Who says all models are tall and thin? While many models of yesteryear most definitely fit a certain mold, today the industry is introducing a new, unique set of models that are hitting the runway.

Earlier this week, we caught wind that Jamie Brewer, actress and advocate, strutted down the catwalk at New York Fashion Week. Her appearance was groundbreaking because she became the “first Down’s Syndrome model to walk the fashion week catwalk.” Brewer walked for designer Carrie Hammer. Hammer wanted Brewer to walk as part of her “Role Models Not Runway Models” campaign. Brewer walked the runway on Thursday, February 12.

“Role Models Not Runway Models” is Hammer’s fashion motto. She’s dedicated to creating dresses and clothes that fit the woman – any woman – and that’s why she makes custom work dresses.

Brewer is well known for her roles on “American Horror Story.” Hammer used Brewer’s characters as inspiration for her runway dress, which was a “ ’50s style black dress, cinched at the waist.”

Later this week, we saw another awesome article about a group of beautifully unique models (male and female). US Magazine reports that FTL MODA asked disabled models to be part of the “Mercedes-Benz New York Fashion Week runway show on Sunday, Feb. 15. The company teamed up with Fondazione Vertical, an Italian research organization for spinal cord injuries.”

According to US Magazine, some of the models walked with canes, others used wheelchairs, and some were amputees.

This is all so incredibly cool and important because it shows that some people in the fashion world are aware that there is no one beauty standard. So many different people are beautiful and unique. Also: Newsflash – we all need to buy clothes. You represent everyone, you profit.

Are you a New York Fashion Week junkie? What did you think about this year’s shows? What other types of unique people would you like to see model at next year’s event?

Related on EcoSalon

Native American Fashion Week Happened, Here’s Why You Probably Had No Idea

Sweet, Sustainable Looks From an Ethical Fashion Week in Brooklyn

Karl Lagerfeld’s ‘Feminist’ Protest During Paris Fashion Week: Real or BS?

Image: Jamie Brewer’s Facebook

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Willy Loman, Meadow Lark Lemon, Ricardo Moltobon, have you heard of them? These so called fashion fans never had either, yet they lied about it in the name of cool. Why? 

How far are you willing to go to look cool? Come on, admit it—we’ve all told a little white lie in the name of self-elevation. You know, when we are wrapped up in conversation with someone we aren’t exactly familiar with, or maybe a little intimidated by, we nod our heads agreeing like lemmings that ‘oh yes, we know that person’—or place, or seen that foreign film.

Okay, so we’ve all been there in one form or another, right? But I know you’ve never taken it this far.

During New York Fashion Week, Jimmy Kimmel’s team brought their “Lie Witness News” to the steps of Lincoln Center to see if fashion week attendees would take the bait.  The film crew blended into the chaos of runway show attendees and asked questions about made-up designers like Joe Azoozoo, George Costanza and Eddy Munster’s line and so-called model trends like the Uni Boot. The individuals thought they were being interviewed by verified press, one of the many that flood the parade circling around fashion week, and plenty of the self-proclaimed fashion fans and even industry professionals nodded and confirmed the non-existent fashion designers and trend.

Watch the video above: It makes me wince and fill with empathy each time another interviewee agrees with a lie.

What’s going on here?

The industry has created a monster feeding off exploited rapid trends–just like the music industry is banking off on Miley Cyrus’s naked body. It’s hurting Miley, it’s hurting the designers, and it’s hurting the community who are in a confused circus of peacocks.

The mainstream fashion industry today isn’t about the craft of making a garment or the brilliant construction of the clothing or the viewing of a true dedicated artist’s work–it’s about blind consumption and dollar signs. The sharpest, most dedicated designers I know don’t do runway shows. They don’t fling clothes at bloggers or hire PR agencies to promote their lines. They put their heads down and follow their gut instinct. They are artists in love with the creation process and with complete conviction make a living off their craft. They don’t follow they lead. And certainly, they don’t entertain customers like the ones in the video.

