SeriesInundated with marketing messages, Americans adjust their spending belt.

In part 1 and 2 of this series, we looked at the tricks of the trade and the psychology behind the advertising end of marketing. In this article we look at what sales and marketing tactics are covering up: The quality corner-cutting that’s happening as we’re simultaneously being driven into a consuming frenzy.

I love a bargain. This weekend I thought I officially became the queen of treasure hunting when I found a mint condition Christian Dior cashmere coat at the thrift store. When I checked out the label, I found a tiny label stating “Made in America.” Made in America? Christian Dior’s couturier is based in Paris, this little detail gave me reason to pause, and question the authenticity of my find. It could not be coming from the actual Dior couture house with that country of origin label. The question begged to be asked: who designed this coat?

On another day, I headed straight for the sales rack at J Crew, finding three t-shirts for just over the price of one. And on another occasion, when I was strapped for cash and running short of underwear, I’ll admit that I made myself go to T.J. Maxx in search of some fresh pairs among the $6.99 Calvin Klein styles mixed in with the no-name brands for $2.99. I’m totally guilty of buying some of both. But at the moment of that purchase, I was just thankful to find underwear that fit the budget and even some that seemed to save me a few pennies.

Unfortunately, all of the underwear bought that day fell apart faster than any underwear I’ve ever owned. The shoddy underthings went straight into a bag for Goodwill and I had to head to the store once again not long after my purchase. Let’s just say, I had gotten exactly what I paid for.

The Fine Print That Bargain Hunters Miss

There’s nothing like the feeling you get when you find an unbelievable bargain in fashion. Unfortunately, 99% of the time the “unbelievable bargain” is just that. Discounted sales and fashion “bargains” are actually marketing tactics that encourage us to buy more stuff, much of which we don’t necessarily need. The sales tactic: overvalue the nicely displayed full price products in the front of the store so that customers get excited about the discounted stuff on the overcrowded, back sales racks. This encourages us to visit the store more often to look for sales to avoid missing the deal. However, usually when you buy items on sale, you’re in fact paying the price closer to the items actual make-value (just above how much it cost to make it).

Recent reports show that this tactic is now beginning to backfire on the the retailers, especially those who would like to maintain their product quality and regain profit growth to pre-recession profits. Even JC Penny, who in past years held as many as 590 annual promotional, sales and coupon events, has decided it’s time to change their sales tactic.

Not All Designer Labels Are Created Equal

Sales racks aside, what about finding “designer labels for less” in department stores and at discount retailers like T.J. Maxx? What of my “made in America” Christian Dior coat which originally would have been sold in an American department store like Nordstrom’s rather than at the House of Dior? We all equate designer labels with higher quality and value, but in the world of fashion not all designer labels are created equal.

Many successful designer brands have multiple tiers of product qualities that their brands sell to reach a broader market: high end lines for the investment shopper, middle market lines for the value shopper, and low end licensee lines for the bargain shopper. Quality is more closely monitored at the top of the market where the customer is paying a premium and recognizes and expects high quality goods. Quality slides through the middle market where the customer wants better design but is not as aware of the difference in the quality of the make, and the only thing that remains “designer” in the cheaply made bargain basement find is the designer-logo-label stitched in the back.

Vogue, January 1949. Which would you be more likely to purchase: An lower quality no-name umbrella for $15 or a Dior jacquard logo umbrella for $25? The two are probably made at the same place.

That low end product is more or less designed by the factory that works with a brand’s licensing partners. Their only objective is to make easy to produce, lower cost garments for high volume mass production. The designer brands who are named in the labels of these items, in turn, get a nice cut of the sales profit for allowing the use of their logo and brand name. The use of their logo or label in turn push the sales into a frenzy that might not have been possible on an equivalent average or sub-par product.

