Ecouterre

Photos by Mike Chino for Ecouterre

The holidays wouldn’t be as bright without Global Green U.S.A.'s annual "Gorgeous & Green" eco-fashion show and fundraiser, which took place earlier this month at the historic, LEED-certified Bentley Reserve in San Francisco. The event is both the seventh for co-chairs Zem Joaquin and Nadine Weil, as well as, according to our sources, their last. Something tells us, however, that the gorgeous duo will surprise us with many more glamorous soirees to come. Until then, click through our slideshow to revisit the delightful array of colorful gowns that were as easy on the eye as they were the environment.

A career in fashion might be an odd choice for a South African lawyer who spent his early career reconciling a country torn apart by apartheid, but Paul Van Zyl has weathered the transition from executive secretary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to co-founder of Maiyet with aplomb. The new luxury house isn't as incongruous a path as it seems. Priced between $500 and $2,500, its high-end goods are designed to spur economic development in the Third World through conscious consumption of artisan-made clothing, handbags, shoes, and accessories.

The Otis College of Art and Design, together apparel brands Hurley and Nike, celebrates the opening of its "Considered" art-and-fashion exhibit tonight at Hurley’s H Space Gallery in Costa Mesa, CA. The 18-look collection, which debuted in spring via a live runway show at the Beverly Hilton, is the result of a tri-brand mentorship program created by Rosemary Brantley, chair of fashion design at Otis. Participating students were challenged to work within the parameters of the Nike Considered Index, a software-based tool that helps designers shape the long-term environmental effects of their products.

Sustainability took center stage at Milan Fashion Week this season with two platforms that celebrated ethical design. "White Goes Green," a three-day exhibit curated by textile consultancy C.L.A.S.S (Creativity, Lifestyle, and Sustainable Synergy), offered an Italian counterpoint to London's Estethica, with 17 eco-fashion brands that supplied everything from bespoke hats to recycled bikinis. The second, "So Critical So Fashion," presented more than 20 "critical, fair, and independent" brands, along with workshops and lectures that tackled subjects such as sustainable cotton and social responsibility. Here, nine of our favorite finds.

At the Spring/Summer 2012 season of New York Fashion Week, colors got bolder, prints went psychedelic, and expedition gear got the glamour-puss treatment. From outrageous head-to-toe florals to blinding pops of neon, here are the top six trends you'll be wearing next spring.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Beneath the pomp and glitz of New York Fashion Week lies one disquieting fact: Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world, second only to oil in terms of its environmental impact. Besides consuming an inordinate volume of water, energy, and physical resources, it also generates a tremendous amount of waste—15 to 20 percent of the fabric used to construct a typical garment is tossed into the landfill, for instance. To illustrate the excess, Yoxi summoned artist Justin Gignac to create 12 Fashion Week "waste cubes" using remnant materials from designers Rogan Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, Charlotte Ronson, Bibhu Mohapatra, and Boy Meets Girl's Stacy Igel. Auctioned off at Yoxi's "Trim the Waste of Fashion" event to benefit DonorsChoose.org, the plastic hexahedrons offer a snapshot of our clothing's hidden toll.

If the British Fashion Council's Estethica showcase at London Fashion Week has you hankering for a closet update, look no further than Yooxygen's latest shop-within-a-shop. For the third consecutive season, the online retailer will feature pieces from six of Estethica's leading green designers: From Somewhere, Goodone, Maxjenny, Sonya Kashmiri, Henrietta Ludgate, and Lost Property of London.

Missed the excitement of New York Fashion Week? Ecouterre braved blistered toes, sleepless nights, and undereye bags the size of miniature dachshunds to bring you, dearest of readers, the blow-by-blow action. And don't forget to check out the inaugural (Sustainable) Fashion's Night Out and the results of the second annual CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge.

