Eco-fashion panel at Livingreen: The future of sustainable fashion
This is the first year that sustainable fashion's really gotten popular, according to Linda Loudermilk, luxury eco-fashion designer. And popular it is now, judging by the big crowd that turned out for the Sustainable Business Council's event last night at Livingreen in Culver City, where Linda -- along with four other eco-conscious people in the fashion industry -- discussed green fashion.
About a 100 people crowded in to drink organic beer and liquor (the wine wasn't organic), nibble on organic yummies, and to hear Linda, Patagonia's Violeta Villacorta, designer Deborah Lindquist, Stewart + Brown CEO Howard Brown and Quiksilver SVP Eric Joule talk fashion.
What is eco-fashion? At the moment, it's mostly organic cotton, bamboo, and hemp clothing, as well as fashions made from reclaimed or reused materials -- though new materials are coming onto the market too.
The eco-fashion market's in fact pretty diverse, as represented in the panel. Linda, for example, does "luxury eco" -- very high-end couture popular with Hollywood stars; she has outfitted Robert Downey Jr., for example. Deborah's also a high-end designer, but is more geared toward recycled fashions. Stewart + Brown focuses on high quality, fashionable daily wear, while Patagonia and Quiksilver target the active lifestyle market -- though Patagonia's long been a sustainable business pioneer while Quiksilver now has just over 20% sustainable products.
The panelists, moderated by Barbara Kramer, founder of Designers & Agents, discussed everything from their reasons for going green to the difficulties of sourcing eco-friendly materials to the challenges of breaking into the conventional retail market.
One of the most interesting discussions: Consumerism. Since overconsumption's brought us many of the environmental ills we now face, how does marketing and selling additional products -- even if better than conventional products -- fit into environmentalism? Linda spoke about creating beautiful, high-quality pieces that are meant to be kept and preserved, perhaps passed down for generations, emphasizing high-quality clothing as opposed to cheaply made, disposable fashion. Debra for her part uses reclaimed materials, making fashions out of clothes that would otherwise have gone to the landfills.
Less convincing was Howard's contention that curbing consumption would be devastating to cotton farmers in third world countries -- mainly because the claim's a rather large hyperbole as American consumerism isn't going to halt overnight. In fact, a bigger concern among the panelists was the possibility of an organic cotton shortage, especially if big players, such as Walmart, suddenly decide to buy up existing supplies.
During the Q&A, many of the questions had to do with very basic information, i.e. "What IS organic?" Which makes me think that perhaps I should write an eco-fashion series, focusing on one material at a time.
More importantly, a number of people rued that, while they know eco-friendly fashion's out there, it's tough to find in Los Angeles. I'll have to put together a handy list for fun eco-shopping in LA --
Photos by Siel