The Path That Leads To a Global Market Profit Is Licensing

So, how does a Dior Coat come to be made in the USA? It all comes down to licensing agreements (that work kind of like fast food franchises) and the label in my coat tells the tale of how this works.
Back in 1947, Christian Dior and his business partner, Jaques Rouet, were some of the first in the fashion business to pioneer license agreements with international factory partner companies. Before then, being a clothing designer/producer meant you either owned a local factory or a couture house and basically did all of the design and production – albeit tightly monitored – under one roof.

For Dior, who owned his own couture house, fashion was his legacy and he intended to see that legacy, as well as his fortunes, grow. By 1947, he had already set up licensing agreements with production partners to manage lines of furs, socks, perfume, ties and clothes in regional production areas around the globe, thus being able to extend his brand and multiply his sales by selling product in local markets all over the globe near his license producers’ locations. Most likely, Dior would have sent a sketch and a swatch of fabric for the factory to follow and the factory would fill in all the blanks of the details on how to make it.

With a status label like Dior, his licensee partners could sell much more product than they might otherwise, because the couture house’s name was well known among the fashionable society and was considered highly desirable. Meanwhile, Dior could turn his focus toward marketing and advertising his house as a high-end, luxury market brand. This new business model allowed him to continue presenting his exuberantly priced couture collections without the pressure of needing to make a profit on haute couture because the licensed products that he barely touched were making enormous profits behind the scenes.

By August 31, 1964, The New York Times reported on a trend which had designers putting their labels into items that they didn’t actually design. What Dior’s business savvy had started almost two decades earlier had evolved and turned into a full scale, industry-wide, fashion free for all. It started with designers lending out a few sketches to a manufacturer with their branded label attached as a stamp of approval, they then collected their fee and let the manufacturers take over from there. But as the New York Times reported, designers had their names on products they didn’t even recognize, let alone would ever admit to designing. One appalled Parisian designer even bemoaned that he had found his name on cotton gloves that were on sale in New York, cotton gloves apparently being something he would never have made.

Some designer brands were more careful than others to avoid the “white glove” scenario by adjusting their licensing contracts so that all products had to be be approved by someone in their company before they headed to the stores. But overall, the fashion industry fully embraced this new business strategy that left the product details up to the factory and licensing partner and let the designer brand reap the profits without having to do all the work. Many successful brands operate through license agreements today.

Couture house, Pierre Cardin, took it particularly far. With over 900 license agreements, Cardin had manufacturers producing everything from paper clips to automobile interiors with his logo stamped on them. His brand eventually flooded the market, so much so, that it lost its appeal to the “designer” customer and was downgraded to Sears status, where it is still sold today. Clearly Cardin didn’t mind. By that point he had become so wealthy building his brand through advertisements and selling his name, that he had no problem leaving the labors, and the quality control of couture behind him.

The fashion industry had finally figured out how to transform from providing a service – making clothes for people to wear – into a highly profitable business. Brands were able to achieve this by focusing on marketing the concept of their brand as a high end status symbol while selling stuff en masse to the middle and low markets through their license agents. The job of the designer now became to present lifestyle products and advertisement imagery through marketing to keep customers believing that even their lower priced lines were worth the higher price tag attached to the brand name.

What we’re left with after all of this are stores like Macy’s who sell “designer” labeled clothes that the designers barely touched, Calvin Klein underwear that has very little to do with Calvin, and stores like T.J. Maxx, Loehmann’s, and Marshall’s full of “designer brands for less” claiming that they’re selling the “real thing” and leftovers from the high end market. Far from the truth, the leftovers were all made specifically for those low end retailers and can be sold for up to twice as much.

Secret License Agents

So who are these secret agents producing the license product for Calvin Klein, Anna Sui, DKNY, Betsy Johnson, Tommy Hilfiger, Michael Kors, Ralph Lauren and friends? The same guys who are in charge of designing and producing all the no-designer-name stuff it sits next to at the stores where you find designer goods for less. Basically you’re just as well buying no-name underwear for $2.99 as paying double the price to have Calvin Klein’s logo. Some stores, like T.J. Maxx, even have a licensee design office of their own, designing products in the name of their licensee partners, like Calvin Klein, and for their own no-name label brands at the same time so they can handle the details on some of the products in their stores themselves.

