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Nice Idea for a Book but far from Perfect Jul 30, 2009 (1 of 1 found this helpful)
I guess in trying to be more environmentally friendly the book was made in a different sort of "hard cover" with no dust jacket, yet it has flaps like a dust jacket. It's like a flexible cardboard rather than a hard cover. Yet the book stinks of a weird chemical smell that hardly seems natural. Also the book is made in CHINA where else???
The author opens you up to a whole bunch of manufactures in the green biz. From clothing to personal care. Not everything is organic. It is based on more than that. Upcycling, recycling, organic, sustainable practices and the like. Some of the fashions are downright hideous (in my opinion) and very expensive. If you have the money to burn, and you like the fashion then hell yea spend it on something good for the earth that doesn't promote child labor & tearing down rain forests!
There is a section on personal care that could really use some work. Sure this stuff is way the heck better than the conventional poisons out there, but don't kid yourself, this stuff isn't perfect either! Rather than trusting her (the authors) judgement/opinion on these types of products, you would do much better to make your own educated decisions about what you put on your skin by visiting skin deep at[...].
The very back of the book has a section dedicated to all the different sources for all the topics she mentions. I find this is great because I can review these companies at my leisure. This section makes it easy to find the type of companies you are looking for.
I love the premise of the book & what it stands for. If you need some help in the sustainable/organic industry, then you would do well to get this book. It is also a great source of inspiration for creating sustainable products yourself! I will keep this on the bookshelf & use this as a reference but continue to make my own decisions & not simply follow the authors suggestions.
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Fascinating look at eco-fashion! Jun 6, 2009 (3 of 4 found this helpful)
So you might be wondering why a guy is reviewing a women's fashion book but I would consider myself an "environmental" person in that I have been trying to learn more about the conservation of our planet over the last few years. That being said, I found this book to give a very comprehensive look at the fashion industry and how "green and sustainable" has started to find its way into the industry. Summer goes in depth with designers discussing how they are trying to incorporate this new trend. Of course, I am not a good person to ask about the clothes and the products suggested but I have shown the book to numerous friends that are girls and they all really liked the style and the pieces. They were surprised that the styles looked so good because they were all under the impression that eco-fashion meant ugly. As a final point, I would have to say that this is one of the best laid out books in terms of design and organization.
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Kermit the Frog is wrong: It's Easy to be Green! Jun 4, 2009 (3 of 4 found this helpful)
Happily for all of us, Kermit the Frog is wrong: it's pretty easy to be Green, and you can look fabulous the whole time, too!
This was a fun book written from a point of view I hadn't considered: How to be Green while Looking Fabulous. Written by a woman with the improbable name of Summer Rayne Oakes, this thick book guides the reader through creating a sustainable lifestyle in the areas of clothing, accessories, jewelry, skin/body care, and makeup. (Now you know why the book is so fat!) Ms. Oakes has a website, treehugger.com, where her readers discuss things like whether it is more "green" to wear an old tee shirt or buy an organic cotton one; which something this reviewer had never considered. The book takes the stance that it is better to use what you already have, then thrift store/swap for an item that already exists, and only then purchase a new shirt, with each new purchase being made in a sustainable way. She also presents the idea that any old/unwanted clothing should be donated and not thrown away, something I always thought was a given. (I discovered that I have unwittingly lived a very sustainable lifestyle my whole life!)
One appealing feature of the book was a number of two page spreads called "Women on the Street," where women who live sustainable (and creative) lifestyles are interviewed, and each one speaks about what she does to live a way that leaves the smallest footprint on the Earth. One woman wore a surprisingly attractive dress made of discarded umbrellas found on the streets of New York after a storm(!) Another snooped in her Grandmother's closet to find vintage couture dresses in her size! The thought of anyone wearing Grandma's clothing to be fashionable has never occurred to me, because my Grandmother only wore flowered cotton housedresses and support hose, which isn't likely to make anyone look amazing. These women, many of whom had artistic backgrounds, gave me a whole range of ideas on what it means to be green. Many, if not most of the women lived in New York, which gave a more urban slant on fashion, but there were ideas that could be implemented by women living anywhere.
The volume is divided in two official sections: one for fashion, one for cosmetics/skin care. The skin care section reviews hundreds of products that are not only green in manufacturing, but were green in a way I hadn't considered: what the product leaves behind on your body. Apparently there are many items that claim to natural, but are so far from the original sources and are manufactured to be so different from anything natural that the end product is actually harmful to the buyer. Ms. Oakes also takes a stance that could be difficult for anyone in the beauty industry. She feels that less is more, and that most women look just fine without cosmetics. She proposes that one should cut down on cosmetic items for everyday wear, using only a sunblock and moisturizer, if necessary. That being said, she still reviews hundreds of items that are acceptable, giving the reader a list of the best of the best in skin care, hair care and cosmetics available right now in stores.
