The Fashion Statement: Who are the Greenest Designers?

by Kristin Young (RSS feed)
Oct 15th 2009 at 9:00AM

Green. Sustainable. Recyclable. Not exactly the first words you use to describe luxury fashion, right? At the same time, numerous clothing companies have been founded on the principal of being eco-friendly.

I'll admit, the skeptic in me began to worry when giant brands like Guess, Inc. started producing lines purporting to be green. Green's big business and it made for great advertising and public relations. But how can you tell whether a line that claims to be green is really green?

I posed the question to Emma Grady, a contributing fashion writer at TreeHugger.com (a division of the Discovery Channel) who helps sort this out for consumers. "We do this by asking lots of questions to understand a garment's life cycle," she says. "Where are the fabrics sourced? How are they produced? How far does the product travel (shipping is a major source of pollution)? Is the cotton grown in Africa, weaved in India, then shipped to a store in California? What dyes are used in the process?"

Grady and her team at TreeHugger.com a number of designers' sustainable practices are the real deal. It's worth listing a few of them here. Not surprising, Stella McCartney is one. McCartney is well-known vegan and has long produced pleather shoes, belts and handbags to avoid the environmentally taxing tanning process.

Linda Loudermilk, a designer from Los Angeles, is another to watch. I interviewed Loudermilk a few years ago and she told me she spends countless hours researching and developing textiles that are not only made from certified eco-conscious materials, but suited for high design. I found this particularly impressive because the fashion design process is already grueling. And, no doubt, these steps added a lot of expense to production costs.

EDUN, founded in 2005 by Ali Hewson and Bono, promotes sustainable employment in developing countries, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, reads its mission statement. The line's primary focus is trade but it's also working to use more organic materials in the collection.

Even small things like recycling zippers and buttons can make a big difference, says Grady. Props to Yves Saint Laurent for earlier this year unveiling an eco-friendly capsule collection called "New Vintage." The idea was to create classic YSL styles using fabrics from past collections.

If designers can't be innovative, who can?

Tags: blogactionday, EDUN, Linda Loudermilk, LindaLoudermilk, Stella McCartney, StellaMccartney, TreeHugger.com, Yves Saint Laurent, YvesSaintLaurent

Subscribe to these comments

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Helene Oct 15th 2009 10:07AM

I think that overall it's a good thing to consider all the elements when deciding on what is green and I realize there is a lot of greenwashing going on but I also think it can be harmful to the whole green movement to get too caught up in all the details.

To fault a designer who claims to be green because the sustainable fabric he/she chose traveled too great a distance is not helping create the demand for this sustainable fabric.

People have been traveling and with that goods have also been traveling and that isn't about to change - let's just focus on coming up with a sustainable way to enable transportation.

The focus in terms of green designers should be on showing the versatility of sustainable fabrics, that they can also be luxurious and creating a demand for them. Once the demand is there - designers won't likely have to travel great distances to source it.

Dan Oct 15th 2009 5:00PM

Clothing and products made from recycled materials are usually the greenest option, but have some drawbacks. One must consider how much processing and extra energy is needed to convert old items into a usable materials. For example, using old cloth consumes less energy than grinding up old tires with heavy industrial equipment.

Flying urgent samples, piece goods, components, etc.. around the world to satisfy "just in time" business models may be a logistical triumph and good business for freight brokers but its terrible for the environment. Shipping by sea is better.. and perhaps one day we'll see solar and/or sail powered cargo ships, which would make globalized trade a lot greener.

As your piece points out, there are a lot of factors that go into what makes a product less or more green.

Green rating systems should and will evolve (like goodguide.com) and then we'll be able to make more informed, intelligent choices.