Eco-Chic

Who says you can’t go green and be glam? Thanks to the eco-chic phenomenon infiltrating fashion, it looks like we won’t have to run off to greener pastures to find our organic threads this season.

Numerous designers and sponsors jumped on the green bandwagon for this fall/winter 2008/09 fashion week in New York. This eco-chic fashion trend may have been jump-started with LA’s Mercedes-Benz Los Angeles Fashion Week for Spring 2008. Their eco-friendly initiatives included everything from recycled tents and carpeting to biodegradable shipping and staging. Several eco-conscious designers were featured on their catwalks. By teaming up with the CarbonNeutral Company to measure, reduce and offset the entire fashion event, for a rare moment, the LA fashion scene may have taken a fashionable lead!

New York’s most recent fashion week (Feb 1st-8th), also primarily sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, has yet to step up to the same level of commitment. Although there was evidence that things are moving in this direction. Setting the stage a day before fashion week officially began was Earth Pledge’s Future Fashion show at Gotham Hall. Top American and European designers were invited to create fashions using natural and sustainable materials. A slew of influential fashion powerhouses participated. The domestic contingent included Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs, Narciso Rodriguez, Derek Lam, Michael Kors and Threeasfour. European houses such as Versace, Bottega Veneta, Burberry, Givenchy, Marni, Martin Margiela, Stella McCartney and Yves Saint Laurent also participated.

Aveda, standing on a green platform, teamed up with several designers including Rodarte, 3.1 Phillip Lim, Rag and Bone, Thakoon, and Edun to make their shows more earth friendly. Aveda provided reusable, aluminum water bottles filled with tap water backstage, eliminating up to 300 plastic water bottles per show. They printed all programs and show invitations on post-consumer recycled paper. They even served organic, locally sourced food to the models and all the production staff backstage.

The House of Organic Sustainable Fashion caught a green light with their show this season. A marathon five hour event, they featured six environmentally-sensitive and socially-responsible labels: Ekovaruhuset, Anja Hynynen, Righteous, Bahar Shahpar, Fin, and Susan Cianciolo. Highlights included a dress by Fin [featured above] made from “peace silk” that was harvested after the silkworm had turned into a free-flying silk moth, a Forties-inspired tailored hemp jacket and wool skirt by designer Amy Mohlenhoff [featured above] and high-tops from Nike’s eco-friendly line [featured above].

The fashion business is showing the world that you don’t have to be earthbound to be eco-friendly.

[Picture credits numbered from files: 1) TreeHugger, 2) WWD 3) Environmental Leader]