SUSTAINABLE "ICS"

Last night I attended the panel discussion to accompany "Ethics+Aesthetics= Sustainable Fashion" exhibition held at Pratt's Manhattan Gallery with guest curators Francesca Granata (editor of Fashion Projects) and Sarah Scaturro (curator of textiles at the Cooper Hewitt). Panelists included Mary Ping of Slow and Steady Wins the Race, Julie Gilhart, senior vice-president and fashion director of Barney's New York, and Uluru's Caroline Priebe. The discussion was fruitful, bringing up issues of maintaining sustainable fashion practices and producing quality items that will last a lifetime, despite their increased cost. This idea of quality versus fashionable quantity is an ideal I have upheld for a long time, having been raised around old, sturdy antique objects and well-made vintage ready-to-wear for a lot of my childhood and teenage years. I'm not so sure, however, that this recognition of quality is something that the average American consumer holds as philosophy. It's easy to think of eco-fashion as a trend, although its purveyors insist it to be a "movement." Because the terms "sustainable," "organic," "green" and "eco-friendly" are now so heavily used, I have, throughout their use, remained skeptical and frankly, sometimes rubbed the wrong way. Maybe it's because I co-founded an Environment Club in the 4th grade and no one joined.

The idea of wearing organic clothing seems to most fashion consumers, very contemporary and on-point, but can sustainable fashion keep up with the constantly changing appetite of voracious fashion consumers that always want something new? Only future collections from Bodkin, Alabama Chanin, SANS (top image) and Loomstate will tell... but in the meantime, I was lucky enough to snag the exhibition catalog which includes a Andrea Zittel Smock pattern. Zittel resurrected her original line of handsewn uniforms in a project called "Smockshop" in 2007, where she designed an incredibly simple double wrap-around garment and asked other artists to reinterpret her design. I can't wait to make my own.