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GREEN IS BLACK
624 Yonge Street
Toronto, ON, M4Y 1Z8
416-454-5650
www.greenisblack.ca
Fashion people are prone to sweeping pronouncements (“Throw out all your skirts, ladies, because pants are perfect for spring!”), and no trend has been more vigorously prescribed lately than “green is the new black.” Everyone’s on the eco wagon (bio-diesel-fuelled, of course) but Kerry MacMullin’s Yonge and Wellesley shop feels a bit more sincerely sustainable than most.
“I was tired of all the doom and gloom talk,” says MacMullin, so in January she turned her four-month-old online green fashion house into a bricks-and-mortar outlet for eco, ethical and fashionable buys. Earth-friendly style followers will recognize labels like Passenger Pigeon, Loomstate, Preloved, Jack & Marjorie and Eden. New discoveries include Okzoo’s graphic cuffs and earrings made from compressed plastic bags and men’s Yellow Port shoes with reclaimed leather or canvas uppers and recycled truck-tire soles.
Green Is Black picks: Ecoist weaves chip bags, candy wrappers and newsprint into clutches, handbags and totes, $30 to $140 Loomstate grows and mills its denim in Tunisia and produces a pair of men’s blues there, too, $249 take your green scheme to the beach in Deux FM’s bikini made from recycled fabric, organic cotton and bamboo, $78.
Look for: Stride Design’s vintage and reclaimed furniture fills the back of the shop. Upstairs, Comondi (www.comondi.com) runs its eco housewares site and Verticiel plans out living roofs and walls
Hours: Tuesday-Wednesday and Saturday 10 am to 6 pm, Thursday-Friday 10 am to 8 pm.
