If you’re in San Francisco this Saturday, consider checking out the Lara Miller trunk show at Azalea Boutique. I interviewed Lara for a recent Veg News article on sustainability in fashion. Lara uses exclusively plant materials in her designs and her new line features soy and bamboo (Lara says the manufacturer of her bamboo recycles the chemicals used in its processing so its more like the earth friendly Tencel, then its evil step-sister Rayon). All her manufacturing is done in Chicago. Here’s a bit from the Veg News article:

Lara Miller finished design school without any exposure to ecological design. She’d been vegetarian middle school, and vegan since she was a teenager, so she never really thought about using animal products in her work. She says, that as a child, animal welfare was the driving force behind her food choices. But it wasn’t until she interned with laurenceleste, a line of organic cotton baby clothes, that she saw how she could extend that passion into her design work.

Miller’s collection, made from bamboo, organic cotton and other earth-friendly materials are inspired by her childhood fascination with refashioning and repurposing her hand-me-down clothes. A child of the 80s, she fondly remembers the “Units” craze—stores filled with interchangeable mix and match knits—and as a kid would go wild using safety pins to alter her clothes.

Miller has an analytical mind; she loves to work with the geometry of a garment to create a piece that can be “flipped” around to create new looks. “Wearing the [pieces] in multiple ways fits into my sustainable design philosophy.” Miller loves how a versatile piece can be used more and how it allows the wearer to consume less.

Lara Miller San Francisco Trunk Show