“The fact that I couldn’t even see the dog poop shows that she’s a good model. Because until you pointed it out, I was like ‘Oh, she looks great. What’s wrong with this?’ And then you’re like, the dog poop, on the head.”

See Also:

Between The Lines: From NYFW to the Garment Factories of Pakistan

Where Will Fast Fashion Leader H&M Strike Next? Africa Is Likely

The post Jimmy Kimmel Punked NYFW: Are We All Marketing Lemmings? appeared first on EcoSalon.

Fair trade. It’s such a simple concept—pay people fairly for the work they do. Isn’t the reverse—paying people less, just because you can—dishonest and, I’ll say it, wrong? While it seems to that way to me, that is the how the fashion world works—by underpaying people because they get away with it. The majority of mainstream companies pay very low wages to (or skimp on or eliminate benefits or disregard the safety of) poor people in developing countries who desperately need jobs. Because it makes them a bit more money the next quarter. It’s not about consumer prices going up, which they would only very marginally if fair labor practices were enacted, it’s about corporate greed.

The New York City Fair Trade Coalition (NYCFTC) is one of the organizations working against these basic acts of wrong that seem to be the norm. And they threw a fashion show during New York Fashion Week to prove just how lovely, fun, and mainstream being fair can be. 

The NYCFTC joined forces with Magnifeco.com (the site’s EIC, Kate Black, is pictured above) for the Fair Fashion Runway presentation, which included LEOTA NewYork and ReciclaGEM by Tamara Leacock (main image above). There was a fair-trade marketplace, featuring jewelry and accessory designers too. All designers featured are part of the NYCFTC.

Another look by ReciclaGEM by Tamara Leacock. 

A look from LEOTA NewYork 

A second look from LEOTA NewYork.

“Fair Trade is simply the way the world should be, which is why initiatives like the New York City Fair Trade Coalition are vital,” states Jennifer Barckley, Director, Brand Communications & Values at The Body Shop, which sponsored the event. “Over twenty-five years ago, The Body Shop pioneered the first of its kind program in the beauty industry called Community Fair Trade. Today, it supports over 25 communities around the world—from Mexico to Nepal—and provides consumers with the highest quality ingredients and products for a truly feel good experience.”

Jewelry By Natalie Frigo is made in NYC and graced several of the models in the runway presentation. 

Bhava shoes showcased their first collection at the fair trade marketplace.

Mr. Ellie Pooh stationery showed off their made-from-poo journals and notepaper. 

Co-chair Nimet Degirmencioglu (right, above image) said, “NYCFTC believes Fair Trade is not just for a day, or a charity, it is a way to live. This event brings more conscious choices to the forefront. As we make fair trade a part of our sartorial lives, it improves lives around the world.”

All images by Starre Vartan. 

 Related on Ecosalon: 

Suzanne Rae S/S ’14 Collection at NYFW: Futuristic Minimalism for the Modern Woman

New Zealand’s First Eco Fashion Week Plus 3 Hot Kiwi Designers

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New York Fashion Week got a glimpse of a growing trend in fashion with Vaute Couture’s vegan show.

Anna Wintour would surely shudder at the lack of fur, but vegan fashionistas rejoiced as the first all-vegan animal rights fashion show hit NYFW last week when Vaute Couture took to the runway. Designer Leanne Mai-ly Hilgart expanded on her established outerwear and tee shirt line with ready-to-wear tops, dress, pants, skirts and sweaters all made from vegan and eco-friendly fabrics.

It couldn’t have been better timing for the vegan debut at Fashion Week. Just last week, a huge victory came for animals and animal advocates as the EU announced a permanent move away from allowing the sale of any cosmetics that have been tested on animals. And the vegan diet continues to gain popularity with celebs, athletes and politicians advocating a plant-based diet. Just recently, Chicago Mayor, Rahm Emanuel, urged his city’s residents to consider adopting a vegetarian diet.

