Eco Fashion World

And for a little shot of sunshine here are some of the hot happenings that took place in the South hemisphere this month.

Peter Ingwersen, NOIR’s founder and owner, is visiting IED fashion school this coming Friday to meet students and professionals and discuss on fashion, luxury and sustainability. This will be the second session of a number of exciting events on fashion design and sustainability held at IED Madrid along the current academic year. SANS, Misión Misericordia and Veja are also part of these sessions.

It was a night of firsts. The first time Eco Fashion World was sponsoring a sustainable fashion show, and the first time that such a show took place during Vancouver Fashion Week. The west coast Canadian city has a reputation for being ahead of trends in terms of environmental awareness but had yet to hold a truly green fashion event, it’s now a done deal and the press and audience response was proof that this was a much needed event!

We know green is the new black but what’s beyond that? Around 1.000 fashion students, teaching staff and designers will discuss this at Beyond Green on November 12 in Amsterdam. The international symposium is organized by AM-FI - Amsterdam Fashion Institute, ArtEZ Institute of the Arts and the Stichting Modebewust foundation. A variety of guests, including trendforecaster Li Edelkoort and Eco-chic author Sandy Black, will be giving their personal perspectives on the theme.

On Saturday November 8th Toronto showed its green glamour in a day and night of sustainable fashion events organized by Fashion Takes Action.

The fun began at 10am with the Sustainable Style Show: this event raised consumer awareness around fairly traded, locally and ethically produced products, as well as those made from sustainable materials. With the rise of environmental consciousness, consumers are making an increased effort to make smarter shopping choices, yet “greenwashing” has created confusion around what is truly sustainable. Here, the labels were pre selected according to a set of rigorous criteria and choices were plentiful. We particularly enjoyed Montreal label Deux FM, Nixxi and Green Girls.

It’s not everyday that Hong Kong’s glitterati are alchemized into green gems, but this was the case on Thursday, October 30 when celebrities and socialites gathered at the W Hong Kong for Eco Chic HK, an eco fashion event showcasing some of the hottest sustainable fashion labels currently on the scene. The star-studded event was organized by Christina Dean and the Hong Kong non-profit, Green2Greener, and served as a celebratory, fashion-forward occasion to promote environmental sustainability, both locally and globally.

The green carpet that sprouted outside of the W Hong Kong was also an occasion for attendees to donate couture garments of their own that were later auctioned to benefit socially and environmentally responsible charities. The World Wildlife Fund, Civic Exchange, Friends of the Earth, and The Saint James Settlement were all beneficiaries. It was a great way to usher in the new fusion of luxury and sustainable style in a city known for high-end retailing and elite shopping.

The eco fashion runway show of the night featured eco couture by international designers Diane von Furstenberg, John Rocha, and Thakoon; vintage designs by Chloe, Dior, Chanel, and Versace; and local design stars such Barney Cheng, Cecilia Yau, Kanchan Panjabi, Ruby Li. Ready-to Wear eco labels included eco chic designs by Bahar Shahpar, Cri de Coeur, Deborah Lindquist www.deborahlindquist.com, Eco Boudoir www.eco-boudoir.com, Lara Miller, Meiling Chen, Mika Machida, and Popomomo, to name a few.

CHRISTINA DEAN

ZANDRA RHODES FOR EJF

Ever heart of swishing? Learn all about it this Sunday November 9th at the Victoria & Albert museum in London! Their Ethical Fashion Day in collaboration with Central Saint Martins School of Fashion and Futerra is all about swishing your clothes. The idea is that you bring your chic but unloved fashion items to swap with ones you will love according to the swishing rules. Stylists will help you discover your best look and the Cut and Sew reinvention workshops can help you put life back into your clothes. Chaired by fashion writer and broadcaster Caryn Franklin, experts including Katharine E Hamnett and Lucy Siegle will debate the future of sustainable fashion. The eco fashion show will be presented by Peter Ingwersen and designer Orsola de Castro and includes styles from Gary Harvey, Junky Styling, Noir and t-shirts made for EJF by designers like Allegra Hicks and Giles Deacon.

From Friday 17 to Sunday October 19th NiceFuture organizes for the first time Ethical Fashion Days in Geneva. It's the counterpart of the Green Fashion Switzerland event that took place earlier this year. Both events aim to heighten public awareness about the ethical textile industry and are open to professionals and the public.

Porto, Portugal is “Organic Cotton City” this week (October 14-17 2008) while hosting the global Organic Exchange conference “New Growth Opportunities: Using Organic Cotton to Strengthen Sustainability, Resource and Investment Strategies”. Portugal is an important manufacturing country for the fashion industry and is therefore chosen as a meeting point for the approximately 300 international representatives from throughout the organic fiber supply chain.

