C.L.A.S.S. founder Giusy Bettoni is educating the next generation of sustainable designers and entrepreneurs this week in NYC with a packed program that includes workshops on the latest in sustainable fabrics and natural dyes, to an eco-scavenger hunt through New York City’s garment district.

Fashion Institute of Technology is hosting Connecting the Dots, a forward-thinking three-day symposium for business owners, industry workers and students to learn about the positive impacts of taking a more sustainable design approach to the fashion, beauty, and health industries.

Beginning Wednesday, July 10, the event includes 

workshops, demonstrations, panels, an eco-fashion show, and a sustainable fashion tour around Manhattan. “I am very excited that we are able to offer 3 days of events around sustainable fashion, health and beauty,” said Christine Helm, Director of the Enterprise Center at FIT, “We are building on the excitement, exchange of ideas and knowledge that we started with last year’s event.”

In addition to running a textile, fashion, home and design business, Bettoni (left) is also the Green Carpet Challenge’s (founded by Livia Firth, right) go-to woman. (Image: FIT )

Milan-based Giusy Bettoni, cofounder of C.L.A.S.S., an international eco-platform that promotes environmentally friendly products and Livia Firth’s co-collaborator on the Green Carpet Challenge, will provide the keynote address entitled, “Welcome to the Third Dimension, Where Design and Innovation Meet Responsibility.”

We caught up with Bettoni to learn more about sustainable design:

Rowena Ritchie: What do you want people to know about the fashion, home and design products they currently buy? 

Giusy Bettoni: I believe it would be absolutely great for them to discover the majority of products they desire are not just performing from a design and functional perspective, but also from an environmental level which is incredibly low.

RR: Can you tell us about what led you to set up C.L.A.S.S. and how your organization creates more environmentally friendly products for the fashion, home and design industries? 

GB: I have a 30 year-long background in raw materials, fibers, yarns and fabrics. My goal was to turn them into something beautiful, precious, innovative and most importantly, eco-friendly. I founded C.L.A.S.S. to concretely prove that these new horizons of sustainable fashion textiles are not just possible, but actually represent a new step in the value chain. We have now created  “ecolibraries“ where brands and designers can source new, high-tech and responsible materials coming from natural, organic, recycled and renewable resources—each fabric meets our criteria of design, innovation and responsible certification.

The missing ingredient in today’s design world is products that are designed responsibly. There’s real added value and competitive market advantage available to us by promoting these qualities to the consumers; that’s the other dimension I’ll be discussing at the symposium.

RR: Why are educational events like FIT’s symposium so important?

GB: Sharing information and experiences is key to this new way of working with textiles. Education is so important. It’s what C.L.A.S.S. is really all about. We are really pleased and honored to be invited by FIT to be part of this symposium, and will do our best to disseminate what we have learned in the last years. I truly believe sharing and networking is the key to this movement’s success.

RR: Do you think there is a difference in the way eco-friendly fashion is received by consumers in Europe versus the U.S?

GB: Each country has his own lifestyle and culture, but I have to admit that the perception of eco-friendly fashion is quite the same everywhere and the perception is not as good, unfortunately. That is why a symposium like this one is so vital.  We need to show that responsible innovation in fashion creates a competitive business advantage, and not just a nice story.

RR: Tell us about your latest project with Livia Firth’s Green Carpet Challenge?

GB: The Green Carpet Challenge is a fantastic exercise, and we are always working at something special… I cannot go into detail now as it is early days, but I can say we are preparing something amazing for the next London Fashion Week!

 To learn more about Connecting the Dots: A Sustainable Fashion, Health and Beauty Symposium or to register for the event, click here, or call (212) 217-4000. 



Top Image: courtesy C.L.A.S.S.

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After a rough patch, business in NYC’s Garment District is starting to pick up.

For decades, fashion mavens and budding designers have flocked to the quadrant between 34th and 42nd Streets, hedged in by 5th and 9th Avenues. Here, in New York City’s Garment District, fabric can be purchased, patterns made, pieces sewn, trimming added, and dreams realized, all in the space of a few blocks. Designers like Donna Karan, Calvin Klein, and Oscar de la Renta have all made the Garment District their home at a point in their careers, and countless others got their start in the neighborhood. At one time, the Garment District was the global hub of textile manufacturing. But not anymore.

“The only thing that has not changed is the location,” says Anthony Lilore, owner of RESTORE Clothing and a founder of the Save the Garment Center movement. “The physical appearance has gone from streets packed with garment racks and push carts, to some racks, some push carts, and some rickshaws with tourists.”

Indeed, over the past fifty years, the Garment District has seen a steady decline in business, owing primarily to overseas outsourcing, mostly to China. When that picked up in the early 1990s, family-owned companies in business for generations were forced to shut their doors, and designers, burdened by the higher rents and rising costs of working in midtown Manhattan, moved elsewhere. Most of those who have survived the downturn and recession say they’re hanging on by a hair.

“At this point, it’s a labor of love,” says Maria Lipari-Bertone, whose family has run Quality Patterns, which specializes in grading and marking, for more than forty years. “This is our bread and butter. Many of us came from overseas, and we made our lives in the Garment District.”

