Style, Naturally: The Savvy Shopping Guide to Sustainable Fashion and Beauty

I wasn't sure what to expect from Style, Naturally, but I collect fashion books and want to be more eco-friendly, so was eager to give it a try. The premise of the book is that "dressing chicly and beautifying sustainably is getting easier by the day." I think Style, Naturally is more a book advocating a way of living and thinking, rather than a book showing how to style an outfit made of eco-friendly materials (although it does have some of that). The book includes product examples with websites, advice, and profiles of people/companies who use, design, or sell eco-friendly and sustainable products. I think the best things about the book are that it is a good resource and jumping off point for exploring, and I feel like I'm getting adviace from a friend, rather than someone telling me what to do. The author makes it seem easy to be more eco-friendly and sustainable, rather than some chore. The book contains: A Note to the Reader An Introduction Eco-Fashion 101 Clothing and Acessories Eco-fashion Tips of the Trade Eco-Beauty Cosmetics and Personal Care Eco-beauty Tips of the Trade Conclusion Shout-Outs Resources Index Photo Credits I recommend this book as a way to inspire and challenge yourself to help the environment, while still savoring the day!

So you might be wondering why a guy is reviewing a women's fashion book but I would consider myself an "environmental" person in that I have been trying to learn more about the conservation of our planet over the last few years. That being said, I found this book to give a very comprehensive look at the fashion industry and how "green and sustainable" has started to find its way into the industry. Summer goes in depth with designers discussing how they are trying to incorporate this new trend. Of course, I am not a good person to ask about the clothes and the products suggested but I have shown the book to numerous friends that are girls and they all really liked the style and the pieces. They were surprised that the styles looked so good because they were all under the impression that eco-fashion meant ugly. As a final point, I would have to say that this is one of the best laid out books in terms of design and organization.

Being raised by a hippie, one of the first things I learned as a kid was that every dollar you spend is a political and social statement, but Mom also loved quality and classic elegant designs. Skip forward 30 years and everything I learned growing up is coming back into vogue again, this time with an environmental message. More and more people are trying to think of the impact of their purchases on the environment and on the people who make the things we use everyday. This book is a great guide, it's got a lot of full color images as well as information where to find things, what to look for in buying ecologically sustainable clothing and accessories, why organic cosmetics are better for your skin. It proves you can be fashionable and environmentally conscious, you can absolutely have your cute little wedges and perfect black dress guilt free. It has designer profiles explaining why designers are going green and trying to help out the world, so you know what you are buying, what decisions the dollars you spend are making. How they are using post-consumer waste or making things close to where the materials are sourced. The magpie in me loved the section on jewelry. My favorite thing in the whole book was about how to shop for clothing and jewelry, restraining your impulses to buy things you like so you can save for something you love in a classic design that you can use for years. Sure, fashion can become dated quickly, and I'm sure 5 years from now, someone going through this book will see a lot of things they'd never wear, but classic fashions become timeless for a reason and a lot of the companies featured in this book do design well made items that can be worn in 5 year or 20 years. There is a whole section on thrift/vintage buying and what to look for when you buy vintage as well, which is the absolute greenest choice for fashion. Very good book, one I want to share with friends.

