Eco Fashion World

Aesthetics are the essence of each brand in our eco fashion world. They embody an entrepreneur’s unique artistic identity and are mirrored in the artefacts she creates. For me, this was always the scariest part of presenting my work in fashion school. Because design reflects the self of the creator and makes her vulnerable to the outside world. A direct attack to the pieces we developed in class, felt like an insult to who we were and was often a very emotional experience.

A bare space with plastic tables and chairs. Large windows overlooking the parking lot. Elderly people bent over their burgers. A menu that doesn’t wet my appetite at all. But I promised M.A. we would try it. To have lunch at Wendy’s.

'We had veggies, potato and Valess tonight, so we're really on the bio track now', my brother said the other day. Big question marks???? This to me sounded like the most ordinary Dutch dish you can imagine, not specifically eco at all. It was only one hour later that I understood his word-joke when we started talking about Skinny Bitch.

I can't believe myself, but I just did it. I bought pyjamas. The one thing I had never thought I would buy. But I did it. They're lying on the table grinning at me. Like if they say 'Got-ya!'

Pyjamas are dull, not flattering, baggy, often have silly prints and are made of crappy fabrics. In that sense, mine don't look too bad. They're plain blue and consist of a princess top and a legging underneath. They're made of soft organic cotton . I bought them on sale for half price. And by the way: I love blue.

What do you do when you want to discover the one country that remains a blank spot on the world map? A country we only hear about when it comes to missile launches and captured journalists rescued by Bill Clinton? What happens when you realize that the best way to get access to this country, is to start manufacturing jeans there? But then, how do you navigate the diplomatic back alleys and the lack of infrastructure and knowledge on how to make jeans?

'Viva la Boheme' is the slogan of ecofashion store iki-M that I visited just before Christmas. And that is definitely how I felt the whole week, travelling through winter wonder Germany and Austria. While the snow covered Alpine landscape enticed us from the train window, we lost ourselves in Charles Dickens' stories. We feasted on great raw food at Greeny's and admired Alfons Mucha at the Hypo Kunsthalle in downtown München. In the Pinakothek I was happy to discover that museumshops offer the latest in green design books. Even the Christmas markets cater for LOHAS consumers offering bio sausages and yummy organic glühwein.

If ethical fashion is 'in fashion', then what happens when it's 'out of fashion'? Thorstein Veblen saw (1899) saw fashion as the way to promote conspicuous consumption and contrasted it to valuable productivity. Looking at the amount of emails I receive lately on X-mas sales of ethical fashion brands and boutiques, I can't do else but adhere to this vision.

Last week the Swiss people voted to ban the building of minarets which caused a huge uprise. My friends´response was to combine their Balkan party with some pro-Islam elements. The pre-party movie screening featured a film on the Balkan war which evolved around religious differences and to release frustration we competed for the title 'Best Minaret Builder' with the free download package of a paper minaret.