Eco Fashion World

It’s raining. Again. Funny how rain always makes things look ugly. It makes buildings grey and gruesome. It makes people frown and act grumpy. Only nature looks good when it’s raining: drops are little diamants on leaves that appear fresher and greener than before.

I`m lost in a day-dream, thinking of my sabbatical a few years ago. First I travelled to West-Africa where I worked and lived for one year. I wanted to discover the reality of development cooperation I had a career in. Living in a slum I tried to unravel the mystery of poverty. Of people who buy things and when they break, they just don’t have the money to repair them. Of my neighbour who simply did not eat on the days her husband would not bring money home. Of the border police men who had to bribe me to be able to feed their families. Of the kids in my neighbourhood whom I took to the beach, a five minute drive from where we lived, only to found out they had never seen the ocean. Of the millions of plastic bags that together shaped science-fiction like landscapes sticking out from the dry soil. I felt guilty, I felt powerless and all my ideas on what sustainable development should be about just melted in that hot African sun.

This is how your next season organic cotton garments look like right now. Click the "Read more" link to see more pictures.

As the leaves are falling, many of us long for some tenderness and warmth. Climate change makes our temperature rise and for those who need other teasers, there is plenty of inspiration nowadays. One could start with watching Angry Green Girls who get fired up by global warming. Some of their tips include save water, energy and money, but I am not sure they save on other resources. Another way to cocoon in an educational way is by viewing videos of former model and actress Isabella Rosselini. Don´t expect cliché pin-ups here, but some sexy hints towards environmentalism. For real life action you could travel to Berlin where Maison D´Envie offers an eco discount for customers who arrive by bicycle instead of car. ´The financial crisis hit us hard and this offer brings us back in business´, one of the ladies of pleasure comments in the Independent.

What inspired me this week?

The oikos students who told me about their ethical fashion projects in Prague and Reims;

The intriguing mural art in Belfast;

The plans to open The Hub in Zürich;

The new Spring/Summer collection by Andrea Crews that looks sexy rebellious;

Ireland's economic growth evolved around the linen industry in the 19th century. During the Troubles the last few decades, the country suffered tremendously and the linen industry declined in a rapid pace. While there used to be buildings full of seamstresses who could manufacture small quantities, these businesses disappeared. The result is that young fashion designers have great difficulty to produce their designs nowadays. One of the aims of Re-Dress is to regenerate the Irish textile industry as to sustain local talent both in design and production.

Personally, for me, Paris is the city of flowers. This idea was confirmed last weekend when I visited the Ethical Fashion Show in Paris for trend research. Visionair Isabelle Quéhé, founder and Art Director of Ethical Fashion Show, presented this important eco fashion event for the sixth time in the heart of Paris. Talented participating designers surprised me with three kinds of floral looks: nostalgic vintage, refined textile decorations and trash couture plastics.

'And you know what, D&G - no not Dolce & Gabbana as you might think - need to work together. Only through collaboration they can really transform the industry'. This was the hypothesis I had a month ago, before I had spoken to Goliaths like C&A or H&M and to Davids such as Bibico and Veja. After reading academic literature (e.g. Wüstenhagen & Hockerts, 2009) on the interplay between small entrepreneurs and big companies, I wanted to explore in how far this happens in the ethical fashion movement. These are some of my findings that show a different picture from what has been published so far:

'We need to sell the process through the product and not the product through the process'. This is the sentence I woke up with this morning after three dynamic days of interviewing at Ethical Fashion Show in Paris. Veja is a company that does this right from the start. François Morillion, one of the two founders, told me on Friday that they started Veja out of an obsession with sneakers. Their first collection was made fair-trade and from organic cotton, but they presented it at a regular trade fair. In a plain installation displaying the few sample models that they had, they simply talked about their sneakers. And sold them. Veja is now one of the more successful companies within the ethical fashion landscape and that's not because they help their organic farmers in the North of Brazil to get certification. Or because they fly their Parisian employees to Brazil to meet the shoemakers and the rubber tappers in the Amazon in person. 'It's because we love our product and we do everything to make it better'.