Eco Fashion World

If there was still any doubt that organic cotton can be used for high fashion, John Patrick, whom we interviewed for our FIBER magazine issue, has surely dispelled it! It's now time for other designers to start using this incredible fabric. This is one of the points Organic Exchange talks about in its latest Market Advisory to be released mid February. The global organic cotton market experienced steady growth in 2008 despite the global economic downturn.

Expectations run high for the new American presidency. Already, the pre-inauguration weekend kicked off with two competing Green Inauguration Balls. The 2009 Green Inaugural Ball on Monday 19th is chaired by Al Gore, while The Green Ball presented by Discovery’s Planet Green that took place on Saturday 17th featured singer Wyclef Jean and an eco fashion show…guess which one we wanted to attend!

It looks like the Belgians are catching up on bringing green news to the market. After the launch of Green2, the first green glossy in The Netherlands, their Southern neighbours strike back with Luck. The first issue of this new quarterly magazine can be found in bookstores and kiosks since December 20th. The feel good magazine is printed on recycled material but with a glossy look. It covers topics like fashion & beauty, wellness & health and food & beverage with advertiser 'friends' such as Kuyichi, Aveda and Carpe Diem . According to the people behind Luck, all lay out and images are arranged in a Feng Shui lay out. For feel good reading and a sneak peek of Luck, check the website.

With Wall Street hemorrhaging jobs and assets, many people discover they can also buy $ 15 bottles of wine instead of bottles priced $ 1,290.00. Hedge-fund wives are hocking their jewelry and swapping their haute couture items. Is this bad or good for our eco fashion world? One could ask. Having less spending power, people might stay away from the more expensive ethical fashion buys. But it could also mean that more people develop an interest in eco awareness since it doesn't have to cost more. In fact, with less money, you often become more creative. So through the tears of the economic crisis that promises to hit us even harder in the coming months, we cheer over the designers that prove you can look übercool in waste-art.

One of them is Chilean industrial design student Camila Labra who makes the sweetest boots we've ever seen. Named after Dhaka, one of the most cities in the world most polluted by plastic bags, the boots are built by fusing several layers of plastic polyethylene bags together to create a thicker and more resistant material to work with. Their interior is covered with quilted piqué cotton fabric to make them more comfortable and prevent too much heat. According to the designer, the boots are impermeable, flexible, light and non-toxic.

If this is the case also for umbrella shirts, remains a question. But designer Melanie McClintock explains: 'Because umbrellas are waterproof, they make ideal outerwear, so I have been focusing on jackets, hats, and vests. I fully line everything I make so they are like a double wind-breaker...nice and warm!" McClintock strolls yards and sidewalks for inspiration for her designs and has just launched her new collection entirely made of discarded umbrellas.

With consumer spending down, so are prices for waste , which suits artist Ingrid Goldbloom Bloch just fine. She uses aluminum soda cans to fashion bras. Maybe it's only a matter of time before these will adorn the high society galas in downtown Manhattan.

Your fingers are itching to get creative but, not having grown up with home economics, you can't even mend your fallen buttons! Not to mention the fact that you don't own any sewing equipment...

You thought you were pretty eco-cool with your designer hemp shirt and organic cotton jeans, but did you every think about your zippers? In fact, all the little metallic bits and bobs that give the finishing touch to your beautifully cut trousers are often produced in terrible conditions with polluting materials. So, in their search for the most eco friendly materials to create their looks, companies like Loomstate , Mana Clothing and Levi’s have turned to a new player in the green fashion market: San Francisco-based trim supplier, TYT Trend is now leading the charge to help apparel designers and brands develop truly 100% earth-friendly products for their earth-conscious customers.

Fabric made out of pineapple, woodpulp, bamboo jersey and seaweed. It all sounds very exotic and it is, if you think of wearing it on your body! The last few years have seen an increase in the creation of eco luxurious fabrics and it looks like this market is only growing. Founder and CEO of Osklen, Oskar Metsavaht, will give a talk on the development of this niche during Biofach Latin America to be held in São Paulo from October 23-25.

Great news for all you ambitious conscious designers out there: more and more crazy, sexy, cool eco fabrics are being developed as we speak! Last year it was like finding a needle in a haystack, but this year, Paris fabric fair Premiere Vision had clearly indicated the companies offering eco fabrics. One thing that lacked however, was that the sales people of the 50 bamboo fabric suppliers and 75 eco cotton companies couldn’t say much yet about the eco credentials and sources of the fabrics, which leaves room for improvement next year.

Innocent chitchat, summer 2008:

"What are you doing this summer?"

"Oh, not much, I’m going to use my staycation to do some upcycling and sort out my closet for the next swishing party."

Of course, before the advent of this new vocab, you might have said “Nothing, I’m too broke to go on vacation or shop, I’m just going to patch up some old things and see if I can exchange them at the charity shop”. But these days, with style.com running a story on glamorous staycationers like supermodel Karen Elson (who, by the way, is using the time to plot the imminent opening of her vintage shop: Mars and Venus), home is the hippest place to be. And while you’re there, why not take advantage of that to do some cleaning up?

I don’t know about you, but we at EFW noticed a while ago that nothing in our wardrobe really worked well with disposable, ripping, overflowing plastic bags. It might be a whole other set of motivations that led the Chinese government to declare a country-wide ban on giving away these crusty carriers for free, but ban they have and so far the results are probing: in a country that used up to 3 billion plastic bags per day, supermarkets are now seeking a decline in use from 50 to 90%!