That’s where the genius of Adidas by Stella McCartney comes in. The London designer worked with organic materials and designed for a woman’s body in motion, so these are not your average sweats.

And just in time for summer, the Adidas website has discounted most of her offerings by 10 percent or more.

With free shipping on orders over $99, you might as well stock up on a whole new outfit, starting with these organic cotton French terry cover-up shorts — perfect after you finish swimming laps — and finishing with this yoga hoodie, with short bell sleeves for a little extra flair.

There’s appropriate gear for every sport and competition, from golf to triathlons. And everything is so well designed that you can’t help but want to hit the gym in green style.

Tomorrow morning, the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York will open its doors to the “Eco-Fashion: Going Green” exhibit, on display through November 13.

The exhibition features innovations in eco-design over the past 250 years, from a hand-loomed silk brocade dress circa 1760 to modern-day names like Bodkin, Edun, and FIN.

According to the curators, everything on display represents one of the following broadly defined themes:

• the repurposing and recycling of materials
• material origins
• textile dyeing and production
• quality of craftsmanship
• labor practices
• the treatment of animals

Admission is free, so if you’ll be in the city over the next six months, stop in and kill an afternoon admiring these works of eco-art.

The Museum at FIT, Seventh Avenue at 27th Street, New York, N.Y., 10001. (212) 217-4700.

Who am I to reject the metallic unitards of 1965′s Lost in Space?

Or Uhura’s mini-dress in Star Trek?

So I may be a self-professed sci-fi geek, but as someone who lived through the year 2001, perhaps I am qualified to say a thing or two about our past perceptions on the “future” of fashion.

Instead of utilitarianism, uniformed, unisexed, unitarded humans, the year 2001 came and went, like every year before — with bi-annual fashion shows and designer shoes.  A decade on, the wheels of haute couture are still turning. What a relief.

I am certainly not breaking any new ground by saying that the fashion “of the future” we have put onscreen has been more a reflection of the era in which it was made, than of any clear vision of the future. But it’s more than that. A “favorite” quote from 2006 speaks of the impending ubiquity of technologically-advanced fashion. The Forbes piece entitled “The Fashions of the Future” foretold the coming fashion revolution:

“…Cohen says wearable technology will eventually become a basic commodity, much like the blue jean. “Why buy a basic pair of khakis when future ones will be able to keep your legs warm with heating coils built into the lining? The future of technology in fiber and products is only a few years away.”"

Well, a few years have passed. I still put on my pants one leg at a time. Pants — not sci-mini skirt or metallic unitard, and here we are in 2010. (A year for which Arthur C. Clarke conveniently wrote 2010: Odyssey Two.)

Everything is just sort of the same as it ever was, instead of LED panels in all our clothes, and pants that heat up and keep you warm (though I’m sort of sure this is what pants are for, anyway), and kinetic parts, cameras in our hats, and metal pieces everywhere. Fans in coats has never taken off. I don’t have glowing strips on my shirts, Tron-style.

Instead of the future of fashion, might those just be the fringe of fashion?

Rather, we have used technology for individual ends, like customizable shoes; and ways to cut fabric so we don’t end up with waste; and materials that biodegrade, even though they are synthetic; and textiles and clothes that are made with less impact on the environment. In short, the future of clothes has become more earth-conscious, not more space-conscious.

The future of fashion hasn’t led to some utilitarian future of function without uniqueness; it has given us more uniqueness (with more ease) than ever before. It has given us the technology to make more ethical choices about what we wear.

Sans silver miniskirt, I happily await the thrilling future of fashion — all while wearing my organic cotton tee printed by a local artist.

Set for wide release on March 25, the buzz surrounding the highly anticipated and eco-minded H&M Garden Collection is reaching a fever pitch. The collection features dozens of looks using recycled polyester, organic cotton and linen, and other sustainable textiles.

Kara first brought it up on the blog in January, and now that the look book is out, we can hardly wait for next week!

We’ll be first in line to scoop up this silky draped dress made from sustainable tencel ($19.95).

Which look is your favorite?

