Eco Fashion week 2016 wraps the Seattle edition.
World’s largest sustainable fashion event successfully wraps its first edition in Seattle
Eco Fashion Week crosses international borders after 10 editions in Vancouver, Canada – After 10 successful editions in Vancouver, B.C., Canada, Eco Fashion Week expanded south of the border to celebrate fashion innovation in Seattle, WA. To complement the talent in Seattle, Eco Fashion Week (EFW) featured designers from the Pacific Northwest, New York, Montreal and as far as Kenya, Australia and Indonesia.
The fashion industry is the second most polluting, next only to the oil industry. EFW’s mission is to find solutions towards a more responsible and sustainable fashion industry, through championing innovative designers, collaborating to help other labels become more sustainable and discussing how to work together in achieving these goals.
- Highlights -
November 2nd – Runway Shows
The first evening of runway shows featured three collective shows with designers from the Pacific Northwest, New York and Kenya. Celebrated Seattle designer Fioravanti kicked off the show with an elegant collection layered with complementary textures and flattering silhouettes. Seattle based innovative fashion label Nube9 closed the show with urban athletic functional apparel made from recycling plastic water bottles, featuring Seattle Seahawks kicker’s wife Lindsay Hauschka.
Showcased brands and photos: Fioravanti, Henry Wanjala, TOTEMMI, Tetyana Golota, Rimpy Sahota, EcoBling, Vyayama, KROMAGNON, Julie Danforth, Nube9.
Photo credits: Peter Jensen
November 3rd – Runway Shows, Runway Reimagined: Project 8.1 presented by Value Village
The final evening of shows started with Indonesian designer Canting Hijau, Canadian designer Nicole Bridger and American designer Kimmi Designs. We closed the night with Runway Reimagined: Project 8.1, a 10-person collective show presented by Value Village. Runway Reimagined illustrated the average amount of textile waste a single North American produces each year - 81lbs. Five stylists and five designers were tasked to create mini runway collections from 8.1lbs of second-hand clothing from Value Village. Collectively, 81lbs of textile was represented on the runway and inspired a full house to rethink and reuse their consumption patterns.
Showcased brands and photos: Canting Hijau, Kimmi Designs and Nicole Bridger.
Runway Reimagined: Project 8.1: Fair Weathers Clothing, Boho Republic, Recycle Runway, KLÄD Apparel, House of 1000 Corsets, Heidi Valencia, Jason Pillay, Mark Humphreys, Jerome Insorio, Tannya Bernadette and Value Village.
Photo credits : Peter Jensen
November 4th – Eco Fashion Week Collective Conversation Presented by Value Village
Closing the week was EFW’s Collective Conversation Presented by Value Village. Industry professionals took part in an all-day dialogue that featured sessions focused on solutions towards a more responsible industry. Topics included innovations in sustainable fashion, the ways brands can shed more awareness of clothing and sustainability with consumers, and the importance of rethinking and reusing clothing and textiles. Our keynote speaker, celebrated author and associate dean of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Sass Brown, set the energy of the day, expressing remarks on a hopeful future: "This is an exciting time to be a designer and a consumer in apparel because there is real changing happening and we are part of a movement forward." Additionally, Ken Alterman, president and CEO of Value Village, presented findings from Value Village’s first-ever State of Reuse Report, a study commissioned earlier this year which examines perceptions about clothing consumption and reuse.
