Green That's Heads Above the Rest

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Over the past year, "green" has grown from something that everyone sort of hedgingly cared about into being heralded the new black, the new purple -- whatever hue is the standard for red-hot right now.

That's green as in the environment, not the color. Recycling, save-the-planet green.

Ironically, this welcome trend actually presents a potential obstacle to shoppers seeking gifts for that special Earth-minded someone in their lives. When green was something you still had to go digging to find, your gift was bound to reap rave reviews. But with so much recycled-this and reclaimed-that cropping up on store shelves and in Internet search results this holiday season, how do you now find a green gift that's truly golden?

• Something that looks eco-friendly, but not like blatant marketing. (A bamboo-sided computer hard drive? Yes, such a thing exists, but why?)

• Something creative that isn't merely artsy-crafty. (A recycled-wine-bottle coat rack? Really?)

• Something affordable.

• Something cool.

With time, you'd no doubt unearth a number of workable options. But for right now, here's a gift idea that's plainly heads above the rest: The Real Deal Brazil recycled-tarp hat.

Amy Wolfe, travel editor for Sunset magazine, has heralded the RDB hat as "an ecologically genius idea" that's "also sort of sexy."

These Indiana Jones-ish hats originate in Brazil, in a steamy crossroads town out where the pavement's often crumbled away and highway pirates aren't uncommon. The brawny fabric is cut from reclaimed canvas tarps that once covered the beds of cargo trucks hauling freight from the Amazon out to the Brazilian coast. The tarps' exposure to different combinations of tropical rain, equatorial sun, abrasive wind and flying road debris, along with occasional smatterings of Portuguese writing in waterproof black ink, makes each RDB hat a true one-of-a-kind.

Truck tarps are frequently replaced in equatorial Brazil, but this steady stream of trash is now diverted into a steady source of cash for one economically disadvantaged backcountry town.

Recycled tarps are thoroughly cleaned before being cut and sewn, and leftover scraps get stitched onto other RDB hats, so nothing gets wasted. Wire used in the bendy brim is pulled from abandoned truck tires.

Many specialty retailers and specialty-goods catalogs carry the RDB hat (manufacturer's suggested retail price $29.99), as do a variety of online stores, including realdealbrazil.com.

This ruggedly stylish, Earth-friendly fedora also tends to turn other people green when they see it. Green, that is, with envy.