This afternoon I came home from an engaging discussion of, among other things, how sustainable fashion has gone from the margins to the mainstream in recent years, and what should show up on the television but an episode of What Not To Wear? featuring the virtuous to a fault Tara K., whose commitment to recycled clothing had doomed her to a life of dumpy used goods. The show went on to take Tara to some of the cool vintage & eco-clothing stores in New York City, and by the end she had learned the valuable but inexpensive lesson: sustainable can be sexy.

Schooled as I've been in the McLuhan & Warhol mode of dispassionate observation, I recount that pithy bit of televised wisdom not so much to affirm it as to call attention to its very existence. The fact that one of Tara's co-workers at their recycling center said the glam makeover would "raise the credibility of the industry" highlights an interesting dimension of post-financial crisis social enterprise:

We're the new Sex and the City.

While conspicuous consumption has become passe, thrift stores and other purveyors of clothing with a social mission are being remade in the image of boom-era commercialism. It's a fascinating trend, as the charitable dimension of social enterprise gives new meaning to what was even before the crash a lifestyle cliche.

Below, a few more intriguing examples. First, a Goodwill video that I actually discovered onn Hulu while writing about social enterprise . . .

In addition, Goodwill D.C. has a popular and useful fashion blog:



And here's The S.W.A.P. Team, a new Canadian social enterprise; the photo at the top of this post is from one of their recent fashion show fundraisers.