The Society for Rational Dress has such a great concept: Women deserve freedom from conformity in how they attire themselves. That’s why the label produces unique limited-run garments from batches of surplus fabric — because everyone should have the opportunity to be one-of-a-kind.

So it’s our lucky day that SfRD is having a blowout sample sale this weekend in Los Angeles.

Society for Rational Dress Sample Sale
What: Nab tees for $20-$50; dresses for $35-$90; leather skirts for $85-$150; sweaters for $45-$160; and all other samples, overstock, and one-of-a-kinds at up to 75 percent off retail.
Why: You might even be able to rationalize a pair of shoes.
When: Sat. March 15, 9 a.m.-5 p.m.
Where: The Reserve, Society for Rational Dress Studios, 255 S. Santa Fe Ave., at E. 3rd St., ste. 100, Industrial District (213-613-0757).

(via DailyCandy)

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.

As Ecoterre.com reports:

Roughly 30 percent of the tested samples contained genetically modified cotton, says Lothar Kruse, a director of Impetus, an independent lab in Bremerhaven, which examined the cotton fabrics in question. The contaminated cotton was traced back to India, which is responsible for more than half of the global supply of organic cotton, with an output of nearly 107,000 tons of fiber in 2009 alone, according to thee Organic Exchange.

India supplies more than half of the global supply of organic cotton.

The controversy over GM and organic cotton is far from over, but we can’t help but notice they have fairly compatible goals. Organic farming is designed to reduce farmers’ reliance on chemical pesticides and fertilizers that run off the crops and poison the habitats of native flora and fauna. Some strains of GM cotton have been developed to diminish the desirability of cotton for its main pests and to increase the crop’s heartiness in poor soil, meaning less pesticide and fertilizer are needed altogether.

So while it doesn’t excuse H&M for defrauding its ethical consumers, shouldn’t we be revisiting the GM debate to see if it’s worth berating a market leader for trying to do the right thing?

According to Luxist.com:

The Prince hopes his efforts will help make wool more popular once again for both clothing and carpet and rugs. Wool has a bad reputation as being bulky and itchy but the new push for wool plans to highlight the green benefits and beauty of wool compared to synthetic materials. Modern wool fabrics are also sleeker and softer and are being used in more innovative ways by top designers showing up in traditional Savile Row suits but also in wool bags from Marni and trendier pieces from Burberry and Paul Smith.

The Prince has his own organic flock of sheep and is aware of how lowering wool prices have affected farmers. British wool competes with wool from Australia, New Zealand and China among other countries.

In addition to the new label, Prince Charles is planning to help plan Wool Week, which will precede London Fashion Week this fall. Wool Week will be sponsored by British chain Marks & Spencer.

Unless you sew quite a bit, you will likely not accumulate this many too-small-to-make-anything fabrics scraps. So unlike the women in India will old saris to convert into floor mats or women in the old south converting gingham dresses into quilts, you probably couldn’t do much with a “here’s how to make something out of your fabric scrap box” DIY article.

But that’s not to say that you don’t have an extra fabric resource. You just may never have thought about it before.

The Problem: Copious amounts of worn-out tee-shirts. I used to have stacks of them. Maybe you have ten you still wear, but sixty you don’t want to throw away—because you got the darn thing at a [family reunion/football game/your ex-boyfriend/in Vegas/from a sensitive glue-gun wielding relative]. What do you do with them? Nothing. So they collect dust…and one day, you’ll get over the nostalgia long enough to throw them out.

The Solution: Make a tee-shirt quilt. Ultimately, each beloved graphic tee-shirt will yield one to two quilt squares — one from the logo on the back, and one from the front.

1.     Take a long look at your t-shirts, and pick out as many as you want to cut up.

2.     Based on the size of your shirts it might make sense to make 10, 12 or 14-inch squares. The logos on my shirts worked best with a size 14X14 in.

3.     Determine based on how many tee-shirts you have what the dimensions of your quilt will be. Remember, you need twice as many squares as the dimension of your quilt (front and back). Mine is 6 square by 9 squares, front and back, so I needed 108 squares in all from more than 54 t-shirts.

