Maria Cornejo on Developing an Eco Aesthetic

Julie Gilhart on Making Sustainability Mainstream

“If we can become more educated, we can educate these people that have a lot of impact on the planet and we can also create models that are economically attractive because nothing's going to happen unless people can make money from it- that's the way this world exists and I don't think there's enough philanthropy in the world to change the world. I think we have to make philanthropy very successful and it has to make people money. That's how the big players are really going to take it on.”


Julie Gilhart

Hessnatur's Edgy Eco Fashion

Green fashion goes mainstream | Video of the day
Uploaded by deutschewelle. - Discover more animation and arts videos.

Thekeyto. Eco Fashion Event- Berlin

Environmental Facts About the Fashion Industry

Environmental facts about the fashion industry from carina st. on Vimeo.

Edun Spring 2011

Luxury is Sustainable

“Quality items that stand the test of time – it is this concept of sustainability, symbolised by a timeless handbag that you wear again and again, and can pass on, that I am always thinking of when I design.”

Frida Giannini, Gucci Creative Director

Technology Will Save Us All

"We will all need to overcome our prejudice that natural made fibers are more eco-friendly. Producing organic cotton takes an incredible amount of water to produce, which we now know is not as sustainable as we once thought it was. I believe that man-made fibers are truly the next hot trend in sustainable fashion."

Peter Ingwersen

founder of Noir, eco-luxury clothing

Eco Chic: Towards Sustainable Fashion

This is exhibit is currently at Scandinavia House in New York City.

Recycled Jewelry by Anita Quansah

Photo: Charl Marais

London-based Anita Quansah is a textile designer that reworks recycled cloths into beautifully intricate fabrics which are used in haute couture collections, as well as her own clothing designs. She also utilizes this same sense of sustainable creativity when designing necklaces, incorporating found beads, chains and fabrics in innovative ways. In fact, her necklaces are  more like wearable art than jewelry and proof that clever upcycling can yield amazing results.

Tegan necklace

Tiah necklace

Calisto necklace

Arete necklace

Jewelry photos from Anita Quansah's Flickr

Are You A Fashion Sellout?

It's an ugly question, one most of us would prefer not to answer, but after reading the post Fashion’s Biggest Sellout; You? by 39th & Broadway, I had to seriously question whether my appetite for fast-fashion might have more far-reaching consequences than just improving the finances of H & M, Zara and Forever 21. Everyone at one point or another has looked at a ridiculously low-priced garment and felt both the elation of finding a bargain coupled with the sinking feeling that it was probably made in less than ideal working conditions. Without any hard evidence, it's easy just to shrug off any thoughts of impropriety and go home with your new clothes: it's one thing to think that your clothes might be made in sweatshop and another to know that they are.

While weighing my fast-fashion dilemma, I came across the  BBC documentary series "Blood, Sweat and T-shirts." It follows six young people that love fast fashion as they work in the factories where these throw away garments are made. This program gave me great insight into a question that has been quietly nagging me: "how is it possible to make clothes for so cheap and still make a profit?" The answer, unfortunately, was just what I suspected:

Talking Fashion and Sustainability with Greta Eagan

Original artwork by Ray Chang

I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to speak with Greta Eagan, a trendsetting fashionista with a conscience and expert on sustainable fashion about the impact fashion has on the environment and how to be stylishly sustainable

When did you start Greta Guide and how did you get started as a blogger? What other projects are you involved in?

I started Greta Guide in December 2008. Basically, I knew that I wanted to write a book and a friend of mine suggested that I start a blog to build an audience and find my voice. A few months later,  I was fortunate enough to be asked to participate in a fashion bloggers conference for a site called Weardrobe. That is when I picked up more of a fashion focus and began carving out my niche.

I continue to go to fashion blogging conferences such as Chictopia and IFB, as well as sustainable fashion conferences like The Key.To in Berlin.

