Sustainable Style: Eco-Luxe Designers for Less

As fashion weeks unfold all around the world, now is the time to get clued in to eco-luxe clothing: the history, the players, and how to find the best eco-chic looks for less. Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, founder of EcoStiletto and Shoestring's resident Queen of Green, shares her take on eco-luxury fashion.

HISTORY OF ECO-LUXE FASHION

When Linda Loudermilk trademarked the term "luxury eco" in 2002, luxury was all about couture-branded labels — and being an environmentalist meant wearing Birkenstocks and bad hemp. Eight years later, Linda's personal crusade to fill closets with gorgeous clothes that are as sustainable as they are luxurious has inspired a whole new generation of designers. Some emerged from the navel-gazing world of haute couture, where fur is still in fashion; some were raised as treehuggers but realized there had to be more to eco-friendly fabric than bamboo jersey. We're not sure which camp spawned Leanne Marshall, last year's winner of Project Runway (with a collection of organic pieces), but the designer now sells eco-couture skirts in her Leanimal shop on Etsy for $2,500 a pop. Plus, legendary designer Deborah Lindquist, who pioneered the use of recycled fabrics in sustainable fashion, recently introduced spidery, thigh-high tights made from recycled alpaca that retail for $275. Luxury, indeed.

Unlike big-brand couture, however; eco-luxury doesn't generally mean expensive for the sake of being expensive alone. When you buy an eco-luxury product, you're buying something that's typically sewn by hand rather than on an assembly line, crafted from high-quality and eco-friendly materials, designed with the intent of supporting sustainable manufacturing, resources and traditions, and made to last for generations. You're buying into a concept, not a label.

ECO-LUXE DESIGNERS DU JOUR

Case in point? Casey Larkin, whose Mr. Larkin debut collection caught the eye of Oscar nominee Anne Hathaway last year. Larkin crafted her newest collection — all triangulated shoulders and sexy, plunging necklines at Shopflick this spring — in sustainable fabrics that she hand dyes from Japanese maple leaves collected near her home in Berkeley, CA. Talk about labor intensive.

Or take Leila Hafzi, a Norway-based designer who created a fair trade project in Nepal that manufactures ridiculously gorgeous silk cocktail and evening gowns hand-painted with environmentally friendly dyes, which are finally — finally! — available stateside at EcoCitizen. We previewed Leila's Fall 2009 collection at the EcoStiletto One-Year Anniversary Party last year, where eco-celebs like Josie Maran, Sarah Jane Morris, Rachelle Carson-Begley and Anna Getty — as well as myself — wore her designs on the "green carpet."

SAVING MONEY ON ECO-CHIC FASHION

Eco Tees
Can't afford to invest in designer fashion? DIY your own eco-luxury! Alabama Chanin's local artisans use organic and recycled materials to reverse-applique, visible stitch, and embroider one-of-a-kind, heritage-quality t-shirts that are gorgeous yet retail for $250. For $49, you can make your own with an Alabama Chanin DIY kit or follow the instructions in the Alabama Stitch Book. (Alabama Studio Style debuts in March.)

Sustainable Bling
Of course, nothing says luxury like jewels. Once you're aware of the cyanide used to mine gold and the child labor employed to source gems, however; it becomes astoundingly clear that luxury jewelry production is nobody's best friend. That's why the most exciting developments in jewelry design are small manufacturers using recycled metals and fair-trade gems to create gorgeous pieces that can go toe-to-sustainably-stiletto'd-toe with any luxury brand on the red carpet, like the uber-feminine Lustre collection from Christine Mighion and the nature-meets-modern-design interpretations of okomido. Both designers work exclusively in recycled metals and sustainably sourced stones, which deliver all the luxury you can handle but none of the guilt, and have pieces starting around $100.

Who are your favorite eco-luxury designers for less? Shoestring and EcoStiletto want to hear from you!

Photo: Leila Hafzi