Mental Health Break: Eco fashion takes New York's runways

categories: Consumer, Popcult, Recycling, Solutions

Published September 28, 2009 @ 04:14PM PT

Study by Tara St. James at The GreenShows/New York Fashion Week

Eco-conscious design had a bigger presence than ever at this year's New York fall fashion shows, held earlier in September. The Ecouterre blog -- a spinoff of the environment-and-design blog Inhabitat that is "devoted to the future of clothing and textile design" -- offers up a photo-rich look at "The Green Shows," featuring designers who are taking sustainable fabrics and dyes way beyond the realm of the organic cotton T-shirt:

We were pleasantly surprised at how innovative, fearless, and in many cases, startlingly beautiful the garments turned out to be. Breaking into fashion is difficult enough as it is—placing another hurdle in front of yourself by using only earth-friendly processes and eco-conscious materials is probably tantamount to career suicide.

Still, these seven intrepid designers somehow overcame that obstacle, making not only clothing, but a difference. It only took one look at the immaculately tailored shapes and sumptuous fabrics—which could have held their ground on any catwalk anywhere—to see that the naysayers who insisted that fashion couldn’t be sustainable and keep its edge were clearly, painfully wrong.

After last week's climate policy intensity, take a break by checking out these up-and-coming designers and their riffs on fashion with a conscience. It may be a little startling for activists to see their beliefs about saving the environment taken into the realm of Vogue and Elle -- and that's the point. For "sustainable" to have major impact, it needs to become so normal that it's as unremarkable to a fashionista as it is to a climate policy wonk.

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