An industry friend of mine (who will remain nameless) works in quality control at one of the licensing partners that produce goods for J.C.Penny, Sears, Burlington Coat Factory, Loehmann’s, and T.J.Maxx. She used to manage quality control for brands at factories all over the world. But her new job posed a much more troubling issue than workers not knowing how to hand stitch buttons properly.

“This is the easiest job I’ve ever had. Quality control? What quality control? We get one sample to fit, make color, print, fabric and trim comments on and to approve. Then it goes straight into production. We produce the goods so fast that by the time they hand me a sample to check and approve the quality, the item is already on the factory floor being cut and sewn for the bulk order. My comments can’t even be put into effect,” she says.

“I remember being called into my boss’ office once when there was ‘a problem.’ A jacket had come in with the lining literally shredding on the hanger. This was nothing new. But the real problem was that the item was going to a retailer that required testing (some of the bigger retailers, like JC Penny require every item to have a sample sent in for quality control testing) and this would never pass.”

Was the company going to take a hit and have to absorb the cost of the bum goods? I asked. “Nope. Do you know what they decided to do?” she asked me. “They had me take the sample to a tailor to have the bad lining taken out and replaced with a nicer quality lining. Then they sent that one sample in for testing. Of course it passed, but they just shipped the rest of the product as is, shredded lining and all. I’ve never worked with such unethical people in my 30 years of working in fashion.”

I asked another friend of mine who has worked as a freelance designer in and out of one licensee company that had license agreements with Kenneth Cole and Calvin Klein, as well as producing several no-name lines that would sell at the same retailers that their licensee product would.

“We had to produce designs so fast, we didn’t have time to think about the finishings. Just fabric, sketch, maybe a button. Send it to the factory and leave the details to them to figure out,” she told me. “It was so easy, but the quality was terrible.”

But don’t they get customer complaints about the quality? I asked.

“Why would the stores ever complain? We’re giving them product that’s dirt cheap!” Apparently the customers who frequent these stores just take it for granted that their clothing is disposable. One or two wears out of them is all that is expected. This is also a part of the marketing strategy. It’s rare for anyone to make returns on product at the low end of the market, because it’s just not worth it. None of the product has any value to begin with.

According to Elizabeth Cline, author of Overdressed: the Shockingly High Cost of Cheap Fashion, “In 1930, the average American woman owned an average of nine outfits. Today, we each buy more than 60 pieces of new clothing on average per year.” But according to economists, the average American household only spends 3.1% of their income on clothing, which is approximately 22% less than what Americans spent on clothing in the 1970s – this makes sense with 3 for 1 specials and bargain blowouts but when considering how logical it is for the planet, we might want to dive a little deeper.

Editor’s note: Industry insider Louise Lagosi is not the author’s real name and is used to protect her anonymity.

Image: Diego 3336, The Consumerist, Ell Brown

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Great stories from EcoSalon you may have missed this week.

In San Francisco’s Fashion Incubator At Macy’s Heralds New Designers, fashion writer Rowena Ritchie notes that over the years there have been numerous efforts to breathe life into San Francisco’s struggling fashion scene, “so it was a thrilling day for industry pundits when the announcement was made from Mayor Edwin M. Lee’s office on Monday that a new fashion incubator would launch next year.” The Fashion Incubator San Francisco at Macy’s Union Square (FISF), now has a group mission to turn creative fashion apparel designers into successful San Francisco entrepreneurs. We can’t wait to watch and see what happens.

With the healthy future of our environment at stake and a younger, more urban generation so far removed from forest paths and babbling brooks, are we in trouble? In Wanted: More Urban Children To Embrace Nature, writer Sarah Lewis-Hammond says, “Widely reported problems with our increasing penchant for urbanization expand well beyond the economic and environmental, and issues ranging from increasing obesity to widespread depression and stress disorders have been pinned on our proliferation of concrete.” Time to bring in the jackhammers.