EDUN didn't have to look far to find a few good men to model its Fall/Winter 2011 collection. Kicking off its "Pioneers" project at New York Fashion Week, the ethical label tapped actors, artists, activists, and entrepreneurs—including TOMS's Blake Mycoskie, TreeHugger's Graham Hill, and Neil Blumenthal and Dave Gilboa of Warby Parker—for a viral campaign that will also drive awareness for the pioneer's cause of choice. "All these pioneers are all chosen because they're men who have style with substance," says Ali Hewson, who co-founded the brand with her husband, U2 frontman Bono. "I think intelligence is the most attractive thing about styling."

September 8 proved a milestone in sartorial history: the very first (Sustainable) Fashion's Night Out. Verde-haute vendors and brands gathered at Manhattan's Textile Arts Center so New Yorkers could participate in Fashion's Night Out without the retail-guilt hangover the morning after. Hosted by EcoSalon, Of Rags, and the New York City Fair Trade Coalition, the lively and jam-packed event featured clothing, shoes, accessories, and more from sustainable designers such as A.D.O. Clothing, Afia, Erin Considine, Love is Mighty, Ohm-Mongo, Feral Childe, and Shabd. Missed out on the festivities? Our slideshow puts you front and center amid the glamour and excitement.

Photos by Jasmin Malik Chua for Ecouterre

Compared with the inaugural Council of the Designers of America/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge in November, its sophomore outing had far less pomp and circumstance, resembling more a car showroom more than a showcase of sustainable design. Held at a sparsely decorated (and barely filled) ground-floor space at Milk Studios on Monday night, with the 2013 Lexus GS350 prominently in view, the award ceremony crowned three fashion designers for producing at least 25 percent of their proposed fall collection in an eco-friendly manner: Marcia Patmos of M. Patmos, John Bartlett, and Johnson Hartig of Libertine. The winners each received a hefty $25,000 check to bring their Fall/Winter 2012 collections to New York Fashion Week in February.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Wall Street may be experiencing more tumbles than a roomful of tots at Gymboree, but the mood at Duro Olowu's Spring/Summer 2012 show at New York Fashion Week was anything but downbeat. The U.K.-based designer had camera bulbs flashing wildly as models preened and posed in front of a stark white backdrop at Milk Studios on Saturday. Inspired by the work of photographer Jacques Henri Lartigue and the West Indian immigrants who arrived in England in the '50s—Olowu's mother among them—the collection is a visual feast of reclaimed silks and vintage fabric trims in eclectic, contrasting patterns.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

As one might expect from its rock-star provenance, EDUN offers altruism with an edge. But although U2 frontman Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson, founded the label to buttress the languishing economies of Kenya, Uganda, and Mali, it's shied away from making its African connection too literal in its clothes. At the Spring/Summer 2012 show at New York Fashion Week on Sunday, however, Sharon Wauchob, a year into her creative directorship under Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy, appears to have belayed that order by presenting one of EDUN's most "ethnic" collections to date.

Photos by Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Mara Hoffman is known for her bohemian flair, so the presence of a live mariachi band at her Spring/Summer 2012 show wasn't the least incongruous. Presented at the Box at Lincoln Center during New York Fashion Week, Hoffman's self-described "Mexican Mamas" featured a bevy of designs inspired by the women of Mexico, particularly legendary painter Frida Kahlo. Using custom-designed silk prints manufactured in-house in the United States, Hoffman interlaced woodcut, tribal, woven, and geometric designs with neon embroidery and seed-beading to create a sultry, tropical-infused lineup of jumpsuits (long and short), sheer skirts, caftans, and tea-length column dresses.

Photos by Jill Fehrenbacher and Amanda Coen for Ecouterre

Against the onslaught of real housewives and Kardashians, Leanne Marshall's brand of youthful elegance fills a precarious but necessary niche. And, at the showing of her Spring/Summer 2012 line at New York Fashion Week on Saturday, the Season 5 Project Runway winner showed us why sophistication will always trump flash. Billowy confections, architecturally sculptured in layers of traditional silk, hemp silk, bamboo jersey, and organic cotton, fluttered down the runway in searing combinations of ivory, lavender, and highlighter yellow. "I was inspired by the feeling of going to the beach or vacationing in the South of France," Marshall tells Ecouterre. "I wanted to capture the way the wind moved through the sand."