And Hilgart showed off the glamorous side of veganism with sexy garments that were both lively and edgy. Colors were rich  in blacks, blues, greys and tans, reports Ecouterre. Hilgard also highlighted the development of new fabrics, including a luxe organic cotton velvet, recycled Thinsulate, 100 percent recycled satin and organic fleece, according to Ecoouterre. Hilgart said: “I want to show that we don’t have any excuse to wear animals.”

The show was sponsored in part by the Humane Society of the United States, one of the biggest animal advocacy groups in the country. The show also included several dogs (on the runway!) that were available for adoption.

Keep in touch with Jill on Twitter @jillettinger

Images: Courtesy of Eco-Chick

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Femininity meets power-play in Costello Tagliapietra’s Fall/Winter ’13 collection at New York Fashion Week.

Stitched from the see-sawing juxtapositions of life, thoughtfully constructed dresses, like the ones that glided down the runway of the Costello Tagliapietra Fall/Winter 2013 show this week, have a story to tell. And if these dresses, jumpsuits and alpaca cloaks could talk, there would be conversations to be had.

From boardroom banter to cocktail chatter, they whisper of femininity, power and mysticism. Over weekend cappuccinos, they share their secrets in finding a graceful balance between femininity and masculinity, between power and sweetness. And, because they are the carefully crafted garments of Jeffrey Costello and Robert Tagliapietra, the design duo behind the line, they murmur one word again and again: sensuality.

When I first met the endearing business- and life- partners following their Spring/Summer 2013 showcase, the same, singular word, came up repeatedly.  At first, it seemed surprising to hear two burly men speak so softly about a woman’s emotions and desires—about sensuality. So this time I asked how it is that they simply ‘get’ women.  “It’s easy, really,” says Tagliapietra.  “Most of our friends are women, and we grew up with sisters.  We just surround ourselves by women. Strong women.”

With its Fall/Winter collection, Costello Tagliapietra calls forth the ‘working woman’s wardrobe’.  “It’s powerful, and it’s feminine,” says Costello. “Our woman is not afraid to embrace her femininity.” It’s this yin and the yang—the pairing of a slinky polyester dress color blocked using AirDye technology, contrasted with an alpaca caplette, sourced from Tagliapietra’s mother, the owner of an alpaca farm in New Jersey—that makes this collection so wearable. “We love that the alpaca comes from a women-run operation; we love that the animals aren’t harmed; and we love the whole farm-to-table mentality,” Tagliapietra proudly adds. Opposites really do attract—from runway-to-real world, in a magnetizing way.

Backstage: Designers Robert Tagliapietra (left) and Jeffrey Costello (right).

More looks we love:

Photos: Jennifer Barckley

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With a colorful, eclectic collection made entirely in Los Angeles, Clover Canyon injects New York Fashion Week with a breath of fresh California air.

New York Fashion Week was very black and white and monochrome this time around. This is practical but, let’s face it, we need some color on our lives. This made Clover Canyon‘s presentation at Lincoln Center’s The Box feel even more like a breath of fresh California air. The label’s Spring/Summer 2013 collection was an explostion of bright colors and crazy prints, featuring geometric shapes and paisley mixed with California pop culture icons like muscle cars, soda bottle tops, steering wheels, surfers, highways, mountains, prairie homes and a certain kind of medicinal plant, with a sprinkling of sequins thrown in for good measure.

Launched only last year, Clover Canyon received instant appreciation from fashion editors and buyers and can now be found at major retailers like Saks Fifth Avenue, Nordstrom, Net-a-Porter and Shopbop. Creative Director Rozae Nichols, who had her own eponymous line for 15 years, has lived her whole life on the west coast. She decided to make local production an important part of the label’s DNA, stating: “Clover Canyon is made in California, and always will be.”

