Meaningful Purchase - January - skunkfunk jacket

In Michigan where it's freezing for what feels like 9 months out of the year, most of the time I'm wearing a large puffy extra warm jacket filled with feathers. But all that bulk was leaving me craving something more simple and streamlined (not to mention fashionable). For my birthday, my friend Sarah had given me a gift certificate to a new store in downtown Grand Rapids called Lee and Birch, which has a kind of Anthropologie style and is owned by some cool local female entrepreneurs. Perusing their website, I came across this jacket and was instantly enamored.

It's the perfect blend of toughness and luxury. It's soft and comfortable, not restricting. It fits well over my winter sweaters, but it's light enough that I can even leave it on inside and just make it part of an ensemble. But here's the awesome part: this jacket looks and feels (basically) like leather, but it's actually made out of recycled plastic bottles! How cool is that?
The brand skunkfunk is among the few out there who have managed to successfully merge innovative fashion design and socially and environmentally conscious practices. Check out their standards here!