Hemp, soy, bamboo and banana on N.Y. catwalk

Models wearing clothing made from sustainable fabrics walked down a runway made from slabs of raw wood at a fashion show on the eve of New York Fashion Week intended to showcase environmentally friendly materials like hemp silk or “Piña cobweb”, a new fabric derived from pineapples.

At the request of the luxury fashion retailer Barneys New York, more than two dozen designers had created ensembles using organic fabrics, natural vegetable dyes and technically advanced fibers derived from soybeans, bamboo, banana leaves or hemp.

In the estimation of Leslie Hoffman, the executive director of Earth Pledge, a nonprofit group that promotes sustainable technologies and organized the runway show, “fashion has been about 10 to 20 years behind the food industry.” Still, she said, that is changing quickly. Three years ago, when Earth Pledge put on a similar show, it had almost no impact. But when Julie Gilhart, the fashion director of Barneys, began asking designers to participate this year, the response from top names like Donatella Versace, Donna Karan and Stefano Pilati of Yves Saint Laurent was immediate. “Sustainable fashion has all the makings of a trend,” Ms. Gilhart said, “but we know now it’s a movement.”

See Eric Wilson (2008-02-01): Doing Their Part to Help Save the Planet, in High Style, in: The New York Times.

(Cf. news of 2008-01-08 and 2007-01-30.)

Source

The New York Times, 2008-02-01.

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