Eco Fashion World

The ever-expanding spectrum of today’s eco fashion frontier not only includes the incorporation of sustainable textiles and fair trade practices, but also our responsibility to identify and support young designer talent taking root in small pockets of the globe. Not all budding designers have access to eco textiles and retail venues that showcase green design or fashion, and many are still operating on very small budgets, doing everything from sewing to styling to marketing themselves. With this in mind, I was pleased to come across the talented and enthusiastic Bulgarian fashion designer, Evgeni Petkov, during my travels in Eastern Europe this past winter. Although Evgeni does not (yet) use organic cottons or sustainable fabrics per se, he is the first of his generation in Bulgaria to be designing haute couture collections with fine European silks and recycled fabrics sourced from traditional Bulgarian costumes. Bulgaria has an extraordinary tradition of textile embroidery work and nature-inspired costumes and jewelry.

Evgeni Petkov’s collection was featured during Sofia Fashion Week, and I was genuinely impressed with his rich cultural mix of patterns and textures, not to mention the flowing draping of his floor length gowns and airy, feminine signature pieces. Collections such as Evgeni’s are now being designed by teams of local talent in a manner that is helping to promote home-grown fashion in cities and communities that formerly looked to far-off Paris or London for acknowledgement and a sense of fashion-forward identity. Now, with Bulgaria having joined the European Union in 2007, local designers are often opting to study abroad, but then return home to find ways of building their businesses and fashion houses. These new initiatives are helping to sustain local economies and provide new definitions of indigenous haute couture and personal, chic style. Eco fashion needs to perhaps continually expand and fine tune its definition of sustainability in locations like Bulgaria, particularly when a new generation of remarkably talented designers like Evgeni are working diligently to educate fellow citizens and clients about new ways to expand their notions of high fashion and trans-seasonal collectibles.

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