Dallas magazine Luri & Wilma focuses on being green while looking keen

Porsha Thomas wants you to reduce, reuse, recycle - and read.

DALLAS — "Being green is great, but you still have to look good."

Johnny Seale

Porsha Thomas, founder and editor-in-chief of Luri & Wilma

That's Porsha Thomas' philosophy and the inspiration behind Luri & Wilma, a soon-to-launch online magazine aimed at women who want their lifestyles to be fashionable and sustainable. Thomas, the founder and editor-in-chief, and her "green team" formally introduced the project Thursday night with The Very Green Social hosted at Oak Cliff's IndieGenius marketplace.

Like IndieGenius, Thomas says Luri & Wilma will showcase local artists, independent designers, and products that are vintage or use recycled materials. In addition to clothing, accessories, crafts, and home decor, the magazine will feature local and organic food, natural beauty products, and women making a difference in their communities. Fittingly, A Very Green Social featured a pop-up crepe stand by Samantha Rush of Rush Patisserie and a raffle with ticket sales benefiting The Food for Good Farm at Paul Quinn College.

Thomas' something new is also about some things old. She loves vintage fashion and admits a weakness for handbags. (Her favorite local shop is Parkerhawn Vintage.) The magazine is named after her great-grandfather Luri and his daughter Wilma, her grandmother.

And when she decided to pursue her idea of a publication about being stylish and eco-friendly without "sacrificing anything," she called an old friend. Carli Baylor, a fellow University of North Texas journalism school graduate, is Luri & Wilma's managing editor. Two others with UNT connections round out the staff: Charlie Heck, now in Washington, D.C., and intern Emily Edwards.

The Denton college is also where Thomas took an environmental studies class that changed her worldview. Now she's the party guest who packs all the empty wine bottles to take home for recycling.

Porsha Thomas

Luri & Wilma featured Garden Inspirations' Sustainable Table, a dinner party in a garden with local farmers and homegrown vegetables.

The Luri & Wilma staff has been blogging since March, and Thomas says the first magazine issue will be ready in September, with others to follow every four months. Subscribers will find it in their inboxes, not their mailboxes. Instead of printing on paper, they're using the Issuu online publishing platform. Baylor says, "It's keeping with trends in journalism and staying green, as is our purpose."

Baylor, who interned at the Dallas Observer and still writes for its Night & Day section and its blog The Mixmaster, says she hopes other journalists will be encouraged to try new tools like Issuu. "Journalism is changing, but you can find ways to work in it," she says.

Luri & Wilma's first issue will include stories on keeping your carbon footprint small while traveling, planning a fall wedding with do-it-yourself elements and vintage touches such as mason jars, and a local restaurant's promotion that allows diners to eat green while saving some green. (Get a sneak peek here.)

Despite the focus on being eco-conscious, Thomas says the tone will be snarky, not sanctimonious. Baylor concurs: "As clichéd as it sounds, we wanted to produce something that was fun and funky but also was smart."