It was fully acknowledged at the Fashion Summit in Copenhagen that Fashion plays a powerful in influencing the way we consume. It’s after all the Fashion Industry, which persuades us each year to ditch last year’s “2000 & late” items, for this year’s must-haves. All last year’s In Style “Hot Picks” wind up guiltily hiding in the back of our closets, or they get shipped to the nearest thrift store. Fashion is responsible for large portions of the world’s CO2 emissions. Cotton production, for example, only makes up 3 pct. of global agriculture, but accounts for 25 pct. of pesticide use. Fashion’s responsible for huge companies mass-producing cheap, badly made/produced knock-offs, so we can attempt to resemble an 18-year-old fashion model in the pages of a glossy mag. Like it or not, they dictate and many of us follow.“Fashion is a real voice, and the advantage of that is that people listen. So there is potential to change a big part of the industry,” said Christian Kemp-Griffin from Edun, Bono’s sustainable fashion line, which he started with his wife Ali Hewson in 2005.
In Copenhagen, Eva Kruse, director of Danish Fashion Institute and co-organizer of NICE (Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical,) rounded off the Fashion Summit with these words: “Politicians cannot lift this task alone. They need the fashion industry, and we have a big responsibility. What we do, people will follow.” Finnish designer, Saara Lepokorpi won an award for her designs made partly from ingeo, which is created from renewable sugar plants.
For a wonderful eco-friendly online fashion magazine (Alicia Silverstone is on the front of the current issue,) check out Cocoeco Magazine.
I will be again judging the 2010 Fur-free Fashion Competition at Born Free USA.