4.     Make a cardboard cutout at the size you want each of your squares.  I cut a large whole in the middle, making it more like a frame, so I could see where I was placing the square.

5.     Lay the square on a t-shirt and trace around the edge.  Repeat on the opposite side.

6.     Cut out as many shirts as you have plans, piling up the squares.

7.     Lay them out in the pattern that you want, for example, checkered light and dark squares, all the big patterns on one side, or some more involved placement.

8.     Begin to sew the squares together in strips, keeping the seam width the same.  For my quilt, I had 2 sets of 6 strips of 9 squares.

9.     Sew the strips of squares together. Then you will soon have two large squares, the front and back of your blanket.

10. Put the two sides together, right sides facing inward. Trim the excess fabric to make both pieces the exact same size.

11. Pin and then sew around the outside, leaving an opening to turn the quilt inside out.

12. Turn the quilt inside out and iron around the edges. Be sure to iron under the edge that has the opening, in order that you can easily stitch over the opening.

13. Run the sewing machine around the edge of the quilt, to finish off the edges of the quilt.

14.  Find several points around the quilt to attach the two sides together, basically tacking the quilt in four or eight places with a hand or machine stitch.

15.  You may notice a pile of scrap fabric that you have left over. This shouldn’t be wasted. Hear are a few ideas: Shred finely and use as stuffing, make another quilt with smaller squares, or the most practical — use the left over scraps as rags for work around the house.

By making a fun quilt that’s full of memories and using the leftovers for new rags for housework (which can later become rag rugs), zero waste isn’t an impossible goal for any of us.

Silk rag rugs are hand-loomed in India by weaving twisted strips of old saris.

When you have to weave for weeks to make one item of clothing (not to mention gathering the wool or harvesting the cotton or tracking the deer), once made, you would never choose to waste the cloth.

By contrast, today we often throw out clothes with the slightest need for a mend. We throw out clothes because we have too many. We throw out clothes because they just aren’t cool anymore.

Now designers are thinking up new ways to cut up existing fabric to avoid waste, and other methods to keep extra fabric at a minimum. As we “Oooo “and “Ahhh” over these new technologies to not waste fabric, let’s take a minute to respect our ancestors for finding creative ways to do the exact same thing.

From quilts to rag rugs, potholders to aprons, stuffed toys to pillows, our predecessors have been finding creative ways to turn bits of fabric into functional masterpieces for generations. Here are a few ideas from around the world.

• Indian silk “rag” rugs: Silk rag rugs are hand-loomed in India by weaving twisted strips of old saris into wide gorgeous rugs. They are substantially brighter that their American-European counterpart, as they are made from bright silk saris that are often adorned with metallic paint and thread shining through.
• European/Country rag rugs: This craft was brought to the United States, likely by European immigrants, although it is hard to tell from where and first became popular in the 1890s. Some type of rag rug was likely the original American floor covering. A rag rug can be made from any material sewn into strips, although organic materials such as cotton and silk are the very common. Getting its name from what it can be made from—old rags—the name conveys the charm of these classic rugs. In the Old South, rag rugs were mostly cotton, leftovers from textile mills. Strips of scrap material can be woven in a rectangle on a loom, crocheted, or strips of fabric can be braided and then coiled and sewn in concentric circles, creating large circular, oval, and even heart-shaped rugs.
• Pieced and patchwork quilts: The quilt is as old as ancient Egypt, and has remained popular throughout history. The patchwork quilt only came to prominence after the 1840s when industrially produced fabric made it common and affordable, and while often the quilts are very ornate (and not made from scraps), women in the American interior and frontier preferred to use fabric scraps from used clothing and especially leftover scraps from other things they were sewing. The story of the quilt in America is particularly strong in the abolitionist movement, among the Amish, and in the Midwest. Certain quilting techniques are traditionally very “American,” but variations on the quilt can be found around the world.

I plan to keep plumbing the depths of this movement, but it has been much harder than I thought to track down ways that people around the world recycle their fabric. But that is not because they are not recycling — they are. Truth is, from Tulsa to Timbuktu, men and women will reuse fabric for a thousand things not just out of choice, but out of necessity. A lesson for us all.