A Sanchez Special Feature

I could definitely relate this post to that of having a substitute teacher filling in for your least favorite class and finding out you're watching a movie because they didn't leave a lesson plan... or something like that.  


Basically, while I'm maxing and relaxing out here in San Diego putting together a fabulous new post for you turkeys, I've got someone to entertain you in the meantime! 


The substitute being Depeche, er, I mean, Nate Sanchez a classmate and friend of mine who pens the stylish and witty Nate's Forecast (I suggest you cyber-hop on over there after you read this, of course). 

I know y'all will enjoy reading this as much as I did, and for those who are interested in having a good, green time in Manhattan, this post is for you. So don your most stunning eco-friendly outfits and get goin' ;] Peace, Love and Sustainably Good Times <3

Ciara, Kim Kardashian, Drake, Chris Brown and Rihanna are some of the celebrities who frequently visit Varick St.’s Greenhouse in Soho NYC.  The environmentally friendly luxury club boasts waste-reducing features like waterless urinals, reducing water use by 15,000 gallons annually; and by buying 100 percent wind-generated power. Greenhouse also employs LED lighting in order to reduce the electricity (LED stands for Light-Emitting Diode which converts electricity to light while consuming much less energy than fluorescents or incandescent light bulbs).  

I remember when the club opened in November of 2008, the door policy was very strict, while the outside crowd attempting to get in seemed like a Coldplay concert, you either had to know someone or get on the list, preferably with some tall, statuesque females to facilitate your entry.  

Nowadays however, as the average life expectancy of maintaining the "hotspot" title in NYC has reduced to a mere 6-7 months before the hipsters migrate, the door is much easier to penetrate.  

Although most jaded New Yorkers would not be cab-racing to go to Greenhouse, the venue still maintains a celebrity clientele and the decor is (let’s be honest) stunning.  The music is a melange of house, techno, hip-hop, depending on the night, and the light system is INCREDIBLE.  

Three years in the game is pretty impressive (Rihanna recently crowned it one of her favorite and Drake had his concert after party there) and it is definitely worth experiencing at least once.  If not for the celebs, do it for the sound system and lights!

My forecast?  Greenhouse is going to gracing us with its environmentally friendly presence for a little while longer. 

Thanks Nate! <3

Everything You'll Ever Need to Know About Organic Cotton! (For Now)

Hello class, 
I'd like to give you a lesson today on organic cotton and why it matters. 


If you've been a loyal follower/devoted reader of my blog then you know that I never shut up about it. "Organic cotton this and organic cotton that" but so far, I've given you little reason to care about it...until now ;]. 


Fortunately and unfortunately there is more to it than just the albeit simple and wonderful fact that it is good for the earth. 


However, all of this, when broken down, is quite easy to comprehend. It's all a matter of, now everyone say it with me... "biodiversity". 

Now that I've gone all Captain Planet on you guys, I'd like to take it a step further and define that term:

bi·o·di·ver·si·ty [bahy-oh-di-vur-si-tee, ‐dahy‐] : Biological Diversity. Diversity among and within plant and animal species in an environment.

Biodiversity is fundamental for the survival of all natural and human-engineered ecosystems. Think of it in terms of the food chain or photosynthesis or Nemo and his sea anemone. 

Biodiversity is the sole reason behind organic cotton and farming; once conventional farming comes into play, the natural balance of the ecosystem is thrown off. 

This turtle is ALL about biodiversity. 

There are more than a few important distinctions between organic and conventional farming. 

Organic Cotton seeds don’t treat crops with fungicides or insecticides (treatments farmers use to kill fungi and insects on crops) nor do they employ GMO’s-Genetically Modified Organisms on any of their plants. 

Basically, they take the DNA from one organism and put it into another to completely change and recreate the make up of that organism in order to provide herbicide-tolerance and/or insect resistance to the plants (See: "Playing God"). 

One might think that GMO’s are beneficial as they increase lifespan and productivity of crops. 

However, it isn’t as simple as it sounds. 

The effects that the GMO’s have on other species (humans included) is unknown.

It may also be possible that just as mosquitoes develop a tolerance to DDT in bugspray, pests and fungis can become immune to the GMO’s and thus be useless as well as detrimental. 

 

Economically, GMO’s are costly to make, which raises the issue of running out small farmers and third world countries who can’t afford to grow crops using GMO’s. 

There are 20,000 deaths from pesticide poisoning each year by field workers and townspeople ingesting the chemicals or from run-offs into their water supply. 

That is on top of the countless, life-threatening side-effects, such as the pictures shown above. 

 

Conventional farming is an industry based primarily upon mono-cropping. 

Mono-cropping being the harvesting of one single crop every season without crop rotation, which is necessary for biodiversity and the healthy continuation of the land. 

Mono-cropping destroys the land by ruining soil quality and depleting it of it’s organic matter so that growing crops is no longer a natural, inherent process but a man-made, chemically driven action.

It’s also very important to note that ridding fields of pests is not exactly effective farming. 

Pests that are natural to the land are there to eat other bugs; so killing them off is really quite, ahem, dumb. 

If the “Lion King” has taught you anything, it should be that the circle of life moves us all on the path unwinding and to let nature do it’s job. 

Something like this...

...or this. Take your pick.

When all is said and done, the harvesting of organic cotton is really important for biodiversity because cotton as a whole satisfies half of all the world's fiber needs. 

Organic cotton is grown using methods and materials that have a low impact on people and the environment.

