Marks & Spencer has recently unveiled what it dubs the world’s first carbon-neutral lingerie. Comprising four types of bras, three styles of panties, and a garter belt, the Autograph Leaves is part of the British retailer’s “Plan A” commitment to fighting climate change. And if slashing factory emissions wasn’t enough, the project also aids reforestation efforts in Sri Lanka.

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Would you wear a dress made of iridescent bug parts? Victorian actress Ellen Terry did in one of the most iconic portrayals of Lady Macbeth in theater history. After 120 years of wear, tear, and alterations, the gown—and the 1,000 naturally shed beetle wings that adorned it—looked less than glistening. The painstaking restoration took 1,300 hours and £50,000 ($81,000), but the emerald-green number is ready to make its stage entrance once more.

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Post tags: beetles, bizarre eco-fashion, eco-fashion, Ellen Terry, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, National Trust, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, U.K., united kingdom

Harry Potter actress Emma Watson has teamed up with Italian designer Alberta Ferretti on a five-piece capsule collection they’ve dubbed “Pure Threads.” Comprising five lace-embellished pieces—two dresses, a shirt, a long skirt, and a denim short—the range marries Ferretti’s romantic flourishes with the erstwhile Miss Granger’s youthful zeal. Click the link to view all the looks.

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Post tags: Alberta Ferretti, eco-fashion, Emma Watson, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, Pure Threads, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style

British researchers are working to develop a solar-powered kit that could lighten the load of its troops by 50 percent. Comprising photovoltaic cells to harness the sun’s energy, as well as thermoelectric devices that turn temperature differentials into electricity, the new power packs eliminate the need to return to base for recharging, increasing the potential range and duration of military operations. The fact that the system taps into clean and free sources of energy has its environmental advantages, as well.

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Post tags: eco-fashion, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, military uniforms, solar clothing, solar fashion, Solar Power, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, wearable technology

To celebrate the launch of the iPad 2, we’ve partnered with Gillian Stevens of Dewdrop to give away one of her ultra-luxurious iPad sleeves. Hand-stitched from leather scraps, which Stevens dyes and silkscreens with natural pigments, each vibrantly hued case offers protection from dust, scratches, and smudges with streamlined ease. Our contest ends tonight at midnight, so enter today!

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Post tags: Dewdrop Designs, eco friendly ipad cases, eco-fashion, eco-friendly iPad bags, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, iPad, ipad 2, recycled iPad bags, recycled iPad cases, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable iPad bags, sustainable ipad cases, sustainable style

Gold stars all around for Tara St. James and her team, who presented Study NY’s Fall/Winter 2011 collection on Monday at New York Fashion Week. Part classroom, part runway, the Standard Hotel High Line Room provided the perfect venue for schooling fashionistas in the importance of ethical production and smart design in the creation of compelling eco fashion. To provide instruction, St. James sent out eco-fashionable ensembles made from recycled polyester, hemp, Tencel, organic cotton, and reclaimed wool, most of which were sourced locally in New York City. Now, who’s ready for homework?

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Post tags: eco apparel, eco-fashion, Ethical Fashion, Fall/Winter 2011, green fashion, new york fashion week, organic cotton, organic fashion, recycled fibers, Study NY, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, tara st. james, tencel

Don’t consign your moldy old gym shoes to the landfill (or worse, chuck them in some unsuspecting charity’s donation bin). With OAT’s fully biodegradable sneakers, you can plant them in your backyard to produce a patch of wildflowers. The two-year-old Dutch label accomplishes this with its innovative materials: soft, breathable canvas and flexible seed-embedded cork soles that literally go to pot when you bury them. Your loss is Ma Nature’s gain.

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Post tags: biodegradable fashion, eco friendly shoes, eco-fashion, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, OAT, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable shoes, sustainable style

Dreary weather dragging you down? Compai’s planters-cum-organizers have the color you crave. Made from repurposed vintage sugar molds, which were once used in Mexico to make and store cane sugar, these cheery holders are perfect for corralling anything from flatware to succulents. Each hand-painted piece is a one-of-a-kind, with charming imperfections and all.

