Victoria Klein is a freelance writer, amateur photographer, virtual assistant, and former model. Born in central Indiana, she has also lived in Ohio, Michigan, Minnesota, San Francisco, and currently resides in Connecticut. Her writing focuses on sustainable living, personal health, fitness, and spirituality. Her photography centers around the beauty around us that we often overlook. 
Think “music festival” and you’ll either conjure up visions of crowds, drunks, and stinky port-a-loos or peace, love, and contraband baked goods. One thing that isn’t likely to cross your mind, however, is the multitude of broken and damaged tents that get left behind. Although concert organizers have few options other than the landfill, prop maker Kate Benton has a better alternative. Using her crafty skills, Benton gives these errant domiciles new life by turning them into chic and colorful clothing for festivalgoers. Bonus: they’re waterproof, so staying dry in inclement weather is a cinch.
Suffering for fashion is one thing (think sky-high stilettos, rib-cracking corsets, and sprayed-on jeans), but getting some hapless animal to do it for you is quite another. Skin Trade is a new indie documentary that cuts to the bone of the issue, so to speak, by splicing interviews of prominent animal advocates with graphic—and we do mean graphic—footage of what goes into making a fur coat. Available next month on DVD, Skin Trade takes a no-holds-barred look at the business of killing animals for fashion, from the earliest days of fur trading to current-day claims about fur’s inherent sustainability.
Heels can cause agony, packing for a trip is frustrating, and gym showers are anything but clean. What’s a gal to do? Los Angeles-based Floc Designs has a pair of space-saving flip-flops that will leave you footloose and icky-free. Made from recycled tires, PocketFlops fold in half—downward so the soles are enclosed—for easy toting in the accompanying 100 percent organic cotton bag. …
Can your dress reduce high blood pressure? Will your pants ease eczema or psoriasis? According to India’s Ayurvastra tradition—literally “life dress” in Sanskrit— fabric infused with medicinal plants and herbs can heal whatever ails you. Anjelika Krishna, originally from New Dehli, is one New Jersey-based designer who’s reviving the ancient craft. Her burgeoning label, A.D.O Clothing, marries 5,000-year-old Ayurvedic wisdom with eco-conscious production, resulting in simple yet chic organic-cotton pieces with supposed medicinal properties. (We want to believe.)
In a country fraught with struggle and strife, hope has a new name: KeoK’jay. The socially conscious enterprise offers handmade, fair-trade designs with style to spare, while providing jobs for HIV-positive women in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. KeoK’jay’s woman-empowering business plan has room to grow, too. It’s one of 64—and counting—nominees for Nau’s 2nd Annual Grant for Change, which will award $10,000 to the next big thing in sustainable design.
What do Von Dutch, the U.S. Army, and the Phoenix Police Department all have in common? Their logos have all found their way onto Angela Johnson’s rags-to-riches couture creations. The Arizona designer creates visually dynamic clothing from thrift-store tees, much in the manner of conceptual artists like Gary Harvey and Walter Raes but eminently more ready-to-wear.
For Aussie label Mother Maria, baguettes met boomerangs to inspire one of the most charming collections of the season. Defined by chic shapes and feminine details, “Parisienne” brings springtime on the Champs-Élysées to the surf-friendly shores of Australia, sustainable fabrics included.
Forget Memoirs of a Geisha; kimonos have migrated from the realm of the exotic to the wearable. Beautiful Soul, an eco-luxury label based in London, is refashioning vintage Japanese kimonos into modern, occidental silhouettes with an Asian twist. So it’s only fitting that the inspiration for spring is another classic East-meets-West mashup: Madame Butterfly by Giacomo Puccini.
Get ready for your debut on the catwalk—with a little help from your cat! To commemorate the launch of its 100 percent recyclable cat-littler bag, Yesterday’s News is asking planet-conscious cat lovers to design a one-of-a-kind handbag using elements from its new packaging. The Do-Gooder Design Challenge requires zero sewing skills, however. You can create your bag virtually using the online Bag Builder, which allows you to drag, drop, and edit your choice of patterns, colors, shapes, and embellishments.
There are only so many gold lamé bodysuits and high-waisted nylon-spandex panties you can snip from a bolt of fabric. For the scraps that tumble onto the cutting-room floor, there’s American Apparel’s “Creative Reuse” program, which launched on Earth Day. Made from excess and repurposed materials, the new collection of colorful basics is replete with scrunchies, headbands, neck ties, and the sexually charged underthings that the House of Dov Charney is known for.
