In E.S. Issue 40, we tackle recycled fashion as the creative wave of the future.

• Recycled fashion gets designers’ creative juices flowing with startlingly original effects. We pay homage to the technological developments of making the best of what we’ve got.
• Kara Cook, our DIY Doyenne, has inherited a cherished leather laptop bag from our publisher, Trevor Martin. You should have seen her face light up: She was practically drunk with inspiration of how to put the supple, broken-in leather to good use. In fact, she had so many ideas, we’ve broken up the DIY projects into three parts. Volume 1 of The Leather Diaries appears here, and stay tuned for the next installment in the series, coming soon.
• As an element, gold is one of the easiest precious metals to recycle, and boy have jewelry designers picked up on that fact. Check out this slideshow of five amazing metalworkers and their glittering creations.
• Have a closet full of clothes that are almost right, but not quite? Or an eye for vintage, but no DIY hemming skills? Fear not. Our guide to tailoring will show you how much you can expect to pay to alter your beloved dresses, shirts, jackets, and pants.
• Finally, in the spirit of recycled content (it’s nice how that works out thematically), we bring to you Seam Ripper, our collection of five stories reprinted from the Behind the Seams blog. We hope to see you in the comments soon!

• Inspiration for the “Electric Love” rings must have struck Seattle-area jewelry company Grain like lightning, as the first version was the absent-minded result of being bored in an art studio filled with junk electrical wire.
• American Apparel’s upcycled vintage collection, California Select, is full of flirtatious ’50s-era dresses with a modern twist for fall.
• Speaking of dresses, we still love the form-fitting silhouettes of Tesco’s recycled-textile dresses in collaboration with From Somewhere.
• Poland made a bid to become the recycled-fashion capital of the world this spring with the second-annual RE-ACT Trashion Show, featuring exclusively upcycled and dead-stock designs.
• Here’s something for the men: Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale has Timberland boots with a recycled rubber sole and a lining made from recycled PET mesh and organic cotton. Prices go up August 2, so buy now to get 30 percent off these sexy eco-shoes.

As an element, pure gold — the 24-karat kind — can be melted down and refashioned an infinite number of times with no change to its strength, shine, or molecular structure. It’s even easy to reclaim alloys, which are used to make the metal harder and more durable. Most frequently alloys are created by combining pure gold with nickel or palladium (for white gold), silver (for yellow), or copper (for rose), all of which are easy enough to extract and recycle as well.

The environmental impact of mining gold is a well-documented travesty, responsible for water and air pollution and displacing not just tons of earth per ounce but also the indigenous communities who have the bad fortune to live near a lucky strike.

Yet even high-end designers have found that there are literally tons of reclaimed gold available for purchase, meaning that no waste is created in the production of high-quality fine jewelry.

We profile five of these designers in the below slideshow. Click on any image to launch.

A model walks during Sanlam South Africa Fashion Week, modeling recycled fashion from Clive Rundle's Spring/Summer 2009 collection. (Courtesy of Treevolution.co.za)

Recycled textiles are gaining on organics as the most popular material used by eco-designers, and for good reason. There is so much gorgeous fabric already existing in the world, whether forgotten in warehouses or stashed at the backs of closets. Trying to recreate silk shantung with a vegan alternatives just seems like a huge waste of everyone’s time. Rather than trying to reinvent the spinning wheel, why not just work with what we already have?

And it’s not just scientists and designers who are jumping on the recycling bandwagon, either. There are a million ways innovative fashionistas can tackle at-home recycling projects. And in this issue, we get our hands dirty with some of those projects.

Kara Cook, our DIY Doyenne, has inherited a cherished leather laptop bag from our publisher, Trevor Martin. You should have seen her face light up: She was practically drunk with inspiration of how to put the supple, broken-in leather to good use. In fact, she had so many ideas, we’ve broken up the DIY projects into three parts. Volume 1 of The Leather Diaries appears here, and stay tuned for the next installment in the series, coming soon.

As an element, gold is one of the easiest precious metals to recycle, and boy have jewelry designers picked up on that fact. Check out this slideshow of five amazing metalworkers and their glittering creations.

Have a closet full of clothes that are almost right, but not quite? Or an eye for vintage, but no DIY hemming skills? Fear not. Our guide to tailoring will show you how much you can expect to pay to alter your beloved dresses, shirts, jackets, and pants.

Finally, in the spirit of recycled content (it’s nice how that works out thematically), we bring to you Seam Ripper, our collection of five stories reprinted from the Behind the Seams blog. We hope to see you in the comments soon!

Over on Tesco’s U.K. website, The O.C. actress Mischa Barton is promoting 10 bags reportedly of her making.

However, we can’t help but notice the similarities between one of her bags and a design by a favorite eco-designer of ours, Novella Royale.

A key difference between the Mischa Barton Oversized Bowler (£45, or $70.25 in USD, pictured on the left) and the Novella Royale Mister Stud Bowler ($584, on the right) is that while Novella Royale prides itself on its high-quality recycled leather and organic cotton lining, the Tesco bag is made from polyurethane in Asian factories. Boo.

