Eco Fashion World

Saturday 9 May 2009, 10am to 4.30pm, the council house, Bristol.

A one-day conference exploring every aspect of this fascinating fiber and challenging us to find the most sustainable ways forward.

Have you been looking over your shoulder wondering if that credit crunch has hit support for eco fashion? Then worry not. Good news comes in two forms from key opinion forming organizations.

The third-annual Project Earth Day runway show and student design competition is taking place in lower Manhattan this Thursday, April 23rd. Project Earth Day 2009 promises to be even greener and more stunningly state-of-the-art as a fashion-forward showcase for sustainable style. The show’s uber-talented co-producer, Bahar Shahpar, has teamed up with the US Green Building Council and the New York Restoration Project (NYRP) to collaborate on what will surely be a spectacular demonstration of how the fashion and building sectors are true green innovators and visionary forces.

TODAY is the start of UK AWARE 09 taking place in Olympia Two, London - Fri 17th and Sat 18th April from 10am to 6pm..

This year's event will be even more inspiring and interactive than ever!

• FREE world class speakers panels with over 40 expert speakers
• 100+ amazing exhibitors showcasing 1000s of sexy green products and services
• The Green Machines Expo
• Clothes swapping party
• Green Screen Cinema
• Footprint Friends Eco family action
• Green Marketplace
• Chillout lounge

And if you'd like to get even more involved, please bring along any or all of the following:

• Old mobile phones to be recycled
• Unwanted clothes for the clothes swap - and get a whole new wardrobe completely free!
• Old batteries to be recycled - and get a discount on rechargeable usb cells
• Some spare material to make into a Morsbag. We wouldn't miss it for the world!

Oganized by the Ethical Fashion Forum from 6pm Tuesday 21st April at RichMix in London. With a panel line up including Saffia Minney of PeopleTree, Lance Clark of Soul of Africa, and representatives from MADE, the Body Shop and Trading for Development, this event is not to be missed. Includes a marketplace where you can meet and make links with representatives of co-operatives from around the world. REGISTER NOW to secure your place.

NEW YORK

(eco)mpassion sample sale! April 2nd to April 5th noon to 7pm. 2 Great Jones Between Broadway and Lafayette and in the Mobile Sample Sale Bus (123 anywhere NYC)

In celebration of Earth Month, (eco)mpassion has worked hard to bring you the newest talent in sustainable fashion, at a discount of course! All in a market place setting so you can actually meet some of the designers who make your clothes. This sample sale is the answer to everyone’s question: “How can I dress sustainable and still look fabulous?” 5% of sales goes to the charity of the designers choice. Featured designers:

There’s nothing like mixing some of the glam with the real on the ground stuff and French eco trainer brand Veja have done just that.

SEE:

Deux Fm fashion show at Atlantic Fashion Week

Atlantic Fashion Week is coming up March 26-29th in Halifax, Canada. This is a great occasion to discover many local independent designers and to see a live fashion show of one of our favorite Canadian labels Deux Fm, on Saturday night March 28th at the Olympic Center (To purchase tickets and for further info please visit the AFW website)

The long-anticipated Fashioning Felt exhibit opened earlier this month at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum in NYC, and as expected, the curatorial picks are eco fashion savvy and perfect for Spring. The exhibition was organized by Susan Brown, assistant curator of Textiles, and there is no doubt that this show is putting a new spin on an ancient and rather versatile material. Examples of historic felt applications range from gorgeous, nomadic creations like Central Asian saddle blankets and protective tent structures to contemporary takes on sustainable felt fashion like Andrea Zittel’s A-Z Fiber Form Dresses. 

Are you an ethical fashion brand with burning questions regarding sourcing and manufacturing of your collections? Tune in on the 'Spotlight on Sourcing' series organized by the Ethical Fashion Forum.

