Could fashion save the planet? If it were up to Phillip Lim it could.
The savvy visionary, whose offbeat tailored pieces are peddled at speciality department stores and collected by Hollywood producers’ wives, looked to the North Pole this season for inspiration. He found it in the dwindling polar bear population.
Lim says he was greatly moved by a National Geographic special on the Arctic which warned that polar ice caps are melting at a rate three times faster than they were five years ago. He decided then and there to reduce and recycle. The result is his new Go Green Go collection. I first learned of the line while reading an Eco AID report in Elle Magazine. I stumbled upon a page featuring a drop-dead white Grecian tunic in the collection. It’s so gorgeous, I cut out the image for my daughter who had to make her own toga for 6th grade social studies. "Now, this," I told her, "is a toga!"
The tunic is one of 10 pieces in the organic line, which also includes pants, jackets and bib-front tanks, all lined in organic silk with Lim’s distinctive feminine touch. Lim told Elle he had been thinking about doing this collection for a while, then suddenly "it just felt right."The going green part involved avoiding harmful dyes on the sustainable cotton fabric he used. He also had each item washed with tennis balls to create a time- worn affect. Quite the Al Gore follower, Lim also has created a $20 canvas grocery tote, reading: "Smile, you have just reduced your carbon footprint." All of the money earned on the bags will go to Gore’s Climate Project.
Lim plans to greenify his men’s and children’s lines as well.
Image: The Fashion Spot
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