Penny Pinching in the Park

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Yikes. Fashion writers all over the web are referring to “penny pinching,” during this week’s New York Fashion Week as “eco.”

We sort of get what they mean.

You mean like not being able to get models and themselves there for their favorite show of the year and not wasting carbon emissions on the drive or flight? Perhaps.

Maybe you mean the electricity they never spent on their hotel room to painfully go over the runway show one more time because they couldn’t afford to get to New York? Sure, eco.

Like all those designers trimming the fat at their events in attempts to save money but still trying to heavily showcase pieces consumers and buyers can’t live without?

Eco? Try survival of the fittest.

According to a Reuter’s article, “Many designers are opting for lower-cost presentations – installations where guests wander among models who are fixed in place – rather than high-priced runway shows.”

In a perfect world, these penny pinching designers would only factor in eco when it came to recycling backstage and by utilizing sustainable fabrics. Being cheap was never part of their plan.

Throwing the word eco around is dangerous business. And comparing it to being (as defined in the Webster’s New Riverside Dictionary) a stingy person or a miser is a double slap in the face for the designers that did make it and who are now broke for months to come.

Eco connotes the positive so let’s keep it that way. Although it often does enable us to save money, that’s just one of the many by-products of it.

Image: littleamandie

Amy DuFault

Amy DuFault is a conscious lifestyle writer, consultant and fashion instigator. She resides in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.