Green Is The New Black - Tamsin Blanchard discusses all things fashionably green

Jo Wood Organics

After years of touring with her husband Ronnie Woods, Rolling Stones guitarist, Jo Woods swapped the rock and roll lifestyle for a routine of yoga, organic food and green living.

Her hugely successful body-care range, Jo Wood Organics soon followed. A beautiful range of fragrances, body lotions and candles. They smell great particularly The 'Tula' line which is infused with sandalwood and feel wonderful on the skin. each product is priced around £15.

The beauty industry has been saturated with celebrity products, which are not always taken seriously, (does anyone really want to smell like Britney or Jade Goody?) However Jo's range is a more honest example. Having been fanatical about green issues for many years, she has uses her status to campaign for the Soil Association.

Her Book 'Naturally' covers everything you need to know on organic food to green cleaning. For most it might seems like old information. However her familiar voice might reach out to an new audience who previously might not have been interested.

Jo is signing in Fenwick's on Bond st on the 15th of May.

www.jowoodorganics.com

                      

Style Will Save Us Again.

Once a month on-line ethical mag, 'Style Will Save Us', drops a nugget of fashionably green info into my inbox. This Month's issue is particularly good. It was great to learn that the popular on-line underwear store Figleaves have collated a 'greenleaves' section. Finding green Knickers can be hard and Green Is The New Black dedicated a whole chapter to ethical undies. But here you can find all the great labels we covered on one website. So whether you need Enamore's fifties bras or Chantelle's sporty briefs or even Johnathon Ashton's Organic rib tights for only £7. Click on http://www.figleaves.com and find it all in one place.

If you insist on wearing sandals make them green...

...Or bright red and made from recycled car tyres. Oh well at least its a talking point? hmm.

www.designworkslondon.co.uk

Get your Blog on....

In this weird world of blogging one gets obsessed with other people blogs. My favourite is Susie Bubble's fashion blog, http://stylebubble.typepad.com/, this girl is a one woman fashion machine, she whacks on 3 posts day while holding down a office job in the city.

However in the ethical fashion stakes its hard to find a non crusty blog that evades the word 'mooncup'. So it was great to find the blog on http://fashionlovespeople.com/, and that they have a link to us! Check the site for green fashion and beauty, where style is as important as the ethical credentials.
Fashionlovespeople have introduced me to the gorgeous American label Mon Petit Oiseau (http://www.monpetitoiseau.com) by English designer Tracey Wilkinson, who worked at Banana Republic and J Crew in New York before setting up her own label which is made in California and from organic cotton.
   

Festival on a Shoe String......

Northern based fine artist Hannah Mackay, is proof that green living is not just a fashion flash in the pan. In her work she collages recycled images with inspiring effects. When she’s not holed up in the studio, Hannah is a self proclaimed festival addict, dividing her time between the smaller 'green' festivals and stewarding for Oxfam at Glastonbury.

Not content with the high admission prices and branding in most of these events, she decided to throw her own festival. Hannah takes five minutes out of her preparations, to enlighten us on The Shoe Tree Fest, which kicks off this Sunday at one in Armstrong Park, Heaton in Newcastle.

'Randomly a patch of trees in the park are covered in old shoes. A 'Shoe Tree Appreciation’ group sprung up on Facebook, so this lead to an idea of holding the Shoe Tree Fest this bank holiday. What started as a few mates in bands playing, and a BBQ, has now snowballed into a full blown festival, with hundreds of people attending, and daily updates on the local radio. We are literally holding a festival on a 'shoe string' no corporate sponsors and free entry.'

So if you happen to reside near the famous shoe tree, dig out those old plimsolls and swing by Armstrong Park in Heaton, Newcastle this Sunday. Musicians welcome.

For more info check the facebook group 'Shoe tree of Heaton Appreciation Group'.

Image 1-Cowboys, Image2- Dancers.

For more of Hannah's art work go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/hannah_mackay/

Or email the artist on hannahmackay@yahoo.co.uk

Hackney's Punk Choir

Green Is The New Black has a wealth of talented contributors. But perhaps one of our favourites are The Cast Off knitting Club and owners of Prick Your Finger Knitting Shop 'A Modern Haberdashery' in London's East End.

The girls feature regularly on our blog, for causing wooly chaos with everything from their Angora rabbit to a knitted wedding. Their latest endeavour is no less crackers.... They have started a Punk Choir.
The first gig is at Victory Pub, Vyner St, E2, Sunday 27th April, 8pm, in aid of a cot death charity, the first song to learn is Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll, by Ian Dury and the Blockheads. Unfortunately you have missed the first rehearsal, but to find out the next one email, choir@prickyourfinger.com

I found all this on the Prick Your finger's wonderful Blog check daily for inspiration...

http://prickyourfinger.blogspot.com

Fenchurch Loves Bottletop

Bottletop.org, a charity set up to help street children in Brazil, has teamed up with Fenchurch and designed a range of bags and accessories from recycled ring pulls which are hand crocheted together by a woman’s cooperative in Brazil. Full retail price of the bags and belts go to help fund the charity. They are available exclusively from Covent Garden's Fenchurch store from May.

Fenchurch also have their own Organic range of unisex hoodies....And a compilation album, ‘Sound Effects of Brazil', featuring remixes from Fatboy Slim and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly and Jazzanova among other artists. Amazingly, none of the artists were paid and all proceeds go to the Bottletop charity.

When Wildlife Works.

Wildlife Works showed for the second time in February at London Fashion Week. Now the collection is ready for release,and its time to plan our wish list from this gorgeous collection. Not only are the clothes organic and sustainable, but are made on an Kenyan Wild life Sanctuary, by workers who are supported by the fund and given a fair wage. A percentage of the final price is reinvested in the Sanctuary and one of the dresses a precentage is donated the to RSPCA. The collections are available in exclusive boutique KJ's Laundry in Marylebone, Equa and their website. Take a look at this season collection below, our favourite is the jumpsuit/babygro thing, nothing crusty tree-hugger' about that, thats for sure. http://www.wildlifeworks.co.uk/

Follow the flock

Flock is a new idea set up by textiles graduate from Goldsmiths, Poppy Pitt, to recycle and recreate glamorous new garmets out of old ones. Poppy works with fair trade company, Chandni Chowk and has set up Flock to create and put on fashion shows that marry style and ethics. The Bristol based initiative will be taking part in Oxfam's Ethical Expo happening in the city on May 9 and 10. Poppy will be using all of her powers of creativity and invention in a race against time to recycle some of Oxfam's raw material and put on a fashion show on the evening of May 10. For more information on the event, go to  ethical expo or check out flock's website.

Fashion Finds its Heart

If you can still get it, April Marie Claire has an interview with the vegan shoe fetishist, Natalie Portman, plus my guide to the best aesthetically ethical labels to shop for. I'm loving Amana's organic silk print dress (it's £195) available at amana-collection.com.

 

 

While you are perusing the magazine shelves, check out April's Jalouse (the theme is Mode Arty) which has a whole  section on fashion with a conscience, including an interview with yours truly (Green is the New Black is apparently available at WH Smith in Paris, though not yet translated into French) and a Q&A with the inimitable Lily Cole.