From the label’s atelier, Clover Canyon’s design team works collaboratively on designing the original prints, and hand-engineering them to frame and enhance the body. All garments are designed, patterned, cut and sewn in-house, using an innovative mix of new technology mixed with old world craftsmanship. “I have a wonderful team, a glorious design team,” Nichols tells Harper’s BAZAAR. She goes on to say that the label is able to maintain an accessible price point by “creating an in-house science and precision that we’ve mastered with no waste or excessive burden. The fabrics are humble, they’re not insanely expensive. We make Clover Canyon look expensive because of the artistry.”

Nichols has been focused on prints for a long time, and with Clover Canyon she completely surrenders to them, making it the focus of all the label’s collections so far. “We approached Clover Canyon with a new attitude for print and made a commitment to making it about saturated color,” she says. “Part of the magic is the research we do to make the images very opposite and juxtaposed.”

There’s no doubt that prints are having a fashion moment right now, but Clover Canyon still stands out from the crowd. One is not drawn to these fantastical garments because they happen to be what’s trendy right now, the precise mix of tailoring and placement of the patterns gives this collection a timeless appeal that will surely make it stand the test of time. That, along with the outspoken commitment to local production, is what we really love about them and welcome with open arms.

All photos by Johanna Björk

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The Fair Fashion runway show, held during New York Fashion Week, shows us that fashion can look good and do good.

When attending fashion week, it’s easy to become overwhelmed (and slightly disturbed) about the sheer amount of clothing that designers put out every season, much of it produced less than ethically. A nice counterpoint to this was the NYC Fair Runway Show, held on Thursday at co-working space Wix Lounge in NYC.

The runway show was organized by the NYC Fair Trade Coalition, an all-volunteer grassroots organization dedicated to educating consumers about the value and importance of fair trade and promoting fair trade businesses in NYC.

Kibonen|NY (also top)

Featured designers included Kibonen|NY by Cameroonian designer Kibonen Nfi, inspired by traditional Cameroonian garments, REBORN by Soham Dave, which fuses the old and new with contemporary leisure clothing, filling a niche for authentic pieced and hand crafted from natural materials, and mccoll&clan, a New Jersey-based SEE (sustainable, eco, ethical) label committed to a design and business ethos that supports more sensible ways of innovating fashion.

REBORN by Soham Dave

The models wore vegan shoes by Monisha Raja of Love is Mighty, a brand dedicated to preserving indigenous arts, tribal culture and craftsmanship in India. Makeup artist Lacey Elliot used products from Josie Maran’s vegan, eco-friendly line.

mccoll&clan

After the show, guests were treated to samples from fair trade makers of tea, root tea, chocolate and quinoa vodka. There was also a marketplace, featuring pieces from the runway show.

Fair trade may not yet be a buzz word in the fashion world at large, but maybe this fashion week runway show could be the start of a greater discussion of the topic? We certainly hope so.

The post NYFW: Fair Trade Fashion Inspires from the Runway appeared first on EcoSalon.

Using patented no-waste technology, knitwear brand Kotoba makes pieces that are as conscious as they are covetable.

At New York Fashion Week, knitwear seemed to make an appearance in some form on just about every runway. On Thursday, collective knitwear brand Kotoba celebrated the launch of their Spring/Summer 2013 collection with a fun, low-key presentation at The Maritime Hotel in the Meatpacking District.

Kotoba is the Japanese word for language and the collection, designed by Melinda Danko and Lindsay Mann, featured timeless pieces in simple, versatile silhouettes enhanced by unexpected structural details and textures. Basics in black, taupe and ivory were complemented by pieces in bright and playful colors, particularly orange and mint green, two of the most on trend hues this fall and going into spring.

“We were inspired by multiple things, but it all came down to leisure activity,” says Melinda Danko. “We thought about the one thing that people forget to do, which is how to enjoy themselves – how to have fun doing sport activities, going to the beach, taking care of environment – things that are important in life.” This playful spirit was evident in the presentation, as the models were given props like footballs, skateboards and baseball bats.

