ecobites

Global. Healthy. Lifestyle.

Eco fashion was in full swing at the recent Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. The presentation was held at New York's hip hotel, The Standard. Included among the Eco friendly fashion choices were the following designers that let loose with innovative and sustainable designs in the runway. As Ecouterre, a website devoted to the future of sustainable fashion design, noted  “The hottest looks from the Eco fashion runways are still fresh in our minds.”

Bodkin: Award-winning, Eco-conscious designer, and Eviana Hartman uses environmentally friendly materials (all-natural fibers, recycled polyester) and production processes (most sewing takes place within the U.S.) to construct green dream line Bodkin. The blustery winter night was a perfect backdrop for the cozy Eco fashion collection, which was comprised of very chic, wearable basics in sumptuous organic fabrics and woolly textures. However, a fashion show isn’t a matter of simply pulling on clothes. Backstage, Tata Harper plied the models with organic mini-facials and aromatherapy treatments. A team from Abba Pure Performance Hair Care conspired with Hartman to create artfully disheveled tresses for the “everyday Eco-chic girl” using botanically based styling products. And to give the girls that fresh, not-quite-made-up glow, Hartman relied on MAC Cosmetics’ minerals line.

Study NY: Designer Tara St. James, recipient of the 2011 Ecco Domani Award for Sustainable Design, presented her Eco design at the High Line Room of the Standard Hotel, featuring materials like locally sourced recycled polyester, hemp, Tencel, organic cotton, and reclaimed wool. "The lessons of the day?" writes Ecouterre, was "sustainable fabrics, fair-trade production, and frugality make for good design".

EDUN: “Storytellers and liars” dealt with notions of illusion and reality, blending floaty silks with chunky-rib hand-knits, ethereal silhouettes with tailoring, and bold cobalt's and golds next to neutrals like camel, saddle, and licorice.

Organic by John Patrick: Vegetable-tanned leather shorts and indigo-dyed organic-cotton poplin shirts were hallmarks of Organic, a line from John Patrick also highlighting vegetable-dyed, organic wool locally sourced from Red Hook.

Since its inception in 1943, when it was a way to pull attention away from French fashion during World War II, the New York event now called Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week has been held in February and September every year. Because it’s a premier time for showcasing what’s hot in the world of fashion, the push towards greener styles is a good indication of things to come.

Photo: Organic by John Patrick