By Laura Ferreiro
Every year, the biggest names in fashion, footwear and accessories descend on Las Vegas for MAGIC Market Week to show off their fall collections. While fashion weeks in New York and London attract most of the attention, MAGIC flies further under the radar, but the business that happens here determines what fashions you’ll see in shops and hitting the streets the rest of the year.
This year, Magic launched MVMNT to focus the fashion and interests of modern youth culture. As you might have guessed, music-inspired fashion played a prominent role in many cutting-edge clothing lines including John Varvatos and WeSC.
There were also several forward-thinking brands that combined fashion and philanthropy, using sales proceeds to support some great causes.
United by Blue is an “ocean-friendly” apparel company that, for every product sold, removes a pound of trash from oceans and waterways. Selling everything from organic bicycle bags to unique jewelry, they take their responsibility to preserving the environment very seriously, and encourage their customers to do the same.
C4 Belts, which makes simple, stylish belts in every color of the rainbow, asks its 
customers to choose their belt color and choose their cause. For every belt purchased, C4 will donate to one of four causes that rotate throughout the year. Currently, you can support the Boys and Girls Clubs of America, the Human Rights Campaign, Project Kaisei or Kiva while keeping your pants up.
FROCK Los Angeles is fair-trade company that makes sexy, form-fitting women’s fashions using nothing but eco and certified organic fabric and vegetable dyes. Owner/creator Victoria Tik is committed to social responsibility, and uses only domestic fabric suppliers, US factories that pay fair wages, and sources organic fabrics for all her clothing. Not to mention her designs are super sexy!
Love Heals is a socially conscious jewelry company that started from humble beginnings on an organic communal farm in Ojai, CA. The Lovelaces – the mother, son and daughter team behind the brand – create jewelry designed to give back to the planet. For each design sold, they promise to plant 10 trees in Ethiopia. They just celebrated the planting of their 1 millionth tree in December, and indie rock duo Tegan and Sara counts themselves among the brand’s fans!