If you were wondering when this eco-aware fashion stuff will end and the industry will get back to the raping and pillaging of earth’s natural resources and animals don’t hold your breath. Everyone is on the environmentally conscious fashion train with little to no end in sight. The New York Times a couple of days ago featured an article on Future Fashion (the initiative spearheaded by EarthPledge and Barneys New York).

Julie Gilhart, fashion director at Barneys posits, ” Design and creativity don’t have to be sacrificed to make garments that are less harmful to the earth. In fact, developing something sustainable can be a much more creative process.”

Here’s the small counterpoint from your’s truly: the idea behind sustainable fashion is creating environmentally friendly, “green” fashion collections, that is both practical and yes… fashionable. From a purely economical standpoint the masses will never see the benefit’s of the designer’s works and their green raison d’etre when only the elite can purchase their clothing. While there will surely be a market at the lower end of the spectrum for “green” collections. Creating eco-fashion for the few who can afford it mutes the purpose of going in that direction in the first place. And while the intent is already stated as bringing it to a well-heeled audience as the article infers, the point of being environmentally conscious is that everyone takes part, not just the few or those who are able to do so. The end result is this sort of self-defeating initiative that goes nowhere…fast.

Let’s try this one again.

(addendum: for those who can afford it, these eco-fashions are trouncing their high-carbon footprint brethren, the idea works, when it can be brought to the masses) above Doo.Ri’s cocktail dress made of Abaca

By now the news of 15 year old Miley Cyrus going topless in Vanity Fair has reached a fever pitch. Noticeably silent has been publisher Graydon Carter and Annie Leibovitz. Leibovitz responded yesterday by saying “sheeeeiiiitt… this teen is crazy damn insane and the conservatives in America need to have a warm cup of shut the eff up.” We kid. Leibovitz released a statement saying

“I’m sorry that my portrait of Miley has been misinterpreted, Miley and I looked at fashion photographs together and we discussed the picture in that context before we shot it. The photograph is a simple, classic portrait, shot with very little makeup, and I think it is very beautiful”

While rationalizing a 15 year old wearing nothing more than a sheet in the Conservative States of America is next to impossible (can’t wait for President McCain to be sworn in), Cyrus and her handlers are not blameless. At a photoshoot the subject is more than aware of the photos being taken, because… they. are. posing. for. photos. Ignorance as to what the final work will look like is disingenuous at best and stupidity at worse. At anytime during the shoot when she was in the midst of taking her bra off, did anyone say…”hey, this is being released in George W. Bush’s America, it might not go over well, let’s put these clothes back on and find some Hannah Montana pajamas.”

No? Oh Ok.

This lip gloss is making it’s way around the office. Korres’ cherry oil lip gloss is this super slick, high shine color product that promises to hydrate lips, while providing protection via vitamins E & C, all this while curing all major diseases and putting an extra Spring in your step. That’s hyperbole on this writer’s part. It won’t cure the world’s ills but it’s definitely receiving high praise here at the ‘doll. They key is that it’s part of that whole eco-aware thing and is completely paraben free, mineral oil free, propylene glycol free and ethanolamine free. To tell you the truth most don’t don’t what the heck those chemicals are (your’s truly included).

They sound like things you don’t want on your lips though so we’ll give Korres that. The reason why this lip gloss deserves it’s own blog post, is simply because of the shiny longevity of the whole affair. Put it on in the morning and by 1pm it will most likely still be there. Maybe not as shiny, but still there. One has to wonder if there are no chemicals that may prove to be harmful to lips 50 years from now, how do they get this product to work so well?

We don’t know, but this comes highly recommended.

Man, the fashion industry really is in exercising it’s demons mode. From using sweatshops, to being eco-aware, to using anorexic models and now Vogue Italia is set to shine the light on the disgusting process of excluding models of color from being the pages of their publication, by making an almost all black issue this July. It’s no secret that we’ve had our fun lambasting designers and magazines that seem to be color blind. That is, blind to models of color. That is, not even realizing beauty from non-white models exist, and can actually make clothes look… gasp… appealing. This might even lead to an increase in sales. And what are we doing this for if we are not making money…right? Right?

So congratulations to Vogue Italia for making this happen. But this shouldn’t be a one-time thing and the fashion industry has a habit of regressing quickly and making things worse. There’s almost an expectation that after this issue, someone might have a black, 14 year old, anorexic model wearing items from a designer who uses endangered species skin as material, all made in a South American sweatshop. Or not.

For those trying to figure out what’s up with the slowly losing counter-culture force that is A Bathing Ape, they just opened up a store in Los Angeles. The question is why is the store so popular with everyone who hates the technical term “trend”? What happens if all of a sudden, the exclusivity of BAPE becomes, not-so-exclusive?

Here’s what happens, nothing. It’ll never happen according to a friend who states that BAPE’s appeal is that the masses can never accept it because the masses can’t afford it. There’s a coup. Price something out of the range of common folk and voila, you have a hit. On further inspection, the prices are truly out there all things considered and looking at the range. A good example is this top, it sells for $58. In the world of fashion it may not necessarily be a deal breaker especially where bras may end up in the range of $500 to $1000. The key here is that the bra, does not have the aura of being an Aubade, Agent Provacateur, or (insert expensive designer here).

So what’s your BAPE story, why do you shop there?