Designer Sarah Liller’s “Romantic Repurposing”  helps to redefine the fashion community.

It doesn’t take a Joseph Campbell to look at the confusing state of the world and want to find some primordial meaning or try to put it in larger context.

Alongside our culture’s obsession with celebrity, is the increasing desire for beauty. Connecting with bigger lives can motivate us to lead better ones, and traditionally beauty is an indicator of health and fertility to the opposite sex and of a potential rival worth monitoring to other women.

But beyond evolutionary cues, our voracious modern hunger (New Beauty magazine, anyone?) for beauty – hair and skincare products, anti-aging diets, neutraceuticals, botox and fillers – begs the question, what’s it all about?

Call me Pollyanna, but I can’t help thinking it’s the powerful ability of transformation that is at the heart of the matter. Devoting time to one of the few permissible self-care rituals allowed in our too busy lives, hair, fashion and make-up makeovers represent a deeper sense of renewal and metamorphosis that as a society we’re yearning for.

Last week, a fashion event by an enlightened San Francisco-based non-profit, Groundwork Opportunities, offered both a chance to redefine what beauty means to a community and reestablish fashion’s self identity from glossy posse to bountiful brigade.

Held at Madrone Studios, an airy space at the heart of San Francisco’s creative Mission district, the Define: Beauty event was designed to fund a clean water well for 4,000 people in Moshi, Tanzania.

“Given the many eco-friendly and socially responsible fashion shows, we wanted to focus on a specific cause to let guests directly see the community they are supporting and demonstrate how our support can impact their ideas,” says Bartlomiej Jan Skorupa, executive director of Groundwork Opportunities.

His team found inspiration for Define: Beauty while scouting sites for a clean water well with community members in Tanzania.  The local women didn’t define beauty by the latest styles or products; instead they defined individual beauty by “selflessness, inner strength and community.”

Eight designers were brought together – Cari Borja, Ken Chen, Dallas Coulter, Sarah Liller, MENK, Kajan Padraig, Retrofit Republic and Daniel Sudar –  chosen because their organic or recycled and locally-produced collections reflect the values of beauty found in Tanzania.

More than 50 looks were showcased to an enthusiastic crowd of 300 who were alternately invigorated and humbled by the mesmerizing multimedia installations that demonstrated the possibilities of community through audience participation. Take a look at some of the highlights from the runway.

Kajan Padraig’s slashed and tucked details enhance the earth-toned collection’s wearability

Dallas Parke’s ultra flattering tiered peplums and bustles

Cari Borja’s vivid designs come to life on the runway

Photography by Jayson Carpenter.

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Sustainable style news from EcoSalon’s West Coast Fashion Editor.

Beauty Does – Defining beauty, or rather redefining it from its traditionally narrow confines, is a charge that eco-fashion editors hold dear. Please join EcoSalon and Groundwork Opportunities, a San Francisco-based non-profit organization that supports projects to reduce poverty in the developing world, for Define: Beauty the first annual fashion show that will fund a clean water well for 4,000 people in Moshi, Tanzania. Held this Thursday, September 29^th, the show will feature original pieces created by San Francisco designers Cari Borja, Ken Chen, Dallas Coulter, Sarah Liller, MENK, Kajan Padraig, Retrofit Republic and Daniel Sudar that are designed to show the intrinsic beauty within us all. Beginning at 6:30 pm, the event includes a reception that will feature expertly crafted bites from Mission Cheese and Beast and the Hare. Want two tickets to the event? Just leave a comment below and you’ll be automatically entered to win.

Equinox Fever – The best thing about it being officially fall? We can get serious about picking a piece, or two, from Pendleton Woolen Mill’s magnificently modern and fashion smart Portland Collection.  Created by the newly signed on design team of Nathaniel Crissman and Rachel Turk, co-founders of the vintage inspired label, Church & State and John Blasioli, who designs an eponoymous menswear line, the designers reported in this Month’s ELLE having “their minds blown” by a visit to the company’s archives of hundred year old garments that had been “frozen and thawed to preserve against moths” in downtown Portland. Although the collection’s Native American-inspired motif is this season’s surface pattern touchstone, the unisex line of sweaters, coats and knitwear (prices $68 to $650) are designed “to make it something people would still want to wear 10 or 20 years from now.”

Posing Questions – The salient “Posing Beauty in African American Culture” show currently at USC’s Fisher museum in Los Angeles examines a wide range of media, including photography, film, video, fashion, advertising and internet that, according to the program notes, hopes to “challenge idealized forms of beauty in art by examining their portrayal and exploring a variety of attitudes about race, class, gender, popular culture and politics.” The exhibition includes images of women clad in frilly white dresses and sun hats in 1938 Louisiana, Lyle Ashton Harris’ 1987 photograph, “Miss America,” which shows an African American woman with white face makeup and an American flag draped across her bare upper body, and a striking photo of Michelle Obama taken in 2006, engendering a stirring discussion about what is considered beautiful, both within African American culture and beyond. Don’t miss the panel discussion, “Posing Beauty Posing Questions,” on Oct. 4.

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Sustainable style news from EcoSalon’s West Coast Fashion Editor.

Modal T— There’s not much point to a t-shirt, environmentally-friendly or not, if it doesn’t hold its shape or last a long time. Jeff Denby, founder of San Francisco based PACT organic underwear, took his considered approach to making undies and applied it to the task of reinventing that other wardrobe essential, the t-shirt. Launching PACT shirts this month with a stellar line of tanks, V-necks, and crew-necks, the secret to Pact’s perfect tees is their proprietary blend of premium organic cotton and super-durable and soft modal. Not only are the subtle design details perfectly placed, but they’re perfectly pitched. For every PACT t-shirt purchased you’ll be making a positive impact on the world. This latest venture will continue PACT’S fundraising efforts to support over 150 artists with disabilities at Oakland’s Creative Growth Art Center.

Chez Borja — For most of us mixing wine with fashion results in taking home a little more fashion than we maybe intended. Luckily for us, Berkeley designer and knitwear extraordinaire, Cari Borja’s recent vacation to the Barolo wine region of Italy simply inspired her to make more gorgeous clothes. Joining her Chez Panisse tribute collection, inspired by her internship in the Chez Panisse kitchen, Borja added a second “pairing” collection of gowns and coats based on her favorite Italian wines to go with the main meal and dessert. Raise a toast to both collections this weekend at a dedicated pop-up store and reception for the designer at The Gardener store on Berkley’s Fourth Street.

Fashion Frenzy – Music and fashion together is always a collaboration worth checking out. Add to that some irresistible sketches of bears, boats and trees and you’ve got a super appealing fashion item to keep you cool all through California’s Indian summer and beyond. Los Angeles’ favorite green lifestyle brand, Alternative Apparel have enlisted A Fine Frenzy’s Alison Sudol to design three limited edition tees for the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Alternative will donate a portion of sales from each tee purchase to the IUCN, for which Alison serves as a goodwill ambassador. To kick off the partnership, catch Sudol at the line’s launch event at their flagship Venice store on August 20th.

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