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Page 1 of 2 In the past year, the mega hype surrounding eco-friendly fashion has manifest itself in every possible fashion magazine I've read - Vogue, Harper's Bazaar, Cleo, Catalog...the list goes on forever.
Does the world really need yet another article on Eco-Fashion considering the degree of Green featured in today's fashion scene? hooked explicitly unearths things you don't see in these fashion magazines...
From a macro point of view, fashion is definitely not eco-friendly.
For a start, all those non-biodegradable plastic shopping bags used to contain our spanking brand new purchases for a few hours can last up to a thousand years in a landfill, eventually becoming part of the soil and sea, killing sea animals.
Paper bags! I hear someone shout. Although more likely to be recycled, paper bags too, come at a cost - according to reusablebags.com, 14 million trees were cut down in 1999 to produce 10 billion paper bags for Americans.
So folks, the verdict is out: plastic or paper, shopping bags do matter.
Other obvious eco-unfriendly things about fashion: those beautiful, oh-so-luxe leather and fur bags and coats (more bags than coats in Singapore).
Goods made from animals not only extirpate animals, the chemical treatment of these materials also pollutes the environment in many ways.
Then, there is the issue of cosmetics, the fashion skin, daily rites. While animal testing has been one big hurdle raised, and somewhat crossed, the complex chemical processes in manufacturing the creams, lotions, lipsticks and rouge continue to use up precious resources and energy. Can you fathom all this environmental adversity? And we've yet to consider the usual plastic containers that are used to hold cosmetics!
So, is there any hope for the fashion industry to reconcile itself with nature?
The recent trend of eco-awareness in the fashion world seems redemptive. There has been a slow but growing base of fashion brands like Freitag (a Zurich based company that produces bags out of recycled materials like seatbelts and truck tarpaulins), and even long-time brands like Nike are jumping onto the bandwagon by blending organic cotton into their manufactured clothes.
This year's Singapore Fashion Festival showcased 'Eco Luxe' in Raffles City, promoting the 'ecological and ethical meaning in the use of material, design, and production', at the same time promoting eco-friendly fashion.
And who can ignore the famous (now infamous) Anya Hindmarch 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag' canvas bag, meant to raise environmental awareness and cut back on the use of plastic bags, now seen everywhere with fakes spawning in Far East Plaza?
According to critics of 'I'm Not A Plastic Bag' trend, the bags were not manufactured from organic fabrics, and most importantly, is merely the product of an eco-friendly fashion trend that will come and go.
The principle behind reducing the use of plastic bags seemed to have been neglected in the mad rush for limited edition copies of the 'hip' bag, and will no doubt be forgotten as new It bags come along every season.
Likewise, is all the hype about the importance of being eco-friendly in fashion trite merely airy-fairy talk?
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