BY CHAD CLARK

GREEN IS THE NEW BLACK: I was having dinner with a friend a week or so ago. We were talking about ideas for the column and my friend mentioned to me that one thing a friend of hers was doing to reduce her personal carbon footprint was to wear only recycled clothing. Interesting I thought to myself, but probably not everyone is keen on the idea of used clothing so I began to research. Turns out there are many options out there that transcend the quintessential vintage shirt or crusty hemp sweater.

There are many fashion designers who are currently experimenting with the notion of sustainable practices and how they can inform contemporary fashion design. In fact, last year’s L.A. Fashion Week was focused on sustainability and eco-friendly fashions and designers.

Lynda Grose is a pioneer in eco-fashion from the early 1990s. While working for Esprit she helped develop its Ecollection, the first eco-friendly clothing line distributed by a major fashion company. She has gone on to teach an eco-fashion class at the California College of the Arts, while working with the Sustainable Cotton Project (www.sustainablecotton.org).

You may not have heard of Katharine Hamnett, but you have proba•bly seen her T-shirts with slogans like “CHOOSE LIFE,” “USE CONDOMS,” and “PEACE.” Hamnett has been campaigning for years for eco-friendly practices. In 2005 she re-launched a new line of clothing from eco-conscious suppliers. Her latest endeavor is ”Clean Up or Die” (www.katharinehamnett.com) which deals with the sustainability of the cotton industry.

Many other designers are following in their footsteps. Stella McCartney, for example, was named the Organic Style Woman of the Year in 2005 for her dedication to eco-friendly design and social consciousness, and you will certainly find no leather or fur in her L.A. store (8823 Beverly Blvd., (www.stellamccartney.com). Deborah Lindquist (www.deborahlindquist.com) creates high fashion out of left-overs and throw-aways which have been adorned by such celebs as Gwen Stefani, and Charlize Theron. She mixes what she calls “reincarnated” with eco-friendly fabrications. Her line of clothing is available at Fred Segal and the Whole Foods Market Lifestyle Annex in West Hollywood (7871 Santa Monica Blvd.).

There are also many apparel companies who are thinking green these days. We are all familiar with American Apparel as they are quickly becoming the Starbucks of clothing stores. But many others are helping to green up the industry as well, such as Clothing of the American Mind (www.cotam.org), a company dedicated to helping progressive organizations such as MoveOn.org, Progressive Democrats of America, & Human Rights Watch while exposing people to pertinent political issues. They are fair wage like American Apparel, but are also striving to bring informed dissent back into style. Celebrity dissidents of COTAM include Natalie Portman, Chad Allen, Chris Robinson, Fred Armisen, Maroon 5, and Daphne Zuniga.

Speaking of celebrities, EDUN (www.edunonline.com) is a clothing company with a conscious launched in 2005 by Ali Hewson and Bono. They intend to create beautiful fashion for men and women while creating sustainable employment in developing countries. Recently EDUN launched their LIVE brand (www.edun-live.com) which endeavors to foster trade in Africa by selling blank certified organic T-shirts to the wholesale market.

Locally in West Hollywood, the Whole Foods Market Lifestyle Annex makes it easy to help the environment while staying stylish. They sell clothing made from organic materials manufactured by eco-conscious companies such as Loomstate organic jeans and Little Earth handbags made from old license plates.

Some of the most creative interpretations of sustainable fashion I have seen have been in the form of clothing and accessories made from recycled junk. For example, Kim White Handbags (www.kimwhitehandbags.com) are made of upholstery from old automobiles. While Ecoist (www.ecoist.com) makes accessories made from recycled food wrappers such as Luna-Bar bags and they plant a tree for every bag sold (available at Kelly Green 4008 Santa Monica Blvd. in Silverlake). Escama (www.escamastudio.com), the Portuguese word for fish scales, is a company that fabricates bags and accessories which at a glance are reminiscent of Paco Rabanne’s chain mail purses from the 1960s. But close inspection reveals that they are in fact made from recycled aluminum can tabs. They make garbage chic. (available at Boom, 3239 Helms Ave.)

A Swiss company called Freitag (www.freitag.ch) makes messenger bags, wallets, iPod covers, and etc. from recycled shipping truck tarps, car seat belts, used air bags, and bicycle inner tubes. Each piece is beautiful, unique, and super durable (available at Flight 011, 8235 West Third St.)

Salvation Sacks (www.salvationsacks.com) takes a similar approach by making bags from reclaimed and recycled clothing from the ’20s-’80s creating wearable works of art. Fellow Angelenos Ecofriendly Agent 18 (pictured) make stylish covers for iPhones and iPod Touch out of recycled materials (www.agent18.com) without sacrificing a polymer of style.

However if you are like me and don’t mind wearing previously used clothing and saving a bundle there are really great used and vintage stores here in L.A. Reusing clothing not only decreases waste but also the demand for new production. Stores like Buffalo Exchange (131

N. La Brea Ave.) Crossroads Trading Company (8315 Santa Monica Blvd.), and Out of the Closet (8224 Santa Monica Blvd.), and various locations) take in clothing from the community and sells them at a great reduced price.

Fashion has long since been a form of personal expression, and although recycling, purchasing carbon offsets, and driving a Prius are great ways to help out the environment; isn’t it about time that our personal aesthetics do the same?