Silverstone once hit the red carpet of a movie premiere in a sexy, earth-friendly little black dress paired with black heels. A simple silver chain effortlessly lay at her waist to complete the eco-chic look.

RESTORE Clothing, a brand based in New York, creates simple, sophisticated, and versatile apparel with products that are kind to the environment. Their Keyhole Dress can be styled in the way Silverstone did and is a perfect pick for sustainable style. Add a dash of sustainable jewelry, either at the neck or at the waist as the actress did, and you’ve marched to the frontline of fashion.

The concept of Maleku Jewelry, based in North Carolina, and winner of the Beyond The Runway Award for Nolcha Fashion Week 2010, is inspired by the highly artistic Maleku Indians of the Northern Costa Rica rain forests.

This indigenous tribe is widely known for their fantastic wall paintings, as well as highly decorative gourds, masks, bowls and other pieces. Unfortunately, the ethnic group is shrinking in size. Although there are only about 500 Maleku people left in Costa Rica, this group has miraculously managed to preserve their treasured art and creativity, time-honored crafts, and cherished language.

Designer Ileana Rojas-Bennett takes pride in donating some of the proceeds from Maleku Jewelry Designs’ sales to the tribe, and said, “As a descendant of the few remaining Maleku artists, it is an honor for me to bestow part proceeds of sales to my beloved Maleku villages throughout northern Costa Rica.”

“Preserving Maleku’s beautiful but disappearing art, and supporting these artists in their ongoing quest to create art is crucial,” she said.

Looking great while dressing eco-friendly is easy, so do your part. Dress the part!

Jess Zaino is the Style Correspondent for Nolcha’s GlobalFashionBrands.com —a social, online marketplace connecting shoppers to independent fashion designers and retailers through a personal shopping and discovery platform. She recommends quality fashion pieces from designers and brands associated with Nolcha in her biweekly column.