West Third Street's row of eco-boutiques

West Third Street is officially the one-stop shopping strip for eco-fashions. On Earth Day yesterday, boutiques Romp and Vie threw their opening parties, joining the now 1-year-old Avita Co-op, which also threw a party to celebrate its anniversary.

Avita Co-op's party (above) was definitely the most crowded -- perhaps because the boutique is more established or perhaps because it has the smallest space.  Eco-fashionistas squeezed past each other to get to the bar, which was serving an interesting sake-soda drink I'd never tried before.

Being a co-op, most of Avita Co-op's fashions are created by local designers with a stake in the store. Due to the crowding, however, shopping was rather impossible.

"But the fashion show starts in five minutes!" said the people at the door as I was leaving. "But there are these other eco-boutiques," I said. Turns out the boutiques didn't really know about each others' existence! Avita Co-op's PR person walked the two blocks to Vie with me to find out where the competition was.

The as-of-yet website-less Vie boutique (above) offers higher-end eco-fashion from brands like Del Forte Denim and the local company California Rising, whose husband-and-wife team joined the party. Style's never compromised for green-ness; browsing the racks, I kept finding out about different eco-designers I'd never heard of. The eco-fashion market's really heating up.

The store has a gorgeous courtyard in the back, where guests -- some wearing fashions from the store -- drank champagne and organic beer. In keeping with Vie's environmental mission, much of the store's furnishings were acquired second-hand!

Down a block and a half, Romp celebrated what some environmentalists consider an oxymoron: Eco-leather. Live mannequins (above) punctuated the corners of the store, which had a rather pungent odor. "They must've used paints with VOCs," I said to Katie. Then we realized that what we were smelling was the leather itself!

The boutique also offers some organic cotton shirts (above), but leather is Romp's raison d'etre. Romp's leather does seem to be much more eco than conventional leather, which often comes from factory-farmed cows whose hides are treated with noxious chemicals and dyes. According to Romp's website:

We buy only Certified Organic Raw Materials for this brand, and from there, we have certified organic manufacture, certified organic processes, certified organic plant and bug dyeing, and then certified organic fabrication of everything in house ourselves with our 668 craftspeople in the only certfied (sic) organic fascility (sic) of its kind.

The L.A. area's got yet more new eco-fashion stores. Nau opened an L.A. store in the Beverly Center last weekend (more on that later), and Fred Segal Green will celebrate its opening in Santa Monica this weekend. Shop green, but remember that the greenest closet is the one you already own! Reduce and reuse first.

Avita Co-op. 8213 W. Third St., Los Angeles. Vie Boutique. 8032 W. Third St., Los Angeles. Romp. 7928 W. Third St., Los Angeles.

Photos by Siel

Comments

[Greg]

Hi,

Thanks for the mention. Hope you will return to check out the provenance when there-s more light. The smell unfortunately was neither paint VOC's nor the leather. It was the floor. Sustainable californian timber, grown dyes, madder, shellac, beeswax and orange juice. Not finished in time! Better after a week but all pure stuff.

We do use the same natural dyes and finishes in the leather so if you got up close it might appear to be the source particularly the brown leather but not a synthetic chemical in the place.

Best Regards

Greg

[Alicia]

Keep in mind that creating new useless items is in itself is not green. Most of the these high end and surely fashionable items are really not needed and thus, not green at all and in turn not eco-friendly. Wasting wood, juice, paper, dyes, to create new designer items that we truly don't need is still wasting no matter how you wrap your gorgeous botoxed PR fingers around it and twist if for the public view. Why can't we focus on changing what's already out there instead of just producing, selling, manufacturing and USING more and more and more, under the false guise of "GREEN". It's called "green-washing" my friends, and you've all been had.

[Siel]

Hey Greg -- Thanks for the info :) I'll return for a second sniff test :)

Alicia -- Are you available for parties? You're sure to cheer up any eco-gathering! I'm sure your preachy, condescending attitude will attract millions to the enviro movement!

More seriously -- Please read the last sentence of the post.