Wild Bunch & Co: Fancy Organic Juice

We love organic products, but when it comes to Wild Bunch & Co, it's the bottle design that really gets us. With packaging designed by Seed Creative Consultants, we're willing to try any of these products, no matter what's inside. Fortunately for us, what's inside will only make us better. The 100% organic juice retailer produces a variety of flavors to keep you happy and healthy. Designed to keep work-harried executives from missing their daily nutrients, Wild Bunch & Co makes juice with 35% more nutrients and vitamins than non-organic equivalents. Drawing from freshly pressed carrots, parsley, spinach, beets, celery, fennel, peas, and parsnips, Wild Bunch & Co juice isn't like your ordinary morning OJ. The company caters to serving bars, spas, offices, and health centers, and offers home deliveries. Unfortunately for most of us, Wild Bunch & Co is based in Singapore.

Shop Sustainable at Beklina's Sale

Beklina - the online fashion boutique featuring green fashion greats like Stewart + Brown, ParkVogel, Edun, and Prairie Underground - is having a sale to make room for fall's upcoming arrivals.
Most women's items are 35% off, and there's no shipping!

Based in Northern California, Beklina features the best in sustainable style, choosing products for their comfort as much as their appearance. A great place online to shop organic, they carry designs from some of the most popular eco-designers around.
Each of the products Beklina sells is either fair trade or made in the United States. Check out these great summer sale products for your comfort wear.

Tierra Del Forte to Talk Green

Organic denim designer Tierra Del Forte will be presenting on "Green and the Bottom Line" in Las Vegas. Sponsored by the Organic Exchange and the Organic Trade Association, Del Forte will discuss the recent growth in the organic apparel market and the challenges that designers face when going green. Del Forte says she likes going green because it is "win-win for everyone. Customers love it, ecologically responsible mills get rewarded, organic farms profit, and I get to feel good about the fabric I use." Want to find out what challenges face wholesale and retail lines attempting to step into eco apparel?

Check out the MAGIC Marketplace trade show August 27 to 30, 2007 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Del Forte's seminar will run from 12 noon to 2 p.m. on Tuesday, August 28, 2007.

Perfect Products for Your Pet: Handmade, Organic, Non-Toxic, and Stylish

We all know that our animals are just furry extensions of our family. We would never willingly treat our dogs and cats with less than stellar care, sub-par products, or toxic toys. However, lately the stories of bad ingredients in pet food and toxic chemicals in toys are growing in abundance. Not to worry. We’ve rounded up a collection of the best handmade, organic, or non-toxic products to fill your dog or cat’s every need.

The Modern Pet offers a variety of stylish and handmade products for your dog or cat. Included among them are extra-durable handcrafted collars and leashes from recycled materials, organic shampoo, biodegradable waste bags, treats, and announcements (think birth announcements for your newest furry child). The Modern Pet also offers a pet collar recycling program and a shampoo bottle recycling program.

Featured here are the Vintage Rose Dog Collar ($28) made from durable pink cotton webbing and a selection of hemp dog collars ($24) made from hemp canvas and dyed with low-impact dyes.

BaconSquareFarm offers a classic looking handmade wrought iron feeding station for your small dog or cat. The feeding station ($18) has an iron stand and two stainless steel bowls. This mealtime essential will blend in perfectly with any contemporary or modern home.
Jake and Micah offer an adorable treat for your cat: a takeout box with three fortune cookie toys inside ($17.99). These cloth playthings are stuffed with 100% premium organic catnip and come with a real fortune too! The cotton fabric is also organic. Who couldn’t resist these lucky organic catnip toys? No cat should be without!

Eco-Me, the maker of the human-geared Eco-Me Body and Eco-Me Home Kits have lined up two new kits to keep your furry friends feeling green as well. Eco-Me Cat and Eco-Me Dog ($28 each) include everything you need to jump-start your pet’s sustainable lifestyle. The Eco-Me Dog Kit (pictured here) is 100% natural and includes all the essentials to get you started with flea and bug spray, cleaning wipes, powder shampoo, doggie essential oil mix, cookie recipes and cookie cutters, and a few pooper-scooper essentials.

Bodhitoys has a line of very modern and stylish playthings for your pooch. Inspired by the designs of India, China, and painters such as Matisse and Miro, Bodhitoys offers non-toxic durable playthings to keep your dog in a tranquil place. The namesake Om ball is decorated with a pattern inspired by West Indian tribal embroidery. Best of all, when bounced it actually plays the Om mantra, as recorded by kirtan master Bhagavan Das.
Purrfect Play has put a lot of time and research into developing their organic dog biscuits. This 2 oz tin of mini bones ($3.50) from Robbie Dawg is a travel essential on any walk or trip. Not only do these doggie treats make great gifts, but they come in a variety of flavors. Check out the doggie treats like peanut butter and carrots, turkey sausage and romano cheese, and four-cheese oatmeal. All the biscuits are human grade-quality and made from the finest artisan ingredients.


And finally, Fetching Tags is the place to go for your next dog tags ($30). These handmade metal dog tags (or cat tags, or rooster tags) come with customized personal inscriptions to make sure your pet’s ID is spot on.

