COP15 | Ecouterre

5 Things We Learned About Sustainable Fashion From COP15

While governmental leaders from all around the world met in Copenhagen last week to hash out a new climate-change treaty, the fashion industry convened at the Copenhagen Fashion Summit (the “most important fashion event of the year,” according to organizers) to discuss the role it must take to promote sustainability and social responsibility in a shifting clime, both literally and figuratively. Below, we’ve rounded up some of the game-changing ideas that were presented, ones that could alter the way we perceive fashion, as well as plot a new course for an entire industry.

COP15 Fashion Shows

FT Fashion Editor at COP15 Fashion Summit: Eco-Fashion Needs a Common Lexicon

by Jasmin Malik Chua, 12/15/09

Photo by Nordic Fashion Association

In the middle of packing for the Copenhagen Fashion Summit, Vanessa Friedman, fashion editor of the Financial Times, was overcome by a wave of panic. “What is sustainable fashion?” she said. “Should I get a bamboo T-shirt? Should I run to Barneys and buy some EDUN?” Then she remembered something a designer had told her when she was waffling over the purchase of the dress she now wore. “Buy it for your daughters,” he said. “They’ll wear it in 30 years.” Did that qualify the dress as sustainable, then?

People and Planet Are One, Says EDUN CEO at Copenhagen Fashion Summit

Photo by Nordic Fashion Association

EDUN’s pro-planet ethos was completely accidental, admitted Christian Kemp-Griffin, the company’s chief mission officer, at the Fashion Summit in Copenhagen on Wednesday. “It was much more about the people, much more about the development part,” he said of the ethical clothing label, which was founded in 2005 by U2 frontman Bono and his wife, Ali Hewson. “EDUN’s mission is to create beautiful clothing and sustainable trade in the developing world, in particular, sub-Saharan Africa.” It turns out, however, that you can’t minister to people without considering the planet they inhabit.

IN PICTURES: Copenhagen Fashion Summit’s Sustainable Runway Show

Photo by Nordic Fashion Association

From polyester made from recycled plastic bottles to fabrics derived from byproducts of the crab industry, the catwalk at Wednesday’s Fashion Summit in Copenhagen cut a veritable swath of sustainability. Here, in pictures, are 40 looks from the 20 participating Nordic designers, all of whom made a case for NICE (that’s short for Nordic Initiative Clean and Ethical) fashion in their …

Barneys’ Julie Gilhart to Fashion Industry: Do Things Differently to Save Our Planet

Photo by Nordic Fashion Association

For Julie Gilhart, senior vice president of Barneys New York, fashion has always been a reflection of our times. And in the past 18 years she’s been with the luxury retailer, Gilhart has seen many changes. “The big change now is that we must do things differently in order to save our planet, both from an environmental perspective and a humanitarian one,” she said on Wednesday at the Fashion Summit in Copenhagen, which coincided with Day 3 of the UN Climate Change Conference. “We need to work hard to make the business of fashion consciously cool, yet at the same time, not lose profitability.”

Sustainable Fashion Takes to the Runway at UN Climate Talks

While delegates from 192 countries convened in Copenhagen to hammer out a new climate-change treaty, the fashion industry had a group huddle of its own about the state of the planet on Wednesday. Held at the Danish capital’s renowned opera house, the Fashion Summit rallied together representatives from the likes of Barneys New York, EDUN, and H&M before finishing off with a runway show—and design contest—that featured 20 designers from five Nordic nations.

Eco-Chic Totem Poles You Can Wear, Knit From the Ground Up

Photo by Sacha Maric

“The Cactus, The Bear, and The Mountain” is one fashion collection that wears its folklore on its sleeve—and headdress. Designed by Tine Winther Rysgaard and Trine Maja Kristoffersen for the Innovating Sustainable Fashion Show in Copenhagen on Thursday, the trio of ecological knitwear draws heavily from Native American icons, particularly the totem pole, which also inspired the modular nature of the garments.

Steampunk Time Travelers Invade Eco-Fashion Design Contest at COP15

Photo by Sacha Maric

We bet Jules Verne never saw this one coming. Set against a backdrop of time travel, the Industrial Revolution, and parallel universes, “ClangBoomSteam” by Danish student designer Tobias Noe Harboe is a sustainable menswear collection worthy of the godfather of steampunk himself. And the judges of the Innovating Sustainable Fashion Show in Copenhagen were more than a little intrigued by Harboe’s extraordinary tale: He was awarded first prize at the runway show and design contest, which was held on Thursday to coincide with the UN Climate Change Conference.