Just southwest of downtown Los Angeles, there’s a somewhat seamy but much loved area called Venice Beach, reminiscent of Coney Island, NY. With the Pacific on one side, and a beautiful boardwalk winding past street vendors, skateboarders, tattoo shops, and medicinal ganja dispensaries, this colorful locale was a great backdrop to the Venice Ecofest. Many exhibitors displayed green products and services, including several eco-fashion vendors, as music playing on a solar-powered stage livened the atmosphere.
Aside from Ed Begley being there (!), the best part was the eco-fashion show, featuring over 30 fashions. It took place on a catwalk set right on the beach, and was run by Steve Galindo. It featured fashions by:
- Livity Apparell (livity.org)
- Chortie (http://store.shopping.yahoo.co.jp/luzllena/newa5d6a5e.html)
- Enamore Bamboo Lingerie (pleasuregalaxie.com)
- Sita (sitastyle.com)
- Hemptress handbags (thehemptress.com)
- Susan Nichole Vegan handbags (susannichole.com)
Livity was a hip new eco-brand made for skaters, and it was cool to see the young models skate on skateboards down the catwalk. My favorite fashions were by Sita– beautiful upscale organic cotton and Ingeo (corn fiber) dresses that I could definitely wear to work or for a night out.
Overall the Venice Ecofest was a really fun, high-spirited event produced by Steven Fiske, and was an experience that would make any Venice-ite proud to be a resident there.
