Sustainable Fashion

Consumers from all over the globe are becoming ever increasingly socially and environmentally conscious. Even the fashion industry is moving steadily in a more sustainable direction. However, there is a long way to go before these fashion industry giants can be considered ‘green.’
More and more companies are making their eco-friendly mark on the fashion marketplace. One of these is Junky Styling; a new East End London store founded by Anni Saunders and Kerry Seager. Their concept involves the design style based upon their destroy, repair, enhance and reform approach which they call ‘Wardrobe Surgery.’ Here they deconstruct old, recycled and donated clothing by removing parts and reconstructing the remaining parts, remaking and perhaps ‘reincarnating’ pieces with added extras from other recycled pieces.
Junky Styling is not the only eco epicurean fashion boutique based on the joys of recycling. Even high fashion designers such as New York’s Miguel Adrover has used recycled pieces such as an old Louis Vuitton handbag to create a mini skirt found in some of his big New York shows.
Celebrity designers are jumping on this eco friendly bandwagon with the likes of Deborah Lindquist taking old and vintage clothing and accessories and recycling them into reconstructed one-of-a-kind eco haute couture pieces. With designers such as Lindquist making this move to greener pastures, fashion is making an environmental statement, one that employs the concept of reincarnating and transforming the old into new environmentally friendly treasure.
It is not simply designers and fashion labels that are catching the ‘green’ bug; celebrities such as Friends’ actress Jennifer Aniston have involved themselves in The Green Book, a new book of eco-living tips that features essays by green-minded celebs. Aniston writes that her super short showers are her way of cutting down on consumption, adding, “If we all begin to learn from one another and share some of the things we do, we might just be able to affect the world for better through these little rituals.”
So is Jen right? Are celebrities and designers beginning to take notice of the environmentally concerned consumer? Is fashion edging closer and closer to an all green policy? According to Thomas Busutti, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at PPR, the retail and luxury goods company which owns Gucci group, Yves Saint Laurent, Alexander McQueen, and Stella McCartney, consumer motivations and ethical consumerism in the fashion industry are still a questionable concept. “Will it be sustainable, durable behaviour that will last, or is it just something trendy right now? For me, it’s still too early to answer that question.”
Whether Busutti is right in his questioning of the lasting of the ‘green’ fashion trend, this environmentally friendly fashion is right on trend. After all, the future of the planet is surely more important than a pair of Christian Louboutin shoes....isn’t it?