Gretchen Jones channels Haight Ashbury and pom pom flower power for a stunning Spring/Summer 13 collection.

It’s no secret we’re Gretchen Jones fans here at EcoSalon so catching up with her post GenArt Fresh Faces show this past Sunday was like sitting down with an old friend. Known on Project Runway Season 8 as one of the few designers to tout her love of sustainable fashion and design, Jones’ approach has since changed some.

We got her to sit still for a minute to answer some questions about her Spring/Summer 13 collection called “Any Day Now.”

Here’s what she had to say.

Your collections always have a meaningful name. What’s this one all about?

My collections are inspired by a piece of literature and the album I listen to most/what’s connected to the literature. Joan Didion’s essay “Where the Kissing Never Stops,” about Joan Baez’s early years organically found me and was meant to be. I started listening to Joan Baez’s album Any Day Now [which is the collection’s name] which was recorded around the time of Didion’s essay…its seemed like the Universe found my inspiration for me this year.

Though you’re not promoting it this time around, rumor has it this collection is your most sustainable to date.

Around 70% of the collection is made from ethical materials. I’ve incorporated organic cottons, worked with an amazing company called Indigo Handloom who works with off the grid weavers in India for my batik and The shiny boucle and and a few other hand woven silks, My custom prints are still digitally printed to reduce water waste and I continue to support domestic/local production.

What have you learned as a designer about promoting sustainability?
I’m a fashion designer, not an ethically focused designer and I think there is a difference. My ethical choices are honestly for me and my chosen path in supporting my personal need to be thoughtful about how I source and where I create my work. But I don’t think my customer is only a sustainable shopper…and to be quite frank, I believe the real way to continue to move ethical choices into the way we all live is to create strong enough work that stands on its own and can compete in a very competitive industry because it’s just good.

Your favorite piece?
The Short Suit and the Pant Suit for sure.

What’s the deal/inspiration for the cool headpieces?
AMAZING Ban.Do Black Label collaboration! I have been a fan of theirs for years and wanted to create some custom pompom headpieces with them for spring. It just seemed like the perfect collection to pair Ban.do with. They created these custom pieces by incorporating most of my fabrics from the collection. I really adore these pieces and totally feel like they quite literally “topped” off my looks!

I also used Shoes of Prey and created my first custom GJNYC shoes for the season and painted custom belts and jewelry.

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Image: Stern Grove

We Shall Overcome sung in Farsi? Whatever works!

Adding a verse of the civil rights anthem in Persian roused the throng of Iranian concert goers joining some 10,000 fans blanketing San Francisco’s Stern Grove to hear folk legend, Joan Baez, speak to them. Her appearance was the highlight of the 2009 summer series of free performances at the popular outdoor venue.

The folk singer’s legendary soprano voice, showing only the slightest hint of rust at age 68, is now reaching Iranian Americans, like Susan Javaheri (below), who spread out blankets early in the morning to save seats for dozens of her friends. They are moved and encouraged by the singer’s  solidarity with citizens protesting the recent elections in their homeland and murder of Neda Soltan, the beautiful artist shot to death by a sniper during the unrest.

“Joan Baez wrote a song about us, about our plight, and she’s going to sing it,” she told me. “We have a green scroll we are having signed which we are going to wave today during the concert, and take with us to hang at the Eiffel Tower.

The scroll is part of a worldwide project of sewing many squares together to form the world’s longest petition scroll. It reads, “Ahmadinejad is not Iran’s President” and the goals, articulated at the scroll website, include sending the final banner to the United Nations and for foreign powers not to recognize him as president.

As Baez made her dedication to the Iranian cause, audience members held up their banner and moved towards the stage, while others were busy handing out flyers advertising upcoming mega rallies, including one at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza July 25th.

Meantime, the “barefoot Madonna” reached baby boomers with classics, such as Forever Young (which she dedicated to her 96-year-old mother who was in the crowd), Dylan’s Don’t Think Twice and the old folk tune, Silver Dagger.

“In the dagger song, nobody dies, believe it or not,” joked the singer. “I usually have a rule of only singing songs in which somebody dies.”

A tie-dyed Andy Rod (above) understands the death part of the protest songs. “My brother was a Vietnam vet who died of Agent Orange and my dad fought in the Japanese war,” he told me. “I listened to her music growing up and the stuff she says really touches my heart.”

She touches my heart as well, reminding me of the days when I played guitar and sang her songs with my own brother who was killed in 1974. The first album my dad ever gave me was a Baez anthology, along with an accompanying book of the guitar music of folk legends (Judy Collins, Pete Seeger, Joni Mitchell).

You could say Baez is one of the few surviving guitar heroes of my generation, a tenacious and influential voice that has endured long after the passing of Woody Guthrie and John Lennon. She joins contemporary, Neil Young, who has persisted challenging the establishment, as well, with songs like Looking for a Leader during the disastrous Bush administration. “He’s wandering among us and we have to seek him out,” Young composed. “May it’s a woman or black man after all.”

Maybe it is a woman, one with cropped, white-streaked hair and a multicolored scarf billowing in the breeze. Baez sends the message – not too loud but still quite clear – that she is on our side, whatever side that might be: Against global warming; for the rights of farm workers; opposed to genocide anywhere on the globe.

It appears many of the gray-haired, comfort-shoe recipients of the message at Stern Grove were among the restless youth who flocked to protest meccas San Francisco and Berkeley in the 60s seeking social change and an end to the war.

Perhaps in looking for a leader, we should look no further than Baez. She leads us in genuine, tried-and-true hymns that bring us to tears, reminding us of all the good one citizen with a set of pipes and conviction can do. How many leaders do you know who can do that?

Images: Luanne Bradley

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