Fancy Green Favs

We've been very busy testing and reviewing fancy green products for you, dear readers.  This week our favs are: Organic Cotton Produce Bags by Blue Lotus, drinking glasses by The Green Glass Company, Revengeis tees for women and men, and a stainless steel food jar by Zojirushi.

Check back next week for more reviews!!!  And please let us know if there's an eco-minded company we should check out.

Eco Fashion Blooming at Fancy Green

We're making new eco fashion friends all the time, and have a very fancy green lineup of reviews coming in April and May.

We'll be featuring: A lovely floral print apron made out of reclaimed bedsheets by Preloved, a Canadian company making gorgeous women's fashions out of fabric remnants. Can't wait to wear that while whipping up some vegan yummies!

Men's and women's jeans from Levi's eco line---I've been wearing Levi's my entire life - very excited to wear test their organic denim! I must try to find a photo of me as a child in my little Levi's outfits (colored twill matching jacket and pants).

A women's top and scarf by John Patrick, a super fancy eco designer. I love his take on fashion, which is posted on his site:

I envision a world in the near future where people won't ask "is it organic?" but say, "of course, it's organic."

Organic denim by Nudie. They're a Swedish company, and since my people are from there, I get to test this item. Soon, I'll be a Viking in awesome organic jeans with a great looking butt. Gotta love a denim company that has front, side, and rear views of their pants on their website. Does my butt look eco in these jeans?

Men's tees by Nate Organics. They're based in Vancouver, B.C., just a few hours up the road from us. Love their graphic tees for men and women.

A dress and men's top from Loomstate, one of my fav eco fashion companies. We've reviewed several pairs of their women's jeans in the past. I can't wait to wear test the dress at the many tea parties I'll be attending in the coming weeks, not to mention the party I'm throwing on Mother's Day!!

Here it is...I found a photo of me in my little Levi's (can't find the one where I'm wearing both jacket and pants...but I will). This is me with my cousin who was visiting from Sweden. Big Viking, little Viking. I thought it was so cool that he paid any attention to me. And now, here I am, about to sample some fancy Levi's and some fancy Swedish jeans. Two countries, one love.

So much more to come on the main site.......stay tuned.

Be Fancy. Be Green.

subscribe to our feed 

  
   
 
 

San Francisco GreenFest

I was in San Francisco this week, and caught a few hours of GreenFest. I was happy to see some familiar faces and finally meet some fancy people who work for companies whose fancy green products we've reviewed on our main site, like Josh from Indigenous Designs. We love their fair trade sustainable fabric apparel and accessories (we just reviewed their fingerless urban gloves).

Here are some of the cool products I saw (and hope to review on our site this winter): elf boots made out of wool scraps, cute skirts and scarves made out of fabric leftovers, adorable organic apparel for children and toddlers, reusable lunch box kits, and an educational (but fun) eco video game for kids.

Please visit our site soon for more reviews of eco products........

subscribe to our feed 

  
   
 
 

New Reviews -- for October

If you haven't checked our main site lately, you should. That's where all the best stuff is. We add new product reviews every week.
This month we've reviewed cleaning products by Mrs. Meyers, facial products by Juice Organics, solar powered gadgets, merino wool socks by Smartwool, a messenger bag with recycled materials, a wind jacket with 88% recycled content, and more to come.

Coming soon: solar battery chargers, more merino wool apparel for fall, EO body products and eco hats and bags later in Nov.


subscribe to our feed 

   
 
  

Arm Yourself for Fashion

So sorry for the lack of posts......I have so many excuses. One, I have been sick for a month. I'm still sick, but I'm working from bed just to keep you informed of the latest eco fashions. Two, I was snowed in for two weeks. That shouldn't have been an issue since I work from bed, but it was a major distraction. Three, I have developed a full-blown addiction to FaceBook. Anyway, eco fashion....

My current obsession: arm warmers. They look cool, they're perfect with a short-sleeved tee when it's really long-sleeve tee weather, and the feel snuggly (and sexy, depending on the style) on my arms. Knit Mitts are made just a few hours up the road from Fancy Green headquarters by Texture Clothing -- they come in tons of fun colors and in men's and women's sizes. My slinky black arm warmers are made by Foat Desisgn, a Minneapolis-based company that salvages used materials and recycles them into all sorts of fancy garments.