It's just really good stuff.

Plus it's comfy and super-soft. Win-win.

Here are a few companies that use 100% or blends of organic cotton:

Nike

H&M

Levi's

GAP

and more. 

 

And now you get to watch the Lion King. Just as a reinforcement.

Peace, Love and Organic Cotton y'all <3 

  

...Featuring Kevin Greene.

Thanks Kev ;]
Kevin Greene Visual Artist


RD International Style Scoop Tee- Modal and Cotton 
Get it here for $12.99... wink wink
Silence and Noise Jumper 
Hot Sox Bamboo Tights
Vintage Dooney & Burke


Peace, Love and Sustainability<3

Words of Wisdom from Summer Rayne Oakes

Hey guys!
I am now a guest blogger for the wonderful Tori Mistick & co. on her blog EcoFashionistas.com!

I could not be happier to join Tori's crew of brilliant and stylish bloggers; it's such a great opportunity and I am very thankful for it.


So without further delay, here is my first guest post for EcoFashionista on my FAVORITE Eco Fashionista, Summer Rayne Oakes!


Enjoy =) 


Words of Wisdom from Summer Rayne Oakes






As Always, 
Peace, Love and Sustainability <3

Movie Time: Importance of Organic Cotton.

If you have been confused as to why organic cotton is so important, hopefully this video will help you out.




I plan on doing more extended and informative posts on these topics very soon! 




Here is the link for People Tree, a site I have mentioned in the past and will continue to reference due to it's upstanding demonstration of fair trade and environmentally friendly practices (it's also the creator of the video).


Peace, Love and Sustainability<3 
(Oh, and Happy Valentine's Day ;])

EAT MORE KALE

Some of you may be wondering what's going on right now...

well, I'm going to tell you.

This is no ordinary tee shirt.

This shirt happens to be an original, hand-printed design on a 100% organic cotton tee

made entirely in the USA with water-based ink.

It's Eat More Kale, of course!! 

See?

Okay, so to explain further, Eat More Kale is a tee shirt company that was started by the awesome Bo Muller-Moore, for no particular reason but to make tee shirts. 

He sold them locally in Vermont at a Farmers Market for four years, when word spread that everybody, yes everybody, realized they needed to Eat More Kale.

Since then, Bo has been successfully hand-making and selling his tee shirts at home with quirky, random (yet deep and thoughtful) phrases-- like his first: "CHEESE". 

To quote Bo: 

"It means something different to so many people. Some take it literally, others see it as social commentary. It reminds me to think of what I eat. It makes me think of good food grown in a sustainable manner by local farmers." 

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Which is why I love Eat More Kale and wear it often to promote this man's genius. 

I'm telling you folks, simplicity is best! 

Sustainability isn't about complications and technicalities. It's about making easy, conscious decisions to support idea's like Bo's and doing small things everyday to help the environment and the people in it. 

Win-Win.

In honor of simplicity, I got on my ol' blue jean cut-off shorts.

Up-cycled, re-worked from Urban Outfitter's Urban Renewal Label. Fave.

Watch this please, I beg you.

(I met him at a music festival two summers ago when I bought this shirt...he's this cool in real life; such an awesome dude.)

And what you've all been waiting for: Bo's Eat More Kale Blog. 

So go! Eat More Kale and buy a tee shirt (men, women and children sizes are sold).

Why?

...because I said so.

http://www.eatmorekale.com/

If you were wondering what on earth my tee shirt is all about, then you really need to brush up on your '70s pop culture.

Peace, Love and Kale<3

Modal Citizen

Hey guys! Sorry for the delay... I've finally got back on the blog train after a long time away; that daily grind, man. 

Anyway, I've got some more to share with you people, so I hope you enjoy. 

Modal, modal, modal. It's most likely the comfiest material out there, and has many names: tencell, seacell or lyocell. 

It just happens to be what I'm draped in at the moment, as well.

The keyword here is "cell", as I've mentioned in a previous post, it's made from beach-wood pulp through a somewhat chemically intensive rayon process. 

It feels, looks, and breathes like silk. No, but really. 

Guess what? This awesome textile is also 100% BIODEGRADABLE. 

...that's a good thing.

Just like my plant;)

It's not hard to figure out which materials are eco-friendly or not. Just check the label while you're shopping around. 

Believe me, you do want to know what you're wearing on your body day in and day out, just as much as you want to know how much it costs...which leads me to my next point:

These garments are not particularly cheap. What I'm wearing I find at discount stores like Century 21 (which is where my Natural Life top is from) or other warehouse/outlet malls.

Seriously, they are the GREATEST place in the world. 

Well-made, eco-friendly, otherwise expensive boutique labels with sky-high prices that are chopped in half once they trickle-down to our poor, humble level (joke...sort of). 

Here they are, those beauties. 

Natural Life top from Century 21 and Alice & Olivia brown ribbed leggings made of Modal. 

In all their eco-friendly glory. Ahhh...

And Made in the USA, which indicates that there is a good chance it was ethically manufactured; so no cheap labor and inhumane conditions or unfair pay. 

There ya go. Sustainability once again. Was that so hard? 

Naahhhh.

Also- if you're enjoying my blog and find it helpful (or not so helpful) I appreciate any NICE, RESPECTFUL comments. Feedback and communication is always appreciated!

Btw- check him out. You're welcome.

Til then,

Peace, Love and Sustainable Fashion y'all<3