If you live in the city of Portland, Oregon, you’re fully aware it’s been rated a top green city in the U.S. so it’s not a surprise that in this past week’s Places & Spaces, the Avalon Hotel and Spa, in Portland, Oregon has been featured. Kara DiCamillo points out that “With a cool architectural design, this luxury retreat is the tenth hotel in the world (and the first in Oregon), to be certified as a LEED hotel by the U.S. Green Building Council.” Pack your bags and go west, young women.

Foodie Underground columnist Anna Brones is back with more cupcake analysis. “Trendy cupcake stores are one thing, and even if I can’t get behind the popularity of the baked good, I’ll agree that they’re colorful, cute and, if you have a sweet tooth, taste good. But restraint is not a virtue Americans possess, and so we weren’t satisfied with adorably stenciled hole-in-the-wall cupcake shops. Instead we had to make the cupcake a national trend on a level of the beanie baby. Cupcakes have literally taken over.” See all the bizarre cupcake accessories you can handle in Burned Out On The Cupcake Trend.

In International Train Traveling To Romance You, Shira Levine explains that “Train travel is one of the cleanest, greenest, and often prettiest modes of transport for seeing the world. Less carbon is burned when riding the rails vs. flying or driving alone and thanks to technology, traveling by train has picked up speed over the last hundred or so years.” Did we mention that it was also totally sexy?

The post The Friday Five, Vol. 20 appeared first on EcoSalon.

If new San Francisco Major Edwin M. Lee has his way, your clothing will be getting a whole lot more local.

From the boom time of the Gold Rush when a young Levi Strauss began making durable denim pants for miners, the Bay Area has always been a hot bed for U.S. apparel manufacturing. Things have changed a lot just since 2002, (commonly agreed as the final death knell for Bay Area fashion), when Levi’s shuttered six U.S. plants including its historic Valencia Street operation in San Francisco.

“Twenty years ago, fashion apparel was the second-biggest industry in San Francisco, behind tourism. Today local fashion apparel designers struggle to stay afloat,” says Dennis Conaghan, Executive Director of the San Francisco Center for Economic Development.

Over the years there have been numerous efforts to breathe life into San Francisco’s struggling fashion scene, so it was a thrilling day for industry pundits when the announcement was made from Mayor Edwin M. Lee’s office on Monday that a new fashion incubator would launch next year.

Called the Fashion Incubator San Francisco at Macy’s Union Square (FISF), the group’s mission is to turn creative fashion apparel designers into successful San Francisco entrepreneurs. “We’re proud to be starting San Francisco’s first fashion incubator program, and I believe FISF will help reclaim SF’s legacy as a leader in the fashion apparel industry and keep creative talent in San Francisco,” added Conaghan, who will lead the incubator’s board of directors comprised of fashion, retail and business development experts.

Each year FISF will provide six Designers in Residence with premier workshop space in Macy’s offices at Union Square where they can create new lines and showcase their collections to merchants, ranging from local boutiques to national retailers. FISF also will offer business operations training from experts in the San Francisco fashion and economic development communities. The first class of designers is expected to move into the FISF workshop in March 2012 for their yearlong training.

In the last few years, locally made clothing has been at the forefront of the green fashion movement. San Francisco is but one of many cities seeing the trend coming to life. Surfacing in a world dominated by globalization, many brands are reconsidering oversees production due to the measurable preference for and quality of U.S. goods, a strong fashion trend for heritage brands and the discovery that they can produce here with only a minimal end price difference.

FISF expects to announce plans for the Designer in Residence program in September at Macy’s Fashion’s Night Out events, with hopes that incubator graduates will be showcasing their lines at the event in the future. At least that’s what Macy’s is betting considerable resources and PR leverage on.

