Solar Chic: Eco-friendly, Solar-Powered Fashion Accessories

A new collection of accessories blends solar power with vintage design.

By Dani Hurst
February 2009 Web
solar vintage fan
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Elena Corchero's Solar Vintage line allows you to accessorize during the day and decorate your home in the evening.
Photo Courtesy of www.elenacorchero.com
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Staying fashionable yet eco-friendly is tricky. Every eco-fashionista must consider so many things before she makes a purchase: Are those diamonds conflict-free? Are these clothes made with organic cotton? Will it ever end?

Elena Corchero to the rescue! Thanks to her line of decorative accessories, Solar Vintage, you can feel good about your fashion choices. Solar Vintage marries vintage design with solar technology, making accessories that are both beautiful and eco-friendly. The collection includes fans, parasols, hair accessories and necklaces, so it shouldn’t be difficult to find something that speaks to you.

According to Distance Lab, a website which features Elena’s work, all the accessories contain “electronic components like solar cells, resistors, and LEDs…(that are) wired together into working circuits using conductive thread.” After these charge, the item illuminates, allowing you to accessorize during the day and then display it as eco-friendly, solar-powered home décor at night.

Corchero even uses eco-friendly materials to make each item. For example, Distance Lab says, “the threads and support structures are cellulose-based (viscose and thin wood), and the electronic components are free of harmful materials.”

Going green is a beautiful thing. Helping the planet is reward enough, but it helps when the eco-conscious decisions we make bring a little light into our lives.

The Solar Vintage collection will soon be available online at Elena’s online boutique, Lost Values.

Visit Elena Corchero’s website to learn more about Solar Vintage and her other projects.

More about solar power

• This gorgeous New Mexico home supplies renewable solar power to its neighbors.

• Find out how one band is creating sustainable sound with a solar-powered recording studio in Colorado.

• Get away to a solar-powered resort in Mexico.

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Archived Comments

  • Megan_1 3/2/2009 12:16:44 PM

    Interesting! I like how this idea brings together the old (vintage style) with the new (solar power), and also brings together two things most people probably would have never thought could go together: fashion and home lighting. I definitely never thought the two could be combined! Does this mean we'll see a Lowe's/Forever 21 collaboration in the near future?

  • Stephanie nelson_2 2/19/2009 3:35:04 PM

    I really like that yellow dress on Elena Corchero's website. Do you think that's were fashion is headed?

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