photos courtesy of Miranda Pearl

I was at the Sustainable Style Show in Toronto this past weekend. It was a great turn out and I had a lot of fun meeting all the vendors and hearing their stories. I also got to attend the Green Gala an ultra chic event showcasing (sustainable) couture from some of Canada’s freshest designers but more on that next blog…

I got to talk to Kealan, a charming and very hip Torontonian who owns 69 Vintage, a mini vintage store chain and Sonja from Thieves, the designer of the futuristic fashion luxury brand. The girls from Preloved were cool too (I didn’t get to meet the boy). They showed some cute recycled sweaters this time, one of their most popular items. They deal in hundreds of pounds of old used clothing, cut them up with innovative seasonal patterns and create completely new garments. They now get huge orders from some grand scale boutique clothing chains such as Urban Outfitters and Anthropology. The list goes on…

The Preloved Store 613 Queen Street West, Toronto, ON M5V 2B7  (416) 504 8704

Then… I found out about a new product that had nothing to do with fashion except saving our shoes from the street soaked salty chemicals of winter. A chipper man named Marcus lured me over to his organic chocolate stand.  But instead of boasting about the sweets he proceeded to tell me about this new product that is called Eco Traction, it is a safe and green alternative to the chemicals of commonly used ice melters. I was instantly sold (even though I haven’t even tried it yet) as we have major ice issues in my neck of the woods. In Nova Scotia, it tends to get really cold and then snow and then it will warm up and everything will melt and get slushy but then that night everything just… freezes again and then it will snow. So that happens a lot and build up over time. I like to call it “The very scary layered cake of winter”. Anyway.

Get this:

EcoTraction is a green-colored all-natural volcanic mineral that is completely safe to touch or accidentally ingest by children, pets, and wildlife.  EcoTraction also contains no salt, chlorides, chemicals, or dyes. Because it is one of the few negatively charged minerals in nature, EcoTraction acts as a magnet drawing toxins to it, capturing them in its molecular cage and permanently removing them from the environment.

crazy. I love our earth.