A Place to Feel Eco-Fabulous
The ecofabulous lounge at Opportunity Green was appointed with gorgeous sustainable furniture used throughout the conference space, and is a flawless manifestation of Opportunity Green’s commitment to design. I’ve been to a few sustainability-oriented conferences in my time, and this is the only one that celebrates sustainable design, and helps designers and clients alike to better understand sustainable design. It was so uplifting to see so much creative talent using sustainable principles to make gorgeous clothes and accessories.
The ecofabulous lounge is that chic yet welcoming boutique where you want to just hang out and be surrounded by gorgeousness. The lounge has a corner dedicated to Vie Bungalow, another corner for Arcona facials and product sampling, and the uber-eco PACT underwear, repping for the men, with his & hers boy-cut briefs.The Ekla sofas were gorgeous and seemed a great place to relax and chat with people.
Unfortunately, I never had time to enjoy them, as the panels were all so amazing I didn’t want to miss a minute of it. When I did stop by during a break, I had a great talk with Heidi, co-founder of Vie Bungalow about the designers she’s representing. Some of her lines are brand-new designers, and they’re really helping raise the bar on eco-fashion. I’ll be writing further articles about each designer I liked, as I want to give them full justice. But for now, enjoy this whimsical Mr. Larkin hang tag!
What Is Sustainable Fashion?
There are so many different inputs in apparel that it’s important to at least make a move in the right direction and not be paralyzed by how much improvement remains to be done. It’s unrealistic to expect a designer to be 100% sustainable, as there’s no such thing, really. In order to keep the adult portion of the planet’s 6.8 billion inhabitants working, we need to make and sell goods and services. The first industry to lift a populace out of poverty has always been fashion. But that’s an economics discussion for another post. The clothes I saw in the lounge were gorgeous, and exhibited a broad range of sustainable solutions.
Some clothes are made locally, lowering their carbon footprint and helping local economies thrive. Others use textiles made by women’s cooperatives in Bali, where jobs are sorely needed, particularly jobs that preserve traditional artisanal techniques. Some are made from organic cotton, others from recycled polyester. In terms of energy use, cotton wins (when washed in cold water throughout its life) but in terms of water use, polyester wins. Together, polyester and cotton represent 80% of textile materials used in the apparel industry. So rather than say one is more sustainable than the other, I’d say that on a shrinking planet, both are important. That is, until we need that dwindling water supply for food crops more than textile crops. Diversifying our raw materials sources is always a good idea, as is supporting both local entrepreneurs and extremely responsible large companies.