Fashion & Beauty
Green-ify Your: Fashion
Contributed by Elizabeth Nicholas, Harvard Eco-REP
April 2009
Although high fashion and environmentalism have generally been considered mutually exclusive, that won't be the case for long if Stella McCartney has anything to do with it. Daughter of Beatle Paul McCartney, Stella launched her eponymous fashion brand in 2001, and from the get-go was committed to making it environmentally friendly and to touting her eco-practices while she's at it. McCartney uses only organic materials in her clothing, makeup and accessories, refuses to use fur or work with designers who do, and has collaborated with countless realtors and designers to raise green awareness, as she did with her green Lesportsac bags and the eco-collection McCartney designed for Barneys in 2007.
And other designers are taking note. Philip Lim has plans to start making all of his dresses organic; Anya Hindmarch launched a thousand imitations with her ubiquitous "This is Not a Plastic Bag" tote; Rogan jeans are made from only organic material and produced sustainably. Although all of the above brands share high price points, Hindmarch says she believes that the lower end of the market will soon be flooded with the trickle-down effect of green-chic. "Healthy living is seen to be very in right now," she says.
The Sustainable Technology Education Project calls eco-clothes those that "take into account the environment, the health of consumers and the working conditions of people in the fashion industry." Such clothing is typically produced with organic raw materials, cotton grown without the use of pesticides, or re-used materials. The prominence of eco-fashion rose in conjunction with McCartney's launch and Barneys' work with nonprofit EarthPledge. Barneys sponsored a special runway show for upcoming designers, who created capsule collections. The event got a great deal of press, and Barneys subsequently featured designs from the event in its Fifth Avenue store windows.
Besides supporting eco-designers, one of the best ways for college students to be environmentally friendly while they shop is to forgo trends for long-term investments. Since trends cycle quickly, one-hit-wonders like the Juicy tracksuit, the Ugg, and leggings find their way to the trash at an alarming proportion relative to the amount of fashion-trash generated by someone who invests in classics. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, Americans throw out an average of 68 pounds of clothing and textiles, per person, per year. One way to be more eco-friendly, and probably more truly stylish, is to resist trends you don't really love, and save instead for classics you'll never need to toss. And of course, the best of both green design and investment dressing would be a Stella piece.