I absolutely love this fantastic book! Summer Rayne Oakes has written a total shopping guide for anyone who wants to make their life healthier, cleaner and less polluted from chemicals and toxins. Summer Rayne Oakes is a nature lover from northeastern Pennsylvania, who is a fashion model, resident expert on Treehugger and on the Discovery Networks Planet Green. She uses all her expertise in this wonderful guide "Style, Naturally" to make everyone look and dress fabulous without the deadly chemicals and toxic elements that have been dominant in our society's market place for over a century. As a baby boomer myself, I was brought up by a mother who had allergies to almost every soap and food product that contained chemicals, and saw firsthand my mother's frustrations with so many chemical based products in the fifties, sixties and seventies. We always had the products with the least amount of chemicals in our household, for my mother's health and well-being. Having a mother with so many allergies was not the norm and our family was reading product labels decades before it was popular, as it is now. The author teaches us how to read labels to differentiate organic fabrics from fabrics that use pesticides. There are also "clean" fabrics that use less pesticides, which I never knew about. Even though I've always read labels, I've learned so many more great things from this book! Summer Rayne Oakes organizes this book beautifully, starting with the designers and manufacturers who make the great eco products and organic fabrics that are eliminating contaminants, chemicals and pesticides from our world. The author shows so many wonderful clothing pieces that have been re-cycled, re-used or re-worn. She shows fashionable bags made from bottle caps and PVC art banners. Purses are pictured that have been artfully made from candy wrappers, rice bags and re-cycled leather. License plates and car seat fabrics are turned into lovely purses. Vintage fabrics are given new life in dresses, shoes and bags. Nike now re-cycles shoes to make sport surfaces, which I never knew. Beautiful jewelry is pictured made from old hardware, stones, re-cycled woods, gold and glass. There is a large section on cosmetics alone, which shows products such as the new mineral make-ups and chemical and lead free lipsticks. Organic shampoos and skin care products along with chemical free toothpastes, soaps, sunblocks, perfumes and nail polishes are all pictured. The author also gives tips on buying vintage and swapping or selling your no longer wanted clothing. The best part is, she lists where to shop for all these great products, along with all the eco-designers and vegan fashion retailers. Even though I've been a label reader and re-cycler all my life, this book not only taught me many things I never knew, but showed me the many eco friendly retailers I never knew existed. This is definitely a 5 star book and the first of it's kind when it comes to covering ecology-minded fashion from

I approached this book with skepticism. Many current environmental writers and bloggers seem to have little interest or training in biology and ecosystems--a layman's knowledge of which one should have in order to write with any authority on the subject of "green." Therefore I was pleasantly surprised to discover, before even delving deeply into this book, that Summer Rayne Oakes has a university degree in environmental science and entomology. She is also a Udall Environmental Scholar and a National Wildlife Federation Fellow. Her understanding of watersheds, waste streams, and chemistry inform her approach to responsible shopping. And although not trained specifically in the fashion industry, she is a working model. She clearly possesses a flair for style and visual design, which should be apparent to anyone who casually flips through this book. This is a very visual book, with a lot of aesthetic appeal and good production values. Printed on heavy, recycled paper, the graphics and photography are sophisticated and lively without being busy. The balance of text, graphics, and photographs is easy on the eye, so that the reader can digest a lot of visual information without sensory overload. The text is divided up into manageable chunks within well-developed chapters. This is good, because each chapter packs a lot of information, and busy people can read a section at a time without losing continuity. Oakes doesn't just tell you what to buy. She introduces the philosophy behind the green ethos--stressing that it's not about producing and buying more green products but about producing better and consuming better. What is better? It's buying better constructed garments that will last longer. It's buying items with character, meaning, versatility and with a smaller environmental footprint. It's looking for garments with a story behind them, or a history, which often means shopping in second-hand venues. It's buying cosmetics that don't cause pollution in their manufacture and which don't subject the user to carcinogens and endocrine-disrupters. It's about recycling so we don't keep adding more and more clothing to landfills. Oakes applies this ethos to shopping for wearables and accessories, and shows what green designers are bringing to market. For instance, in the "bags" section you see fair trade shopping bags made by artisans from around the world. There are bags made from eco-friendly materials like felt and bamboo; and bags made from recycled materials, such as billboards and seatbelts, woven candy wrappers, vintage fabrics, and recycled ship sails. Most of these bags are beyond my price range, but seeing what designers are doing with materials is inspiring. Looking at the photographs gives me a sense of the burgeoning creativity that's being fostered--rather than hindered-- by people working within limits. And that is what is perhaps most interesting about this book: it's a tribute to the creative energy of people working with