Michigan Avenue - Niche Media - Michigan Avenue magazine is a luxury lifestyle magazine centered around Chicago’s finest people, events, fashion, health & beauty, fine dining & more!
Issue link: http://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/486697
IllustratIon by DanIel o'leary What's not to like about Earth Day? Fund raising galas! Lush new parks! Dressing down for a day to play in the dirt, just like Marie Antoinette used to do! But there's just no getting around it: Earth Day is a frumpy holiday, right up there with Tax Day. Among the words associated with it? Compost. Emissions. Carbon. Waste. Denim. Not even a stamp of approval from überchic, environmentally correct fashion designer Stella McCartney herself can overcome the day's unsexier elements. Celebrants are urged to wear green and brown, a look that not even Girl Scout troop leaders should attempt. So as Earth Day grows in importance, it's stylish Chicagoans' duty to give back—not just by planting trees, but by offering some brutal honesty… and the gift of glamour. For starters, that name! "Earth Day." It might have been acceptable in 1970, before Halston brought sequined jumpsuits to the masses, but it would never pass muster with a branding expert today. Some alternatives: "Cosmic Remodeling Day." "Planetary Makeover Day." Even "Global Rehab Day" would be more successful, as "rehab" has come to be associated with young, attractive social types who retreat to Lakeview's Harborview Recovery Center—just minutes from the boutiques of the Magnificent Mile—when life becomes too much. Chicago, of course, is an environmental role model for the world. It was former Mayor Daley who showed us how to accessorize a city with f lowers. Mayor Emanuel is simply mad for bicycles, and it's not for us to say whether his motivation has anything to do with how fetching he looks in bike shorts. We're pretty sure we'd be more inspired if he wore shorts that were even tighter. And couldn't we follow his example and pioneer some more bodyconscious activewear, perhaps in hemp or alpaca? There are all sorts of ways to glamorize Earth Day. Who says your kitchen recycling bin needs to be made of (ick) plastic? Reclaimed wine barrels from a respectable Harbor Country vineyard do just as well. Shock the fashionistas with a skirt made out of your old Burberry umbrellas. Call attention to your crueltyfree cologne— loudly—at the Green Tie Ball. Some other crucial reminders: * "Saving the minks" does not mean boarding your coats in a furrier's cold storage unit. It means actually not buying fur in the first place. (Don't go too far and adopt a mink as a pet; they are liable to have their way with your exotic saltwater fish.) * If someone starts talking about an "ecof lush," just walk away. They are not referring to a designer body cleanse. * We admit that, technically, wearing an outfit twice counts as recycling. But we're better than that! And ask yourself: Is "sustainable living" actually sustainable for you? Just because you're passionate about the environment doesn't mean you need to stop shaving your legs in the shower. Yes, you will save a substantial amount of water. But then you will also be very alone and tempted to abuse overprocessed, overpackaged McNuggets and highfructose corn syrup. So is it truly effective in the long run? Instead, give yourself a break. Be eco fabulous. Be you. Kick back with an environmentally friendly cocktail—may I suggest an organic cucumber gimlet? Wear those fringed Stuart Weitzmans and remind your admirers that your stiletto heels are aerating the soil. There's more than one way to save the planet, after all, and if anyone can do it in style, Chicagoans can. MA Dirt Devil's Advocate There's no "glam" in earTh Day—yeT. BuT chic chicagoans can leaD The way. by paige wiser 136 michiganavemag.com Gold coastinG late spring 2015