Sustainable fashion is on the inroad
During New York’s last Fashion week the 2nd annual Council of Fashion Designers of America bestowed three competition winners, namely Marcia Patmos and John Bartlett both of New York and Johnson Hartig from Los Angeles.
Each of the designers developed each an apparel or accessory line with a focus on ecologically responsible design and a minimum of 25 % of the collection had to be produced in an environmentally friendly manner. Many participants were using materials such as recycled plastic, reclaimed woo, minimal packaging and non-chemically treated fabrics.
Winner Marcia Patmos incorporated multiple sustainable ideas in her designs, including a zero-waste technology in her garment production, selecting vegetable-tanned leather and using animal-friendly faux fur whereas designer John Bartlett presented his “Future-Rustic” collection practically fabricated in cruelty free, animal-free materials such as plant based fabrics, organic cottons and recycled synthetic materials and Johnson Hartig, co-designer of the Libertine clothing line showed his eco-friendly fashions.
It is an established fact that sustainable fashion has a better foundation in the USA as compared to Europe and the customers are ready to pay more for such textile goods as newest research results confirm. The study was jointly executed by the International University of Monaco (IUM) and the French INSEEC Group (IUM is forming part of the educational group). Among their finding: American people wearing ecologically friendly clothing are considered young, trendy and self secure where as in Europe such people are considered a bit “innocent”. The Researchers of IUM, Marie-Cécile Cervellon, Sandrine Ricard and Helena Hierth have questioned around 100 Europeans and North Americans to find out what the motives of buying ecologically friendly clothes and how the describe the typical buyer of such products. In their study “Green in Fashion” they declare that environment protection , health and ethical motives represent the major reasons to buy eco-fashion however the awareness of bio-fashion is not very distinct and most of the respondents had no clear idea what the concept of eco-fashion is. Consumers seem to have only a notion of what green fashion is and they are not very well informed in view to standards and manufacturing processes. Europeans associate eco-fashion with a higher social status but this is not an indication for young fashion and the female wearers are grouped in the 40’s, wealthy with a healthy living style but not a modern one. Ecologically sensitive consumers are prepared to spend more for bio-nutrition but they don’t tend to see an advantage in ecologically friendly wear. Thus pertinent consumer information is mandatory as well as more high fashion eco-products with glamour and a better image (in the eyes of the consumers) should be offered in the future.