I suppose you could label me as a social media savvy sustainable fashion blogger and strategist- wow, that title keeps getting longer! I spent last summer as an active member of the web team at Tory Burch, guest tweeted for Ford Models for a couple of months and now am headed to Aspen Fashion Week to relay the great things they have going on there in a digital space.

I am also a trend columnist for the site Eco Salon, and find myself writing across different blogs and sites with the message of sustainable fashion, as well as speaking on the subject- which really excites me.

How did you first become interested in sustainable fashion?

It was really an evolved process. First, I started paying more attention to what I ate and what I was putting directly into my body. I began to eat locally and organically. That directly transferred over to what I was putting on my body and thus absorbing. Skin is the largest organism and it makes sense that all those lotions and potions you put on your skin are going to wind up in your blood stream being circulated around. So, I read the book “Toxic Beauty” by Dr. Epstien and tossed out all my old products for non-toxic paraben-free ones. Fashion and apparel came next. All of those strong beliefs and ideals I was subscribing to for my food and beauty intake carried over to my participation in fashion.

It seems as though the words ethical, eco, environmentally-friendly and sustainable are used interchangeably to describe different kinds of clothing- are they all the same? Can you give a short breakdown of what these labels mean?

Well, for me they are all the same because I look to see that a brand hits one of my core issues and something that I subscribe to. It maybe ethical sourcing, fair trade or it may be using natural fiber and sourcing it organically. So as long as a company hits one of those marks, it’s like “green light” and I feel okay about purchasing their product. There probably need to be standards that are developed across the board so that people can really know what they’re purchasing, but I also think that there needs to be room for people to explore what sustainable fashion means to them. It shouldn’t be something that is so unattainable and difficult to try and engage in.

So in my terms, if it's ethical it will traditionally have been made in a place with a fair wage and better working conditions, and then eco typically corresponds to the actual fibers and whether they’re natural, such as organic cotton or bamboo. They’re all interchangeable in a way, but for me sustainable fashion means that it’s more of a cradle-to-cradle effect; where it’s coming from, where it’s going to afterwards, and the length of the garment lifecycle.

How is fashion negatively impacting the environment right now?

The largest official influence of fashion on the environment is it’s the largest contributor of CO2 emissions. Three- quarters of the world’s CO2 emissions are due to the use phase of clothing which correlates to the washing and drying and the care of your clothing.

Because apparel is a business driven by trends and consumerism, is the phrase ‘sustainable fashion’ somewhat of an oxymoron? Can trends and sustainable fashion co-exist?

Yes and no, and this is just my personal opinion: there will be two routes. Before we started talking about sustainable fashion, back before it was something to talk about, I used to read about investing in what you love and having a list of classic things that I wanted to buy. I’m sure a number of women would have a Chanel or an Hermes bag on that list, and maybe a Balenciaga blazer. The craftsmanship that goes into the quality of those type of pieces also means a higher price tag, but we buy them knowing that we will have them for a long time and they may even be passed down. So that was never called sustainable fashion, it was just to invest in what you love, and that’s where I think slow fashion comes in, because you have to take the time to produce the quality and the craftsmanship so that something does have a really long life or many lives.

The second part is that I’m a human being, I like change, and just like I don’t like to eat the same thing everyday, I like to change what I wear and what color lipstick I put on and that sort of thing. So, I think that it’s not just about buying things that last and not buying as much, although that’s a huge part, but it’s also about finding a new system that can support what we want, but do it without hurting the environment. We just really we just need to re-think the way we’re doing things and it doesn’t mean that the fashion supply chain has to stop, it’s just that it has to change.

Do you ever feel any kind of inner conflict between your interests in both fashion and living a more sustainable lifestyle?

Well, certainly fashion is about creativity and it should be an expression of self. We choose what we wear and that changes as we change and as trends come in, and it’s fun to explore and to try them. The good news is that a lot of eco designers are good designers and there are more and more of them coming up all the time. So let’s say something is a trend that you want to wear, you might say that you’re not going to be part of it unless you can find an ethical and eco-friendly version of that product- that crossover is becoming less and less difficult. I take the time if I see something to find the green version and I have noticed that it’s becoming a lot easier.