But there are signs of revitalization. At New York’s first City Source Expo, held January 10 at the Fashion Institute of Technology, more than fifty producers, suppliers, and pattern makers turned out to field questions and take orders from attendees interested in local production. Several vendors said that they’re starting to see an uptick in sales, mostly due to China’s rising “minimums” for new orders, a weak dollar, and higher shipping costs. Lipari-Bertone says that many new designers can no longer afford to work in China, so they’re starting to inquire into local production again.

Plus, in recent years groups like Save the Garment Center, Made in Midtown, and the Garment Industry Development Corporation have surfaced to advocate for Garment District preservation and serve as a resource for designers interested in manufacturing there. Backed by New York fashion industry vets like Nanette Lepore, Anna Sui, Jason Wu, and Yeohlee Teng, these groups emphasize the district’s historical, creative, and economic value to the city of Manhattan.

Made in Midtown says:

Ultimately, this story is about much more than fashion. It’s about one of the last neighborhoods in Manhattan that has not yet been remade by recent waves of new development. It’s about jobs and immigrant workers. It’s about the decisions city officials make to support certain kinds of businesses.

And for designers interested in sustainability, a one-stop-shop like the Garment District means a more compact production process, which eliminates the costs, both financial and environmental, of working with subcontractors in different parts of the world.

“The quality of craftsmanship and the concentration of schools, designers, sample rooms, showrooms, production, and stores make the Garment Center the only one of its kind anywhere,” says Lilore.

The post In New York City’s Garment District, Signs of a Comeback appeared first on EcoSalon.

We want more fashion and jewelry in museums. Whether it’s because interest in fashion designers is more a part of mainstream culture now or because clothing seems more accessible to us than a Picasso or a Julian Schnabel. Either way, our appetites were whetted by the MET’s game-changing Alexander McQueen show and museum programming committees across the country have taken note.

With some fantastic new and ongoing exhibitions on view, and some exciting ones slated for 2012, a visit makes for a great low impact fashion experience. And here’s another green idea – let the creativity you see inspire yours. With thrift stores teaming with clothing and old sewing machines headed for landfill, interpret an idea that inspires you and recreate it to quell that need we all have for newness in our wardrobes. Here are four don’t-miss exhibitions to check out.

While she may not be eating much for a while, style icon and Guinness heiress Daphne Guinness has had the energy to put together the new exhibition Daphne Guinness at the museum at FIT, which opened last Friday and will run through January 7. If you enjoyed the MET exhibit, head over to see her extraordinary wardrobe that features plenty more McQueen’s. As a close friend of the late designer and as the owner of McQueen muse Isabella Blow’s entire clothing collection, the exhibition will include more than two dozen McQueen garments which have never been displayed. An unlikely voice against copious consumption, she famously said, “We need better things, not more. We should not pollute the world with meaningless, unused things when we can make and support things of rare and precious beauty.”

In every clothing collector’s paragon of rare finds is an original Giorgio di Sant Angelo. The enigmatic designer’s first fashion retrospective opened over the weekend at Arizona’s Phoenix Art Museum. Running through Feb, 12, the long-overdue show features more than 40 ensembles and accessories, along with sketches and collection books that span the designer’s career from the late 1960s to the early 1990s. Known for his ability to drape a unique look on the spot, his signature kaleidoscope prints, flowing fabrics, Native American touches, fringing and piled-on color and clashing textures are influences recently seen in Rodarte, Proenza Schouler and Isabel Marant’s collections. Underscoring the way the industry reinvents and revisits its history as well as the thrill of costume history, the show could not be more timely.

Don’t miss the last week of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts exhibit Helmut Newton: White Women, Sleepless Nights, Big Nudes. The first large-scale U.S. exhibition of Newton’s work, it features the entire contents from his first three groundbreaking books: White Women (1976), Sleepless Nights (1978), and Big Nudes (1981). Whether you agree or not about his highly-charged, sexual take on modern female identity, his influence on the fashion industry is undisputed with designer Karl Lagerfeld and Vogue editor Anna Wintour contributing to the new exhibition catalogue.

For those that enjoy the pure fantasy escape from everyday lives that fashion can offer, put the October 22^nd opening of Charles James: Genius Deconstructed at the Chicago History Museum on your calendars. The museum boasts the second largest collection of James pieces in the world among its 50,000-piece costume collection. The show explores the history of couture fashion designer Charles James and why nearly 40 years after his death, the engineered perfection of his complex and unique constructions still inspire today’s designers and fashion lovers.

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We’ve written about FIT Professor and author of Eco Fashion, Sass Brown, before on EcoSalon and are privileged to offer a Q&A with her tomorrow from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Eastern, Tuesday, March 22nd on our Facebook page. Brown, who is currently Resident Director for the Fashion Institute of Technology’s study abroad program in Florence, Italy is a true fashion industry resource, so don’t miss out on this opportunity to ask her questions you might have regarding sustainable design and all aspects of the fashion industry.

