My friend and I biked over to Hip Drip Café, which is housed in EcoMotion’s car dealership on 16th and NE Sandy. We checked out these cool ZapCars which are three-wheeled electric wonders. I really liked the version with the flatbed in the back (pictured); perfect for errands around town. The saleswoman explained that the cars are registered as three-wheeled motorcycles, so their insurance is minimal (like, $200/year).

I went to the Illahee Lecture titled “Why We Buy” with Juliet Schur. Dr. Schur opened by humorously explaining her profession (once-economist, now sociologist): “We take the obvious and make it really really complicated.” The crowd chuckled, and she rolled into her presentation.

I won’t try to capture everything that she said in that cozy hour, but will present some of the highlights with some of my thoughts.

HIGHLIGHT: money and happiness.

There is a very weak link between money and happiness. They (social scientists, I assume) have measured happiness and have found that above an annual income of $20,000, people don’t get much happier. She stated a few reasons for this: higher levels of income are typically associated with lots of work and stress; consumerism fosters dissatisfaction; income growth erodes social factors.

The Estethica exhibition at London fashion week, which wrapped up its fourth season on February 13th, showcases some of the best in sustainable fashion around, with an emphasis on UK designers. The event has firmly established its reputation for raising awareness and promoting the concept of ethically-minded fashion within the industry and the public, showcasing long-established ‘green’ brands alongside emerging sustainable fashion designers. Estethica celebrates designers who choose to work with recycled materials, organic and other sustainable fibers, and those who adhere to fair trade labor standards.

This year’s exhibition was packed once again, featuring regulars like People Tree, Junky Styling, Terra Plana, Ciel and Katharine Hamnett, as well as international brands of note, like Beyond Skin, Fin, Viridis Luxe (photo at the top), Noir and Izzy Lane (one of the designers featured in the Portland Fall Fashion Week 2007 shows). Not to be forgotten, accessories lines, such as the jewelry collection of Fifi Bijoux and bag-designers Nahui Ollin, Sonya Kashmiri and Pibiones all made an positive impression. Trends spotted, courtesy of Bonnie Alter at Treehugger: “lots of greys, whites and blues (despite the fashion mag’s insistence on colours this spring), clothes are either casual or over the top and most interestingly-many designers are working with socially deprived groups to develop new skills or maintain old ones.”

Talk about cradle to cradle planning in design, I love the fact that Makepiece’s collection is designed to be composted when the outfit has been worn to pieces. Now that’s closing the loop.

Not all brands were from across the pond. San Francisco’s Del Forte Denim exhibited, as did one of our long standing favorites, Stewart+Brown.

According to Orsola de Castro, founder the UK ‘green’ label From Somewhere and co-curator of the event, “Support for the sustainable fashion movement has been incredible worldwide, but in the UK we have exceeded all expectations, with unprecedented moves toward a more ethical fashion industry. Estethica is central to this shift.” Source: Crush Communications Press Release.

Estethica has helped pave the way for similar events in the US, from growing ‘green’ exhibits at mainstream fashion trade shows like the S(eco)nd show at Pool and the Go Green Initiative at Designers & Agents, to the flurry of ‘green’ fashion weeks this past fall, including those in Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and more, all vying for the title of “Greenest of Them All”. With each new ‘ultimate green fashion’ event, it becomes clear that eco-fashion is not only here to stay, but growing at an exponential rate. Designers are realizing that not only is it the right thing to do, but it is also an investment in our future, with great potential for financial reward along the way. As Matilda Lee, Green Pages Editor for The Ecologist, said, these designers “should be commended for holding fast to their principles of putting sustainability on the agenda and for valuing long term vision over short term gain - in short: for designing with the planet in mind.”

Thank you Estethica for giving us one more example of the fact that style, sustainability and smart business are not mutually exclusive.