So get a head start on your spring cleaning by starting with your overstuffed closet. CWAC advises the following:

Shopping from yourself is a personal experience, so each person’s trip will be different. Make sure to stay focused and selective. Pay attention to the item. If it needs repairs or a polish, do it. Tailoring is cheaper than buying something new (and it is always good to support your local seamstresses). Wear items on a regular basis (or pick a specific day and wear them in combinations). Call attention to your new purchase. Don’t be afraid to wear dressy items just because their original purchase price might warrant extra care. Wear eccentric items for non-traditional applications – while cycling or visiting the dog park or grocery store (these are good places to practice outfits).

We’re all about the dog park fashion show. Are you motivated yet?

Kate Spade is no stranger to being knocked off by Canal Street bag peddlers, but now the preppy bag line is the one facing accusations of copying a lesser-known designer.

Parisian designer Olympia Le-Tan called Kate Spade “a big fat copycat” on Twitter last month after Kate Spade came out with a line of classic-paperback themed bags that suspiciously mirrored Le-Tan’s own sought-after clutches. (That tweet has since been deleted.)

Salon.com reports:

And considering that Le-Tan’s line got a fair amount of press right here in the company’s home turf of New York City when it debuted last fall, it seems a little peculiar that the concept went entirely unnoticed by the more famous bag maker.

[Kate Spade], which is owned by Liz Claiborne, certainly wouldn’t be the first to draw “inspiration” from the work of lesser-known designers, but there is something particularly galling about a staid house apparently glomming on to a younger designer’s work — especially when said work has brought the artist such high acclaim.

Pictured above: Kate Spade’s clutch (left) faces off against Olympia Le-Tan’s bag (right).

(via CounterfeitChic)

The show will feature the debut of London-based eco-brand Goodone’s Fall/Winter 2010 collection. (One of the line’s prettiest dresses for spring is pictured at left.)

And if you’re a fashion innovator, listen up: There’s a contest for young designers to honor the best recycling collection. The prize? 15,000 Polish zloty (or about $5,300 USD). That could buy a lot of food for starving artists.

The event will kick off the Spring 2010 FashionPhilosophy Fashion Week, so it’s worth your time to stick around afterwards.

Susie Orbach, the foremost British psychologist on issues of body image and author of the book Fat Is A Feminist Issue, has accused lingerie companies of misleading the public by hiring models who have had breast augmentations to pose in their goods:

“I have plenty of clinical evidence to show that surgically enhanced models create a situation in which young women and girls feel inadequate,” Ms Orbach said. “They begin to think about how they can get their breasts to look like the ones that they see on ads. They feel dispirited because even though they know these images don’t necessarily relate to ‘natural’ bodies, they appear to be the norm and they feel left out.”

This reminds us of the controversy over using false eyelashes in mascara commercials, an issue over which a Rimmel ad was banned in 2007. But let’s open it up to the commenters: Do you feel inadequate when looking at lingerie ads featuring models who have surgically enhanced their bustlines?

E.S. friend TRAID will be there to lead DIY projects to update your old closet workhorses.

According to the event organizers, the £6 cover charge will net you the following perks:

• The Green Machines Expo: the UK’s largest showing of low carbon vehicles.
• The Green Business Start-up Surgery: an oasis of solutions for budding entrepreneurs to help make dreams become reality.
• Clothes swapping party: a chance for anyone to get a completely new to you wardrobe without damaging the environment or spending a penny.
• Kids area: shows and interactive activities designed to inspire young minds…a perfect Easter holiday outing!
• Morsbags: an oasis of creative surprises and haberdashery delights — voted best feature by our visitors last year.

Register here for the early-bird discount!

“I’m wearing a dress made for me by Orsola de Castro. She is behind one of my favourite labels, From Somewhere, and is totally on my wavelength. Orsola is the queen of upcycling so everything about the dress has been salvaged from the waste bins of some very prestigious labels, no less, so my dress will be made from waste but you’d never know. I’m also wearing ethical pink diamonds from Australia, by Cajella (on loan of course), and my bag has been made for me by Bruno at Roger Vivier from offcuts. It’s really beautiful.”

