When it comes to sports apparel companies that make it a mission to use as much recycled materials as possible in the clothing line are starting to see consumers beat a path to their door. Let’s face it, taking a page from the fashion industry – in America today “green” is the new black. This eco-friendly industry can be seen in the health and fitness business. Yoga a popular discipline enjoyed for its mind body relationship leads the way in fitness products made of “green” material. From yoga mats to yoga bags to yoga clothing like t-shirts, recycled material is finding its way into consumer hands in a good way. And it’s not only yoga devotees are buying into it. Consumers who enjoy health and fitness products in general that may have different workout routines in professional athletics to amateur sports are using “green” materials too.

I’m not sure about the Olympic athletes using this type of clothing for the 2010 games, but I would suspect within four years competing countries will have their athletes wear eco-friendly outfits. And let’s hope the United States leads the way.

Get a load of the very hip fashion Olympian snowboarders are sporting. This denim and plaid number is the perfect look for these cool cats who just seem to revel in having fun even if a gold medal wasn’t at stake. Anybody who flies down the side of a snow mountain and engages the half pike with intentions of twisting and flipping many times and sticking the landing has to be highly skilled and daredevil too boot. Yet these young kids are doing it with ease. It’s like snowboarding is oxygen to them.

These fashionable outfits seem seamless. The snowboarders can go from the slope to the after parties without a wardrobe change. The outfits are street wear. Unlike the snowboarders men’s skating goes for the glam in fashion. Very theatrical and over the top. But that’s how its always been so I expect to see that. Showboating versus showmanship. This year’s 2010 Olympic games I’ll take the show boaters any day.

If you are carrying your yoga mat under your arms to your yoga class there is a better way to do it and you’ll be glad to make the change. Yoga mat bags have in recent years become more stylish and functional. You can buy the messenger bag that will carry your bag securely strapped to the bottom. When you’re not going to a yoga class the bag functions and a general tote bag. Yoga mat bags come in different shapes, sizes, and colors so it becomes the yoga fashion accessory of today. If you prefer solid colors over floral designs, or a backpack style over the over the shoulder style there are stylish and functional bags out there. So stop juggling personal items and exposed mats under your arms and protect the one true yoga investment in a safe and convenient way.

Every year moms are stuck on what costumes would be either worth making or buying for their children. It gets especially difficult because the child is apt to change his mind many times before he gets out the door on Halloween night. So what is a mother to do? Make the decision for him. Little children have it easy. They can be kitty cats, witches, ballet dancers or whatever and whatever they choose they all look adorable. This year one of the favorites just might be Max from the “Where The Wild Things Are”. Making the costume is quite easy for the mom. It is as non-frills as burning cork and rubbing it over the little’s one face making him a hobo for the night. But if your love one wants to be a princess it will be hard to convince her out of it. After all it’s her fashion statement.

To the naked eye it first looks strange, then it gets weirder the more time you spend staring at it. And then you ask yourself what were they thinking? Fashion designer Ralph Lauren recently apologized for retouching one of his models wearing his clothing. The model Filippa Hamilton, a size 4 to begin with said she was fired by the designer for being too fat. What they did to her photo was a little more than the usual nip and tuck retouchers do before many fashion photos appear in ads or in magazines. This time they went to ridiculous extremes. They made her body at the waist look freakishly small as well as her head.

Eating disorder advocates as well as moms with young teenage daughters are up in arms against companies selling their products this way and for good reason. Anorexia, bulimia, general low self-esteem and other eating and food disorders continue to be an enormous issue with young girls and teens and they are the ones really paying attention to what advertising is saying. What do these ads say to them? That looking skeletal, emaciated, and sickly is not only acceptable but that this is the only way they’ll look good in these clothes.

Another retouched Ralph Lauren ad has surfaced and this time with model Valentina Zelyaeva. And again the photo looks bizarre. It looks as if Valentina’s head is smaller than her pelvis. No comment by Lauren as yet, but is he doing this for publicity?

To all those budding photography students across the land you should take special note of the recent loss of a giant in the world of photography. Irving Penn first known as a fashion photographer and later evolved into a commercial art photographer has died at the age of 92. Before computers came along that would change how we saw photographs, photographers like Penn only had their creative eye and their intuition to transform beauty on a two dimensional level.

His works became iconic no matter if he shot portraits of celebrities to fashion models. From everyday tradesmen like a milkman to the tribesmen of Africa, to the culture of beauty products. For over forty years he was the man that shot the simple, clean graphic visuals to the Clinique cosmetic line. And in the world of commercial advertising that would seem like an historic record for any photographer to retain such a client. The same can be said of his collaboration with Vogue Magazine. Obviously, Vogue showed fashion through Penn eyes through decades.

Penn understood the world of commerce and art. He photographed a series of discarded cigarette butts that were once exhibited in the New York’s Museum of Modern Art. He leaves this world a perfectionist unbridled by modern technology.

The AMC hit drama show Mad Men brings back the stylish fashion look of the early 1960′s in a TV series whose thematic tone unveils the escapades of men and women in and out the advertising world. Most viewers of the show see the male actors wearing fitted tapered suits, drinking hard liquor and smoking cigarettes in the workplace. Meanwhile women sport fabulous dresses and accessories that make one nostalgic for Jackie O.

The American culture presented on Mad Men speaks to the changing social dynamic of the country during this period and not just of the advertising world the show’s theme is based upon. The attention to detail extends from the sets, to the costume designs and various props and set decoration. On a recent episode, one of the show’s characters sits exposing his leather round toe shoes with an adjustable gold tone buckle. It reminded me of a time when I was the proud owner of such a shoe. I was a freshman in high school and felt the excitement of my world unfolding in front of me.

Today, vintage shoes are making a comeback. From white bucks to wing tips, these fashion statements are a hit among young hipsters looking for that vintage touch. Mad Men style in general is the latest craze. With clean lines, straight legs, crisp collars, and a-line dresses, the cocktail hour look is a hit from your pill box hat to your pointy stilettos.

Back in the day of the late 1930s and early 1940s men wore high waisted, pegged trousers, with long coats featuring wide lapels and padded shoulders. The style was called the Zoot suit. Worn for special occasions these luxurious suits were all the rage among Italian Americans, African Americans, Mexican Americans and other ethnic groups. At the time the Zoot suit was associated with the jazz culture and worn as a statement of defiance by youths thought to be discriminated against by society.

Harold C. Fox claimed to have made the first zoot suit. Harold was a tailor and bandleader in Chicago who thought the cool style would be a hit among the poor urban teenagers. With the nation at war the U.S. government put a fabric rationing into place banning the zoot suit. Newspapers labeled the Zoot suit wearers unpatriotic, rebellious, calling them hoodlums. In Los Angeles riots broke out among Zoot suiters and servicemen placing a dark cloud within the community.

Today the Zoot suit is a popular rental among high school teenagers going to their proms.