Beneath the pomp and glitz of New York Fashion Week lies one disquieting fact: Fashion is one of the most polluting industries in the world, second only to oil in terms of its environmental impact. Besides consuming an inordinate volume of water, energy, and physical resources, it also generates a tremendous amount of waste—15 to 20 percent of the fabric used to construct a typical garment is tossed into the landfill, for instance. To illustrate the excess, Yoxi summoned artist Justin Gignac to create 12 Fashion Week “waste cubes” using remnant materials from designers Rogan Gregory of Rogan and Loomstate, Charlotte Ronson, Bibhu Mohapatra, and Boy Meets Girl’s Stacy Igel. Auctioned off at Yoxi’s “Trim the Waste of Fashion” event to benefit DonorsChoose.org, the plastic hexahedrons offer a snapshot of our clothing’s hidden toll.
TRIMMING THE WASTE
Yoxi, a media platform that discovers “rock stars of social innovation,” also announced the winner of its waste-reduction competition, which was judged by Gregory, model-activist Angela Lindvall, and designers Geren Lockhart (of Geren Ford) and Scott Mackinlay Hahn (Loomstate).
Three college students took home the top prize for SEA: Endless, an apparel label that also serves as a quasi-library for products.
College students David Baron, Steve Kane and Zeshan Muhammed took home the top prize for SEA: Endless, a closed-loop apparel label that also serves as a quasi-library for products. The premise? Buy a hat, wear it, and when you’re done, return it to SEA for recycling into new hats. “We’ve finally settled on a way that we really want to attack with the supply chain,” Baron tells Ecouterre. “I recognize we are outsiders, so no fashion industry experience, but I recognize how amazing it can be to offer end-of-life products. It’s all about setting it up in a way for more effective recycling.”
Lindvall, who’ll also be judging television’s Project Runway All Stars wasn’t sold on SEA’s idea right away. “Honestly, at first I wasn’t sure about Sea: Endless,” she tells us. “But in the end I saw that these are some really innovative business guys so I look forward to see how they’re going to turn out their business.
Cheers to Yoxi, the winning SRRs (that’s “socially responsible rock stars”), and a fashionable future without waste.
(Source: www.ecouterre.com )