What is one simple thing that everyone can start doing today to be more conscious when it comes to clothing?

Going back to that statistic about the use phase of clothing being the largest contributor of CO2 emissions, I would say it’s a lifestyle switch: if you can decide that as an American, and we’re really hyper-sensitive about being really hygienic, that we don’t need to wash our clothing or dry-clean it as often as we do, not repeating that energy intensive process as often would use less water and have a positive impact. I would say if that there was just one thing, that is the one thing you can start doing right now. It doesn’t mean that you are purchasing or not purchasing anything, it just means not washing what you have as much, and taking care of your clothing.

We’ve lost that idea of when garments were scarce. Back in the days before the Industrial Revolution, before sewing machines, making clothing was so intensive that they would pass that clothing down from generation to generation and just take care of it. I don’t want to stifle anyone or say that we shouldn’t celebrate fashion, because I think fashion is a fabulous means of expressing creativity and identity, and it’s also innovative. It’s just that we have to re-think the way we do things: clothing doesn’t have to be washed as much.

Chanel's Eco Fashion

In a bold move, Karl Lagerfeld based the Chanel Fall 2010 collection around the image of melting polar ice caps- even the show invites featured a drawing of an endangered polar bear done by Lagerfeld. The collection was teeming with fur: fur-covered boots, boleros and even head-to-toe fur suits made it confusing as to why a collection meant to draw attention to climate change featured copious amounts of fur. Lagerfeld explained after the show that the fur was not real and added that, "Fake is not chic — but fake fur is." This concern about the environment is not new for Karl Lagerfeld, who in the past has advocated incorporating more natural fabrics into fashion.

Runway shows are usually brief escapes into fanciful worlds filled with gorgeous clothes, but Lagerfeld has strayed from that this season and chosen instead to bring his audience face-to-face with an ugly reality which will have an impact on us all. This show really speaks to Karl Lagerfeld's status as an artist and visionary; that he can pair finely-crafted pieces of beautiful clothing with raising awareness about a controversial issue so seamlessly.

photo: Chanel

And if there was any doubt as to whether the massive glaciers on the runway were real, the  thermal video of the runway show confirms that the massive white structure in the middle of the runway was actually made of 240 tons ice and fits in nicely with the show's theme, "Hot and Cold."

Gen Art Designers Make Recycled Plastic Pretty

The organization Plastics Make It Possible has come up with an interesting challenge for this year's group of GenArt designers. The four fledgling design labels, Gar-De, Nomia, WesFeld and Sophmore had to create a collection using fabrics derived from recycled plastics. This is a great way to encourage young designers to start thinking about incorporating sustainability into their designs, and also reinforces the fact that beautiful clothing can be made from environmentally-friendly materials.

photo: Plastics Make It Possible

The designers will present their collections tonight at Drive In Studios to kick off New York Fashion Week, but there will also be a livestream of the four hour presentation and after-party available online starting at 7PM EST.

Here's a sneak peek at the winning collection from the label WesFeld. Designers Daniel Feld and Wesley Nault, explain the inspiration for some of their pieces and how they utilized recycled plastic to create lovely sculptural dresses.

Oscar de la Renta on Sustainable Fashion

“Sustainable fashion implies a commitment to the traditional techniques, and not just the art, of making clothes. I work today in the same way that I first learnt in the ateliers of Balenciaga and Lanvin 50 years ago. We need to ensure that the next generation of seamstresses and tailors have the skills necessary to develop clothes that are not only beautiful but extremely well made.”

Sustainable Fashion: The Movement

Sustainable Fashion: the movement. from Greta Eagan

Greta of Greta Guide has produced this excellent video on the need for and the growing importance of sustainability in the fashion industry. It features interviews with industry insiders who point out that sustainability is no longer a trend or a niche market, but a movement.

