The line for the CFDA and Lexus sponsored Eco-Fashion Challenge event in New York City, wrapped around the building and continued down the block. If that is any indicator of what is to come (which I fully believe it is) sustainable fashion got a major boost from this eco-fashion integration challenge!

“Designing a Lexus is a complicated and sophisticated process that requires putting many pieces together, and the same is true of fashion,” stated Loomstate designer Scott Mackinlay Hahn. “Step by step we are learning a new language for sustainable and eco awareness and bringing it into the fashion story.”

(Marcia Patmos of Leroy & Perry)

Inside a packed skyline loft, floor to ceiling posters presented the various designers in the running for the CFDA and Lexus package which includes $25,000 towards their next line as well as support for their Fall 2011 show or presentation during New York Fashion Week in February.  Words like organic, air dyed, recycled, handmade, fair, local, upcycled, and sustainable lined the posters and defined the designers’ eco-focus. This must be the new language Mackinlay Hahn speaks of. What is reassuring is that slowly, but surely, the general public is learning this lingo and looking for it on the garments they purchase. As a result, “…more designers are asking for it now too, and demanding eco-versions of fabrics from their suppliers,” says Marcia Patmos, the designer from Leroy & Perry who was one of the competing ten designers.

(Maria Cornejo, Jeffery Costello, Monique Pean, Robert Tagliapietra)

And speaking of supply – which of the ten designers will be applying supplying us with their eco-fashion creations next Fall? Drumroll please! The three labels that were awarded the eco-challenge CFDA and Lexus package are:

Monique Pean

Costello Tagliapietra

Maria Cornejo

“The fact is, we are all trying to be eco-friendly,” asserts Maria Cornejo. “These are little steps that really build into something.” Cornejo went on to advise other designers to ‘be creative’ and think of other ways of being eco than just sourcing, such as being local in production or using non-toxic dying processes.

(Reed Krakoff, Monique Pean and Scott Mackinlay Hahn)

For fellow winner Monique Pean, eco-fashion translates directly to slow fashion, which she describes as, “…designing pieces that are high in quality and passed down from generation to generation.”

Going back to Mackinlay Hahn’s statement about utilizing a new language to talk about fashion, I think we are definitely there and as Robert Tagliapietra of Costello Tagliapietra so eloquently put it, “This communication is immeasurable.”

The post The CFDA Lexus Eco-Fashion Challenge Winners Are… appeared first on EcoSalon.

Last week the Gap, in collaboration with the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund, launched their newest collections at their Fifth Avenue concept store.

The collection features sustainable jewelry designs from Monique Péan, menswear from Patrik Ervell and luxe women’s wear by designer Sophie Théallet. The trio was titled by the CFDA in 2009 as “The most celebrated in the industry.”

We celebrate Monique for making the grade as a sustainable designer with this pack!

While some of Péan’s organic materials sound a little exotic (water snake skin beads and naturally shed buffalo horns), there’s still something to be said of a designer working with a big box store who supports eco-friendly designs.

This is nothing new. We’ve seen collaborations with Payless, H&M, Target and Kohl’s and we all praise the initiative these companies have taken to make sustainable strides (some more than others). But why does it always come back to one particular big box store screwing it all up?

Case in point? Wal-Mart, a company that tries to convince us that they’re doing so much for us and the environment.

But according to a recent ecouterre post regarding lead tainted accessories from a popular Wal-Mart collaboration with Miley Cyrus, price tags shouldn’t be our worst fear when it comes to shopping.

Editor Jasmin Malik Chua writes: “Just last month, the big-box retailer yanked an entire line of Miley Cyrus-brand necklaces and bracelets from its shelves after tests performed for the Associated Press found they contained high levels of the toxic metal cadmium.”

Though marketed for adults (because so many adults wear Miley Cyrus jewelry), safety issues regarding the jewelry going in one’s mouth was cause for alarm.

CBS news reports, “the items are not known to be dangerous if they are simply worn but concerns come when youngsters bite or suck on the jewelry, as many children are apt to do.”

CBS concludes that “Federal regulators’ own research says that kids start becoming interested in making their own jewelry around age six or eight. As for products featuring Miley Cyrus, she is 17 and her appeal reaches down to kindergartners. ”

Maybe instead of tutoring musicians older than her on American Idol, child star Cyrus should learn how to create and collaborate sustainable with an adult like Monique Péan. After all, Cyrus is just a child. Better yet, Wal-Mart could spend some time carefully investigating their collaborations so they can stop looking like, well, schmucks?

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