Date Your Closet

 Date Your Closet: Inspiration From The Rules

Guest post by Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff from Eco Stiletto. For more Eco Style & Fashion, check out

www.EcoStiletto.com

 

 

No more hook-ups and one-night-stands: Just say no to disposable fashion and create a long-term relationship with your closet.

The average American family throws out more than 6,000 pounds of trash every year. There’s a plastic bag cemetery the size of two Texases floating in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Obviously, reducing, reusing and recycling are on everyone’s minds. But what about our textile waste? According to the EPA, each one of us throws out 70 pounds of clothing and textiles every year—that’s four percent of the landfill. It’s time to learn to work what we’ve got—to save money, and the planet.

 

It’s time to date your closet.

 

No more hook-ups and one-night-stands: Just say no to disposable fashion and create a long-term relationship with your closet. Think about clothing purchases as things that you want to live with for a long, long time.

 

To expand on the date your closet concept, we went to the experts: The Rules: Time-Tested Secrets for Capturing the Heart of Mr. Right, the wildly successful self-help-meets-dating book by Ellen Fein and Sherrie Schneider.

 

Bear with us. Yes, it’s gotten heavy flak for being retro and anti-feminist and recommending a rather mercenary view of romance, but as this best-selling tome has everyone from Oprah to Beyonce on its bandwagon, we thought it might be fun to interpret its ideas here. 

 

Relax, ecoista, it’s a metaphor.

 

Rule Number One: Be A Creature Unlike Any Other.

This is the best vote of confidence for shopping your close that we’ve found yet. Because how can you be unique when you’re wearing the latest fashions-clothing that everyone else and her mother is sporting this season? All those seasonal fashion stories you read in magazines are recycled anyway: Think high-waisted sailor pants are a new concept? Check spring issues from 1964 and 1987. Stand out from the pack by wearing-and re-wearing-timeless, classic looks that look good on you and forget about People Style Watch.

 

For more of EcoStiletto’s “date your closet” rules, please visit their Fashion section at http://www.ecostiletto.com/index.php?/Fashion/Comments/.

Green Goddess

No one likes the feeling of a ton on make up on their face, but even if you are wearing "light" make up, your face could still be covered in yucky unnatural ingredients AND you may be doing unknown damage to the environment. Here's how to avoid that...

1) Choose products made with natural ingredients like Vichy, Aveda, and Josie Maran.

2) Buy from companies like M.A.C, Stila, and Cargo who care about the planet. M.A.C. gives customers a free lip stick for returning 6 empty product containers. Stila offers refillable packaging. And Cargo has a new lipstick that is not only botanical, but the box it comes in, is entirely biodegradable and infused with flower seeds so you can plant it and it will actually grow wild flowers! How cool is that?

3) Buy from companies who support eco friendly initiatives and take part in fair trade.

Breathing new life into your clothes!

Let's talk about re-purposing and making the most out of your clothes. Whether they are old, damaged, or you're just bored with them...there are things you can do to rescue your clothes and create some new items at the same time.

1) Take that old cocktail or formal dress you will never wear again, and have a tailor cut the bottom off and make it into a cute top you can wear with jeans during a weekend night out on the town.

2) If last years Spring coat is still in good shape but you are just kind of bored with it...rathar than thowing it out (what a waste!) and spending more money to get a new one, why not find some funky new buttons to sew onto it, and a cute belt (in a hot colour of the season!).

3) You've put your favorite white shirt in the wash only to discover afterwards that a pen was in there with it. If you can't get the stains out, instead of tossing it, go and buy a clothing dye that is darker than the ink stains (like a navy blue or a purple), and dye your shirt for a brand new one!

Save your hair & the planet

As women, we know that if you style your hair regularly, you pay a price. Your hair gets dry and damaged, and the split ends run rampant. But what if you could skip the damage, still look just as fabulous, and actually do some good for your hair AND the environment at the same time??? Here's how...

1) Invest in eco-friendly hair tools - Reduce your carbon footprint by using a blow dryer or flat iron that uses less energy. Conair, Rusk, and Vidal Sassoon all make eco friendly, energy saving tools.

2) Use natural and animal friendly hair products - Try out brands like plant based Aveda or one of the first lines to ban testing on animal, Paul Mitchell.

3) Skip the wash and dry - Once a week, skip one wash and one blow dry. If everyone did this, we'd be saving so much water and energy. And when it comes to the blow dry, not only will your hair thank you, you'd probably be surprised at how much you like your "au natural" look.

4) Lastly, something I am the MOST excited to tell you about! If you colour your hair, you have got to know that being exposed to amonia based hair colour can't be good for you on some level. And quite often, it's very damaging to your hair.

So, what if there was an all-natural, 100% ammonia free, permanent color you could do at home yourself? Well, there is! One of Bevelerly Hills' top hair colourists Susan Henry http://susanhenry-ncp.com/  has developed that product AND has graciously offered to give all Practical Fashionista Blog readers a 15% discount! How awesome is that?! And as if that is not enough, Susan also guarantees that you will love your new colour AND how good your hair will feel, that if you aren’t happy with the results, send back the hair color—even if the bottles are empty—for a full refund (minus shipping and handling of course).

So, what have you got to lose? Make sure to check it out at http://susanhenry-ncp.com/, and when ordering, enter the discount code "SHADES15" to get your 15% off. HAPPY COLOURING!

Green Fashion!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Now, while most fashion posts today will be about green coloured clothing and accessories, I want to talk about green clothing and accessories. Get it? I'm talking about eco friendly style. Which at one time maybe meant funny smelling, itchy fabrics in boring colours. Well, no more. Today it can be found in high end, cutting edge styles in beautiful fabrics. And by the way, there is more than one way to "green" your wardrobe...

1) Choose clothing in eco friendly fabrics like organic cotton & wool, bamboo, even soy silk!
2) Buy from designers who make their collections from reclaimed fabrics and clothing. One of my favourites is local Toronto store Preloved (google "reclaimed clothing" to find similar designers in your area).
3) DIY Upcycling - reduce your carbon footprint by recyling your own clothing into new pieces. For example, that cocktail dress you'll never wear again...take it to a tailor and have it cut and made into a cute fitted top you can wear with your jeans and heels for a night on the town.
4) Plan a Swap party with your friends.
5) Last but not least, shop second hand and consignment stores.You'd be surprised at the quality, high end, designer pieces people no longer want that you can get for a steal! FYI...I once found a Betsey Johnson dress at a thrift store that fit me like a glove, and got it for $8!!!