Eco Fashion World

Given the current global economic crisis and the daily scrutiny of consumer buying trends and glossy marketing strategies, EFW's March magazine turns its focus to the role of 'trends' in the eco fashion world as a means to better understand how designers are redefining and adapting to the changing climate. On one hand, trends can often be a vehicle for examining better ways of doing things via textile innovation and sustainable technologies, and on the flip side, the term carries with it pejorative connotations with its to season-to-season fickleness and 'make it new' agenda.

In 2001, my old roommate moved to NYC, to Williamsburg to be more precise. A year later, she came back for a visit looking even cooler than she had when we lived together. Turns out she was under a lot of pressure, the locals had playfully nicknamed her Bedford Ave. subway stop “the catwalk”. She was also the one who introduced me to street fashion magazines, which back then, were only popular in Japan. The underground catwalk was already taking shape.

We’re ready to shed our layers and step into spring with some fresh new clothes. Each of the trends we picked was inspired by a different source, and this time, we’ll let you in on the way an editor’s mind works when putting these together! “Lemon and Lime” began as a dress obsession when we spotted the lime sheath below at Ethos during the Prêt-à-Porter salon in Paris, we weren’t surprised to see that others had picked up on this color obsession when we saw it on Garance Doré’s blog!

Ok, true confessions time, we really didn’t care much about men’s fashion before discovering The Sartorialist, now we can talk pocket squares and cuff lengths with the best of them. In true Scott Schumann fashion, each of these two “favorites” series was inspired by an idea in one of his photographs.

Those of you who have been reading our magazine since the very beginning, might have noticed: Fashion Conscience is probably the one web shop we have referred to the most in our Favorite Things section. Of course we have good reasons for ranking it in our Top 5 of most beloved eco fashion stores. First of all, Fashion-conscience.com is the UK's leading online eco boutique focusing on the season's trends and edits the best pieces with an eco edge. The website offers the cream of the crop in ethical design with labels like Noir, Camilla Norrback and Amana. Second, the sharp look of the site makes it an attractive environment to do some credit card waiving. Selecting your new buys is made easy by the various categories. Are you an animal lover? Shop by vegan. Are you a big Fin-fan? Shop by designer. And for those of you who need to save, “shop by sale” is always a good way to go eco.

This month, we’re indulging our inner eco geeks by celebrating the International Year of Natural Fibers! Says who? The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has chosen 2009 as the Year of Natural Fibers with various activities around the globe to raise the profile of these fibres, to emphasize their value to consumers while helping to sustain the incomes of the farmers.

Talking about farmers, John Patrick, our designer profile, is so obsessed with finding the purest fibers for his collections that he’s going back to the land to grow his own special crops! Of course, we’re bound to be a little partial but take it from the Vogue’s mouth, he’s the Calvin Klein for this millennium!

If all this talk of fiber is still a bit All Bran for your taste, let our resident scholar Kim Poldner take you on a worldwide tour of these Flourishing Fibers, you’ll see that the clothes that we wear and the food that we eat are indeed very closely related.

See how designer are using all these exciting ancestral materials to create some of today’s sexiest clothes and accessories with our Favorite picks for Men and Women.

One such brand is Ekyog, who has materialized natural fiber fashion in its 21 boutiques in France and the UK. “Au naturel” made easy, accessible and chic? More please!