– Livia Firth, wife of Best Actor nominee Colin Firth, on her elegant eco-pick for Oscar night. Want your own From Somewhere dress at a fraction of the price? Check out the brand’s new collaboration with U.K. discount retailer Tesco.

The beauty of the clutch design is that it adds no bulk to your hips (because honestly, what woman wants to add inches there?) while keeping your hands free and fitting in all your daily essentials.

But Fahmina also has an eco-secret: Her accessories been made with 95 percent reclaimed and “precycled” leather that’s been salvaged from other designers’ waste bins. Other leatherworkers throw away “defective” leather by the ton for something as little as a scratch. Fahmina works by hand around the defects for a piece that is still high-quality but a little less wasteful.

Envelope Fanny Clutch, $180 at Fahmina.com.

(via YourDailyThread.com)

Tesco is in some ways the U.K. equivalent of Target — a place where you can buy well-priced groceries and clothes in the same trip. Now, in the tradition of Target’s eco-minded Go International collections, Tescois releasing a sweet sustainable clothing line in collaboration with From Somewhere. Fast fashion, this isn’t.

As Ecouterre reports:

Made up of damaged stock, end of rolls, and pre-consumer textile waste from Tesco’s own supply chain, “From Somewhere to F&F” consists of six striking, paneled designs that are being produced in a LEED-certified factory in Sri Lanka—the first apparel factory in the world, in fact, to receive a Gold rating for lowering its carbon footprint by 48 percent and using 60 percent less water than a standard factory.

Also, the clothes are pretty hot — we’d wear any of these dresses out on the town. Well played, Tesco!

The dresses, which start at £16, are set to go on sale on Tesco’s website this spring.

Vancouver-based designer Nicole Bridger sent us her spring lookbook this week and we were pleasantly surprised that her soft, drapey styles would work perfectly as maternity wear for the ethically stylish mama-to-be.

Ms. Bridger has interned with Vivienne Westwood and was an early partner at Oqoqo, the casual clothing line by yoga outfitter Lululemon. Now with her eponymous brand, she offers feminine styles that are as comfortable as they are body-conscious.

We especially like the subdued palette of this cocoon cardigan and tunic tee for Spring/Summer 2010. Paired with leggings, we can’t imagine anything cuter for a baby bump.

Courage Cardigan, $227, and Grateful Top, $136 at NicoleBridger.com.

At Berlin Fashion Week German designer Tom Rebl went for bondage, sending out a model in a leather shoulder harness and nothing else. The model used his gloved hands to hide his package.

The fetish theme continued at London Fashion Week where Jaiden rVa James presented a collection that was frighteningly fierce and S&M; and New Power Studio put lipstick and silly hats on its models, including a drum. …

At Air New Zealand Fashion Week in September last year Kate Sylvester sent male models down the runway wearing women’s lingerie slips, and boxer shorts trimmed with lace for the presentation of her men’s and women’s 2010 winter collection Diamond Dogs. The collection was inspired by infamous Auckland socialite of the 1980s Judith Baragwanath who had a penchant for wearing menswear and black lipstick.

“We were pillaging our menswear and putting it on the girls and thought what about the poor old boys, and decided to do a complete swap,” Sylvester says. “We had very boysy boys – it was important that they still looked very masculine in their slips. The models were incredibly gracious about it and wore them in very good spirit.”

Call us callous but of course the models were gracious about it — why shouldn’t they be? For decades, women models have appeared on the catwalk decked out in everything from menswear to mere scraps of fabric. And anyone who’s seen the movie Prêt-à-Porter recalls the infamous Warhol-esque finale, with a bevy of models walking the runway completely naked.

Female models have endured such fashions with nary a complaint since the dawn of Fashion Week. I don’t know that we need to applaud their male counterparts for suffering such tame indignities.

Pictured above: A male model walks during Kate Sylvester’s Fall/Winter 2010 show at Auckland New Zealand Fashion Week.