One sign of sustainability in mainstream fashion is what David Wolfe of the Doneger Group  referred to as the death of trends in a recent trend forecasting presentation. He points out the variety of skirt lengths and styles of pants and blouses offered by designers every season has made the concept of things being "in" or "out" irrelevant. With this absence of strong trends,  consumers no longer feel the need to buy new wardrobes seasonally. Of course, this has not entirely slowed-down the pace at which apparel is purchased, especially with the enticing low prices of fast-fashion retailers, but the idea of sustainability is gaining more and more acceptance and could be the biggest shift in fashion since the advent of mass garment production.

What is the Impact of Sustainable Fashion?

The Fashion Summit is taking place in Copenhagen this week along with the Global Climate Change talks and is organized by the Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical (NICE), an organization dedicated to more sustainable business practices in fashion. The summit features fashion shows from sustainable designers, as well as talks given by fashion industry leaders like Julie Gilhart, Senior VP and Fashion Director of Barneys, Christian Kemp-Griffin, CEO of Edun, Ingrid Schullström, Head of CSR at H&M, and others, about the importance of raising eco-awareness in fashion. It's wonderful to see so many major fashion companies acknowledging that the industry does need to change and adopt more environmentally-friendly business practices. The only thing that is noticeably absent during the summit is that despite the call for companies to embrace sustainability, no speaker has actually addressed what is meant by the phrase "sustainable fashion." Sustainability in the fashion industry is more than just using eco fabrics: the whole process by which apparel is produced contributes a great deal of pollution and waste, from textile dying through to the transportation of a finished garment, and it is the reduction of this waste and pollution that will be at the core of fashion's contribution to the environment.

Sustainable Fashion from Saurabh Sethi on Vimeo.

This video by Saurabh Sethi does an excellent job of illustrating what effects fashion has on the environment and the difference that the application of more sustainable methods can make in each step of the apparel manufacturing process.

“The current interest in the environment is a good thing. The best way to make a contribution in fashion is to promote the idea that a fundamental interest in preserving the environment is itself fashionable.”

Giorgio Armani

Barneys’ Julie Gilhart to Fashion Industry: Do Things Differently to Save Our Planet

by Jasmin Malik Chua, 12/11/09 for Ecouterre

For Julie Gilhart, senior vice president of Barneys New York, fashion has always been a reflection of our times. And in the past 18 years she’s been with the luxury retailer, Gilhart has seen many changes. “The big change now is that we must do things differently in order to save our planet, both from an environmental perspective and a humanitarian one,” she said on Wednesday at the Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, which coincided with Day 3 of the UN Climate Change Conference. “We need to work hard to make the business of fashion consciously cool, yet at the same time, not lose profitability.”

Gilhart admitted that about five years ago, she started feeling disillusioned about her industry. “I felt for the most part it was wasteful and money-driven,” she said, adding that the millions of dollars that went to producing fashion shows could feed a lot of starving people.

“We need to work to make fashion consciously cool, yet not lose profitability”

It took Al Gore’s game-changing documentary and a meeting with the Dalai Lama to present Gilhart with a new fashion mission, but one that had to be grounded in reality. “Barneys was my employer,” she said, “and as a retailer, we needed to create business to sell merchandise and make a profit.”

Discussions with the Barneys CEO led to the store’s “Have a Green Holiday” campaign, and for every tree-shaped, 22-carat gold necklace sold, the store planted 100 trees. “It doesn’t sound like a radical idea now,” Gilhart said, “but in 2007, in the high-end luxury market, it was.”

The story continues at Ecouterre

"...People are aware that the planet is a precious thing, just as luxury should be precious, and the two thoughts should be put together so that everything that we're creating in a truly luxurious world should be things that have roots in sustainability."

Suzy Menkes Fashion Editor International Herald Tribune