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All That Glitters Is Green Eco-stylist Danny Seo has charisma, a fabulous new line of hipster clothing, a reality-TV show in development, and a posse of hot young actors swooning over his righteous aura. Meet the guru who's transforming America one earth-friendly Hollywood makeover at a time. By Jay Stowe
The streets of Park City, Utah—scene of the annual media-entertainment-industrial-complex hootenanny known as the Sundance Film Festival—are awash in booty. Everybody wants some. Don't you? Word bleams through the cell phones of scruffy indie filmmakers, Pomeranian-toting starlets, deadbeat journalists, hip-huggered publicists, and tanned, Ray-Ban-wearing movieland robotrons. Bleedeleedeleet—They're handing out free TiVo subscriptions at the Chrysler House, on Main Street. Hurry! Bleedeleedeleet—Self magazine is giving away yoga kits! Bleedeleedeleet—How come I didn't get one of those brown suede Kenneth Cole duffels from the Sundance Channel, crammed with $3,000 worth of stuff plus a year's membership to Crunch, goddammit?! And high above town, in a vacation-home development near Deer Valley Resort, where the houses are of the nouveau-giganto Lincoln Log architectural school, sits Danny Seo, 26-year-old Korean-American environmental-lifestyle expert, Organic Style editor-at-large, and soon-to-be star of his own eco-themed TV show. Danny and his friend and publicist, Claudine Gumbel, 28, have secured a room in the Seven House, so called because it's been commandeered by jeans company Seven for All Mankind and turned into a combination comfort suite, chill zone, and, most important, dispersal point for product. Upstairs, Seven is fitting celebs into "luxury denim," and M.A.C., the cruelty-free cosmetic company, is doing makeovers. "It's like a marketing machine here," Gumbel confides. "The basic thing is, they"—actors, media people, industry volk—"like free stuff." Yes, free stuff! If you shill it, they will come. This afternoon, Danny's handing out rinky-dink rhinestone necklaces with FF pendants and navy-blue ski caps embroidered with shiny green FF's. The FF stands for Fur Free, just one of his many earth-friendly projects aimed at hooking celebs—and thus the conspicuously consuming American public—on hip eco-style. Danny is the consummate soft-sell pro with a hard-sell attitude. He's five foot nine and wears black-rimmed glasses, which only make him look more earnest when he says something like: "I believe that every person in this world has one really good thing that they're good at. I think I'm really good at recognizing opportunity." He's stylishly hypercasual—today he's in jeans, V-neck sweater, and black canvas-and-shaved-rubber high-top sneaks by designer John Varvatos. His delivery is straightforward and almost endearing, especially when he slips into an acquired Valley-guy accent that makes him sound like he just got off his shift at the Orange Julius in the Sherman Oaks Galleria. He's spent the past 14 years fighting environmental battles, but now he's got a new goal: capitalizing on the coolness of going green. To do this, he needs media exposure, and Sundance is nothing if not a harmonic convergence of medium and message. If stars are photographed wearing Seo-conceived eco-baubles, and the pictures run in People or InStyle or Us Weekly or one of the tabloids, then his message will seep into the soft gray cerebrum of the American consumer. "I believe in the tipping point!" Danny announces with something approaching religious fervor, as a throng of starlets and paparazzi tramp through the room. "If 100 people wear these things, it can help reach critical mass." But not just any 100 people. They have to be "the right people." Young, heat-seeking celebs who set off a certain Pavlovian response in most newsrooms. People like... Britney Spears. "I had lunch with Britney Spears yesterday," Danny says. "I mean, it was ridiculous, but we talked about 'green' fashion and the Fur Free campaign." Later, she was photographed wearing an FF necklace. Photos are evidence. Score! Now here's Dominique Swain, the 23-year-old actress (Lolita) and PETA spokesperson, who gladly accepts a necklace. And there's Rachael Leigh Cook, of Josie and the Pussycats. She's 24, a vegetarian, and into being fur-free. And that's Anna Paquin, 21, co-star of X-Men and The Piano. She's a vegetarian, loves Organic Style and, yes, will wear the FF! Wait, it's Robert Downey Jr.—he'll take a cap. And how about a pendant for Rosario Dawson, co-star of Men in Black II... Dawson lingers and picks up a copy of Danny's book Conscious Style Home: Eco-Friendly Living for the 21st Century, which is leaning against the window. Conscious Style Home is his manifesto, a simple but zealous attempt to convince the masses not just to adopt a stance against furriers but to embrace an entire eco-chic worldview, starting with your own abode. "Never sacrifice style for environmental reasons," Danny writes. "You deserve a living space that is gentle on the planet, and looks cool, too." Suddenly, Dawson realizes that the Fur Free guy and the author are one and the same. "Oh my God! That's you?!" she blurts. "I got your book for my birthday. Dude, you fucking rock!"
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