“Macy’s has long been a supporter of up-and-coming fashion designers. FISF was developed from the blueprint of the Chicago Fashion Incubator at Macy’s on State Street, where 83 percent of the program participants have opened apparel businesses that are thriving,” said Betsy Nelson, vice president of media relations and cause marketing for Macy’s northwest and southwest regions. “Through FISF’s incubator program, we can identify emerging local talent, provide the environment and materials to develop their collections, and introduce participants to the broader fashion community.”

Ecosalon will update you on this developing story in September when the program officially kicks off and the program begins accepting applications.

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

Rebel Without A Pause Fashion’s indomitable “Godmother of Punk, ” Vivienne Westwood, celebrated the opening of her first flagship store in Los Angeles last week. The 10, 000 square foot space on Melrose Avenue makes available all of the Westwood labels including jewelry and accessories to discerning West Coast clients.  An unlikely eco-hero, Westwood has recently revealed she doesn’t wash her clothes very often and thinks that talcum powder makes the best deodorant, adding “I think it is a good thing to buy less and choose well – it’s good for the environment and to be fair it’s also good for me because my clothes are quite expensive.”  In these times of shifting patterns in fashion consumption and use, her down to earth approach reminds us of George Bernard Shaw’s line “Common sense is instinct. Enough of it is genius.”

Pick Up Stitches – The Thread show is coming to the Metreon in San Francisco this Sunday and promises to pretty-up the green scene this weekend.  Held in tandem with the Green Festival on Saturday, the show features the latest items from emerging eco-friendly designers such as COATT, Grammatique, Form & Fauna, and Free Hand Fashion.  If that’s not enough to get you down to SOMA from 11 a.m.– 6 p.m., attendees can enjoy new features like the DIY Lounge, Pop-Up Nail Salon, Live Blogger Style-Off Series, a THREAD Wellness Lounge and a Man Cave for the guys.

A League Of Our Own – With so much discussion about the relentless pace of the garment industry, it’s time to celebrate one fashion event that’s been going strong for 85 years. The Junior League of San Francisco is hosting their annual fashion show A Fashionable Legacy on Friday, April 8th at the Fairmont Hotel. The Bay Area’s most fashionable faces have their calendars annually marked and their dancing shoes ready for this glamorous evening. The event produced by the lovely Junior League ladies and long-time show partner, Macys and local company, Viasyn (who is offsetting the carbon impact this year), is one of the most successful fundraising events in San Francisco and has raised millions of dollars for various charities.

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For low impact fashion practices – ethically sourced, sustainable fabrics and de-centralized manufacturing – to eventually become the norm, environmentally conscious fashion labels need to compete with the mainstream.

For a long time, marketing sustainable fashion was overturning stereotypes, but now, with the recent Green Shows at New York’s fashion week showing the movement is undeniably design-led, where do other standard industry practices such as endorsement deals and celebrity fashion brands fit in? Does the sustainable fashion industry need celebrity clothing lines that can often be synonymous with disposable fashion?

Closely tied to a star’s popularity – which like their marriages can be notably volatile and short-lived – some clothing lines have managed to do well, particularly those at lower price points with a mass market appeal and distribution in the likes of Kohl’s, Target and Macy’s.

If sustainable design represents a shift to a new luxury paradigm where consumers value true and lasting quality, can celebrity collaborations authentically raise the awareness of green brands? Of course, the real question is will it sell more clothes?  When done right, it can work successfully. It’s all about matching the right celebrity with the right business model. (I couldn’t tell whether Lady Gaga in her meat bikini was the ultimate poster child for, or against, PETA…?) With that in mind, let’s consider the celebrities who have recently joined the eco-fashion crusade.

People Tree at “A Garden Party To make A Difference”

Harry Potter actress Emma Watson recently previewed her spring/summer 2011 collection in her ongoing collaboration with British fair-trade fashion label, People Tree, at Prince Charles’s 12-day U.K. eco festival titled “A Garden Party to Make a Difference – a series of cultural events to promote sustainable living.” The line features knitwear for women and men, consisting of cotton T-shirts, jersey dresses, poplin skirts and shorts. Eighty percent of Watson’s new line is made of 100 percent fair trade-certified cotton.

