Fashion Show to Launch Designers’ New Sustainability Awareness Campaign

loyale summer outfit. Photo courtesy of inhabitat.com.

Wanting to show younger Americans that they can look fashionable and live more sustainable lifestyles too, designer Jenny Hwa held a campus-level fashion show this week at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., where she also operates loyale, her eco-friendly clothing company.

Ms. Hwa said that she’s trying “to inspire the regional community to live stylishly green.” The goal of the show was “for all guests and participants to walk away with a sense that incorporating eco-friendly attributes into one’s daily life is fun and doable,” she added.

The designer’s 2010 collection has an open airy simple feel to it, which is themed after the American road trip experience of the 1950s and the idea of just getting away from it all. loyale’s design style embraces vintage and feminine tones, with silhouettes and some prints. The pieces are made primarily from organic cotton and factory reclaimed overstock fabrics, which would otherwise become landfill waste.

Other designers at the show included: Lara Miller, John Patrick Organic, Stewart + Brown, and Bodkin.

Photo courtesy of Lara Miller.

Lara Miller designs solely women’s collections that have a classic look, with clean straight cuts, natural colors, and minimal prints. To create her designs, Ms. Miller said, “All of our sweaters are loomed by hand in Chicago, using no electricity besides stitching a garment’s pieces together.

“In creating my jersey and woven pieces, all of the patterns and markers are hand drawn by me to maintain the highest level of control. Working alongside my cutter and seamstresses, each garment is made with precise attention to detail and craftsmanship.

“My garments incorporate SKAL certified organic cotton, hemp, vegan ahimsa peace silk, organic wool, linen, lyocell, flax and soy fibers, hand-loomed bamboo, and recycled organic cotton.”

Ms. Miller added, “I extensively research each fiber that I use and make sure that my colors are exclusively from low-impact reactive dyes, using the least amount of petroleum by products and water possible.

“I have also been researching ways of using only natural dye sources based on some of the natural dying that I learned while in school. I am hoping to pursue some leads in India that can allow me to dye the volume that I need to grow my business while maintaining the color-fastness that my garments need to have to compete in the contemporary marketplace.”

In addition to designing her label, Ms. Miller serves as the executive director of the Chicago Fashion Incubator (CFI), which provides emerging Chicago-based designers with the resources, including workspace, business training, and mentoring to launch their careers.

Ms. Miller also sits on The Mayor’s Fashion Council, where as the resources committee chair she has helped support and promote fashion designers living and working in Chicago through events, seminars, and city programs.

John Patrick Organic has just won the Ecco Domani Fashion Foundation’s 2010 Sustainable Design Award. The foundation recognizes and supports the careers of emerging fashion designers. Each year, seven designers win an opportunity to showcase their collection during New York’s fall fashion week. The award also comes with a grant of $25,000 to help produce a fashion show.

John Patrick Organic designs. Photo courtesy of inhabitat.com.

John Patrick Organic designs for both women and men (somewhat rare in organic fashion, which usually only caters to women). The styles range from casual/conservative to high fashion and retro.

Photo courtesy of Stewart + Brown.

In contrast, Karen Stewart and Howard Brown (Stewart + Brown) are a husband and wife team, solely focusing on women’s needs, that launched their ethical fashion brand in 2002 from Los Angeles. Their designs range from classic modern to hippie/retro. The designers use materials such as: Tencel gauze, hemp silk charmeuse, hemp jersey.

Stewart + Brown is also among the companies that use factory surplus fabrics as one aspect of their effort to work towards sustainability. “In many cases, this perfectly good fabric is simply discarded or left to rot. By utilizing this existing fabric, we reduce waste, save additional resources, and use less of the Earth’s precious capital, while still producing great products with a purpose,” said the Stewart + Brown.

Also exemplifying sustainability at the show was Bodkin, a design company creating urban essentials with modern silhouettes and wry detail. The designer favors “a relaxed, understated, day-to-night sense of chic that reflects the personality of creative Brooklyn.”

Photo courtesy of Bodkin.

Bodkin looks for sustainable fabrics ranging from post-consumer recycled polyester; hand-loomed weaves from collectives in India; domestic organic cotton dyed by hand; to decades-old salvaged textiles. Bodkin was also named the inaugural recipient of the Ecco Domani Sustainable Design Award in 2009. All of the designer’s pieces are made in the United States.

loyale estimates that over 300 people attended the event this week, and by all accounts it was a great show. The designer has also just launched {Sustainable} Style WSNC, whose posts feature eco-designers and their companies.

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