From October 10th to the 18th, independent umbrella label Made-By organizes “The Week of Sustainable Fashion”, in association with Dutch retailers. The aim is to create awareness for fashion that has been produced in an environmental and socially sustainable way. Retailers throughout the country shine the spotlight on ethical fashion and Made-By supports their efforts with a media campaign and several events.

We gotta give it to Rachel Sarnoff, the founder of EcoStiletto has three kids, a great website, she can throw a mean party studded with celebrities…and even rock some serious eco glam on the catwalk!

For the launch of her website’s Kids section last Sunday, during the Jane Goodall’s Roots & Shoots celebration of the United Nations’ International Day of Peace, celebrities and hot moms came out to play with their little tots.

White socks, skin colored bras, leggings and tops that make you look like a sausage. These items ring our fashion alarm bells since all of them are ‘Super Wrong’. But things are even worst when you think that many cotton farmers still don’t get a fair price for their product. To point to this major problem in a fun and provocative way, STICHTING has initiated the ‘Foute Campagne’ (Wrong Campaign). The kick off was a guerilla fashion show in Amsterdam’s chiquest shopping street. Part of the campaign is the ‘Foute Nacht’ that takes place this Saturday September 13 in concert hall Paradiso. Entrance is free for anyone who brings a piece of cloth made of ‘wrong cotton’ (foute katoen). The aim is to create a mountain of socks, T-shirts, towels and other items that will shows visitors how many items are still being made in a bad way. The art collective ‘Vage Gasten’ will make a huge work of art out of the mountain of cotton items. The program looks promising with great DJ’s & bands and celebrities present as ‘wrong friends’ (foute vrienden).

Yes, we’ve been reporting on exciting eco events throughout the summer, but this week, the fun really begins. The Spring 2009 shows are starting today with New York Fashion Week. Last night, the fashion marathon kicked off with a mega green fashion show rallying celebrities and major industry players.

The event marks the launch of the Sierra Club’s Be Eco-Chic campaign, which aims to raise awareness on the environmental responsibility of the fashion industry and provide the public with helpful tips on how they can play their part.

Magic in Vegas might more immediately conjure up thoughts of Siegfried and Roy than eco fashion, but it is indeed the latter that we will talk about today. We’ve already told you about tradeshows going green from New York to Berlin, the latest convert is Las Vegas’ giant fashion tradeshow Magic.

Fair trade fashion is more than just a fad - it's a following! If you're a swinging eco-savvy, then this event should feature as a must-do in your social calendar. Join London’s eco-fashionistas and put your footprint on the dance floor.

Mister Earth invites you to attend a two-part stylish summer party on Tuesday August 12th from 5.30 pm at his recently opened eco-bar Surya. The club is the first bar in London where you can dance to save the planet. How, you wonder? Check this out. Surya is an initiative from Club4Climate, a new organization promoting ecotainment.

If you’re doing a student placement in the fashion industry in the UK this summer, don’t miss this FEI (Fashioning and Ethical Industry) event taking place this Wednesday August 6th between 1.30 - 4.30pm at the London College of Fashion.

Whether you’re doing your placement with a high-street chain or a small ethical company, you will have the opportunity to explore the ethics of the industry, learn about the working conditions in garment manufacture and gain a deeper understanding of issues faced by garment workers. You can register online here.

Amsterdam Fashion Week kicks off tomorrow night! The Dutch sure know their sustainable style and we’ve compiled a list of not-to-miss events…as well as a couple of shops where you might find the perfect outfit to attend them:

If you’re looking for a fun family outing this Sunday (July 20, 2008) join the ethic girls of Sussex for the Fair Trade Fashion Show at the EcoFair in Horsham.

The three eco entrepreneurs organizing the event will each bring their particular flair and experience to the event, showcasing some of the UK’s finest ethical designers and shops.

This is how it goes down behind the scenes: before the clothes get to your hot little hands, they go through a long chain of production and distribution, one of the last links being the fashion markets or tradeshows. As far as these go, few are as influential and respected as Designers&Agents: founded 10 years ago by visionaries Barbara Kramer and Ed Mandelbaum, acclaimed for their keen talent-spotting and inventive staging, the platform is now present in each of the five US markets in both New York and Los Angeles.

Grab your friends and join the DIYStyle crew for a fab day in Chicago at the DIYStyle "Design It Yourself " Style Party!

On Thursday, July 10th, from noon 'til 8pm, be ready for a day of hands-on fun! Create your own DIY fashions. Work in the design labs and stitch stations set up with everything you need to make your own goods. Sew up a whole drawer full of panties from the new DIYStyle Design It Yourself Pattern from McCall's, bring a pair of denim jeans and give them the "distressed look", perform t-shirt surgery, and make an Eco-Friendly Tote Bag for all your shopping finds. At the end of the day you’ll be able to take home all the goodies you've made (and with a little luck some great prizes) in your own Eco-Friendly Tote Bag.