As you’ve probably noticed our weekly round-up was missing from GGG last week, making it ‘Eco Chic Two-Weekly’.

Apologies to those of you who missed the latest and greatest on eco fashion and if you’d like to contribute a green fashion post to Green Girls Global take a look at our Contribute page and get in touch!

Enjoy!…

Eco-Chick
Eco-Chick gets Eairth-y with some Fabulous Phillipino Eco-Fashion

Fashion, Evolved
Fashion, evolved interviews Sara Suemae, the founder and designer of the eco-fabulous line SPUN.

Green Cotton
Congrats to the D.C. Green Festivals for a terrific eco-fashion show and impressive recycling for 30,000+

Green Girls
The GreenGirls.tv tells us why knockoffs and fakes are a crime of fashion.

The Alternative Consumer
Natural Wrist Warmers- Tres chic and handmade, a yummy accessory for fall, winter and spring.

Green Grechen
No Leather Here! Chic Handbags for Vegans.

Victoria Everman
What Are You Tired Of? Tell the World and Make It Change! - An interview with I’m Tired Of co-founder Dan Hoffman

Here’s this week’s ECW Roundup

Eco Chick
Eco Chick reviews E magazine’s Eco Luxe Issue

Victoria E
Emily Katz: The latest instalment of Victoria’s Eco-Fashion Euphoria series!

DC Goodwill’s Fashion Blog
Does Brad Pitt’s name on the label of Kiehl’s new eco-friendly cleanser make you more likely to purchase it?

The Green Girls
Green Girls have discovered some Girly Green Things that are worth checking out!

Green Cotton Blog
Trick or Treat for the Eco-Sweet! See what Green Cotton discovered to satisfy that eco-sweet tooth of yours.

Green Grechen
Wear your Where: Why You Should Buy Local and How to Do It

Here’s this week’s ECW roundup.

Enjoy!…

Victoria E

A review of numerous all-natural Yes to Carrots brand products & a giveaway!

Eco Chick

Eco Chick warns about the greenwashing of so-called “natural” beauty products.

Fashion, evolved

Fashion, evolved preaches the good word about buying vintage.

Fig+Sage

Giveaway for an Organic Breastfeeding Support Kit (worth $50)

Green Cotton

To help us out of our economic “recession” with some eco-therapy, Green Cotton helps us find some of the hottest deals of the season…all under $99.

GreenGirls.tv

The GreenGirls.tv reports from the happening scene at the D&A Green Market!

Green Grechen

Grechen Looks at Handbag Designers working with Recycled Leather

Here’s this week’s ECW roundup.

Over to you ladies……

Fashion, Evolved

What does fashion have to do with poverty? Check out Fashion, Evolved’s Blog Action Day post!

Victoria E

Says eco oral care is easy, affordable, effective and artistic

DC Goodwill Fashion Blog

Looks back at the inspiring colours from New York fashion week

Eco Chick

Eco Chick dishes on this autumn’s four sexiest sustainable shoes!

Greenmystyle.com

Greenmystyle.com chats fashion, celebrities and fair trade with Safia Minney, founder of People Tree and the First Lady of eco style

Green Girls

Check out the weekly video wrapup of everything that happened on GreenGirls.tv!

Green Cotton

Green Cotton’s Visit to Belize Last Week from an Eco-lens

Green Grechen

Grechen Looks at the Reality of Conflict-Free and Diamond Alternatives

Fig and Sage

The much anticipated AVEDA Organic collection is available as an “exclusive sneak peak” here..

So here’s the first Eco Chic Weekly, an exciting new collaboration from some of the greatest green style blogs on the web.

Check out our Eco Chic Weekly page to see what we’re all about.

Here’s what the Eco Chic Weekly team have been talking about this week. Click on the subjects below to find out more…

Green Cotton

Welcomes EcoChic Weekly with hot posts and areas of interest for new visitors.

Eco Chick

Tells us about Teens Turning Green eco body care

Green Girls.tv Wrap up

Get a video wrap up on what happened with the Green Girls on GreenGirls.tv

Fashion Evolved

Says “Jerrel Wuz Robbed!” In her recap of Project Runway Season 5 Finale - part 1

Victoria E

Provides a preview of Ecoist’s new collections and an exclusive discount code for 10% off everything in their online store.

What are your clothes made of? Who made them? Inputs of clothing production have significant effects on the physical and social environment.

Take a look at the cotton industry. Insecticides used in conventional cotton production are the most hazardous pesticide to human health, causing behavioral changes, increased cancer risk, and even death. Cotton’s second best selling insecticide, Aldicarb, can kill a man with just one drop absorbed through the skin! Who knew wearing cotton could be so dangerous!

Not only is human health impacted, but fertilizers used in conventional cotton production harm the environment. Nitrogen synthetic fertilizers cause leaching and runoff and emit gases that contribute 300 times more to global warming than CO2. Given that it takes about 1/3 pound of synthetic fertilizers to grow one pound of raw cotton, and it takes that pound of cotton to make one t-shirt, producing clothing made with conventional cotton has a detrimental impact on the environment!

Chemicals end up on our skin and in our air, but they also end up in our food! Since the pesticide ridden cottonseed hull is a secondary crop sold as a food commodity, up to 65% of cotton production ends up in our food chain, either directly through food oil or indirectly through milk and meat of animals. Yuck!

After cotton is grown it needs to be processed into fibers to make clothing. During the conversion of cotton into conventional clothing, hazardous materials are added to the product, resulting in large amounts of toxic wastewater that deplete oxygen out of the water and disrupt aquatic ecosystems.