Low wages and poor working conditions are endemic in the fashion industry. What are pioneers doing to try and create a more ethical industry? Explore how you can put your ethics into practice. Fashioning an Ethical Industry's annual conference brings together tutors and students from universities and colleges across the country with industry specialists to learn and discuss the latest about ethics in fashion. This year's event will take place on the 11th March 2009 at the Rich Mix in London between 9.30am - 17.30pm.

Find more information on the website of Fashioning an Ethical Industry.  

If you're in Los Angeles this week, stop by the second-annual EcoStiletto Green Girl's Night Out at Intuition in Los Angeles from 7 to 10 p.m.

Following on the success of last October’s Eco Chic Hong Kong fashion extravaganza, the Hong Kong based non-profit, Green2Greener, has once again dazzled Asia’s fashion runways with its recent gala, EcoChic Shanghai. The January 12 event featured more than forty international fashion designers who shared the catwalk for the first time in mainland China as a high-profile opportunity to showcase and promote environmental sustainability in this part of the globe. The star-studded occasion was generously supported by leading financial firm UBS, and is part of the UBS Greater China Conference 2009, which is focused on sustainable development.

This weekend, Karl Lagerfeld and his entourage were spotted doing the rounds at the mega design exhibition Maison et Objet in Paris. The fashion designer is the godfather of the 2009 edition and rightly so: one of this year’s recurring themes was the influence of fashion on home design and vice versa. Several design brands had accessories and fabrics signed by fashion designers and fashion houses displayed their home collections.

This coming week, Amsterdam International Fashion Week (AIFW) will be the launching event for the Amsterdam Sustainability Institute for Fashion and Fabrics (ASIFF). Initiated by the Dutch Chamber of Commerce and the School for higher fashion education, the institute will focus on sustainability in fashion and textiles. Through research, training and consultancy, the institute aims to make Amsterdam a leader in the industry. The launch of ASIFF takes place on January 30th from 12-2 pm in the Westergasfabriek in Amsterdam.

Say you happen to be in New York City by on a particularly cold day, and you have to work but you still want to feel like you’re getting a unique New York experience, then take it from the concierge and make your way to 42nd Street and 5th Avenue to the New York Public Library.

You walk into the grand historic building, admire the architecture and the art, make your way upstairs to the computer room where you spend a few hours studiously working on your laptop using the free wireless internet. When you’re ready for a break you start wandering around and end up, where else, in the library shop. And to your great surprise, this is a hidden eco-fashion treasure trove!

Are you starting the new year scheduling major events to attend? Don't miss Germany in that case! In July we already reported on fashion fair Premium that showed some major green influences. This must have been a great success since the next Premium will completely focus on sustainably produced fashion. With this strategy, the high level event shows that eco fashion has really come out of its dusty corner and is modern, trendy and stylish (from the 29th to the 31st of January in Berlin)

Under the provocative name Sweat & Shop, Fashion designers, NGO representatives, experts, students, and bloggers gathered to discuss the topic of sustainability and fashion. The workshop was organized by sustainability network 3plusX, the Grass Routes Foundation www.grass-routes.org and fashion label Jovoo, in connection to an exhibition on political participation in the Berlin art gallery NGBK.

If you’re reading these lines, you’ve probably already all but banished plastic bags from your life. So it just drives you up the wall when you see people in line at the checkout carelessly double bagging their purchases, just because they can… However, starting to rant and preach at them like a crazy person might not get the results you hope for. What could get you results however, is following the wise advise that Rebecca Hoskins has gathered in her brand new book Ban the Plastic Bag: A community action plan. Starting with the case study of Modbury in Devon, which became Britain’s first plastic bag-free town in Britain in May 2007, the book explains how any other village town or city could get such policies implemented. It even comes with its very own complimentary organic cotton bag to add to your collection.

December 2-3, Copenhagen, Denmark

Are you an eco fashion professional and lost in the challenges you face? A trip to Denmark might be the way to go in that case! On December 2-3, Organic Exchange and Made-By will host a seminar on Sustainable Fashion in Copenhagen!