Vancouver Eco Fashion Week to Showcase New Hot Cultural Designs From Around the World

Kicking off with a cocktail reception and an opening runway show of vintage American fashions from the mega-thrift store Value Village, the main focus of this season’s Vancouver Eco Fashion Week (April 10-12) will be showcasing new internationally inspired fashions from over a dozen designers.

Kreati-ka label by designer Kathy Sabin-Mensah. Photo by designer.

This’ll be the event’s fourth season, and organizers are eager to expand the vision that eco-designs can run the spectrum from classic to high end couture fashion, and still take responsible care of the environment.

The event’s fashions will feature many multicultural inspirations in designs and color patterns, and emphasize organic, natural, and recycled fabrics. Antique jewelry will also be an important theme in the week’s shows.

During the week, among the notable fashions on the runway will be the Kreati-ka label from Kathy Sabin-Mensah, a French designer living in Seattle. 

Mensah says that her inspiration comes from nature and the women around her, though among her most prominent recent inspirations has come from Africa.

“I was deeply attracted to fashion when I went to Africa for the first time several years ago. I have been amazed by the fabric texture, the color sand, and the style of the women. It’s so colorful and so beautiful to look at,” said Mensah.

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Vintage Fashions Theme For Opening Runway Show At Vancouver Eco-Fashion Week

Opening this season’s Vancouver Eco Fashion Week  (April 10 – 12) will be a vintage runway show presented by the mega-thrift store Value Village. The store also carries modern designer name brands including Calvin Klein, Banana Republic, Reitmans, and Eddie Bauer.

Value Village’s show was considered the ideal opening event because the store epitomizes many of the core values of the week, which include bringing new life to what already exists, keeping clothing out of landfills as long as possible, as well as supporting local community and global business initiatives.

The thrift store chain purchases its merchandise though “working relationships with 140 nonprofit partners across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Over the past 10 years, we’ve paid more than $1 billion.” said Value Village.

The chain explains how they acquire their merchandise, saying, “Our nonprofit partners contact people in the community to ask for donations of reusable clothing and household items.

“We then pay our nonprofit partners based on the number of boxes and bags of merchandise they deliver to us. Additionally, we also pay them for donations delivered directly to our stores via our community donation centers. Our staff sorts through the donations to select the highest quality reusable items, then prices, and displays them.”

Besides clothes, Value Village sells merchandise includes: shoes, toys, books, kitchenware, sporting goods, infant products, suitcases, electronics, wicker items, furniture, and collectables.

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CFDA/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge Winners Impressed With Collections At NY Fashion Week

Showing a love for socially and environmentally friendly design and manufacturing practices, the winners of the second annual Council of Fashion Designers of America (CFDA)/Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge gave an impressive display of sustainable fashions during this New York Fashion Week.

Marcia Patmos collection at New York Fashion Week 2012. Photo courtesy of ecouterre.com.

The collections of this year’s three winning fashion designers – Marcia Patmos, John Bartlett, and Johnson Hartig – were presented at Milk Studios to a full audience, including fashion editors and buyers.

As a winner of the fashion challenge, Marcia Patmos reflected on her experience, saying, “I’ve been really interested in the eco-friendly design process for a long time. I think it started when I worked for the Gap because we were producing such large volumes of things, so I really start thinking about it. I started to try to get them to do organic cotton tee shirts and use recyclable packaging.

“I always try to think of new ways to incorporate sustainability and I had a new idea this year which was to try to use discontinued end-stock service yarns, and to just not even create anything new. You know each piece will be slightly different, but it won’t matter because it’s part of the design and all.

“Also as a designer I was interested in the technical things and ways to put things together. It’s a challenge and it’s a fun challenge just to think of a better way of doing anything. It’s so exciting to be a winner and such an honor, and also to possibly inspire more people to be involved in this movement.

“It can’t all just be about being organic, it has to be something that people will want anyway. It’s an added value and something that they will feel good about when they are buying something.”

Patmos’ inspiration for this collection was early 20th century Native American design. Her materials included vegetable-tanned leather, animal-friendly faux fur, lightweight woven linens, silk-cotton blends, domestically milled cottons, as well as discontinued and mill-end leftovers, which are commonly discarded by manufacturers because of insufficient yard lengths.

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Green Sustainable Stocking Stuffer Ideas With A Whimsical Twist For The Christmas Season

Photo courtesy of Green 3.

For festive holiday stocking stuffers that are sure of making an impression, you might try looking at some of the seriously cute collections of hats, scarves, mittens, and handwarmers at Green 3.

Besides making things are cute and unique, Green 3 has turned the philosophy of being green and sustainable into an all-around business practice.

The company creates a variety of clothes and accessories using a combination of organic cotton, recycled cotton, and reclaimed materials. It also takes the extra step of making sure that from concept to the end product, its items are made in the United States – mostly in upstate New York.

This year, Green 3 has come out with a lot of great collections especially for the holiday season. The ‘Candy Cane Scarf’ is one of my favorite items from the company because of its cute and has a longer seasonal wear-life than many of the other holiday items.

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Levi Strauss Expanding Water<Less Jeans to Europe With Growth of Its Eco-Initiatives

Stock. photo.

Integrated into its growing eco-friendly initiatives to reduce water consumption, energy usage, chemical pollution, and greenhouse emissions, Levi Strauss has just expanded its Water<Less jeans collection to Europe.

In total, the jeans are expected to encompass about 17 percent of the company’s winter collection this year. These jeans will include “over a dozen classic Levi’s jeans, including the Levi’s 501, and Levi’s 511 (slim fit) for men, as well as the Levi’s Curve ID finishes for women,” said the company.

The Water<Less jeans became available in the United States earlier this year, including the Levi’s 501, 511, 514 jeans, and the Levi’s trucker jacket. The spring collection of this year contained more than 1.5 million pairs of jeans with the Water<Less method, saving about 16 million liters of water, according to the company.

The line also includes jeans made with the brand’s traditional rigid finish, which utilized virtually no water in its production. The company also says that it will continue to introduce these finishing techniques to even more supplier factories around the world with the goal of increasing the number.

During the conventional production of jeans, the company says that, “a typical pair of jeans is ‘finished’ in large washing machines and dryers to achieve the many different looks that are popular with consumers. Using traditional garment washing methods, the average pair of jeans undergoes three-to-10 washing cycles – adding up to approximately 45 liters of water per unit.”

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