Don’t forget to consider the workers who make clothing. Common in the apparel industry, sweatshop labor entails unethical treatment of workers, long hours, and low pay in substandard conditions.

Alternatively, organic farming methods use natural fertilizers, which reduce both pollution and harmful emissions. Standards prohibit the use of chemicals in organic cotton processing, making organic clothing a safer and cleaner alternative to conventional clothing.

Where did I learn about this? As a summer intern at Maggie’s Organics (www.maggiesorganics.com) I am learning the benefits of organic and fair trade clothing. At Maggie’s our mission is to produce and provide comfortable, durable, affordable and beautiful articles of apparel and accessories made from materials that restore, sustain and enhance the resources, including human, from which they are made. Maggie’s has been selling organic fibers for 16 years, making baby clothes, socks, shirts, lounge wear, and more! We are committed to socially responsible business practices, developing ongoing relationships with partners to develop environmentally sustainable practices.

In short, I advise you check out organic and fair trade clothing alternatives:

• Look for organic cotton on the label
• Check out where the clothing was made. Made in the U.S. is a good indicator that no sweatshop labor was used. If made outside the U.S. make sure the company uses a fair labor model.

Wearing organic and fair trade clothing feels better inside and out! Your health and the environment will thank you

For an invention that has been around for less than a century, the Internet has quickly risen to be one of the most innovative developments of the 20th century. Most businesses have their own websites, most adults have their own email addresses, and even most children have their own computers.

Whether we like it or not, the Internet has become an integral part of our lives, and its prevalence can be used to our advantage. Instead of going to the store, you can shop online, and instead of picking up the phone, you can shoot someone an email, all with the click of a few buttons. With all the convenience the Internet provides, you’d be hard pressed to come up with even more reasons why we should reap its benefits.

But I have at least one more reason to add to the list, not just saving us time, but helping save the planet. As an entirely online resource, the Internet can be used to share information across the world, without ever having to waste natural resources. Online bank statements reduce corporate mailings, while websites like www.photobucket.com allow us to share our pictures without making eco-costly prints. When shopping online, using credit cards and online order confirmation, we save the paper and ink that would other wise be used to print cash and receipts, and without making the trip to the store, we’re reducing our carbon footprint in the process.

So with the prevalence of the Internet, it was only a matter of time before someone came up with an entirely Internet based company, almost completely eliminating any environmental impact. Enter businesses like Nvohk (pronounced “invoke”), the first eco-friendly clothing company managed entirely online! And this company can do one better, providing a chance to become part of a team working not only to manage their own clothing line, but also for the greater good of the planet, with 10% of the proceeds going to an eco-friendly charity of the members’ choice!

With the prevalence of the Internet, and newly formed Internet-based companies like Nvohk, we can make a significant impact on the environment right from our own homes. As an advocate for going green, whether it’s driving a hybrid car, or switching to more energy efficient light bulbs, I’m always looking for ways to lower my impact on the environment. And as more and more companies like Nvohk are going entirely online, I’m finding it much easier to reduce my impact, and get my fashion fix at the same time.

About Nvohk: Recruiting since December 2007, Nvohk now boasts over 2,800 Members worldwide, and the company will officially launch its site this June. The cost of membership is just $50, and using sustainable materials like bamboo, and allowing its members to take the drivers seat in all major business decisions, Nvohk is prepared to bring their eco-conscious viewpoint to the fashion industry. Benefits of membership include a limited edition Nvohk co-founder t-shirt designed by Robb Havassy, an exclusive member sticker, and a “plant-a-tree” seed pack. For more information, or to become a member, please visit www.projectnvohk.com.

With the new interest in green living, the eco-apparel industry has grown by leaps and bounds making it easy to look great and do good at the same time.

Established eco brands like Edun and Loomstate have risen to the demand for trendy eco chic apparel by presenting stylish new lines every season. Helping to expand the industry are new luxurious designers like Perfectly Imperfect and Sworn Virgins.

Love the look but unsure how clothing can be part of a green lifestyle? Read on! Clothing can be green in many ways and for many reasons; below I’ve listed some of the easiest ways you can green your wardrobe.

The greenest garments are those that are already here! Vintage, by its very nature, is green. Buying a great pair of vintage shoes or earrings means that there is no new material, manufacturing, shipping or cost! It does not get any greener then that.

Reused and recycled is not exclusive to the complete garment.

You can find furniture made from recycled and reused materials, like timeless recycled barn wood table. Also, fabulous designers like AgainNYC (a chic handbag company) and annabuilt (a trendy jewelry and fine art design company) are creatively using existing materials to produce new and fabulous pieces. They bring new meaning to the old phrase “reduce, reuse, recycle”!

Looking for this season’s hot new trends, make sure to buy clothing made with organically grown materials. When you are buying clothing made from organically grown cotton, hemp, bamboo or wool you can be confident that no chemicals were put into the Earth in the process to grow the materials for your clothing. Additionally, buying clothes made with highly sustainable materials like bamboo is a great step towards a greener lifestyle.

Lastly, manufacturing is also an important part of the eco apparel industry. Designers of eco apparel use a variety of methods and materials to ensure they are leaving the smallest possible environmental footprint. They also ensure that their products are fairly made and fairly traded.

Once I learned about eco apparel, my business partner and I combined our passions and efforts and launched www.shopmodify.com, a fabulous new eco-friendly online boutique. Modify’s mission is to provide eco-friendly and ethically produced clothing, accessories, beauty products, and home décor. We also carry vintage! Modify is all about truly modifying one’s lifestyle by becoming environmentally conscious and changing one’s overall perception of the world and the care it needs. Check out www.shopmodify.com and start greening your wardrobe today.

Photography by Kristie Lee Krause