Prelovers, Superfoods, Fur Foibles, & Veganic Farming

PRELOVED held their first US in-store event on Sunday evening at the Greenpoint, Brooklyn boutique, ALTER. The Spring 'o9 collection is made entirely of reclaimed items like bed sheets, shirts, suiting, and even curtains! These items would otherwise end up in a landfill, and have been reconstucted into really gorgeous garments for ladies and gentalmen, alike. Founder and CEO,  Julia Grieve told me that she never intended to be an environemntalist, she just liked working with reclaimed fabrics. But now, as Preloved heads to the forefront of the green-fashion movement, she realized the importence and gravity of making sustainability 'cool'. Nothing says sustainable like turning trash into gorgeous, head-turning garments. You won't find find any granola on their runway!

The line does include wool, but it is recycled from old sweaters that would otherwise be garbage. I'm not going to be complaining about it. Hopefully this trend will catch on, and with styles as awesome as the Zuri Tee, who can resist?

ALTER consists of two boutiques across the street from eachother in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Owned and operated by Roy Caires and Tommy Cole, they carry a great selection of eco and veg-friendly items incuding their own repurposed line "This Old Thing?" as well as Matt & Nat accessories, Melissa shoes, and they have more coming! ALTER is carrying the women's collecion for Preloved currently, and will be carring the men's collection within a few weeks.

Speaking of Matt & Nat, I love their new vegan, canvas, Bauhaus bag with 100% recycled lining.

Girlie Girl Army shows us how to get superpowers from superfoods! This is a 101 for anyone who wants to know the basics of the superfood phenomenon! This is for dudes too! Wanna stop chugging sugary, milk-protein-laden workout 'food' and get a longer-lasting, healthy high for that extra curl, press, or pull-up? Try these foods! Also, if you didn't hear Chloe's sexy visit to the boys at Hot97, click here.

Veganic farming is wha...? Veganic farming takes organic farming and brings it to it's logical conclusion. Who wants to eat organic potatoes that grew in factory-farm feces and blood? Ugh..  the vegan permaculture movement is taking hold! The Huguenot Street Farm in New Paltz, NY is one successful example. Check out their funny video here, and stay tuned for more updates on the veganic farming movement:

[youtube="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJUtTvZQGpM"]

FICA is full of it. The 'Fur Information Council of America' insists that fur is the "natural, responsible choice".

If you've already started rolling your eyes or laughing, you are not alone. In WWD, for the final day of NY Fashion Week (The Feb 20th, 2009 issue), FICA paid for an ad that was disguised as a part of the paper to make it seem as though fur garments were heavily talked-about in the publication.

In fact, aside from one shawl by Issac Mizrahiny, there wouldn't have been any fur in the publication that day. Boo hiss to Issac for his hideous new fur collection. Also watch his attempt to lose weight eating "vegan" M&Ms.

Also boo, hiss to TV Host and supposed 'style expert', Robert Verdi who I spotted in the lobby, surrounded by plastic fur-hags, wearing this atrocious hood (Did his Court-Dress wig fall back, or was he going for the evil Skeksis look?).

Tim Gunn should give them both a stern talking-to in the ways of educated and compassionate elegance. The only way to look like a bigger jerk is to have tan-lines in the shape of aviators on your head. Oh wait...

What I love (and by love, I mean hate) about FICA's pretty-in-pink website is the total avoidance of ever mentioning an animal oustside of abstractions like "species" or "populations". If they did acknowlegde that individual animals with brains and nervous systems existed, they'd have to follow through with logic that would contradict their reference of animals as "natural resources" to be used "responsibly". I won't even make the historical comparisons, you can do that yourself.