AVEDA GETS HANDS-ON WITH TOP CELEBRITIES
Aveda Partners with Designer Project Alabama
and the NRDC
Handbags for the Earth 2006


Click here to bid on your favorite celebrity handbag.
The auction takes place from June 5-15, 2006.


NEW YORK (March, 2006)—Aveda™ is joining forces with top celebrities and eco-chic designer Project Alabama to celebrate fashion, fame and the Earth—in style. Handbags for the Earth is a celebrity fundraiser for the environment in partnership with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

To kick off the campaign, award-winning designer Project Alabama has custom-made 500 handbags for Aveda. As part of Project Alabama's signature touch, the 100 percent cotton handbags are made from recycled t-shirts and have been hand-stitched by local artisans in Alabama. The bag itself makes its celebrity debut in over 100 different colors, styled with contrasting stitching and balsa wood handles.

This past October, Aveda sent the virgin handbags, along with fabric paint, to some of the hottest celebrities across the country. Each celebrity autographed the bag and stamped their famous, paint-dipped hands onto the bag. Each handbag will be auctioned in late Spring 2006 with 100 percent of the proceeds going directly to NRDC, an environmental organization that works to safeguard the Earth.

"Our goal is to continuously find new ways to strengthen Aveda's earth-conscious programs and to help build environmental awareness around the world" says Chris Molinari, Aveda's vice president of global communications. "We are thrilled to partner with Project Alabama and the NRDC to bring Handbags for the Earth to life."

Being a proponent for the environment is no longer "crunchy" or "out-of-style," said Phil Gutis, NRDC's Director of Communications. "We think Handbags for the Earth is a perfect combination of fashion and environmentalism – eco-chic activism if you will," Gutis said. "It is a very powerful combination to deliver a very relevant message."

"There is great synergy between Aveda, NRDC and Project Alabama; we are all greatly concerned for the environment and believe in doing what we can with natural resources" says Natalie Chanin, co-founder and designer of Project Alabama. "We hope this is the first of many collaborations to come."

"Our mission at Aveda is to care for the world we live in, from the products we make to the ways in which we give back to society. At Aveda, we strive to set an example for environmental leadership and responsibility, not just in the world of beauty, but around the world."

- Horst Rechelbacher, founder