The last section of the book is huge, and isn't considered an official section at all: Ms. Oakes has compiled an enormous source list for every product, accessory and clothing item in the book. Most of the sources are online, giving the reader a green choice for shopping, too. It's a great resource and I wish I had thumbed through the book before sitting down to read, because I had been sticking post-it notes all through the thing before discovering that Ms. Oakes had done all the work for me! I'll be using her source list for quite some time to come, giving me a bonus that goes well beyond the initial reading of this book.
If you are a green fashionista, or just someone like me who wants to look nice while being good to her little spot on Planet Earth, I heartily recommend this
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Great pictures and information Jun 3, 2009 (3 of 4 found this helpful)
Being raised by a hippie, one of the first things I learned as a kid was that every dollar you spend is a political and social statement, but Mom also loved quality and classic elegant designs.
Skip forward 30 years and everything I learned growing up is coming back into vogue again, this time with an environmental message. More and more people are trying to think of the impact of their purchases on the environment and on the people who make the things we use everyday.
This book is a great guide, it's got a lot of full color images as well as information where to find things, what to look for in buying ecologically sustainable clothing and accessories, why organic cosmetics are better for your skin. It proves you can be fashionable and environmentally conscious, you can absolutely have your cute little wedges and perfect black dress guilt free.
It has designer profiles explaining why designers are going green and trying to help out the world, so you know what you are buying, what decisions the dollars you spend are making. How they are using post-consumer waste or making things close to where the materials are sourced. The magpie in me loved the section on jewelry.
My favorite thing in the whole book was about how to shop for clothing and jewelry, restraining your impulses to buy things you like so you can save for something you love in a classic design that you can use for years.
Sure, fashion can become dated quickly, and I'm sure 5 years from now, someone going through this book will see a lot of things they'd never wear, but classic fashions become timeless for a reason and a lot of the companies featured in this book do design well made items that can be worn in 5 year or 20 years.
There is a whole section on thrift/vintage buying and what to look for when you buy vintage as well, which is the absolute greenest choice for fashion.
Very good book, one I want to share with friends.
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Environmental Passion Turned Into Fashion! Jun 2, 2009 (3 of 4 found this helpful)
I absolutely love this fantastic book! Summer Rayne Oakes has written a total shopping guide for anyone who wants to make their life healthier, cleaner and less polluted from chemicals and toxins.
Summer Rayne Oakes is a nature lover from northeastern Pennsylvania, who is a fashion model, resident expert on Treehugger and on the Discovery Networks Planet Green. She uses all her expertise in this wonderful guide "Style, Naturally" to make everyone look and dress fabulous without the deadly chemicals and toxic elements that have been dominant in our society's market place for over a century.
As a baby boomer myself, I was brought up by a mother who had allergies to almost every soap and food product that contained chemicals, and saw firsthand my mother's frustrations with so many chemical based products in the fifties, sixties and seventies. We always had the products with the least amount of chemicals in our household, for my mother's health and well-being. Having a mother with so many allergies was not the norm and our family was reading product labels decades before it was popular, as it is now. The author teaches us how to read labels to differentiate organic fabrics from fabrics that use pesticides. There are also "clean" fabrics that use less pesticides, which I never knew about. Even though I've always read labels, I've learned so many more great things from this book!
Summer Rayne Oakes organizes this book beautifully, starting with the designers and manufacturers who make the great eco products and organic fabrics that are eliminating contaminants, chemicals and pesticides from our world. The author shows so many wonderful clothing pieces that have been re-cycled, re-used or re-worn. She shows fashionable bags made from bottle caps and PVC art banners. Purses are pictured that have been artfully made from candy wrappers, rice bags and re-cycled leather. License plates and car seat fabrics are turned into lovely purses. Vintage fabrics are given new life in dresses, shoes and bags. Nike now re-cycles shoes to make sport surfaces, which I never knew. Beautiful jewelry is pictured made from old hardware, stones, re-cycled woods, gold and glass.
There is a large section on cosmetics alone, which shows products such as the new mineral make-ups and chemical and lead free lipsticks. Organic shampoos and skin care products along with chemical free toothpastes, soaps, sunblocks, perfumes and nail polishes are all pictured. The author also gives tips on buying vintage and swapping or selling your no longer wanted clothing. The best part is, she lists where to shop for all these great products, along with all the eco-designers and vegan fashion retailers.
Even though I've been a label reader and re-cycler all my life, this book not only taught me many things I never knew, but showed me the many eco friendly retailers I never knew existed. This is definitely a 5 star book and the first of it's kind when it comes to covering ecology-minded fashion from head to toe!