+ Sugar Molds $48

+ Compai

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Post tags: Compai, recycled decor, recycled housewares, repurposed decor, repurposed housewares, sugar mold, upcycled decor, upcycled housewares

Leave it to an Italian intimates company to trade one kind of stuffing for another. Its mission: To recycle used bras into soundproof building insulation. Over the course of six weeks, Intimissimi encouraged women to drop off their used bras at its stores across Italy. To sweeten the deal, each customer who brought in a bra received €3 ($4) towards the purchase of a new one — just in case Russian model Irina Shayk’s entreaties to “help save the planet” weren’t convincing enough.

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Post tags: bra recycling, eco-fashion, eco-friendly bras, eco-friendly underwear, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, ntimissimi, recycled insulation, sustainable bras, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, sustainable underwear

And Futhermore’s recycled clocks are all about the grand gesture. Individually made from vintage plastic doilies and painted cork, the intricate timepieces embrace every flourish and curlicue with unabashed guilelessness. They’re available in both desktop and wall-mounted versions—all the better for you to count the ways, or the minutes.

+ Doily Clocks $26 – $28.50

+ And Furthermore

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Post tags: And Futhermore, doily clock, eco-friendly clocks, green products, recycled clocks, upcycled clocks

Nike has just released its Environmental Apparel Design Tool to the public, with the aim of encouraging other clothing manufacturers to design more sustainably. The online app, which is based on Nike’s Considered Design Index, helps designers make real-time choices that shape the environmental impact of their wares. But it’s not a case of “do as I say, not as I do.” Nike used the tool to create its South Africa 2010 jerseys—the greenest and most technologically advanced kits in football history, according to the sportswear giant—from 100 percent recycled polyester, a move that diverted 13 million plastic bottles from the landfill.

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Post tags: eco-fashion, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, Nike, online tools, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style

From shoulder pads to leg-warmers, there are a litany of ’80s “inventions” we hope never see the light of day again. Not so with activated carbon cloth, however. The flexible and inexpensive material was originally developed 30 years ago to protect soldiers from chemical attacks, but British researchers from the University of Abertay Dundee have discovered a boatload of modern-day applications for this retro throwback, including filtering drugs and toxins from drinking water, air-filtration systems in hospitals, and cleaning up toxic spills.

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Post tags: activated carbon, eco textiles, eco-fashion, Ethical Fashion, green fashion, green textiles, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, wearable technology

London’s venerable Savile Row was transformed into a country fairground on Monday as sheep frolicked in the streets to herald the start of Wool Week. Amidst the fluffy conflagration stood (or perhaps more accurately, sat) a pair of curved-back slipper chairs, clad in a new textile derived from wool and recycled Starbucks coffee sacks. Dubbed “WoJo,” a portmanteau of “wool” and “jute,” the material was first conceptualized by The Formary, a New Zealand-based design company, then manufactured for the Frappucino purveyor in collaboration with U.K. weaver Camira and Wools of New Zealand.

Read the rest of Starbucks Unveils Seat Upholstery Made of Recycled Coffee Sacks

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Post tags: Campaign for Wool, eco friendly chairs, eco-friendly upholstery, recycled coffee sacks, starbucks, sustainable chairs, Sustainable Upholstery, WoJo, wool, Wool Week

The black-and-white striped frock from H&M’s fall collection is definitely a stunner, but its price might come as a shock: $4.95. That means it costs less than a Grande Caramel Frappuccino at Starbucks and it’s cheaper than a six-piece Chicken McNuggets Value Meal at McDonalds. You could take that money to your local drugstore and still come up short on a $5.99 tube of Wet N’ Wild Shade Adjusting Foundation. At a time when the apparel industry is getting pummeled by ever-slimmer profit margins, the fast-fashion retailer’s move to lower its prices even further (think $20 trench coats) is stupefying. What will access to cheap, disposable clothing mean for the environment, however? We asked three designers—Howard Brown of Stewart and Brown, Eliza Starbuck of Bright Young Things, and Tara St. James of Study NY—for their thoughts.

