The free fashion challenge

By Fidan Karimova

15 fashion addicts and no shopping for one year...What? Doesn’t a no-shopping policy go against the fashionista’s mantra? Not according to the Free Fashion Challenge, launched November 11, 2010. The idea of the challenge is to have fashion addicts go a whole year without buying a single new item of clothing, in order to have them rediscover the pieces they already have in their closets.

As based on the information from the video on the challenge, 80% of the time people only wear 20% of the clothes. The rest most likely gets lost under a pile of newly bought outfits. As the challenge continues, in addition to checking up on the status of the participants on the website, we could take the time to change our own shopping behavior, help the environment in the process and simultaneously save money – seems like a sound plan.

The water-free dye

By Fidan Karimova

Council of Fashion Designer of America (CFDA) is a non-profit trade association working to advance the status of fashion designers in the United States. They provide various type of support for designers, among which are annual awards and scholarships for high school, college and postgraduate level students. This year CFDA collaborated with Lexus to honor 10 designers in the Eco Fashion challenge, the aim of which was to award top sustainable designers.

Amongst the recipients of this year’s award was Costello Tagliapietra, for their use of the innovative AirDye technology in their garment creation. The duo, composed of Costello Tagliapietra and Jeffrey Costello, debuted their first collection in 2005 and were awarded an eco award. For their Spring/Summer 2010 collection the designers created clothing that was colored with a dye that requires almost no water. According to the stats, one Costello Tagliapietra dress dyed with AirDye technology will be able to save 45 gallons of water.

The technology prevents the release of hazardous waste being released into the waters, in addition to providing a lower price compared to the regular dyed garments. Considering the fact that an estimated 17-20% of industrial pollution is a result of textile coloring and treatment, based on the World Bank estimate, this new process of dyeing could bring about drastic environmental changes while preserving the stylishness of the clothes.

Green Festival

The Green Festival takes place every year in October in Washington DC. The convention center is turned into a market place, with local business selling everything from solar chargers, green paint to artisan cheese.

This year Hi-Def, a non-profit based in San Fransisco organized a green-runway as part of this year's festival. Even though the organization of the show was poor, I was of course really pleased to see Avani Ribbon's own Melissa Lew and Blumpari exhibiting and selling their fabulous lines at the show.

Let's hope the Green Festival continues to give Fashion a strong focus at its other Green Festivals around the USA.