Beauty and brilliance meet in Allison Parris’ Spring/Summer 2013 collection.

When you meet Allison Parris and her Spring/Summer 2013 collection, you can’t help but smile. Words like charming, pretty, party and fun fill the air. Parris, in her eighth year of showing her own, eponymous line, seems at ease with it all. In her words, the collection is simply “light and happy.” But, below the fancy frill lies more than just the cheerful and feminine. It is femininity at its best—powerful, free and evocative.

“Right now, when you have so many strong, ambitious, stylish and successful women to look up to, that’s who girls should admire,” Parris tells EcoSalon. “Not Brittany Spears and Lindsay Lohan,” she adds. That’s why nearly each dress in the collection is inspired by (and named after) one of her closest friends who fit the bill of brilliant and beautiful.

With this upcoming season, Parris has stayed true to her roots, keeping her raw silk organza and recycled PET tutu-style dresses, while introducing other glitzy, body-hugging styles like the Arden dress (above) and the Greta (below), both lined with recycled PET from the U.S. The finished garments are also made in the U.S.—close to Parris’ home in the New York Garment District. “I need a little contrast in my life,” says Parris about her new sequin numbers.

Designer, Allison Parris, models her new look, The Arden dress.

Other pieces are fresh takes on the full-bodied skirt style. The Julia (below), made from embroidered cotton, effortlessly takes the woman who wears her from day to evening—a place Parris calls “our sweet spot.” And if anyone knows about hitting the sweet spot head on, it’s Parris.

More looks we love:

Images: Jennifer Barckley

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Nolcha’s Ethical Fashion Forum winners get crowned.

Following the success of the Innovation Awards in the UK, 2011 marked the launch of Innovation USA in partnership with Nolcha, “allowing the Ethical Fashion Forum to take their support of sustainable design to a transatlantic level.”

The EFF, a group dedicated to sustainable fashion, offers recognition to emerging designers and businesses within the ethical fashion sector. This year, the winners included Carrie Parry, Afia and Soham Dave, all fashion industry pioneers leading progress in the ethical fashion industry.

Nolcha says the winners have been selected “for demonstrating progressive attitudes towards social and environmental sustainability alongside their innovative approach to design – communicating that fashion and fairness are no longer mutually exclusive concepts.”

Each designer now receives one year in Showroom International/Bel Esprit  as well as a promotional and support package from the EFF, including access to all information on their SOURCE Intelligence Magazine and a listing on their SOURCE Database.

We caught up with all three winners at Nolcha’s Fashion Week, in the Metropolitan Pavilion to see their spring/summer ’12 collections.

Carrie Parry

A graduate of the prestigious Central Saint Martins in London, Carrie Parry was already honored with the Ethical Fashion Forum’s 2011 Innovation Award. Her eponymous line was “born from a passion for producing garments that never go out of style and a commitment to responsible sources and practices.”

Carrie Parry not only produces ethically and locally in the New York Garment District, she continues to source environmentally conscious materials and textiles supporting artisanal communities worldwide.

Afia

Meghan Sebold’s Afia is a sustainable women’s apparel line that does double time as a social business that “acts as a vehicle for economic mobility and wealth creation for women in Ghana by connecting their craft to the American market,” not to mention a stylish women’s line based in New York.

Sebold says her textiles are purchased from small vendors and sewn by Ghanaian seamstresses paid a fair wage. For women in the U.S., Afia offers transparency in the production process and an option for clothing that is stylish, affordable, and sustainably made.

We personally love how she marries colors, patterns, and West African motifs to urban American trends in a twist she calls “urban indigenous.”

Soham Dave

Hand dyed organic cotton, embroidery, hand block printing meet hand spun and hand woven cloth to create a stunning line of caftans, gauzy dresses and tailored tops for Soham Dave’s spring ’12 collection.

Amongst the many noteworthy attributes when it comes to ethical practices, Soham Dave helps local artisans who adopt traditional eco-friendly production techniques and fair trade to create a contemporary range of lifestyle products for the urban consumer.

Soham Dave focuses primarily on using biodegradable fabrics, recycled materials, and hand embroideries.

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Beware copying, bored designers of the cloth. This isn’t grade school anymore and a trip to the office will cost more than detention or a phone call to mom.

That’s because according to Reuters, The Senate Judiciary Committee has just passed the Innovative Design Protection and Piracy Prohibition Act (IDPPPA) granting limited copyright protection to fashion designs. Sponsored by New York Senator Charles Schumer, the bill grants copyright protection to original designs for a period of three years – which in fashion-speak is when you’ve already moved on and have accepted the fact another designer beat you to it.

While similar bills protecting executed designs have come up before in both the Senate and the House, none have never made it out of committee. Strangely, the similar bill was for…ship’s hulls?

“For too long, the industry has been at an unfair disadvantage because greater protections are afforded to overseas competitors. Unregulated, high-end knock offs are hurting the integrity of this industry. This legislation levels the playing field with overseas designers,” says Senator Schumer.

The Empire State’s senator can’t help but sponsor the bill which helps protect the garment district in his own city that employs nearly 200,000 people in New York City, generates $9.6 billion in total wages and tax revenues of $811 million.

While this bill protects mostly the more recognized labels out there versus indie, Reuters adds that there are three limitations on actions under the act which may be important to the smaller designer. These include:

1. “There is an ‘independent creation’ defense. This means if you design something entirely on your own that happens to overlap with another’s design, it can be a defense to a copyright infringement action.”

2. “Home sewing exception. If you create, cut and sew on your own, there is this kind of ‘fair use’ exception (like in regular copyright law) to protects amateurs from closet raids by the fashion police looking for infringers.”

3. “Substantially identical standard. This standard says that in order for one design to be found to infringe on another, the two must be “substantially identical.” In practical terms, it seems you would really only get two separate dresses, shoes or scarves that are that close in appearance if there were some kind of intent to copy. If not, see item No. 1.”

But are designers the real culprits? Popular knock-off super vendors like chain store Forever 21 or H&M who are known to clone runway looks before they even make it to their respective seasons might have more power than the indie designer working out of her small studio. And with most of the world devouring fast fashion coming out of these hot spots, maybe the bill needs fine tuning.

Image: Tsar Kasim

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