More on organic cotton jeans: Del Forte and Loomstate

Young designer Tierra Del Forte designed the blue jeans in her fashion line, Del Forte Denim, for the revolutionary eco-chic woman who values style and ethics. Based out of Los Angeles, home to anti-sweatshop giant American Apparel, Del Forte Denim makes its organic cotton pants completely in the United States and uses green products whenever possible. Touting organic cotton as the new luxury denim, DFD partnered with The Sustainable Cotton Project to help educate farmers, agricultural students and the public on ways to increase the sustainability of farms and supports those organic farmers. With the help of DFD and The Sustainable Cotton Project, people are learning that it takes 2/3 of a pound of pesticides to make one pair of conventional cotton jeans. By switching to organic crops, farmers not only discontinue the use of pesticides in the cotton production, but organic methods also help to regenerate farm soil that has already been damaged by chemical overuse.

Del Forte Denim has also started Project Rejeaneration in an attempt to promote recycling and take their commitment to responsible clothing design one step further. With Project Rejeaneration, the public can send their old Del Fortes back to company whenever they’re ready to refresh their wardrobes. DFD then uses the recycled denim to create styles for the Rejeaneration Denim line featuring vintage fabrics and handcrafted embellishments. DFD rewards recyclers with 10% off their next purchase or 10% donated to The Sustainable Cotton Project.
Another design member of the movement toward a sustainable future, Loomstate specializes in organic cotton jeans for those who are committed to acting responsibly and treating the environment with respect. This designer brand offers a select collection each season showcasing jeans, chinos, t-shirts, and hoodies all made from 100% organic cotton. Loomstate draws inspiration from 19th century American manufacturing methods and embraces the natural flaws that occur when fabric is woven from raw organic cotton yarn.

Loomstate design man Rogan Gregory is also a co-founder of the ecologically-forward thinking Edun fashion brand, along with Bono and his wife Ali Hewson. The company’s most recent endeavor is Loomstate for Barneys Green, a new line of organic cotton tops and t-shirt dresses for the high-end retailer. By mixing celebrity and fashion with sustainability, Loomstate hopes to set the bar high for denim designers everywhere.

For more, check out our previous post "How green are your blues? Organic cotton jeans."

How green are your blues? Organic cotton jeans

Most of us spend a good percentage of our lives in jeans, yet normal denim may have a host of scary chemical residues. If you saw the episode of House entitled “Poison” where two boys became deathly ill after buying and wearing bootleg denim that happened to be laced with pesticides, you don’t need to be reminded of the significance of the items that touch our skin daily.

So what about those jeans? Organic denim comes about having used fewer chemicals to grow the cotton. This means there are less chemicals left in the cotton. To wash their jeans, most companies use a chemical process called enzyme washing.

British brand Howies developed a new more gentle way of washing jeans. Using a rubberized ball called 'The Eco-Ball' tossed in with the wash, pants get a nice fricative beating and jeans came out looking like they had been washed without using chemicals.

When Levi’s unleashed their new line of Eco jeans, budget-conscious shoppers weren’t their choice audience. With a $250 price tag, the pants targeted upscale shoppers and only came out in select stores. Future cheaper versions of the jeans will include imported cotton and will not be as purely organic. The company believes that it is still too expensive to mass-produce organic cotton products.

Synthetic threads and dyes in denim don’t pose the same health threats as pesticides in non-organic food, however buying organic cotton products is a chance to support farmers who don’t use pesticides in their crops. The eco trend is strong right now, making demand for organic cotton rise each year.

Italian company Replay launched their line of Replay Organic Cotton Jeans in May, also targeting trendsters with deep wallets. Their premiere played up the ecology theme and offered courses in how to be an “Eco-fashionista.”

Right now, the demand for organic cotton products is so strong that it has outraced the crop supply. High-end retailers are able to jump into the market offering a big ticket price for a pair of pants that is 100% organic. The problem with supply and demand for cotton right now is that in the U.S. cotton must not be genetically modified in any way in order to be certified organic. In 2005, 52% of the American cotton was genetically engineered to ward against pests and disease. Until this number decreases, organic cotton remains a rare commodity.

So how do organic jeans line up? Check out these comparisons.

Howies
Howies Lizzie Jean
£80.00 ($162)
This low-impact jean is super slim with a low sitting waist and a skinny leg. The 10 oz organic stretch denim is woven in a 3 x 1 construction to keep the pant tough. The denim is from ring spun yarn that is eco-ball washed without enzymes or chemicals. The waistband in un-bleached and the stitching is designed to be durable.

Levi’s
Levi's {Capital E} eco 501 Jeans
$245.00
This female jean is an original button-fly boy-fit made from 100% organic cotton weighing 12.25 oz. It sits at the waist with a straight cut through the seat, thigh, and leg. The Rigid coloring is from dark ring spun denim with a green selvedge, and the pants include green stitching accents. The product is imported.

Replay
Replay Organic Blue Jean
Limited Edition
These hard-to-find pants featured organic cotton stitching, bar tacks instead of rivets, and vegetable tanned leather buttons attached with organic twine. They were eco-washed in essential oils and flowers, and then packaged in organic paper.