A scene inspired by a midnight desert, a Warhol muse, and personal tragedy at Gretchen Jones’ Fall/Winter 2012 presentation.

Outside it was snowing, but inside Chelsea’s Root Drive-In, a desert had been realized.

This wasn’t your sun-kissed, white linen and turquoise desert, though. This was darker, more melancholy – the desert at midnight. The room was pitch black, save for small spotlights trained on the models, who stood on wooden platforms arranged in a circular pattern among sand and stones. In one corner, a smoke machine created a haze. In the other, the Gang Gang Dance’s Brian DeGraw spun mellow electronica.

The occasion was sustainable designer Gretchen Jones’ Fall/Winter 2012 presentation, and when I spoke with Jones about the inspiration behind her new collection, the decor made perfect sense.

VideoTomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash or all of the above?

We have the basics of apartment gardening down and still need to decide what to grow.

When most people start their urban garden, they have visions of growing tomatoes, cucumbers and so many other vegetables. Then the reality sets in when tomatoes start dying and cucumbers shrivel up. Not to worry. I’ll help you to figure out which vegetables to choose.

ColumnThe significance of our locks.

Throughout history, humans have imbued hair with meaning. Take for instance a superstitious Picasso who is said to have kept all his hair cuttings (and nails) to protect him from witchcraft. In an era when women were still property, Victorians’ long tresses could increase a dowry. Urban myth or not, Samson may indeed have lost his virility when Delilah cut his locks.

ORGANIC by John Patrick gives us his “beautiful vision” of sustainable fashion.

To the toe-tapping tunes of The Beatles, designer John Patrick debuted his Fall 2012 ORGANIC collection at a boutique event space in the Garment District for New York’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week.

Under the heading “A Beautiful Vision,” the show featured a romantic collection inspired by a Julia Margaret Cameron photograph called A Beautiful Vision, Julia Duckworth, taken of Cameron’s niece (and future mother of painter Vanessa Bell and writer Virginia Woolf) in 1872.

Really.

With population growth, industrialization and limited resources, access to freshwater has become a crisis. 1.1 billion people lack access to safe drinking water – that’s more than one out of six people. Every 20 seconds a child dies from a water-related illness. Water is such an issue that it is a key component in achieving the United Nation’s Millenium Development Goals.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.