Chrissie Hynde and JP Jones (her bandmate and lover)

Rock legend Chrissie Hynde of the Pretenders is a longtime animal-rights activist, and her eco-friendly line called “Fairground Luck,” is a labor of love in more ways than one. In a collaboration with sometime love and songwriter JP Jones, the rock-inspired line will include non-leather versions of rocker chic T-shirts, skinny jeans, jackets, handbags and cowboy boots. Hynde nominated her friend, musician Emmylou Harris as the line’s muse and consulted with other famous friends including designers Todd Oldham, John Bartlett and Stella McCartney, whose own designs are vegan as well.

At a time when competition for fashion dollars has never been fiercer, celebrity eco clothing lines can cut through and create a little extra vital buzz. And let’s face it, as far as celebrities go, it could be a lot worse.

The post More Than Fifteen Minutes: Celebrity Fashion Lines appeared first on EcoSalon.

Raccoon dogs are bred, tortured, smashed to the ground and skinned alive in China. The unspeakable methods used amount to animal abuse in the most inconceivable way possible and you might be unwittingly endorsing it by simply buying a so-called faux fur jacket at Macy’s, Bloomingdale’s, Burlington Coat Factory and dozens of other stores that simply ignore the Federal Fur Products Labeling Act.

It seems it’s easy for retailers to slide by the labeling clauses of the act, despite the fact unsuspecting buyers might be opposed to the slaughter, not to mention allergic to animal fur.

This has prompted at least one California leader to take action to change the system. Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, D-San Francisco, has followed in the footsteps of New York and four other states by introducing a law requiring  “conspicuous” labeling of all garments that include real fur. Ma announced the measure at a news conference joined by  Pierre Grzybowski of the Human Society’s Fur-Free Campaign.

Grzybowski says China’s lax animal welfare laws allow raccoon dogs to be raised by the millions and skinned alive and the fur is rarely disclosed on labels. He also paraded jackets, boots and other items purchased at Bay Area stores that contained rabbit and raccoon dog fur not listed on the labels.

The Humane Society fights against loopholes in existing laws which allow jackets trimmed with $150 worth of fur to be sold without labels. Since animal fur is often sheared and dyed to resemble synthetic coats, consumers are essentially being tricked into buying the real thing.

The need for labeling is clear, since we have no idea what we are getting from even the ritziest stores. For example, last summer, Neiman Marcus was caught misrepresenting a pair of Manolo Blahnik $1,495 boots – which it had advertised as “natural ocelot fur” – an endangered wildcat. Turns out the boots were actually common goat fur patterned with ocelot markings. If it had been ocelot it would have been a crime. Was it a crime that it was goat? Not yet.

Labels on clothes are as valuable as labels on food, which help consumers make choices for themselves. And the campaigns and state laws are moving retailers to shun fur all together. Among them is Overstock.com, which boasts revenues exceeding $700 million. It became the 100th on the Fur Free list of retailers and designers to commit to a no-fur policy.

Image: Jeremy Barwick, All Creatures; Democrats.Assembly

Image by: mandydale

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While 2008’s holiday buying was a vicious sting for many retailers (read: overstocked store shelves with far more supply than demand), the buyers of American retail circa 2009 have evidently learned their lessons. We saw many stores tightening their inventory belts while others held off on any sales until after the holidays to generate more revenue and keep themselves afloat.

Angelina Rennell, owner of Beklina (and the designer behind the label Lina Rennell), says buying practices for her eco-boutique were of a much more cautious nature this holiday season.

“I ordered in lower numbers, and was maybe just a little more sober when it came to ordering,” Rennell says, adding that favoring “tried and true” designers that she knows sell well was also a big consideration this year versus taking risks with designers she wasn’t so sure of.

As for the discount-loving consumer, according to CNN, “in a surprising trend,” larger department stores like Macy’s and JC Penney beat out discounters as the destination of choice over 2009’s Black Friday weekend.

