An Overview of the Current State of Ecofashion
When you hear the words "eco fashion"what image comes to mind? Cameron Diaz in an $11,975 dollar organic dress onthe cover of Vogue? Some message on a canvas tote? Maybe nothing at all?
Unlike other facets of the Green movement-organic food, beauty products, home supplies - eco fash
There isn't much diligence or attention to whateco fashion even means."I went to Rainbow the other day to get my friend acheap gift," says Cary Curran, an actress living in New York, "andthey had green shirts with glittered letters that said 'Green is the newblack.' I don't even know if it was organic cotton."
The insiders have had enough. "Walk downthe street, in the city, 2 out of 10 women will have a canvas tote with somekind of green message on it, like the "I'm not a plastic bag' thing,"says Molly Garretson who founded Project Earth Day, an annual fashion show andstudent design competition in its 4th year. "Yes the message is gettingbroader and spreading, but it's getting kitschy."
Mottainainy Purple Shibori Shirt, $230:
About Mottainai:
This all may be about to change .The United Nations declared2009 the International Year of the Natural Fibres and Stella McCartney waslisted as one of Times 100 most influencial people for her work creatingcruelty-free ,high fashion clothing.
Meanwhile,outin the fashion trenches,manyeco-conscious designers are starting to find theirvoices.Mociun and Bahar Shahpar make gorgeous sophisticated clothes for womenwho can afford to wear them.
Popomomo's simple, adorable dresses and shirting are artsyin a Zooey Deschanel kind of way. Mottainie's slick, put together men'sclothing would appeal to cool choosy youth who wear Y-3 or APC. And, in thebright, eye-popping, work of UK-based Junky Styling, Eco fashion may finallyhave its Vivienne Westwood-a design collective that is giving sustainableclothing a noticeably different, innovative look that looks more like acultural movement than a simple trend. Still, its not like the garment industryis uniformly enthusiastic. Like any corporate beast, (see meat industry, healthcare industry) it is slow to change, especially when it involves lowerprofits. Just a glance at the boom in cheaper textile production in China is an indication that there is still a ruthless bottom line that supercedesconscience.
"It's a dilemma," says a designer at a large
clothing brand. "Especially in this economy when companies are so obsessed
with making their bottom line to the point where they debate whether or not to
omit ONE button to cut costs. I don't think organic / green initiatives will be
priority."
It's possible eco fashion has a harder time
creating awareness
because is so difficult for consumers to identify what actually makes clothing
"green." It's not easy to fathom. "There are a million different
things going into textile production, when you're weighing the creation of a
product," says designer Bahar Shah par. "You have fiber, you have
processing, dyeing, finishing, production, trade, labor, transportation,
shipping, packaging."
Even within the organic industry, it's hard to nail down what is truly organic. "Bamboo is being marketed as a natural fiber. But it's bamboo dissolved in a strong caustic solution and extruded through a shower head type device," says Johnathan Silberman, chair of Textile and Marketing at FIT.
About Popomomo: This Los Angeles-based line is a perfect example of eco fashion's next phase - combining organic materials and sustainable practices with clothing that is actually, for once, cool-looking enough to wear every day. Designer Liz Wasserman works with organic and/or sustainable fabrics, produces clothing locally, uses low impact dyes, and even transports the goods in her waste veggie oil mercedes. See popomomo.com for more.
Mainstream fashion hasn't risen to the challenge in any kind of collective way."Fashion doesn't really want to be transparent," Says Honey Berk, a manager at the Green Depota supplier of green home furnishing and products. "How much do they do that they don't want you to know about? There's no overall system demanding these brands really divulge their manufacturing practices. "
"You don't know what chemicals are used to treat the fabric," adds Paul Novack, a sustainable materials consultant for the Green Depot. "Moth proofing chemicals, flame retardant treatments. For clothing shipped overseas, the fabric is treated with mildicides so that they don't get moldy on the trip over."
At this point, the purchase of eco-clothing seems, to the pubic at large, more frivolous than political. Maybe its because clothing doesn't enjoy the same visceral reaction - since you don't swallow it or breathe it in. Rachel Sarnoff, a magazine writer, eco-activist and founder of ecostiletto.com, has the right idea - she created a short and eye opening YouTube video about all the chemicals it takes to produce cotton: "A third of a pound of chemicals is what it takes to just make one tshirt." She also appeals to consumer's health concerns: "60% of what we put on our skin is absorbed into our body."
Maybe, in the end, eco fashion's quiet time has allowed designers to perfect craft and experiment with technique. Shahpar's Fall line, for example, includes plant-dyed fabrics, (using henna and elderberry, that have been speckled with iron ore from an old Italian mill with spellbinding results. But quiet time is over. There is a need for a fashion-targeted Fast Food Nation or Silent Spring that exposes the toxic practices of the mainstream clothes making. The fashion industry needs to wake up. And get a long overdue spanking.
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Originally published in New Cloth Market: January 2010
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