When it comes to fashion, innovation is the name of the game.  Create what has never been seen, use materials that one wouldn’t expect, blend colors in an inspiring way, and most of all, blow people’s minds!  If you are not the talk of the town, then darling, you aren’t fashionable!  With all things “green” being on trend, is it any wonder that fashion has led the way in creating cool new looks out of the totally unexpected?  Feast your eyes on these expected designs made of unexpected materials:

This incredibly unique dress begs to capture the eye and make the wearer the belle of the ball, who just so happens to be ecologically mindful.  The dress is made from recycled bottle tops, cardboard packaging, plastic bags, and recycled cans.

That's what I call "eco chic".

For the mommy who wants her baby to be “green” chic, why not purchase booties made out of discarded packaging?  Even babies can give back to the enviroment! Purchase at MoJoTrashion’s Etsy Shop.

Teaching kids about recycling and style from the early age.

Gala attire for that Earth Day fundraiser can be completely gorgeous and yet made from distinctly unusual products.  Why not have a dress made from juice boxes?  This creation was worn by  Naturevsfuture designer Nina Valenti for an outing at Carnegie Hall.

Juicebox dress...not much else to say.

For the showstopper who wants to make an entrance, why not make headlines by showing up in a couture dress composed of discarded newspaper?  Not only will you be chic, but you can haughtily tell of the virtues of recycling in this gown dreamed up by Gary Harvey:

I wonder about the rustling paper sound though...

Plastic bags are one of the worst things for the environment that we can think of. Research suggest that 500 billion to one trillion plastic bags are consumed each year. And only one city in the United States has banned their use in markets and pharmacies—San Francisco.

So, they aren’t going away. But what can we do with them to make them more useful and keep them out of landfills?

You can make plastic bag yarn!

(pic courtesy of hellejorgensen.typepad.com)

You can then use it to knit, and even make clothes and bags from it! They’ll be waterproof! Consider using plastic bags from your old shopping trips to knit a tote for a new way of shopping! We promise, you will be forgiven for all the bags you used before. You can also make rugs and placemats as well.

You can also make better, stronger totes by fusing bags together to incorporate their designs into a new, better one. The same technique can be used to make an awesome dress like this!

Fusing can be done with a simple iron and parchment paper, but be sure to do a little research before getting melting or you may have some difficulty. Then, the plastic “fabric” can be sewn together into anything you want to make.

Fusing can also make beautiful, funky jewelry and hair accessories.

By making anything from plastic bags—or even carrying them for another use—you help keep these volatile landfill-mongers out of our earth a little bit longer.

Pic courtesy of craftster.org.

Americans love shoes. In fact, there are around seven pairs for every person living in the United States. That’s a lot, especially when you take into consideration the materials used to make up our favorites. Most contain a number of different synthetic and petroleum-derived materials, manufactured in China, that release toxins like the carcinogenic dioxin into the air. Factory workers are exposed to dangerous glues and tanning agents for leather. By buying shoes made from sustainable materials, you will reduce the surprising carbon cost of footwear.

• While Simple Shoes manufactures their shoes outside of the United States, they are committed to using fair labor practices and sustainable materials for their products. Their sandals, casual shoes, sneakers and dress shoes are made from a combination of different recycled and sustainable materials, including organic cotton, recycled car tires and innertubes, hemp, silk, and cork. Their packaging is as minimal as it can get, and all biodegradable.

• Earth Shoes makes casual and athletic shoes from bamboo, hemp, recycled plastic and water-soluble solvents. Their special design, called a “negative heel”, promotes leg strength and weight loss by making the heel of the shoe lower than the thick sole of the arch and toes—in effect, you are constantly walking uphill. This lowered heel is supposed to align your hips and spine, straighten your head and activate your core—so not only are you doing the earth good by wearing these shoes, you are doing you body good as well.

• Patagonia puts a lot of thought into the materials they use to make their shoes, in addition to their functionality. While they still choose to use leather in some of their products because of its extreme durability and protective properties, they reuse hides from the meat industry that would be discarded otherwise. Their tanning process strives to be as earth friendly and safe for the tanners as possible. They offer a line of vegan shoes made with all water-soluble solvents and uppers made from recycled and synthetic materials. They recycle their own rubber scraps into soles, and use Heavea latex, which has an extraction process that is actually beneficial to the tree.

But before you decide to buy new shoes, consider the greenest options of all: shoe recycling. If your shoe breaks, repair it, rather than buying a new pair—it’s undoubtably cheaper. If you really want a new pair, try buying from a thrift store. Plenty of lightly worn and interesting shoes are available at your local Good Will or Salvation Army stores.

Do your best to purchase shoes made in the United States, preferably by union workers. Don’t be fooled by shoes manufactured in the Mariana Islands, however—while they are U.S. Commonwealth, the factories there are not required to pay the minimum wage o their workers.

While it might seem silly to worry about what shoes you wear, we must consider all the ways we can limit our carbon footprint and promote fair labor practices. If each of us recognized our significant contribution to climate change and globalization, then maybe these problems could be resolved.