Fashion is viral, and eco-fashion has the ability to reach people that were previously unreachable due to politics, bias, social status, ignorance, disinterest or basic apathy when it comes to environmental issues. In Western society, unless you live in a nudist colony, clothing is a requirement, making it a powerful medium for communication. You don’t have to TIVO The Bravo Channel's "Project Runway" or be a New York Fashion Week regular to be affected by fashion. Like it or not, fashion speaks to us every day and we usually pay attention to what it has to say.
If you've picked up a fashion magazine in the past six months, especially around Earth Day, it’s clear that “green is the new black” in the world of fashion. Eco-fashion is hot, and growing fast. But what exactly is eco-fashion?
Let’s break it down. ”˜Fashions’ are a mode of personal expression, changes in which tend to outpace the changes of the culture of which they are a part. Fashion can be viewed as an art form. Something that allows people to express their personal aesthetics and notions of beauty, and ultimately, their values. It also, sometimes, sets them apart, and at other times, strengthens a connection with others. To quote fashion maven Coco Chanel, "”¦ fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening."
Of course, the term ”˜fashion’ is often associated with useless fads, shallowness, materialism and over-consumption, all less than synonymous with ecology to be certain, which is the study of interactions and relationships between living organisms and their environment -- a word often used interchangeably with the term ”˜environmentalism’. So what do we get when we put them together?: Eco-Fashion, a new direction for fashion, one that demands a respectful relationship with the living environment in which the rapidity of fashion change is bounded by requirements of sustainability.
O.K. We get it. But come now”¦how can eco-fashion possibly share space with solar energy panels, a hybrid, tree-free paper and organic agriculture on the top ten list of “Things you can do to save the planet”? Isn’t fashion fickle and fleeting by nature, inherently bad for the environment? Theory aside, eco-fashion is simply apparel, accessories and footwear that is better for the environment than their conventional counterparts. Companies producing eco-fashion use fewer natural resources by dipping into the waste stream for materials; they use organic and innovative textiles that require fewer, if any, toxic chemicals and less water, the employ energy conservation and renewable energy, and they minimize waste production by scrutinizing their production processes, among other benefits such as donating to environmental groups, offsetting carbon emissions, and supporting sweat-shop free labor and fair trade.
Perhaps equally important, however, is the power eco-fashion has as a vehicle for change. Fashion is viral, and eco-fashion has the ability to reach people that were previously unreachable due to politics, bias, social status, ignorance, disinterest or basic apathy when it comes to environmental issues. In Western society, unless you live in a nudist colony, clothing is a requirement, making it a powerful medium for communication. You don’t have to TIVO The Bravo Channel's "Project Runway" or be a New York Fashion Week regular to be affected by fashion. Like it or not, fashion speaks to us every day and we usually pay attention to what it has to say. We choose one shirt over another, one pair of jeans over another, one tie over another, because we can, and given the option, we will choose something we feel comfortable in, something that is “us”. What people wear helps inform our opinion of them, who they are, what they do, what their values might be. Most of us take cues from others to dress ourselves, be it from friends, celebrities, politicians, or the woman on the subway with the fabulous suit, we are watching and emulating. When two friends sit down for lunch, and one comments on the other’s shirt, right there is an easy opening to talk about the environment where one might not have been before. “Hey, great shirt.” “Thanks. It’s made from organic cotton. Did you know that it takes 1/3 of a pound of pesticides to make one conventional cotton t-shirt?” The conversation is started, knowledge shared, values are passed on, with nary a petition, law suit, lobbyist or hairy treehugger in sight. No judgment passed, no defensiveness required. A simple word of mouth exchange, a powerful means to spread the message that living sustainably does not require sacrifices in personal expression, and it’s getting easier to attain that green lifestyle every day. You can do it. As Elle, Vanity Fair, InStyle, Lucky Magazine, and a whole slew of other fashion bibles have noted, with much enthusiasm, earth friendly fashion has broken free of its burlap bondage and finally come into its own.
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Saving the planet one ”˜haute’ dress, handbag and suit at a time? Well, yes, actually. If we all have to get dressed in the morning, (nudists aside) we might as well wear our values on our sleeves, and damn good looking ones at that. Change is here, try it on.
By Aysia Wright. Aysia is founder of the successful West Coast eco-fashion website Greenloop (www.thegreenloop.com)
Talk to Aysia: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