“Lindsay and I developed the collection very organically,” says Danko. “We just burst out ideas and silhouettes and with the yarns we have it just came together. We started with one design and it all just fell into place after that”

All the pieces in the collection are produced using WHOLEGARMENT technology, a patented production technique derived from Shima Seiki, a Japanese knitwear machine manufacturer that has been around for fifty years, but has more recently, in the past five years, developed knitting machines for making clothing. It’s an innovative way of producing knitwear that is lightweight and stretchy and made virtually without any waste.

“We wanted to bring back crafts and trade and the sustainability aspect to the U.S. domestic market,” says Danko. “Everything we make is seamless, there’s no waste in the production, and the entire collection (except the yarns, which are from Italy) is made in America”

Kotoba’s spring collection is everything I love about sustainable fashion – it’s locally and ethically produced (in NYC’s Garment District), using innovative technology, but it’s also fun, sexy, wearable and timeless.

Danko says: “We make qaulity garments that, yes, you are going to spend more money on. But the lifetime and durability makes them pieces that you can have in your wardrobe and love for years.”

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Since we didn’t have a Friday 5 last week, here’s a 2-week bumper edition!

Thanks to the advent of the DVD & Blu-ray, the world is littered with slithery piles of obsolete CDs. What to do? Artist Sean Avery takes, them, smashes them up – and makes them come alive.

Staying with animals, our relationship with marine critters is clearly broken – and here’s an exhibit that hammers it home.

Off on a classic American road trip? Here are 50 ways to break it.

It’s no great secret that some Republicans have a twisted view of the world when it comes to women’s rights – so how about an art movement that celebrates That Word That Nobody Should Say In Public?

Were you at our EcoSalon NYC Fashion Week launch party (which garnered a mention from CBS News)? If not, consider us broken up about it.

How do the two presidential candidates weigh up on the topic of energy? The devil is in the details.

Cinnamon makes bad coffee bearable and good coffee mindblowingly good. But as Aylin Erman shows, a closer look at this super-spice reveals a sweeping world of uses. (But really, the coffee thing? Do that first).

In the wake of New York Fashion Week, Amy DuFault stops to think about the troubling issue around the recent Pakistan garment factory fire, the biggest industrial accident in the country’s history.

Home improvement: here are some awesome women who truly know how to Do It Themselves.

And finally, if you’re used to budget hostel experiences in Europe where you try to avoid looking too closely at your surroundings… here are 7 accommodation options beautiful (and bizarre) enough to reward the most ardent scrutiny.

The post The Friday 10: The Broken / Fine-Detailed Edition appeared first on EcoSalon.

At New York Fashion Week, Suzanne Rae presents a new, minimalistic take on feminine beauty.

Initially inspired by Francesca Woodman’s photography, Suzanne Rae‘s collection for spring/summer 2013 “explores a woman’s curious ability to be both delicate and strong.”

“Pairing this with minimalism, which often carries masculine overtones” the designer says, “the collection seeks a balance, reflecting a more progressive and less conventional expression of femininity.”

The collection, which premiered during New York Fashion Week yesterday, at the Philippine Center in Manhattan, seems to be a return to basics for Suzanne Rae. The color palette was restrained and featured low-key neutrals, like we’ve seen in the collections of many other designers this fashion week. Soft hues of light and dark gray, off-white and khaki were complemented with gorgeously nuanced shades of gold and blue. It all seemed to signal a return to beauty in fashion.

Materials ranging from soft silks and knits to stiff cotton and linen were mixed to create textural interest while maintaining a long and flowy silhouette. The show was styled by Lotte Sindahl, with bold accessories by WXYZ Jewelry (including amazing Egyptian inspired collar necklaces) and shows by Solestruck and Ma Petit Shoe.

In all, the collection represented a return to wearable basics in beautiful colors and materials.

We also took a peek backstage after the show:

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