“Nearly half, 49.4%, of holiday shoppers visited at least one department store over the weekend, a 12.9% increase from last year,” reports the article.

Perhaps this is a sign of consumption with more thought?

Only gift cards, usually an impersonal holiday gift,  turned out to be one of the hottest gifts going, allowing for extra sales post-holiday.

But while retailers usually see customers spending well over what the gift cards are worth, post holiday spending has been reigned in, a trend shop owners are cringing at.

Image: Scalleja

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Bianca and Michael Alexander, founders of Vert Couture, had their work cut out for them this past Sunday hosting Chicago’s first ever green fashion show. But with an already established track record in the sustainable field, the couple pulled it off with flying shades of green.

The husband and wife team, who recently migrated from California, have made the windy city more interesting with Conscious Living TV and Soul of Green. So producing Chicago’s debut sustainable design show was just another step in their progression towards sustainable.

Michael Alexander says he and his wife have a serious passion (bordering on addiction) for fabulous fashion that’s created consciously and sustainably. Vert Couture is their way of sharing this passion with the public.

“Seeing and meeting so many talented and committed eco-designers in our new home of Chicago, we wanted to support them by providing a platform to show the world their talent. We felt we could best serve them and the sustainability movement by producing arguably the hottest show of fashion week.”

Bianca and Michael Alexander, founders of the Vert Couture eco-fashion show

Chicago’s conscious community, including Fashion Focus Chicago and the Chicago Fashion Foundation, helped sponsor the show where Mountains of the Moon, Vaute Couture, Bryant McLemore Smith, Frei Designs and students from the International School of Design and Technology featured the best of their Spring 2010 collections.

Melissa Baswell, designer of Mountains of the Moon, says the show has strengthened the connection between Chicago’s eco-designers.

“Annie Novotny of Frei Designs and I decided that we’re not stopping with Vert Couture. We want to organize monthly gatherings with some of our fellow Chicago eco-designers to brainstorm and help each other out.”

Melissa Baswell of Mountains of the Moon takes a stroll down the runway at Vert Couture

Baswell says that unlike traditional shows she’s been a part of, more factors were involved in Chicago since the show was produced as green as possible (the event was carbon neutral, featured organic and vegan drinks and hors d’oeuvres, had green sponsors, eco-friendly printed materials, and of course, sustainable designers).

“There were a variety of designers and a wide array of pieces shown. It was put together as a fashion show first and foremost, but it also educated people on the importance of sustainability, and included much more than just the runway show.”

Annie Novotny, founder of Frei Designs, says that being part of Vert Couture is just what designers have to do right now.

“It turns some people off, promoting yourself as an eco-designer. But it’s my choice to produce ethically. It’s never been a cool thing to do. So whether people are educated or not, whether or not they know about issues of waste and sustainability, I’m going to be part of something like this simply because it’s important,” says Novotny.

Sustainable designer Lara Miller didn’t show her line at Vert Couture, but did show during Fashion Focus at Macy’s Designers of Chicago last Thursday evening. Her line is carried in the Chicago Designer Shop at Macy’s on State street.

Lara Miller Spring 2010, at Fashion Focus (Photo by Michele Wayman)

Miller says that Chicago is getting more competitive with the other major fashion cities in the U.S., but thinks that Chicago, in general, is just different.

“We’re providing a different view, a different market and allowing our designers to grow while reaching out to other markets. I think that Chicago designers have a unique perspective on fashion and on the industry. We’re incredibly hard workers, we understand who we sell to, and first and foremost we’re good people who support each other and our garment manufacturers here in the city.

Not all of our businesses are about creating a stir or a groundbreaking trend. We’re about quality, individuality, and our customers. We each have our own individual message and brand identity. And I think that we’re all showing something different and creating trends in our own ways, some more than others, but the trends to me don’t matter as much as creating beautiful quality work that pleases our customers. Because while we’re designers at the end of the day, we’re also entrepreneurs, which means that we want to make our customers happy.”

Chicago and Vert Couture have certainly made me happy.

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