Laurence King Publishing writes of her work: “This book shows the range of companies making a difference in the area of sustainable design in fashion, exploding the myth that sustainable design is bad design, or at best basic design, by highlighting the range of companies producing desirable and well-designed apparel and accessories with a conscience. It not only demonstrates the range of products available around the globe, but explains the stories behind them and the communities they support, as well as showing how and where they make a difference.”

The post A Facebook Q&A With Eco Fashion Author, Sass Brown appeared first on EcoSalon.

AFINGOs Fashion Forum New York is gathering fashion industry innovators.

Back in New York April 1st to host another stand-out symposium, Afingo.com, a pioneering online platform connecting designers with esteemed fashion industry insiders, will host Fashion Forum New York at the Fashion Institute of Technology’s K.M. Amphitheater.

Liza Deyrmenjian, co-founder and CEO of AFINGO says: “The AFINGO Fashion Forum is a space where the fashion-interested and the fashion expert can meet and both walk away with more knowledgeable ideas and information to help move their respective businesses forward. It mirrors the mission of Afingo.com, bringing that online experience into a real-time environment.”

The event is slated as an all day affair with five themed panels chock full of industry greats such as Keith Pollock, Editorial Director of Elle.com, fashion consultant Julie Gilhart, and Jeffrey Costello & Robert Tagliapietra, co-founders and designers of Costello Tagliapietra, and geared towards a better understanding of the ever-evolving industry. While young designers just starting out (or even in the throes of their career) will gather lots of valuable information attending and networking, seasoned professionals might learn a thing or two as well.

Current panel titles and moderators include: Iconic Wisdom: A Discussion With Designer Cynthia Rowley, Ready To Launch Your Line?, moderated by founder and lead orchestrator of Mercedes Benz New York Fashion Week, Fern Mallis, Sustainability & Philanthropy, moderated by Jill Fehrenbacher, Founder of Inhabitat.com, Social Media and Publicity, moderated by Refinery 29’s Editorial Director Christene Barberich, and Innovation, moderated by Ben Fischman, CEO of Rue La La.

According to AFINGO, A portion of the proceeds from both a VIP reception the night before and the day-long series of discussions in New York will benefit the non-profit Goods for Good, “Specifically the organization’s tailor-in-Training program, which reroutes new and unused surplus fabric from the fashion industry to under-resourced vocational training programs in Malawi.”

If you think you’d like to attend, like this on Facebook, then leave a comment below and we’ll be picking a winner on Monday morning who will walk away with two free all-day passes to this event!

We look forward to seeing you there!

The post AFINGO’s Fashion Forum New York (And Ticket Giveaway!) appeared first on EcoSalon.

You may already know that Julie Gilhart is the Senior Vice President and Fashion Director of Barneys New York. What you may not know is that she also takes on the role as a mainstream eco-fashion advocate. In a sustainable fashion focused conversation hosted at the Fashion Institute of Technology last week, Gilhart shared the various ways that she – and Barneys – are striving to be more eco.

Gilhart opened the discussion by stating that just two-years-ago, you would never find her talking to FIT students about social responsibility in fashion. She quickly segwayed into the various campaigns that Barneys New York has been running since about 2007 with social responsibility at its core. Through designer collaborations including upcycling, ethical outsourcing to developing countries, organic cotton initiatives and sustainable fiber production, Barneys is quickly becoming a green beacon for the fashion industry.

Enthusiasm for eco-fashion awareness is high, yet Gilhart tempers that consumers are still learning about sustainable fashion. “We asked Stella McCartney to do a line and source only organic cotton. The label read: ‘Stella McCartney Organic’ and it really turned the customer off. They thought that since the garments were produced with organic cotton, their quality was less than,” stated Gilhart.

There is a fine line when educating the consumer. If a brand boasts about its green credentials too loudly, consumers are put off, yet they simultaneously need those green flags to go up, otherwise they don’t know what they are buying. “It is important to get the consumer to understand that what they are buying has an impact,” asserts Gilhart.

Perhaps what we need are a few role models to show us the ropes. So how does Gilhart incorporate eco practices into her lifestyle? She shared a few tips:

– Be proud of your clothes and wear them over and over. It is okay to wear the same shirt or pants two days in a row or multiple times in a week.

– Buy expensive pieces that last and are of higher quality.

– Take good care of your clothes. Have them dry cleaned, and repaired when needed.

– Don’t buy cheap clothing that you have to keep replacing.

– Buy less.

– Know where your clothing comes from and support locally, or even domestically, produced brands.

Julie was quick to admit that based on her job and involvement with designers, it is quite easy for her to make educated purchasing decisions. Luckily, for the rest of us, we can head to Barneys and shop eco-fashion that is seamlessly integrated into their fashion offerings. “You have to put design and style first,” says Gilhart. “Start with the front story and then you can share the backstory.” When you shop at Barneys, the staff are trained on the different lines and will be able to share those backstories of a more eco-friendly nature with you. The idea is that you will pick out a piece because you like it, and then learn of its eco-added bonus. At the moment, this is Barneys working an eco-fashion integration model. What do you think? Should designers and stores clearly advertise their eco-backstories or let the consumer passively discover them through their shopping?

Let’s continue the conversation.

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