Autonomie Project is all about ethical manufacturing. Company founder Anne O’Loughlin had made it her mission to source her line from small, independent cooperatives and Fair Trade-certified facilities in developing countries.

Autonomie Project is best known for their very popular “Ethletic” line of Converse-style shoes made of organic cotton and all-natural FSC rubber (instead of petroleum-based synthetic rubber.) Today, AP also carries organic cotton t-shirts, as well as crocheted bags, hats, gloves, and scarves handmade by the Northern Creations women’s sewing cooperative in rural Peru. Anne’s vision is to help communities around the world be autonomous through creating markets in which their products can thrive. It’s nice to know that when you’re stylin’ in Autonomie Project, the people behind your clothes are stylin’ too.

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Since in the US most kids have access to shoes, doing shoe drops abroad seemed to make the most sense. Blake recently realized though that some American children, like victims of natural disasters, were stuck with ill-fitting hand-me-downs or had to share shoes with siblings. So TOMS arranged a handful of their DIY shoe parties, dubbed Style Your Sole, at four different school districts around New Orleans still recovering from Katrina. Each child received their very own pair of white canvas TOMS to paint in their own unique way; needless to say, they were very excited!

Another brilliant idea from TOMS.

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Ashley Van Dyke is a fashion model, high speed race car driver, and if you don’t beleive me, check out the YouTube clip below. So much for women having poor hand-eye coordination. Ashley is part of this new crop of female automotive thrill seekers making their way into the racing circuit. But she’s also a green girl! We met at the Tesla Motors showroom and took the roadster out for its paces. You can read all about it on the Electrifying Times website.

Ashley wanted to attend the Coco Eco magazine launch party at the Designers & Agents Green Market but she had a previous engagement at a charity function. It was great meeting all the people I’d been working with for the last few months in person. I’d hooked up with Anna Griffin on MySpace, Courtney Dailey on Model Mayhem, and discovered Emma Pezzack’s FutureNatural on a CT blog. We all shared the same mission, taking green to the next level. I introduced them to each other and they formed the core team of what is now the first all green editorial fashion studio in Hollywood.

Anna who has been conducting video interviews for Ecorazzi, assembled a deep pool of talent to launch her first issue. Courtney shot a wonderful layout with Darren Moore, one of the stars of Alter Eco, my favorite show on Planet Green. Darren came to the party wearing a Rock The Reactors t-shirt cementing the alliance our IPSEC member organization has with the sustainable fashion industry. Darren is seen below with Barbara Kramer, co-founder of Designers & Agents, and our host for the evening.

You can see many more images from the D&A Green Market on the pages of Lü, a project started in 2001 to assist Angela Lindvall’s Collage Foundation, which in turn supports Camp Hill Farm in Pomona, New York owned by stylist Alex Spadea and her husband, music composer John McDowell. Alex and John founded the Rockland Farm Alliance, hard at work bringing farms back to the NY Metropolitan area. Angela and her Alter Eco co-star Adrian Grenier soaked in the exhibitors at the show.

One interesting thing I noticed is the rapid growth of ultra-comfortable organic cotton wear aimed at the yoga life style. Pioneer Jenny Hwa’s Loyale Clothing was in attendance, but she’s no longer alone. She’s been joined by a new crop of young companies now supporting sustainable cotton agriculture in places like India. French based LeAF Generation for example, associate their line with investigations of cotton agriculture chronicled by photographer and co-founder Debra Kellner. Marion McKee and her partner Tristan Gribbin created Sust in Mill Valley, with a strong focus towards Iceland. Sandy Skinner exhibited ecoSkin downstairs in Mikey Koffman’s Gallery LA on the ground floor of the Cooper Design Space. Amber Jung-Devine introduced Yogamat. When you tie all of them together with the Environmental Justice Foundation’s “Pick Your Cotton Carefully” super model campaign, represented in New York by Bahar Shahpar and the high visibility of EDUN in the rock & roll industry, one would hope that all musical artists would embrace organic cotton for their touring shirts.

Deborah Lindquist was kind enough to introduce me to Josie Maran, who is trail blazing with her cosmetics. Her and I talked GreenMUA for a few minutes, about the need for theatrical organic make-up. Josie’s husband, photographer Ali Alborzi was at the show with his own clothing line Evidence Of Evolution and a continuous supply of amazing crumb cookies, made by Josie’s mom. You have to admit, green has arrived when you see Organic Wear posters wrapped around the shoplifting gate at RiteAid in Westwood!

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