Last year I did an extensive interview with Forum for the Future & Levi Strauss, Co. on Future Fashion in 2025. It was a pretty cool project and they interviewed a number of C-level folks, consultants, textile specialists and advocates to tease out the big trends. They came up with the four following scenarios: Patchwork Planet, Slow is Beautiful, Community Couture, and Techno-Chic as well as a full report here. Dive in and see what macro-trends we can expect.
Ecochic Geneve took to the stage at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland this January 20-21, 2010 in celebration/awareness of the Year of Biodiversity. Talented designers from around the world (many whom I’ve never heard of before) participated – from Diane von Furstenberg to Redley Exantus. The goal was to make the business case for biodiversity through the fashion and cosmetics industry.
Biodiversity – quite an esoteric, unrecognizable term for many – is essentially all the genetic, molecular, species and ecosystem diversity on Earth. Basically, the variation of life forms and biomes is a good thing and if we can support that through business – particularly ones that rely on raw materials (e.g., cosmetics, fashion, food) then we’ll be much better off.
Had a wonderful opportunity to present on a panel “Communicating Biodiversity” along with Allan Schwarz who presented BoM and a.d. schwarz – and later took part in the UNCTAD Ecochic Geneve show. All of us girls got to sport premature gray bobs à la Tavi Gevinson-style. I thought it was pretty cool – a real statement that “it’s cool to go gray,” but I don’t know if the other girls saw it that way.
Kate Dillon and I sporting the gray bobs
Talking about the benefits of alpaca fiber while sporting more side boob than I had expected!
Noir’s 100% organic, fair-trade cotton from Uganda + some pleathery goodness (even the back looked bad-ass)
Reem Al Asadi’s dress made from recycled turn-of-the-century corsets and ballet dresses
And finally Oliver Tolentino’s pineapple fiber dress (pina fabric) largely because it is so damn hard and technical to make something out of barong fabric. Well done! Runway photos compliments of Johann Sauty
I had a blast with Designer Anna Kristina Gilkerson from Deux FM and crew on the runway at The Green Shows. Her easy-going spirit and easy-to-wear dresses were a hit – and I got to take the O-Wool lace-corset dress home with me (sweet!)
On my way to my agency on Broadway I ran by this sign in the Levi Strauss store window encouraging their customers to think about how they take care of their clothes. This follows Marks and Spencer’s “Think Climate” relabeling initiative that they launched in 2007. DEFRA recently reported that the environmental impact of clothes largely comes from the consumer-side (attributed to water and energy usage as well as toxicity of detergents), which just goes to show you how much responsibility we have.
Environmental impact of detergent formulations (DEFRA, Dec 2009).
I have a deep appreciation for ABOVE Magazine, the folks behind it, and what it ultimately stands for. It’s a pretty badass environmental magazine that has a refined sense for style and design. A little sampling of my cold water shoot with Gilles Bensimon featuring organic beauty products and eco-conscious fashion. Truth be told – I shivered my ass off after I got out of the water. I took a 20 minute hot steam shower at Gilles pad just to feel normal again!
I just got a nice fat package from Jack Yan, publisher of Lucire. He’s been keeping up on some Kiwi press – and I just had a chance to scan these in. Thanks Jack!
I also had a blast doing the interview with Campbell Live – and skipping off for the better half of the day hunting wetas. WTF is a weta? Check it below.
