On May 6, there will be a new eco-fashion capital: Lodz, Poland. That’s where the second annual RE-ACT Fashion Show will rock the runways with dead stock and upcycled designs.

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.

If you’ll be in London next month, make a point to stop by the U.K. Aware 2010 exhibition from April 16-17. This is the third annual event and this year features 200 booths and 50 guest speakers who will show you how to give your life a green makeover.

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.

This excerpt of the New York Times’s review of Balmain’s fashion show in Paris today caught our attention for its insinuation that even the highest of high fashion can still be disposable:

Yet, even without any fashion innovation, Balmain has still caught a vibe. A taut pantsuit, with its short jacket resting on the derrière, the designer’s signature short party dresses with sharp shoulders and, above all, the gilt trip will feed the greedy maw of fast fashion — and give a lot of young women just what they want for right now.

Usually “fast fashion” is taken to mean cheaply-made clothes from H&M, Forever 21, and the like — the fashion equivalent of a Big Mac, not a Kobe beef burger. But if a design is so trendy, so recognizably “this moment,” couldn’t that be equally short-lived in the closets of people with the deepest pockets? Discuss in the comments!

If you are going to be in San Francisco the weekend of March 12, we have great news for you. Kate from SenSpa just passed along the details of the grand opening of the spa’s Wellness Apothecary.

The deets:

• Workshops on skincare, stress management, aromatherapy, makeup, and more.
• Free mini-makeovers performed by a Becca makeup artist (SenSpa is the only full service Becca Cosmetics station in San Francisco.)
• Wellness Pass (which offers guests 15% off wellness products purchased that weekend and 10% off of these products on an on-going basis.)
• A buy one custom-blended body scrub and receive a travel-size of the same blend free deal.
• Champagne, tea, and snacks!

Be there or be square (or at the very least, a lot less relaxed).

SenSpa, 1161 Gorgas Avenue, The Presidio, San Francisco, Calif. (415) 441-1777.

As promised yesterday, we’ve spent a lot of time looking at the New York Fashion Week coverage and came to an obvious conclusion: Fur is big again for Fall/Winter 2010.

Michael Kors in particular used a ton of fur in his new collection (pictured here), for both men and women.

And a protégé from Kors’s own Project Runway, Season 6 winner Irina Shabayeva’s debut collection made fox fur the centerpiece of several designs. “From her opening look, a camel cashmere pheasant-print coat with crystal fox collar, the tone was set,” reports the Fur Industry Council of America in Women’s Wear Daily.

With so much fur conspicuously used by the most buzzworthy designers, it begs the question: Has PETA’s influence dimmed over the years due to its increasingly outrageous stunts? Is the era of fur-shunning over for good?

“After 10 seasons covering New York Fashion Week, I’ve learned that no matter how often People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals protest outside the tents at Bryant Park, every year designers will still incorporate fur into their collections. This week, Marc Jacobs, Thakoon, Carolina Herrera, and a handful of other designers used fur in abundance. It was like a barnyard with goat, mink, fox, beaver, raccoon, and even muskrat seen on the catwalk.”

– Boston Globe columnist Christopher Muther’s observations of New York Fashion Week, which concludes tomorrow. More commentary regarding fur on the runway to come tomorrow.

Pictured above: from Marc Jacobs’s F/W 2010 show on February 15.

Cosmetics superstar Bobbi Brown has partnered with The Heart Truth, the charity arm of the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), to raise awareness of heart disease in women.

This $40 limited edition Bronze Shimmerbrick and Blender Brush set benefits The Heart Truth and its programs to get more women tested and teach healthy habits to prevent heart disease. (However, it hasn’t been disclosed how much of the proceeds will go to charity.)

And a reminder that the Red Dress Fashion Show — the big event sponsored by The Heart Truth — kicks off New York Fashion Week on Thursday night in the main tent in Bryant Park! More details here.

French conglomerate LVMH and the venerated Parsons School of Design have teamed up to present an exhibition entitled “The Art of Craftsmanship Revisited” during New York Fashion Week this month.

The exhibit will showcase work by 23 teams of Parsons students who worked for several months on their designs with the help of dozens of NYC artisans. Says Bernard Arnault, LVMH’s chairman and chief executive officer:

Beyond ephemeral fashions, it is the values of quality and durability which are forever attached to the Group’s brands. The handicraft expertise of our products, their unique history and legacy, the truly iconic designs that distinguish our creations — all of these characteristics take on particular importance for us, as the leading luxury group, enforcing and perpetuating our solid values.

Want to see for yourself? The fashion projects will be on display on February 17 at Milk Studios (450 W. 15th Street, New York, N.Y.) during MAC & MILK Fashion Week.

Vancouver is looking to lock down its position as the world capital of green fashion, and we’re pretty excited for Vancouver Eco Fashion Week, this year from April 20 to 22.

And if you live in Vancouver or will be in town next month for the Olympics, kick the party off early with an event on February 19 at the Vancouver Public Library.

The deets:

Enjoy an evening filled with live music by international performers Jill Barber, Vince Vaccaro, Adam Thomas and the Mike Allen Quartet, live painting by Caroline Weave, and DJ Phoenix Olivia. Opening speeches will be given by Lindsay Coulter from the David Suzuki Foundation and Our Social Fabric’s Kim Cathers.

You won’t want to miss the fashion show featuring favourite eco-friendly designers like Adhesif Clothing (adhesifclothing.com), Ashley Watson (ashleywatson.net), Dotted Loop (dottedloop.com), Kim Cathers Elements (kimcathers.com), Nixxi (nixxi.ca), and WE3 (we3.ca).

Mark your calendar for the Eco Fashion Forward Fundraising Night on Friday, February 19, 2010 at 8pm, happening at The Promenade at the Vancouver Public Library (350 West Georgia Street, Vancouver, BC).

Tickets are $45 and can be purchased online at EcoFashionForward.EventBrite.com. Part of the ticket price will be donated to the David Suzuki Foundation, a Canadian environmental charity.

Want more info? Check out VEFW.com.