What do you think, E.S. readers? Is the similarity a coincidence or suspicious to you?

Here are our top picks for your skin type:

• For normal skin: Josie Maran’s Argan Oil ($48) is a miracle worker for all skin types, sinking in instantly and eliminating those dry flakes you might get from acne or anti-aging creams. It’s also fair trade and grown by a women’s collaborative in Morocco.
• For dry skin: We have a lot of love for Kiehl’s products (just check our medicine cabinet), and the Midnight Recovery Concentrate ($42) is no exception. A blend of evening primrose, lavender, and squalene oil derived from olives, this paraben-free natural oil comes packaged in recyclable glass.
• For oily and acne-prone skin: There’s a lot to love about Desert Essence Tea Tree Oil ($8.99). Tea tree oil is a natural antiseptic and it makes a great toner applied to a cotton pad and swiped over affected areas — not to mention its price is exceedingly reasonable.
• For anti-aging: Marie Veronique Organics makes a wonderful Anti-Aging Oil ($70) that is totally vegan and free of nut oils for allergic folks. It is a blend of grapeseed, tamanu, and borage oils with a healthy dose of Vitamin E to keep your skin looking its youthful best.

Luckily, there are an absolute ton of refreshing and eco-friendly bath and body products to look forward to at the end of a brutal day. Perk up your senses with one of the following:

• Start a spa night off on the right foot with a pick-me-up bath. We love One’s I Need This! Natural Bath Fizzer ($5.99) for its zingy scent of lemongrass and totally recyclable packaging.
• Love the energizing smell of crushed fruit? Then you’ll want to dig into the Cranberry and Pomegranate Sugar Scrub ($13) by Burt’s Bees. The exfoliator gets down and dirty on dry patches and calluses, and the ingredient list is practically edible.
• Work on your tan without heading to the Hamptons with a generous application of Lavera’s Self-Tanning Lotion ($19.86) — which gradually builds your healthy glow without the use of nasty chemicals or an even nastier fragrance.
• Lavanila’s products are already well-known among eco-beauty cultists, but now you have even more of a reason to buy up. For every product sold through its website, the company will plant a seedling through the Nature Conservancy. Our pick? The lushly floral Vanilla Blossom perfume ($58), which combines rose, orange blossom, and jasmine with Madagascar vanilla.

Timberland’s “Chelsea” boots from its Earthkeepers collection are about to go on sale during Nordstrom’s Anniversary Sale, starting Friday. (See Page 79 of the online catalogue.)

Timberland’s website describes the eco-features so nicely, we want them to come in women’s sizes too:

Our Earthkeepers™ range features tough, rugged footwear made with the environment in mind. Thanks to moisture-wicking linings made from recycled materials, organic cotton content, rugged outsoles made with Green Rubber™ material and the all-day softness of leather from a silver-rated tannery, they’re durable, lightweight and always a talking point. This is laid-back comfort — with a conscience.

What all that means is a sole made from 42 percent recycled rubber and an organic cotton canvas lining that also incorporates 100 percent recycled PET mesh fabric. And more urban-rugged style than you can shake a stick at.

Timberland Earthkeepers “Chelsea” Boots, $99.90 at Nordstrom.com (starting July 16).

Now we have another negative to add to Column B. On Gawker.com, a tipster leaked the company’s confidentiality agreement, which must be signed by all new hires and limits employees’ ability to report questionable behavior. From the legalese:

You understand that the Company is a high profile publicly traded company that is vulnerable from a media perspective. You also understand that that the Company’s Chief Executive Officer, Dov Charney, is considered an international business celebrity and has become one of the most recognized CEOs in the fashion industry. …

Further, you agree not to disparage the Company or Mr. Charney in public or online on blogs or any other similar media. Further, you understand and agree that all communications concerning Confidential Information in public, even with fellow employees of the Company, that are or reasonably could be overheard by a third party (e.g., and without limitation, in bars and restaurants) shall be deemed a breach of this Confidentiality Agreement. …

In the event of any breach by you (or your agents) of this Confidentiality Agreement, you shall pay as liquidated damages, and not as a penalty, the sum of One Million Dollars ($1,000,000) for each such breach, which the parties agree represents reasonable compensation for the harm incurred as a result of such breach.

The contract seems explicitly designed to protect Mr. Charney, who is no stranger to accusations of sexual harassment and unethical accounting practices. We can’t help but wonder what he has to hide if he’s willing to threaten his employees with a million-dollar penalty for speaking up.

In an article that appeared in the New York Post on the extreme shopping habits of five New York City women, one seasoned consumer offered some surprisingly sound advice:

“You’ve got to be socially responsible in terms of style, and that means recycling. Things like furs and skins, if you hoard them and don’t wear them, you are making it so that more needs to be produced. Sell it, give it away and get it back out there. That is a big part of being a good consumer.

“Never hoard!”

In other words: If you loved something once, set it free so someone else can love it again. From an article in which an executive assistant brags about spending $4,000 a month on clothes (even if it occasionally means she has to sell something to scrounge up money for rent), this is actually pretty reasonable.

So E.S. readers, how often do you purge your closets of items that aren’t getting enough love?