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Post tags: Bright Young Things, eco-fashion, Eliza Starbuck, Ethical Fashion, fast fashion, green fashion, h and m, h&m, Howard Brown, slow fashion, Stewart + Brown, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, sweat shop

The same bacteria that causes your hamburger dill pickles to spoil could also clean up dyes in textile-factory wastewater, according to food scientists from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Agricultural Research Service. The implications of their research are nothing to scoff at: The textile industry releases billions of gallons of polluted effluent into local fresh water sources each year, much of which comprises petrochemical-based AZO dyes known to have mutagenic properties.

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Post tags: AZO dyes, lactic-acid bacteria, pickles, tartrazine, textile wastewater

The vagaries of the fashion and textile industry haven’t been kind to our waterways. In fact, textile coloring and treatment accounts for 17 to 20 percent of global industrial pollution, according to The World Bank. The solution? Remove water from the dyeing equation. DyeCoo Textile Systems is a Dutch company that is doing just that with the first commercial dyeing machine to replace water with supercritical carbon dioxide — a pressurized form of the gas with unusual liquid-like properties.

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Post tags: carbon dioxide, DyeCoo, eco-fashion, eco-friendly dyes, green fashion, Refinity, Sustainable Fashion, sustainable style, water issues

Number 63 on Fido’s life list: Roll around in a bed of tennis balls, chew and slobber over them, and then roll around some more. If you’re dying to throw your pooch a bone, check out Hugh Hayden Design’s Hex Tennis Dog Bed, a cozy nest made entirely from recycled tennis balls. Gathered from the New York Metropolitan area and woven into a hexagonal pattern, the repurposed balls thin out in the middle of the bed to allow room for a soft reversible cushion. At 26 inches in diameter, the current model is the perfect size for small dog breeds who weigh up to 25 pounds, although a larger version is in the pipeline for more generous-sized mutts.

+ Hex Tennis Dog Bed $285

+ Hugh Hayden Design

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Post tags: eco dogs, eco-friendly dog beds, eco-friendly dogs, eco-friendly pet beds, eco-friendly pets, green dogs, Hugh Hayden Design, recycled dog beds, recycled pet beds, recycled tennis balls

Open-concept offices be damned. Sometimes you just want to make a phone call without making the entire accounting department aware of your urinary incontinence issues. Here to save the day (and your face) is the Buzzibooth by Buzzispace, an “acoustical cocoon” made from 100 percent recycled PET felt. Available in a range of colors, from corporate-drone gray to iconoclastic lime, the Buzzibooth is your 10-square-foot sanctuary away from the office hullaballoo. It even works as a soundproof home office for people with limited floor space and noisy — or nosy — neighbors.

+ Buzzibooth

+ Buzzispace

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Post tags: Buzzibooth, Buzzispace, eco friendly decor, eco friendly office, green office, recycled PET

Shhh…the walls are listening, or rather, the wallpaper is. Soon to be on display at the Fuller Craft Museum just south of Boston, Living Wall by High-Low Tech is an interactive wallpaper that can be programmed to monitor its environment, as well as control lighting and sound. Constructed entirely of paper and paint, the wallpaper can be customized with all manner of sensors, lamps, network interfaces, and interactive embellishments. The result: “Run your hand across this wallpaper to turn on a lamp, play music, or send a message to a friend,” according to the designers.

+ Living Wall

+ High-Low Tech

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Post tags: "living wall", eco friendly wallpaper, green decor, green technology, High-Low Tech

If diamonds are forever, it only stands to reason that a diamond-clad razor blade will last far longer than conventional steel ones. The Diamaze PSD, a feat of German engineering, is composed of a tungsten carbide blade that is coated with a film of synthetic, industrial-grade diamonds. Sharpened to produce a cutting edge of only a few nanometers, the blade is said to last 1,000 times longer than regular blades, meaning it stays sharp for years, rather than weeks.

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Post tags: eco-friendly razors, eco-friendly shaving, GFD, razor blades, synthetic diamonds, Technology