Check them out.


subscribe to our feed

Goodbye, Nau

We are all sad to see Nau close its doors. In addition to their inspiring business model and dedication to fair trade and to using sustainable materials, their clothes were simply beautiful. Elegantly designed, top quality materials, and best of all, no logos! I fell in love with their sleek urban gear a year ago when I first read about them in Outside Magazine. Since then, I've reviewed several Nau tops, pants, and jackets -- and always felt that their clothes had a special energy and style that I'd never found in other active apparel. Goodby, Nau. We love you, and we'll miss you!!


Here's what one of the gear testers at FitnessTravelGear.com had to say:

WOW! I can't believe Nau is going out of business. The two pieces I recently reviewed were basically the nicest pieces of outdoor gear I've ever worn. What a bummer.

Here's a link to a great article by author Polly Labarre:

From the start I found Nau’s plan almost breathtakingly ambitious—but unimpeachably right-minded. The founding idea at the heart of the company was that business has a responsibility (and a great opportunity) to contribute to positive and lasting change in society and the environment. Nau’s founders were so serious about this, they took the unprecedented move of writing a triple bottom line into the corporate charter. From the start, Nau wasn’t simply interested in producing killer product (although they accomplished that by pushing the boundaries on sustainability, performance, and style further than anyone has before in the outdoor industry—when do Vogue and Rock & Ice ever rave about the same product?), they were also intent on disrupting the economics of their industry, changing the way people shop (in futuristic “webfronts” that I believe contain powerful signals of what’s next in retail), and inspiring a wider movement among businesspeople and consumers.

Read full article here: http://mavericksatwork.com/

Visit Fancy-Green.com to read reviews of Nau apparel. Click here for our search page where you can find all of the Nau reviews from the past year (on Fancy-Green.com and on our sister site, FitnessTravelGear.com).

subscribe to our feed

Tag, You're It

So, if a clothing company wants to be green, it should go all the way, right? Consider its packaging, distribution, labeling. Maybe stop using those skinny plastic “I” hooks that attach the labels to the clothes. Are those things even recyclable? Even if they are, they’re impossible to get off without a pair of scissors, and then when you clip them, half of the plastic thingy ends up falling under the couch for you to find next time you Swiffer.

A few green clothing companies, such as Nau, Of the Earth, Fuze, and Certaintees are making their tags more earth friendly, using string and safety pins to label their organic and sustainable goods. Safety pins are totally reusable -- I store mine in a kitchen drawer (and keep a few in my bag) for times I need a quick fix for a hem or tear. And who doesn’t need little pieces of string -- you can tie them all together to make a big piece of string. Or save the little strings and use them to label things at your next garage sale!

Certaintees makes great use of their tags; they’re bookmarks that also contain washing instructions and a list of non-profit organizations Certaintees supports. And their strings are 100% hemp. Fuze has similar info on their tags, plus hidden wildflower seeds in the paper. Plant it, and watch your eco flowers grow. How fancy!

All Right Nau

So about a year ago, I was reading Outside magazine, and came across an article about Nau, a Portland-based company staffed by former Patagonia and Nike folks, making the coolest looking urban gear I’d ever seen. These clothes were sleek and curved, stylish and dynamic, and best of all, good for the environment.

They had jackets made out of recycled plastic and organic cotton cargo pants and soft merino t-shirts. But these were no ordinary outdoor clothes. They were fashionable. Logo-free. And fair trade.

These were the clothes I’d been looking for my whole life. Clothes I could wear hiking, urbaneering, spying, and anything else I wanted to do while looking cool, elegant, and sporty all at the same time.

Naturally, I called them and professed my love. Since then, I’ve wear-tested many of their tops, jackets, skirts, and pants, and am happy to report that my love for them has only grown. (F.Y.I., they make women’s and men’s apparel.)

You, too, will fall in love with them, or at least with their gear, once you read more about their fabulous fair trade fashions at our sister site, fitnesstravelgear.com.