Natlifestyle.com

All right, I’m on a bit of a local kick this week. I’m just feeling really inspired by the whole movement, which is not only about what you eat, but what you wear. When I found out about jeans company Raleigh Denim, I had to blog about them. They’re a North Carolina company whose jeans are 98 percent local, including of course, the thread and denim, which is produced within 200 miles of its workshop.

To produce the denim, the company uses the Cone Mills’ White Oak Plant, a 100-year-old local mill that weaves the fabric on the only original shuttle looms still working in the U.S. today. Pretty cool. All of Raleigh Denim’s design, pattern-making, cutting, sewing, washing and finishing are done by hand in the company’s Raleigh workshop (the designer prefers to incorporate traditional construction methods and vintage sewing machines).

Raleigh Denim jeans are now carried in major retail stores across the US, including Barneys New York and Steven Alan, and are becoming really popular. They’re priced from roughly $215 to $285. On the expensive side? Yes. But in my opinion, its worth investing in companies with positive and ethical business practices.

Check out Raleigh Denim’s site to find stores in your area that carry them: http://www.raleighdenim.com/

I love Toms shoes. It’s not that they’re the latest, hottest thing…they’re just a company that I really admire. 

What I love most about them is that they’re founded on a very simple, philanthropic premise: for every pair of shoes Toms sells, Toms will give a pair of new shoes to a child in need.

People laughed at the founder Blake Mycoskie, when he basically said he was going to create a company that gives away shoes. Now, over 150,000 pairs have been given away, and Toms anticipates another 350,000 give aways for 2009.

Toms is bigger here in LA than anywhere else I’ve been, but definitely becoming a mass brand…and is, without a doubt, an inspirational brand http://www.tomsshoes.com/